Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict: who do we blame?

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.