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Redressing Sexual Violence in Transitional Justice and the Labelling of Women as “Victims”

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Victims of International Crimes: An Interdisciplinary Discourse

Abstract

The chapter discusses the implications of labelling women who have experienced sexual violence in times of war and repression as “victims” in discourse and practice of transitional justice. It is based on the assumption that men and women become targets of sexual violence primarily due to their respective gender roles in a society and argues that as a consequence the prevention of future violence requires a significant modification of these gender relations (or power asymmetries) and that a focus on masculinities is essential to understanding these dynamics. This chapter marks a first attempt to conceptualise the link between masculinities, sexual violence and the advancement of gender justice through transitional justice processes. Can the focus on women in the context of crime tribunals, in particular, contribute to more gender justice in the post-conflict society?

The author is Professor for Peace and Conflict Studies at the Center for Conflict Studies at the Philipps-University Marburg. I am very grateful to Henri Myrttinen for his valuable comments on an earlier draft of this chapter.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See for instance Buss 2009 and Maedl 2011.

  2. 2.

    Even though violence against men is a significant occurrence for the lack of empirical data this chapter focuses on women only.

  3. 3.

    For an overview of motivations of rapists see Eriksson Baaz 2009.

  4. 4.

    Elshtain 1987, p. 67.

  5. 5.

    Seifert 1996, p. 39.

  6. 6.

    Hamber 2007; Sigsworth and Valji 2011; Theidon 2009.

  7. 7.

    Hamber 2007, p. 379.

  8. 8.

    Cahn et al. 2009, p. 105.

  9. 9.

    Connell 2005, p. 72.

  10. 10.

    Meuser 2002, p. 63.

  11. 11.

    For a more refined understanding of the term hegemony in Connell see Beasley 2008.

  12. 12.

    Connell 2000.

  13. 13.

    Meuser 2002, p. 94.

  14. 14.

    Bourdieu 1997, p. 215.

  15. 15.

    Bracewell 2000, p. 571.

  16. 16.

    Bracewell 2000, p. 572.

  17. 17.

    Bracewell 2000, p. 573.

  18. 18.

    Bracewell 2000, p. 574.

  19. 19.

    See also Theidon 2009.

  20. 20.

    This is, of course, simplified for the sake of the argument in this chapter. For an intriguing ethnographic take which comes to a somewhat different conclusion see Eriksson Baaz 2009.

  21. 21.

    For the sake of the argument this is a very broad generalisation. Not only do men also become subjected to sexual violence, women also at times involved in instigating the rape of fellow females.

  22. 22.

    Kapur 2002, p. 5.

  23. 23.

    Rubio-Marin 2006, pp. 33, 34. Coming forward to claim material reparations is nevertheless a delicate issue due to stigma and shame.

  24. 24.

    Goldblatt 2006.

  25. 25.

    Mageza-Barthel 2012.

  26. 26.

    Davis et al. 1998, p. 20.

  27. 27.

    Hagemann 1992.

  28. 28.

    Zur 2005, p. 20.

  29. 29.

    Spivak 1988.

  30. 30.

    Mertus 2004.

  31. 31.

    Mertus 2004, p. 111.

  32. 32.

    Mertus 2004, p. 112.

  33. 33.

    Mertus 2004, p. 115.

  34. 34.

    Kennedy 2001, p. 121.

  35. 35.

    Madlingozi 2010, p. 210.

  36. 36.

    Madlingozi 2010, p. 213.

  37. 37.

    Franke 2006, p. 825.

  38. 38.

    Campbell 2007, p. 425.

  39. 39.

    Campbell 2007, p. 426.

  40. 40.

    One exception is the court case against Pauline Nyiramasuhuko at the ICTR. She is accused of instigating Hutu militias to rape Tutsi women during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

  41. 41.

    Pietsch 2010.

  42. 42.

    As illustrated by the documentary “Gender Against Men” by the Refugee Law Project, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany

    Susanne Buckley-Zistel

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  1. Susanne Buckley-Zistel
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Correspondence to Susanne Buckley-Zistel .

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  1. Institut fur Soziologie, Philips Universitat, Ketzerbach 11, Marburg, 35032, Germany

    Thorsten Bonacker

  2. , Institut für Kriminalwissenschaften, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Universitätstraße 6, Marburg, 35032, Germany

    Christoph Safferling

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Buckley-Zistel, S. (2013). Redressing Sexual Violence in Transitional Justice and the Labelling of Women as “Victims”. In: Bonacker, T., Safferling, C. (eds) Victims of International Crimes: An Interdisciplinary Discourse. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague, The Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-6704-912-2_6

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