Armed
conflict situations have posed a number of challenges to the world. In a
patriarchal international system where the decision making process is the privy
of a few and where war is seen as a means of establishing power and influence
over other states; peace and interdependence is seen as a weakness. In armed
conflict situations, there are a number of fatalities like death, torture and
slavery. Some armed conflicts have seen grave destructions like arbitrary
exterminations of an entire race such as the Jewish Holocaust.
Women
face a worse fate in armed conflict situation due to the issue of rape as a
weapon of war, sexual slavery as well as forced prostitution. In some cases,
women are forced into marriages with rebel leaders and become spoils of war for
the victorious. The effect of war on women is peculiar given that women face
the gruesome consequences of war just like men do but in addition to all these,
they face challenges that have to do with gender inequalities, discrimination
and abuse. Women also face humiliation, loss of dignity and dehumanization
which characterizes sexual violence. The irony of rape as a weapon of war is
that it is not even to punish the victims, but rather to punish the men that
those women belong to. In the African setting where more often than not a woman
either belongs to her father or her husband, raping her is an embarrassment to
her family.
One
would think that given how explicit the law that regulates armed conflict is
and the numerous Conventions and human rights laws in place to protect
civilians in armed conflict situations, warring parties would exercise some
restraint. But no! If anything at all, the situation seems to worsen with
ensuing conflicts. And so I ask, who do we blame and who do we hold responsible
for the inability of International Law to protect women in armed conflict
situations. Has justice been served when few people are punished under the
principle of holding accountable the ones most responsible? What does it mean
to a young Tutsi girl who was gang-raped by nameless rebels to know that ‘Akayesu’
has been jailed or that because of that judgement, rape as a weapon of war
constitutes genocide? This only makes sense to the academicians, politicians
and perhaps human rights activists. Then again, if we cannot control and
effectively punish sexual violence in peace times, how do we hope to control it
in war?
The
root cause of sexual violence in armed conflict is the seething power relations
and gender inequalities that pertain in peace times. If we can change beliefs
that women are second class human beings who deserve to be treated with indignity
and adopt a culture where every human being’s fundamental human rights are
respected at all times, then perhaps we can find a piece of our humanity to say
no to sexual violence in conflicts where the worst form of human nature is on
display.
