Prosecuting the Nexus between Terrorism, Conflict-related Sexual Violence and Trafficking in Human Beings before National Legal Mechanisms

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 499-516
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie de Brouwer ◽  
Eefje de Volder ◽  
Christophe Paulussen
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Criminal Prosecution ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Financial Flows ◽  
Strategic Objectives ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

Abstract United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 2331 (2016) recognizes that ‘acts of sexual and gender-based violence, including when associated to trafficking in persons, are known to be part of the strategic objectives and ideology of certain terrorist groups, used as a tactic of terrorism and an instrument to increase their finances and their power through recruitment and the destruction of communities’. In the same resolution, the Council noted that such trafficking, particularly of women and girls, ‘remains a critical component of the financial flows to certain terrorist groups’ and is ‘used by these groups as a driver for recruitment’. Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab are among the main terrorist groups that have used human trafficking (including for sexual exploitation) and conflict-related sexual violence as tactics of terrorism, or ‘sexual terrorism’. This article will: (i) explain the nexus between these three crimes; (ii) focus on its different manifestations in the context of these terrorist organizations; and (iii) reflect on the possibilities for national criminal prosecution. To assist in the fight against impunity and increase accountability, this article provides suggestions to facilitate the successful prosecution of sexual terrorism in a more survivor-centric way.

Advancing the Agenda of the Confederation of Trade Unions on the Prevention of Sexual Violence in the World of Work in Indonesia

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Atnike Nova Sigiro
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
The World ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Set Up

<p>This article was formulated based on interviews with 5 (five) trade union confederations from a number of confederations in Indonesia, namely: Konfederasi Serikat Pekerja Nasional (KSPN), Konfederasi Sarikat Buruh Muslimin Indonesia (KSarbumusi), Konfederasi Serikat Buruh Seluruh Indonesia (KSBSI), Konfederasi Serikat Pekerja Indonesia (KSPI), and Konfederasi Kongres Aliansi Serikat Buruh Indonesia (KKASBI). This article seeks to explore the efforts made by the trade union confederation in promoting gender equality - specifically in advancing the agenda for the prevention and elimination of sexual violence in the world of work. This article was compiled based on research with a qualitative approach, with data collection methods through interviews and literature studies. The results of this study found that the confederations interviewed had already set up internal structures that have specific functions on issues related to gender equality, gender-based violence, and women’s empowerment; although still limited and on ad-hoc basis. This research also finds that the role of the trade union confederation is particularly prominent in advocating policies related to sexual violence and gender-based violence in the world of work, such as advocating the Bill on the Elimination of Sexual Violence, and the ratification of the ILO Convention No. 190 on Violence and Harassment.</p>

scholarly journals Commentary: Women’s Empowerment and Addressing Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the DRC

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 44-47
Author(s):  
Eileen Alma
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
State Actors ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
National Police

In the last two years, ethnically motivated sexual and gender-based violence rose in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a country marked with ethnic-based tensions and conflict over the control of its extractive industries over decades. According to the 2018 Report of the United Nations Secretary General to the United Nations, sexualized violence cases emerged and spread in several provinces in 2017 with at least 804 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in this period, affecting 507 women, 265 girls, 30 men and 2 boys. Despite progress by the international community actors to end these abhorrent practices, this marks a significant increase from the previous year and the delay in national elections has exacerbated conflict. Both non-state actors and state actors are identified perpetrators of sexual violence, including the Congolese National Police.

Accountability for Sexual and Gender-based Violence During Mass Repression and in Conflict

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-324
Author(s):  
Daniela Kravetz
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
National Courts ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Domestic Level

Abstract This article examines how national courts in Argentina and Guatemala are applying the international criminal law framework to address sexual violence perpetrated during mass repression and in conflict. It focuses on the emerging domestic jurisprudence in both countries and explores the challenges to prosecuting sexual and gender-based violence at the domestic level and the lessons learned from these experiences.

scholarly journals Globalizing Justice, Homogenizing Sexual Violence: The Legacy of the ICTY and ICTR in terms of Sexual Violence

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 214-219
Author(s):  
Kelly-Jo Bluen
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The One

In their contribution to the AJIL Symposium, Robinson and MacNeil remark that a prolific legacy of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is that “it is now commonsense that rape is and must be a war crime.” This line distills the complexity of the legacies of the tribunals regarding sexual and gender-based violence. On the one hand, it articulates the critical role of the tribunals in cementing the idea that sexual violence, hitherto largely relegated to indifference in international criminal law and policy frameworks, is worthy of international attention. Simultaneously, it encapsulates the ways in which the tribunals’ jurisprudence has been received globally to narrate a narrow conception of conflict-related sexual violence as a “weapon of war” or committed as part of “strategic” conflict-related goals. In fact, there is little that constitutes common sense about sexual violence in conflict, nor is it always, or even most predominantly, committed as a war crime, crime against humanity,or in pursuit of genocide as envisaged by international criminal law. Various studies suggest that sexual violence in war takes many forms and causalities with differentiation across and within conflict contexts.

scholarly journals Examining the Appropriateness of Gender-Inclusion as a Humanitarian Response Mechanism for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence against Men

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-41
Author(s):  
Catherine Akurut
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Humanitarian Response ◽  
Conflict Settings ◽  
Gender Inclusion ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Gender Specific

This review examines the appropriateness of including men within the existing sexual and gender-based violence programming in armed conflict settings rather than providing services explicitly designed to address their needs. A central premise of the paper is that men experience sexual violence differently to women and that the way they seek help also varies. This gender-specific difference calls into question why humanitarian organisations pursue a ‘gender-inclusion’ approach, which simply extends services designed for women to men. There is a need to reconsider this approach, and specifically its implementation. The paper reviews relevant secondary sources and argues that current practices of sexual and gender-based violence programming fail to translate into actionable responses suited for and sensitive to men.

Advancing Justice and Making Amends Through Reparations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Kalla
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Structural Injustice ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

This chapter describes the development of reparations in international humanitarian and international criminal law. It then highlights the tension between judicial reparations and the harms that victims experience in conflict, particularly gendered harms such as sexual violence and discrimination against women. It demonstrates the importance of incorporating gender analyses into reparations programs and practice to fully redress victims’ needs and rights. It argues that reparations programs should acknowledge the challenges that victims of sexual and gender-based violence face, which may impact their participation in reparation proceedings. It also argues that reparations programs should focus on rectifying structural injustice to ensure gender atrocities are not repeated.

Gendered Violence in Israeli Detention

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 46-61
Author(s):  
Sahar Francis
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Gendered Violence ◽  
Female Prisoners ◽  
Palestinian Women ◽  
Indefinite Detention ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Israeli Occupation

Women have been instrumental to the Palestinian liberation struggle from its inception, and the role they have played in political, civil, and armed resistance has been as critical, if not as visible, as that of their male counterparts. In addition to experiencing the same forms of repression as men, be it arrest, indefinite detention, or incarceration, Palestinian women have also been subjected to sexual violence and other gendered forms of coercion at the hands of the Israeli occupation regime. Drawing on testimonies from former and current female prisoners, this paper details Israel's incarceration policies and examines their consequences for Palestinian women and their families. It argues that Israel uses the incarceration of women as a weapon to undermine Palestinian resistance and to fracture traditionally cohesive social relations; and more specifically, that the prison authorities subject female prisoners to sexual and gender-based violence as a psychological weapon to break them and, by extension, their children.

Role of Climate Change in Exacerbating Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Women: A New Challenge for International Law

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Bharat H. Desai ◽  
Moumita Mandal
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Political Security ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

The advent of climate change era has been affirmed by various global processes including 21 May 2019 recognition by the Anthropocene Working Group of ‘human impact’ in bringing profound alterations on planet earth. It has emerged as the predominant ‘world problematique’. Though entire populations are affected by climate change, women and girls suffer the most. Due to their traditional roles, women are heavily dependent on natural resources. As already seen, as a consequence of natural disasters and during Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-21, women have faced heightened real-life challenges specially being vulnerable to different forms of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). They suffer from a lack of protection, privacy, and mental trauma. Women are exposed to SGBV due to weak or absence of social, economic, political security and the culture of widespread impunity to the perpetrators. There is double victimization of women both as human beings and because of their gender. Effect of SGBV is highly injurious and perpetual. A close study of four main areas of international law does not yield any international legal instrument that deals with SGBV against women during and after the climate change induced disasters. This is more ominous when growing evidence suggests role of climate change in exacerbation of SGBV against women and girls. Even texts of the three specific climate change treaties (1992 UNFCCC, 1997 Kyoto Protocol and 2005 Paris Agreement) do not address this issue. It has been given attention only through the decisions of the Conference of the Parties in recent years. Due to serious psychological and bodily harm SGBV causes to women, it needs to be explicitly factored in respective international legal instruments on climate change and disasters. Amidst ignorance, denials and lack of adequate attention as regards impact of climate change in exacerbating SGBV against women and girls from the scholars and decision-makers in the field, this study makes a modest effort to deduce and analyze –from scattered initiatives, scholarly literature in different areas, existing international legal instruments and intergovernmental processes –the growing causal relationship between climate change and SGBV against women and girls so as to suggest a way out for our better common future. It is a new challenge to international law that needs to be duly addressed in a timely manner.

The Department of State

2020 ◽  
pp. 239-296
Author(s):  
Joana Cook
Keyword(s):  
Action Plan ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Lead Agency ◽  
National Action Plan ◽  
Department Of State ◽  
The Us ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

This chapter is one of three which examines a key U.S. department or agency which played a fundamental role in an 'all-of-government' approach to countering terrorism. The US Department of State is the designated lead agency on all foreign policy matters. This chapter looks at democracy promotion in the GWOT and the rights and empowerment of women to challenge extremism. It highlights increasing efforts in State to consider and integrate women into its counterterrorism strategy, and broader initiatives such as the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, and the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. It highlights the growth CVE initiatives, as well as how State had to increasingly respond to sexual and gender-based violence committed by terrorist groups. Finally it considers how key discourses emphasized in State around women's rights and victimhood were also being utilized by terrorist groups.

Sexual Violence and the Politics of Forgiveness in Guinea

2020 ◽  
pp. 145-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nomi Dave
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
The State ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

This chapter examines the limits of musical activism by considering some of the varied ways in which music has addressed women’s rights and gender-based violence in Guinea. It centers around the case of a young Guinean rapper who was recently charged with sexual assault, and whose case generated intense criticism from feminist activists and intense support from his fans. The chapter considers two songs closely connected to the case: one that calls for an end to violence against women, and one that calls on women to forgive him. These two songs seem to reflect radically divergent views on gender-based violence. But they are both linked to an underlying ambivalence about women’s rights on the behalf of musicians, audiences, and the state. Survivors of sexual violence are absent in both cases, erased by a politics of forgiveness that calls on them to forget and to be forgotten.

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