Gender-based violence (GBV)
Conflict and sexual and domestic violence against women
Does conflict lead to violence and sexual violence against women?
Authors:
H. Haider
Publisher:
Governance and Social Development Resource Centre , 2009
In this document the author seeks to respond to the critical question:
Conflict has often been associated with rape. Has conflict inevitably been associated with increases in violence against women (including domestic violence)?
The author states that the literature on sexual violence in armed conflict indicates that rape and violence against women and girls prior to, during and after conflict seem to be extensive in scope and magnitude throughout the world - with reported incidents in conflicts in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The document highlights the most common forms of sexual violence:
- sexual harassment (such as forced stripping or virginity tests)
- sexual abuse and exploitation (such as eliciting sexual services in return for food or protection)
- rape, gang-rape or attempted rape
- sexual slavery
- forced pregnancy, abortion, pregnancy, sterilisation or contraception
- trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation
- domestic violence.
The paper asserts that it is widely recognised that sexual violence against women in conflict is usually reflective of pre-existing patterns in society. Furthermore, the author states that rape and violence against women is a good proxy indicator of rising tensions and incipient conflict - much of the literature also emphasises the persistence of violence and exploitation in the ‘post’-conflict, reconstruction phase.
Whilst sexual violence in conflict environments can constitute ‘random’, ‘opportunistic’ acts, the author asserts, sexual violence cannot be seen merely as an inevitable ‘by-product’ of war and insecurity, but rather deserves specific attention as a strategy of war and form of insecurity in itself. The research conclude that where sexual violence is systematic and used as a ‘weapon of war’, the motives and tactics can vary. They include:
- attack on a group/community and destabilising populations
- ethnic cleansing/genocide
- instilling fear
- punishment and torture
- affirming aggression.
