A Gender Prospective for Analyzing Human Rights Abuses

Sexual Violence against Women

One of the most affected groups in armed conflicts is made up by women, who must not only suffer from the general effects of this kind of situation, but also numerous violations to their rights just because of being women. This is what is known as “gender violence” in the Guatemala Report, that is, those acts of violence whose main victims are essentially women and/or specifically addressed at women just because being so. These acts, be they public or private, have been internationally acknowledged as violating a number of rights, such as the rights to life, freedom, integrity, equality, etc.

Keeping this in mind, it is necessary to acknowledge that violence against women is a practice that violates human rights and that has been internationally condemned in numerous international conferences and documents that have dealt with the subject. For example, during the Human Rights Conference it was said that violations to women’s human rights in armed conflict situations are violations of the human rights fundamental principles and of humanitarian international law1 [1].

The specific case of sexual violence also merits special attention, most of all within the broad frame of political violence, since its use as a war tactic is well known as a usual practice.

In this regard, the United Nations have pointed out that although sexual violence affects both men and women during armed conflicts, women are evidently more exposed to being victims of this abuse. It must be cleared up that the reasons behind sexual violence and the effects deriving from it are different for men and women. Thus, for example, only women run the risk of becoming pregnant as a consequence of rape, the effects in the men’s and women’s reproductive system are different, etc1[2].

Referring to sexual violence means speaking about crimes such as rape, sexual mutilation, sexual humiliation, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, among others, which can all configure a crime against humanity and a war crime. In this regard, a milestone in this issue were the Rwanda and ex Yugoslavia Court cases. Their jurisprudence has permitted to specifically and directly condemn a number of sexual violence situations in armed conflicts and confrontations. Thus, for example, on February 22nd 2001 the Court for ex Yugoslavia made the Foca case decision in which it condemned three Serbs for their participation in kidnapping, trafficking and raping women and girls from 12 years of age on. The importance of this court decision at International Law level lies in the fact that sexual crimes are finally no more a collateral harm and that the modalities of massive rape and sexual slavery start being considered as crimes against humanity1 [3].

The Charter of Rome which creates the International Criminal Court, follows this line when speaking about this kind of crimes, it condemns as such “rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization or any other way of sexual violence of comparable seriousness”, when it is committed “as part of a generalized or systematic attack against a civilian population and with knowledge of said attack”1[4].

Besides, it is necessary to take into account some important aspects:

a) Sexual violence has traditionally been used as a way to affect the men in a community. In the case of Guatemala, for example, there was a strategy at weakening civilian resistance through guilt and fear, as well as through the sensation of vulnerability it generated in men, since they have not complied with their role of protecting their communities.

b) Sexual violence, and specially rape, did not occur in an isolated fashion or as nearly spontaneous acts, but as part of a broader military training strategy which supposed the prior existence of infrastructure and organization (special premises, pressure for the use of contraceptive methods among raped women, etc.).

c) The role of women as mothers and wives was permanently used as a form of psychological torture, pressure and menace specifically affecting women. Phrases such as “if you had not left home”, “if you had not gotten into this” are common in these cases and have contributed to translate the guilt of what happened from the transgressor to the victim.

d) Sexual violence was also used as a way to punish those women who had an active organization and/or representation role and against those who had family relation with members of terrorist organizations (mothers, wives, sisters, etc.).

e) Racial discrimination has been an additional factor contributing to the development of sexual violence.

f) Most of these cases have not been denounced and in many cases not even the victim has assumed them as such, having taken a witness role of other rapes and not of direct victim. This is directly related to the feeling of guilt and shame these acts cause on victims.

g) In addition, as seen in other experiences, women are generally identified as “wives, mothers or daughters” of human rights victims while ignoring how their own rights are abuses.

h) The effects and sequels of sexual violence go beyond individual cases and have affected the existence and development of entire communities, displacement being one of its effects. It must be said that because of rape exodus of women, the dispersion of entire communities, the breaking of marital and social relations, the communitarian social isolation and shame, abortions and child murdering, etc. occur.

Although this is not an exhaustive analysis, it gives us an insight into the complex phenomenon explored by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Gender Line

[1]VIENNA DECLARATION AND ACTION PROGRAM. WORLD CONFERENCE ON HUMAN RIGHTS.
Vienna, June 14th to 25th 1993, paragraph 38

[2] Sexual Violence and Armed Conflict: United Nations Response, published to Promote the Goals of the Beijing Declaration and the Plataform for Action, april 1998, Division for the Advancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, ONU.

[3] “Historical court sentence against the use of rape as a war weapon”, Mabel González Bustelo, February 28th 2001, www.lainsignia.org

[4] The Charter of Rome, Article 7.

To better learn about the development of the violence situation the country underwent between May 1998 and November 2000, the Commission has organized its mandate in four work groups and one specialized unit.

Each group will have the supervision of a responsible commissioner supported by the investigation technical team made up by professionals from different disciplines such as anthropologists, lawyers, journalists, historians, sociologists, psychologists and social workers.