Sexual Violence in Peacetime and War: It's not a Competition

In recent years, there has been an increased focus, from the media and international institutions, on the use of sexual violence in war. This is significant as it is important to recognise sexual violence in conflict not as something which just 'happens' but as a weapon of war and/or a tool of genocide. Recognising this includes taking into account the wider political situation and also considering gender inequalities in society. The use of sexual violence during war is a symptom of societal misogyny which also causes sexual violence during peacetime. Theses two 'types' of sexual violence are inextricably linked and cannot really be separated. We cannot speak of the reasons for one, without touching on the reasons behind the other. I always assume this fact to be self-evident.

But write an article about sexual violence in war and someone will inevitably comment 'what about rape or sexual violence that occurs in the home, during peacetime? That's under reported too.' This is of course a valid point. But what baffles me is the juxtaposition of the point, as if sexual violence in peacetime and war are somehow in competition with each other for attention. Similarly, writing about rape or sexual violence, whose victims are predominantly female, will almost always cause someone to say 'men are raped too, why are you ignoring that?'. No one is ignoring that men are also raped (in peacetime and war) but the simple fact is the vast majority of victims of sexual violence are female. As such, most of the discussion is framed around female victims.

Sexual violence occurs in war because it also occurs in peacetime. These two forms of sexual violence cannot be isolated from one another as they largely occur because of the same political, cultural and societal reasons. Speaking about one is not to belittle the other; highlighting one is not meant to detract from the other. In fact, speaking about one should draw attention to the fact that sexual violence is unfortunately a pervasive problem around the world, in peace time and war, in many different countries and societies.

Women in South Sudan: Falling through the cracks

The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network this week released a report entitled Falling through the Cracks- reflections on customary law and the imprisonment of women in South Sudan. The exhaustive report was compiled for SIHA by Deirdre Clancy of International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI). Yours truly also assisted in some of the researching and editing, as a lowly intern back in the day (ahem, yeah not that long ago. . .).

The report is about 110 pages long but is quite readable. It's definitely worth a look for anyone working on/interested in South Sudan, the integration of customary law systems or gender issues. Any legal geeks amongst you will definitely want to give it a look.

The report is extremely critical of the customary law framework. The interpretative nature of customary law leaves it open to misuse and abuse. In South Sudan, it is women who primarily suffer from such a system.

SIHA are quick to dispel any attempts of those who attempt to claim cultural relativity prohibits any criticism of customary law practises:

". . this paper focuses on the narratives of women in South Sudan who have been victimised through repression under customary law systems. Accordingly, this paper challenges the now popular notion that customary law should be empowered as a tool for conflict resolution, which without strong rule of law behind it, can become dysfunctional, leading to massive conflict within and between communities. Using customary legal frameworks without due consideration for the consequences of their application, as well as the basic capacity of traditional institutions has resulted in women being held hostage to the dowry system," (pg8).

In South Sudan "the use of customary law systems has led to the dehumanisation and detainment of women and is something that needs to be addressed with the universality of human rights in mind and with women’s contribution to the livelihoods of their families and communities being disassociated from the dowry system altogether."

The malleable nature of customary law means there were great variations from state to state in its applications. Certain states have extremely poor records in terms of providing justice for women. The report found that imprisonment is often used to coerce women, usually to change their mind about seeking a divorce.

Although rape can be prosecuted under customary law procedures, 'justice' is considered in terms of a woman's bride price i.e. reparations are for the raped woman's family, who have 'lost' money. Justice is not for the raped woman. The rape of an older, married woman will not be punished as harshly as the rape of a young, unmarried woman for this reason.

As the constitution making process continues in South Sudan, the difficult task of codifying customary law system is underway. SIHA's report is well worth a read for its findings and recommendations on the issue.

Why I wrote an 'angry human rights' piece about rape and international law

Yesterday, A Safe World for Women published my piece on the International Criminal Court's acquittal of DRC warlord Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui.

It's not a balanced piece. Ngudjolo is guilty. His acquittal is not the fault of the ICC judges but of the prosecution team who presented an extremely weak case.

There was no excuse for such a weak case. There is an abundance of evidence in the DRC, where hundreds of thousands of women and children have been raped and millions killed in the last ten years or so.

It's not a PC thing to admit, especially for a human rights folk, that the ICC is essentially 'a court for the guilty' and that an acquittal is unacceptable. But this is the harsh truth. I talk about this further in the piece; thousands and thousands of women have been raped by thousands of militias and soldiers. The DRC does not have the will or capacity to hold them all to account. So the International Community, working through the ICC, attempts to provide some form of justice or recourse for victims. They cannot try the thousands of guilty. So they choose a handful, to make an 'example' of.


And they fail in even that.

It's not enough to have rape listed as a war crime. Last year, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) produced a documentary about the prosecution of sexual violence in international law entitled 'The Triumph of Justice'. It's worth a watch as it is interesting. Although the ICTY has done much for the advancement of the prosecution of sexual violence, the title is disingenuous in the extreme. About 30 individuals have been convicted on charges related to sexual violence by the ICTY. Around 50,000 women were raped during the conflict in Bosnia alone.

Let's not speak about the triumph of anything here except impunity.

Budgets, quotas and women in Ireland

It's not easy being a woman in Ireland at the moment.

Sure, we don't face near the same challenges as women in places like DRC or Syria, but as residents of a supposedly developed European nation, we seem to drawing the short straw quite a bit. Not least by the fact that our Constitution places the value of our lives behind that of men and the unborn.

Now, the lack of female representation in our government means that women are the hardest hit by last week's national budget, the harshest austerity budget yet. I must say, I recognise and agree that Ireland needs to be harsh in order to remain within our debt restructuring programmes. Hard choices need to be made. But women have been disproportionately affected by this budget and it's hard not to draw parallels with the fact that there is only a few women in the Cabinet.

Yet another cut in child benefit means that families have been hit hard. Irish women are still the primary caregivers in the home, meaning they are under yet more financial pressure. A family with two children receiving child benefit will see their income drop by 240 Euro. In Ireland, all parents or guardians of children under sixteen who are in full time education, receive children's benefit, regardless of income. Given the high cost of living in Ireland, now exacerbated by widespread debt and high unemployment, it is essential for keeping working and middle class families afloat. Why not take child benefit off the richest in our country, who do not need it, rather than cutting it right across the board to devastating effect?

The harshest measure on women was undoubtedly the announcement that maternity benefit will now be taxed. This is completely outrageous. A woman's maternity benefit is covered by social insurance, a which is funded by the PRSI tax. So, a woman who has been paying into the PRSI all her working life will now find that money taxed even further.

Orla O'Connor, Director of the National Women's Council commented  “Taxing maternity benefit will hit expecting mothers and young families at a time when many of them are already operating on a very tight budget. The additional money that women have received so far through maternity benefit is only a small contribution to the enormous costs of having a baby."

Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton denied the budget was anti-women but Fianna Fail spokesperson on social protection, Willie O'Dea countered this "The slashing of Child Benefit, taxing of maternity benefit, failure to progress child care provision and cutbacks to the vital Back to School Allowance will be felt most of all by women,” said O’Dea. “For an ordinary mother rearing a young family she will be hit by reduced supports, new taxes and no substantial new childcare supports."

The ruling Fine Gael/Labour coalition government have taken some positive steps towards increasing women's public participation, most notably the introduction of statutory gender quotas; 30% of candidates put forward for election by political parties must now be female.

However, currently only 25 out of 166 Irish TDs are female. Since the Irish state was founded, only 260 women have been elected to the Dail, compared with 4,700 men.

It is not the case that there are not enough qualified women willing to enter politics but rather our political scene has not caught up with the times. Simple measures could be put in place allowing women easier participation in political affairs.The introduction of remote voting on Dail measures for instance, as most Dail votes take place late in the evening, would allow female political representatives to vote from home if necessary. 

If you're interested in more info on this, check out 5050 Group who are dedicated to achieving equal political representation in Ireland by 2020. Nothing changes until something changes. Support Irish women in politics.