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TechnoratiJustice Slow for Female War Victims
First there were the Nuremburg Trials. Then the Geneva Conventions. And finally, the Rome Statute.
These documents and events, spanning some 60 years, all mark watershed moments in the development of international humanitarian law. Building on one another, each is designed to protect civilians from the scourge of war.
None has been more complete than the Rome Statute. Enacted in 2002, it established the International Criminal Court (ICC), the world's first permanent tribunal to prosecute war crimes. In the clearest terms yet, the statute identifies specific gender-based crimes, from rape and sexual slavery to forced pregnancy and human trafficking, as being just as heinous as other crimes against humanity.
Hailed as a triumph for women's rights, the Rome Statute was to put an end to the impunity that's often met these crimes. But six years on, as the world gets set once again to mark International Women's Day on Saturday, progress in the court has been painfully slow.
"We have yet to see the investigative approach needed to ensure the prosecution of gender-based crimes," says Brigid Inder, executive director of Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice, a Hague-based group that promotes and monitors women's rights in the international court.
The numbers paint a disappointing picture. The court has issued warrants against 10 people - in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, the Central African Republic and Sudan. Five of those remain at large and not one has been convicted yet. Of the 10 warrants, only a few include gender-based crimes - even though women continue to be common targets in conflicts around the world.
In Iraq, victims of rape are often blamed for their plight and forced to marry their attackers. In Colombia, rebels use women as sexual slaves. In Burma (also known as Myanmar), women are regularly attacked by the ruling junta's soldiers.
At the crux of this slow progress is the court's inability to identify enough victims, especially female ones. The stigma of sexual violence can be a huge burden for women, forcing them into silence. According to the 2007 ICC Gender Report Card, published by Inder's agency, barely a third of 500 victims who have applied to participate in war crime tribunal proceedings are women. The court officially has identified just 17 as victims so far.
Inder acknowledges the tribunal is still young, adding many more victims need inclusion to ensure violence against women does not continue to go unpunished.
"They've been very cautious in their interpretation of the statute. The ICC has teeth. Its mandate is enormous. It needs to show it knows how to use its teeth."
To the UN, violence against women is "one of the most serious and urgent challenges of our time" because every time women are targets of violence, the health and vibrancy of children, families and communities are in jeopardy.
Inder says the court can help deter such violence by better reaching out to female victims in conflict zones, helping them come forward. This would lead to more charges being laid against perpetrators while setting international precedents, proving that violence against women will no longer be tolerated. "It's very powerful for the court to do that. This is a court created to be bold. The world needs it to be."
Craig and Marc Kielburger are children's rights activists and co-founded Free The Children, which is active in the developing world.
© Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2008
8 Comments so far
Show AllJust an observation that I feel required to share from time to time. Only about 15% of articles on the MORE page of this outstanding left-leaning site are written by women. You don't need upper body strength to think and write. If women were respected, mentored, cherished, promoted, listened to it should be 50%.
The UN wants to end violence against women because "every time women are targets of violence, the health and vibrancy of children, families and communities are in jeopardy." This attitude does nothing but promote patronizing and hierarchical ideas about women.
Women are defined in terms of their children and their families, not for their own humanity or value. Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler said "Feminism is the radical notion that women are people." Until society recognizes that, violence against women will continue with little punishment.
RE: - Sexual assault of US servicewomen and men is widespread ˆ some estimates are as high as 43-50% among some sectors. Among active duty soldiers, 78% of women have experienced sexual harassment.
How does the Canadian and British Military compare in this regard? I haven't heard anything about this issue at all.
The only thing that I've heard is that even if a married couple is serving on the same base in Afghanistan that they can't sleep together or even kiss and that if they hold hands that the other soldiers give them a hard time until they ceased and desisted. Which sounds a bit extreme - until I hear your numbers.
RE: - Rape is about power and humiliation, not only of the women themselves but of the men in their societies.
During the Montreal Massacre, Marc Lepine told the men to go because he just wanted to kill the women, some of the men too frightened at the time to try to stop Lepin, have not forgiven themselves for being too frightened to stop him. Some of these men later committed suicide because they could not live with the guilt. Though this was mass murder rather than rape, there are some similarities in the emotional aftermath.
Rape is foremost a crime against the person raped and secondly a crime against those who could not prevent it from happening to someone else and have trouble living with this failure to prevent. Both are left feeling powerless and demoralized.
The difference is that, when the woman is murdered, rather than raped, they say that the man with PTSD is suffering from survivor's guilt. The guilt seems very similar to me.
It is not an issue of tarnished property, like it is being played in the media when women are raped in Iraq - it is not being able to look your wife or daughter or son in the eye because you blame yourself.
RE: - while the 'elite' keep right on raping, pillaging and murdering the common people
You hint at an important point - why bring up the past, some say, when they read older stories of this. Is it because shame over past deeds make future similar deeds less likely?
You heard of the "Comfort Women" from WWII?
IN THE HOUSE: Olivia Chow's Motion in support of the Comfort Women
http://oliviachow.ndp.ca/page/281
And justice is fast for exactly which war victims?
Well, maybe for Republican stock brokers. But not for too many others.
Wars have always been fought on the backs of women. Rape is about power and humiliation, not only of the women themselves but of the men in their societies.
The USA has not signed on to the ICC. I wonder why?
The subjugation of half of all humanity by the other half in the name of preserving patriarchial mysogeny is the truest and most consistent sub-theme running throughout all of the history of all of humanity.
I you have not seen Brian DePalma's docu-drama, "Redacted" is is out on DVD.
Portrayed is the rape and murder of a 15 year-old Iraqi woman by American troops in Samarra. The woman's body was then burned and most of her family killed. The calculated nature of this crime is especially offensive in addition to the racist attitudes of the troops involved.
But for yet another horror story that should be revealed there is the overlooked topic of military sexual trauma. American women in the armed services are subjected to sexual harrassment and rape at a rate far above any domestic statistics.
The following excerpt is from one of many military sexual trauma articles available with a Google search:
http://www.awakenedwoman.com/gws_vets_rape.htm
" Sexual assault of US servicewomen and men is widespread ˆ some estimates are as high as 43-50% among some sectors. Among active duty soldiers, 78% of women have experienced sexual harassment. At the same time, some of these women survivors of rape have been fighting for 20 years to get benefits and services owed to them, calling this deprivation a second and third rape."
The ICC is "slow" because they are being sabotaged at every turn by the western imperial powers. They pay lip-service to it but really want to see it fail because those that could end up in the dock are the imperial powers themselves and their agents. Therefore, the ICC is really just a platitude for the masses while the 'elite' keep right on raping, pillaging and murdering the common people.