Outlawing sexual violence: rape law and the likelihood of civil war

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 104-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazli Avdan ◽  
Victor Asal
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Rape Law

Rereading Rape in the Critical Canon

differences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-160
Author(s):  
Erin A. Spampinato
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Rape Law ◽  
The Law ◽  
Criminal Conduct ◽  
Forms Of Violence ◽  
As If ◽  
Physical Outcomes

This essay identifies what the author terms “adjudicative reading,” a tendency in literary criticism to read novels depicting sexual violence as if in a court of law. Adjudicative reading tracks characters’ motivations and the physical outcomes of their actions as if novels can offer evidence, or lack thereof, of criminal conduct. This legalistic style of criticism not only ignores the fictionality of incidences of rape in novels, but it replicates the prejudices inherent in historical rape law by centering the experiences of the accused character over and against the harm caused to the fictional victim of rape. By contrast, the “capacious” conception of rape proposed here refuses to locate rape in a particular bodily act (as the law does), rejects the yoking of rape’s harms to a particular gender, and understands various forms of violence as equally serious (rather than creating a hierarchy of sexual assault, as current legal conceptions tend to do).

“We Simply Illustrate”

Graphic News ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 13-46
Author(s):  
Amanda Frisken
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Visual Culture ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Print Media ◽  
White Women ◽  
Visual Representation ◽  
Sexual Crimes ◽  
Men Of Color ◽  
Visual Expression ◽  
National Police

This chapter examines sexuality discourse and definitions of obscenity in print media following the Civil War. Editors of illustrated sporting weeklies, such as Frank Leslie (The Days’ Doings) and Richard K. Fox (The National Police Gazette) pushed the boundaries of visual representation. Meanwhile, anti-vice activist Anthony Comstock sought control over what could be seen in print. In pursuing the prosecution of Victoria Woodhull, Tennessee Claflin, Ezra Heywood, and D. M. Bennett, as well as sporting publications, Comstock shifted the focus of visual culture. His success in eliminating images he found shocking distorted the visualization of alleged sexual crimes as primarily the racial assault on white women by men of color. In other words, Comstock helped make the racialized rape/lynching mythos the dominant visual expression of sexual violence.

The Response to Violence against Women in Côte d’Ivoire

2020 ◽  
pp. 109-120
Author(s):  
Peace A. Medie
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Cote D'ivoire ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Police Force ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
The Government

This chapter covers the state’s, the women’s movement’s, and international actors’ responses to rape and domestic violence before, during, and after the Ivoirian conflict. It explains that unlike Liberia, there was some government and civil society attention to violence against women before the outbreak of armed conflict in 2002. Pressure from the UN and other international actors also contributed to the introduction of initiatives within the security sector to address violence against women during the conflict, including a specialized mechanism within the police force. The chapter explains how the UN’s attention to sexual violence during the Ivoirian conflict increased after the second civil war and generated pressure on the government to create the gender desks.

scholarly journals Access to Justice for Victims of Conflict-related Sexual Violence

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-270
Author(s):  
Claudia Martin ◽  
Susana SáCouto
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
International Crime ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Domestic Court ◽  
Political Strategies ◽  
Sexual Slavery ◽  
Military Members ◽  
First Time

Abstract Despite persistent impunity for conflict-related sexual violence, there have been a limited number of significant cases holding perpetrators accountable within national justice systems. One of these cases is the Sepur Zarco case, in which two former military members were accused of committing acts of sexual violence, sexual slavery and domestic slavery near a military outpost in Sepur Zarco during the civil war in Guatemala. In a landmark verdict issued in February 2016, a Guatemalan court convicted the two accused, marking the first time a Guatemalan court has convicted former military members for acts of sexual violence committed in the context of the country’s civil war, and the first instance of a domestic court prosecuting sexual slavery as an international crime. In acknowledging that these acts amounted to grave crimes, the Sepur Zarco verdict changed the narrative about sexual violence in Guatemala’s conflict. Up until then — as in other conflicts in the region and beyond — sexual violence had not been recognized as a separate crime, equivalent to other crimes committed during the conflict, for which perpetrators could be held accountable. This chapter will highlight some of the critical developments prior to the case, as well as the legal and political strategies employed in the case, which led to its remarkable success. It will also offer some reflections about the challenges that have emerged since the Sepur Zarco case and the potential lessons learned for pending and future litigation of similar cases in the region.

The New Sexual Violence Legislation in the Congo: Dressing Indelible Scars on Human Dignity

2012 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dunia Prince Zongwe
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
International Law ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
The State ◽  
Rape Survivors ◽  
Resource Limitations ◽  
Rape Law ◽  
Legal Literature ◽  
Daunting Task ◽  
Gender Neutral

Abstract:This article describes a legal thread running from the commission of massive sexual violence in the eastern provinces of the Congo since 1996 to the enactment of liberal legislation in 2006 to combat sexual violence throughout the country, especially in eastern Congo. In doing so, the article fills a gap in the nascent legal literature on systematic sexual violence. It finds that the new rape law is progressive, liberal, gender-neutral, and in keeping with international law. However, an unfortunate lapse in legislative drafting puts in doubt the authority of the courts to use the new rape law to prosecute systematic sexual violence. Despite this weakness, as well as harsh realities such as resource limitations and institutionalized corruption, the new sexual violence law, “the law of shameful acts,” nonetheless provides a framework on the basis of which the state and rape survivors can prosecute perpetrators. It is a necessary step in upholding accountability and preparing for the more daunting task of healing communities affected by a devastating regional war.

Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and the Re-Escalation of Lethal Violence

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert U Nagel
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Intrastate Conflict ◽  
Lethal Violence ◽  
Rebel Group ◽  
Conflict Termination

Abstract To what extent does sexual violence influence the likelihood of re-escalating lethal violence after a period of inactivity? Despite a substantive body of research that explores conflict recurrence, the literature has largely neglected the role of rebel group dynamics. I address this gap arguing that reports of rebel sexual violence in periods deemed inactive because of low numbers of casualties are associated with greater risks of escalating lethal violence. Specifically, building on research that shows an association between recruitment and rape as a socialization method during civil war, I argue that reports of sexual violence indicate that rebels are maintaining and mobilizing fighters in inactive conflict years. I systematically test this argument on all inactive intrastate conflict years from 1989 to 2015 using the updated Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict dataset and Armed Conflict Termination dataset. The results provide robust support for the argument that a re-escalation of lethal violence following inactive periods is more likely when rebels are reported to perpetrate sexual violence in both active and subsequent inactive periods.

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