War rape
Encyclopedia
War rapes are rape
s committed by soldiers, other combatants or civilians during armed conflict or war
, or during military occupation, distinguished from sexual assaults and rape committed amongst troops in military service. It also covers the situation where women are forced into prostitution or sexual slavery
by an occupying power, as in the case of Japanese comfort women
during World War II.
During war and armed conflict, rape is frequently used as means of psychological warfare
in order to humiliate the enemy and undermine their morale. War rape is often systematic and thorough, and military leaders may actually encourage their soldiers to rape civilians. War rape may occur in a variety of situations, including institutionalised sexual slavery, war rapes associated with specific battles or massacres, and individual or isolated acts of sexual violence
. War rape may also include gang rape and rape with objects.
When part of a widespread and systematic practice, rape and sexual slavery are now recognized under the Geneva Convention as crimes against humanity
and war crime
s. Rape is also now recognized as an element of the crime of genocide when committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a targeted group. However, rape remains widespread in conflict zones.
survey found that 22% of men and 30% of women in Eastern Congo had reported sexual violence connected to warfare. Perpetrators of sexual violence against women and children "commonly include not only enemy civilians and troops but also allied and national civilians and even comrades in arms."
The victims of war rape are usually "civilians", a category first recognized in the 19th century. Although war rape of women is documented throughout history, laws protecting civilians in armed conflict have tended not to recognise sexual assault on women. Even when laws of war have recognised and forbidden sexual assault, few prosecutions have been brought. According to Kelly Dawn Askin, the laws of war perpetuated the attitude that sexual assaults against women are less significant crimes, not worthy of prosecution. War rape has until recently been a hidden element of war, which according to Human Rights Watch
is linked to the largely gender-specific character of war rape - abuse committed by men against women. This gender-specific character has contributed to war rape being "narrowly portrayed as sexual or personal in nature, a portrayal that depoliticizes sexual abuse in conflict and results in its being ignored as a war crime."
"To the victor go the spoils" has been a war cry for centuries, and women classed as part of the spoils of war. Furthermore, war rape has been downplayed as an unfortunate but inevitable side effect of sending men to war. Also, war rape has in the past been regarded as tangible reward to soldiers (which were only paid irregularly), and as a soldier's proof of masculinity and success. In reference to war rape in ancient times, Harold Washington argues that warfare itself is imaged as rape, and that the cities attacked are its victims. He argues that war rape occurs in the context of stereotypes about women and men, which are part of the basic belief that violent power belongs to men, and that women are its victims.
The rape of men by other men is also common in war. A 2009 study by Lara Stemple found that it had been documented in conflicts worldwide; for example, 76% of male political prisoners in 1980s El Salvador
and 80% of concentration camp inmates in Sarajevo
reported being raped or sexually tortured. Stemple concludes that the "lack of attention to sexual abuse of men during conflict is particularly troubling given the widespread reach of the problem". Mervyn Christian of Johns Hopkins School of Nursing has found that male rape is commonly underreported.
failed to charge Nazi war criminals with rape, although witnesses testified on war rape. The War Crimes Tribunal in Tokyo
did convict Japanese officers "of failing to prevent rape" in the Nanking massacre
, which is known as the "Rape of Nanking". Justice Richard Goldstone, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
, said that "Rape has never been the concern of the international community."
, who urged soldiers to observe the rules of war, since obeying the regulations separated the "men" from the "brutes". Conquering the riches and property of an enemy was regarded as legitimate reason for war in itself. Women were included with "property", since they were considered to be under the lawful ownership of a man, whether a father, husband, slave master, or guardian. In this context, the rape of a woman was considered a property crime committed against the man who owned the woman.
The ancient Greeks considered war rape of women "socially acceptable behaviour well within the rules of warfare", and warriors considered the conquered women "legitimate booty, useful as wives, concubines, slave labour or battle-camp trophy
".
In the Middle Ages, and until the 19th century, this attitude and practice prevailed, and the legal protection of women in war time related directly to the legal protection women were granted in peace times. In medieval Europe, women were considered as an inferior gender by law. Catholic Church sought to prevent rape during feudal warfare through the institution of Peace and Truce of God
which discouraged soldiers from attacking women and civilians in general and through the propagation of a Christianized version of chivalry
ideal of a knight who protected innocents and did not engage in lawlessness.
Medieval Islamic military jurisprudence laid down severe penalties for rebels who use "stealth attacks" and "spread terror
". In this category, Muslim jurists
included abductions, poisoning of water wells, arson, attacks against wayfarers and travellers, assaults under the cover of night, and rape. The punishment for such crimes were severe, including death, regardless of the political convictions and religion of the perpetrator.
In 1159, John of Salisbury
wrote Policraticus
in an attempt to regulate the conduct of armies engaged in "justifiable" wars. Salisbury believed that acts of theft and "rapine" (property crimes) should receive the most severe punishment, but also believed that obeying a superior's commands whether legal or illegal, moral or immoral, was the ultimate duty of the soldier.
In the 15th and 16th century, despite considerations and systemisation of the laws of war, women remained objects available to the conquering male in any way whatsoever. The influential writer Francisco de Vitoria
stood for a gradual emergence of the notion that glory or conquest were not necessarily acceptable reasons to start a war. The jurist Alberico Gentili
insisted that all women, including female combatants, should be spared from sexual assault in wartime. However, in practice war rape was common.
It is suggested that one reason for the prevalence of war rape was that at the time, military circles supported the notion that all persons, including unarmed women and children, were still the enemy, with the belligerent having conquering rights over them. In the late Middle Ages, the laws of war even considered war rape as an indication of a man's success in the battlefield and "opportunities to rape and loot were among the few advantages open to... soldiers, who were paid with great irregularity by their leaders... triumph over women by rape became a way to measure victory, part of a soldier's proof of masculinity and success, a tangible reward for services rendered... an actual reward of war".
During this period in history, war rape took place not necessarily as a conscious effort of war to terrorize the enemy, but rather as earned compensation for winning a war. There is little evidence to suggest that superiors regularly ordered subordinates to commit acts of rape. Throughout this period of history war became more regulated, specific, and regimented. The first formal prosecution for violations of war crimes did not take place until the late Middle Ages.
Hugo Grotius
, considered the father of the law of nations and the first to conduct a comprehensive work on systematizing the international laws of war, concluded that rape "should not go unpunished in war any more than in peace". Emmerich van Vattel emerged as an influential figure when he pleaded for the immunity of civilians against the ravages of war, considering men and women civilians as non-combatants.
In the late 18th century and 19th century, treaties and war codes started to include vague provisions for the protection of women: The Treaty of Amity and Commerce (1785) specified that in case of war "women and children... shall not be molested in their persons". Article 20 of the Order No. 20 (1847), a supplement to the US Rules and Articles of war, listed the following as severely punishable "Assassination, murder, malicious stabbing or maiming, rape". The Declaration of Brussles (1874) stated that the "honours and rights of the family.... should be respected".
In the 19th century the treatment of soldiers, prisoners, the wounded, and civilians improved and core elements of the laws of war
were put in place. However, while the customs of war mandated more humane treatment of soldiers and civilians, new weapons and advanced technology increased destruction and altered the methods of war. The Lieber Code
(1863) was the first codification of the international customary laws of land war and an important step towards humanitarian law. The Lieber Code
emphasises protection of civilians and states that "all rape...(is) prohibited under the penalty of death", which was the first prohibition of rape in customary humanitarian law. After World War I the War Crimes Commission, set up in 1919 to examine the atrocities committed by Germany and the other Central Powers during World War I, found substantial evidence of sexual violence and subsequently included rape and forced prostitution among the violations of the laws and customs of war. Efforts to prosecute failed.
and the Hague Convention
assertion that "family honour and rights...must be respected".
Also, there was evidence that previous war crimes trials had prosecuted for sex crimes, hence war rape could have been prosecuted under customary law and/or under the IMT (International Military Tribunals) Charter's Article 6(b): "abduction of the civilian population... into slavery and for other purposes" and "abduction unjustified by military necessity". Similarly, it would have been possible to prosecute war rape as crime against humanity under Article 6(c) of the Nuremberg Charter: "other inhumane acts" and "enslavement". However, notwithstanding evidence of sexual violence in Europe during World War II a lack of will led to rape and sexual violence not being prosecuted at the Nuremberg Tribunals
.
The War Crimes Tribunal in Tokyo
prosecuted cases of sexual violence and war rape as war crimes under the wording "inhumane treatment", "ill-treatment," and "failure to respect family honour and rights." According to the Prosecution in excess of 20,000 women and girls were raped during the first weeks of the Japanese occupation of the Chinese city of Nanking. The War Crimes Tribunal in Tokyo included accounts of sexual violence crimes in the trial testimonies as well as public records. On a national level, a commander of the 14th Area Army, General Yamashita, was convicted for, inter alia, "rape under his command." Some 35 Dutch comfort women
brought a successful case before the Batavia Military Tribunal in 1948.
established by the United Nations
made landmark decisions defining rape
as a crime of genocide under international law. The trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu, the mayor of Taba Commune in Rwanda
, established precedents that rape is an element of the crime of genocide. The Trial Chamber held that "sexual assault formed an integral part of the process of destroying the Tutsi
ethnic group and that the rape was systematic and had been perpetrated against Tutsi women only, manifesting the specific intent required for those acts to constitute genocide."
Judge Navanethem Pillay said in a statement after the verdict: “From time immemorial, rape has been regarded as spoils of war
. Now it will be considered a war crime. We want to send out a strong message that rape is no longer a trophy of war.” An estimated 500,000 women were raped during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
Professor Paul Walters in his April 2005 statement of support of her honorary doctorate of law at Rhodes University
wrote:
The Akayesu judgement includes the first interpretation and application by an international court of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
. The Trial Chamber held that rape (which it defined as "a physical invasion of a sexual nature committed on a person under circumstances which are coercive") and sexual assault constitute acts of genocide insofar as they were committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a targeted group, as such. It found that sexual assault formed an integral part of the process of destroying the Tutsi ethnic group and that the rape was systematic and had been perpetrated against Tutsi women only, manifesting the specific intent required for those acts to constitute genocide.
In September 1999 the United Nations
published a "Report of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Genocide and Other Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of Rwanda and Rwandan Citizens Responsible for Genocide and Other Such Violations Committed in the Territory of Neighbouring States between 1 January and 31 December 1994". The report states that on September 2, 1998, Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, composed of Judges Laïty Kama, Presiding, Lennart Aspegren and Navanethem Pillay, found Jean Paul Akayesu guilty of 9 of the 15 counts proffered against him, including genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide and crimes against humanity, murder, torture, rape, and other inhumane acts). The Tribunal found Jean Paul Akayesu not guilty of the six remaining counts, including the count of complicity in genocide and the counts relating to violations of article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions
and of Additional Protocol II thereto. On October 2, 1998, Jean Paul Akayesu was sentenced to life imprisonment for each of the nine counts, the sentences to run concurrently. Both Jean Paul Akayesu and the Prosecutor have appealed against the judgement rendered by the Trial Chamber.
Explanatory Memorandum, which defines the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court
, recognises rape, sexual slavery
, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization
, "or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity" as crime against humanity if the action is part of a widespread or systematic practice.
Rape first became recognised as crime against humanity
when the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
issued arrest warrants based on the Geneva Conventions
and Violations of the Laws or Customs of War. Specifically, it was recognised that Muslim women in Foča
(southeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina
) were subjected to systematic and widespread gang rape, torture and sexual enslavement by Bosnian Serb soldiers, policemen, and members of paramilitary groups after the takeover of the city in April 1992. The indictment was of major legal significance and was the first time that sexual assaults were investigated for the purpose of prosecution under the rubric of torture and enslavement as a crime against humanity. The indictment was confirmed by a 2001 verdict by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia that rape and sexual enslavement are crimes against humanity. This ruling challenged the widespread acceptance of rape and sexual enslavement of women as intrinsic part of war. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia found three Bosnian Serb men guilty of rape of Bosniac (Bosnian Muslim) women and girls (some as young as 12 and 15 years of age), in Foča, eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina. Furthermore two of the men were found guilty of the crime against humanity of sexual enslavement for holding women and girls captive in a number of de facto detention centres. Many of the women subsequently disappeared.
" interchangeably. There is no universally accepted definition of "war rape".
The Explanatory Note of the Rome Statute, which binds the International Criminal Court
, defines the "rape" as follows:
"The perpetrator invaded the body of a person by conduct resulting in penetration, however slight, of any part of the body of the victim or of the perpetrator with a sexual organ, or of the anal or genital opening of the victim with any object or any other part of the body."
and
"The invasion was committed by force, or by threat of force or coercion, such as that caused by fear of violence, duress, detention, psychological oppression or abuse of power
, against such person or another person, or by taking advantage of a coercive environment, or the invasion was committed against a person incapable of giving genuine consent."
The concept of “invasion” is intended to be broad enough to be gender-neutral and the definition is understood to include situations where the victim may be incapable of giving genuine consent if affected by natural, induced or age-related incapacity.
, antibiotics, and/or abortion are extremely limited. The short-term psychological injuries to the victims include feelings of fear, helplessness, and desperation. Long-term psychological injuries may include depression
, anxiety disorders (including post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSS)), multiple somatic symptoms, flashbacks, difficulty re-establishing intimate relationships, shame, and persistent fears.
War rape may include gang rape and rape with objects, such as sticks and gun barrels. Women victims may suffer from incontinence
and vaginal fistula as a result of particularly violent instances of rape. Vaginal fistula is a medical condition usually the result of poor childbirth care, and involves the walls between the vagina, bladder and anus or rectum being torn, resulting in severe pain and debilitating incontinence. Women victims of war rape may be stigmatised and excluded from their families or communities as a result of war rape, particularly in societies were female virginity is prized and the husband of a rape victim is considered shamed.
characterizes "group rape perpetrated by the conquerors" as "a metonymic celebration of territorial acquisition".
has challenged the view that sees rape and sexual abuse as a by-product of war. According to Amnesty International rape is now used as deliberate military strategy rather than opportunistic rape and pillage of previous centuries. As a military strategy war rape is reportedly used for the purpose of conquering territory by expelling the population therefrom, decimating remaining civilians by destroying their links of affiliations, by the spread of AIDS, and by eliminating cultural and religious traditions. War rape may be described as "weapon of war" or a "means of combat" in the media. With specific reference to recent war rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other African countries the aims of war rape as a military strategy have been listed as follows: increase in military morale, decrease the military morale of the enemy, to offend the enemy, and to loot the maximum of an enemy’s belongings (including women and children).
Commenting on the use of rape in wars, Gita Sahgal said in 2004 that it is a mistake to think such assaults are primarily about "spoils of war" or sexual gratification. She said rape is often used in ethnic conflicts as a way for attackers to perpetuate social control and redraw ethnic boundaries. "Women are seen as the reproducers and carers of the community," she said.
and Roman
armies reportedly engaged in war rape, which is documented by ancient authors such as Homer
, Herodotus
, and Livy
. Ancient sources held multiple, often contradictory attitudes to sexual violence in warfare. Rape in the course of war is mentioned multiple times in the Bible: "For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped..." "Their little children will be dashed to death before their eyes. Their homes will be sacked, and their wives will be raped."
In the near east, victorious armies often dealt in homosexual intercourse with the losers.
Roman military officers often used the young boys of defeated peoples for homosexual intercourse, a Roman Historian, Tacitus
, noted this happening during the Revolt of the Batavi.
Medieval Islamic military jurisprudence laid down severe penalties for those who committed rape. The punishment for such crimes were severe, including death, regardless of the political convictions and religion of the perpetrator.
Female slavery was also common during the medieval Arab slave trade
, where prisoners of war captured in battle from non-Arab lands often ended up as a concubine slaves (which are considered free when their master dies) in the Arab World
. Most of these slaves came from places such as Sub-Saharan Africa
(mainly Zanj
), the Caucasus
(mainly Circassians), Central Asia (mainly Tartars
), and Central and Eastern Europe (mainly Saqaliba
). Historian Robert Davis claims that the Barbary pirates also captured 1.25 million slaves from Western Europe and North America between the 16th and 19th centuries.
The Mongols, who established the Mongol Empire
across much of Eurasia, caused much destruction
during their invasions. Documents written during or after Genghis Khan
's reign say that after a conquest, the Mongol soldiers looted, pillaged and raped. Some troops who submitted were incorporated into the Mongol system in order to expand their manpower. These techniques were sometimes used to spread terror and warning to others.
The sack of Aberdeen in 1644 by the Royalist general Montrose
during the Civil War involved large-scale rape.
during Herero and Namaqua Genocide
, German soldiers regularly engaged in gang rapes before killing Herero women or leaving them in the desert to die; a number of women from the rebelling Herero tribe were also forced into prostitution.
in order to justify the colonization of places they had conquered. The most notable example was perhaps during the Indian Rebellion of 1857
, known as "India's First War of Independence
" to the Indians and as the "Sepoy Mutiny" to the British, where Indian sepoy
s rebelled against the British East India Company
's rule in India
. While incidents of rape committed by Indian rebels against English women and girls were generally uncommon during the rebellion, this was exaggerated to great effect by the British media in order to justify continued British colonialism in the Indian subcontinent.
At the time, British newspapers had printed various apparently eyewitness accounts of English women and girls being raped by Indian rebels, but with little physical evidence to support these accounts. It was later found that most of these accounts were false stories created in order to paint the native people of India as savages who need to be civilized by British colonialists, a mission sometimes known as "The White Man's Burden
". One such account published by The Times, regarding an incident where 48 English girls as young as 10-14 had been raped by the Indian rebels in Delhi, was criticized as a false propaganda story by Karl Marx, who pointed out that the story was written by a clergyman in Bangalore, far from the events of the rebellion.
, Chinese Boxers regularly killed and mutilated foreigners, including women and children, but did not rape any foreigner.
Western forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance
went on a killing, looting, and raping rampage against Chinese civilians. All of the foreign troops, including the American, British, and Japanese, raped women. It was reported that Japanese troops were astonished by the western troops engaging in raping. Thousands of women were raped by the western forces on a massive scale. The Japanese officers had brought along Japanese prostitutes to stop their troops from raping Chinese civilians. A western Journalist, George Lynch, said "there are things that I must not write, and that may not be printed in England, which would seem to show that this Western civilization of ours is merely a veneer over savagery." All of the nationalities engaged in looting. The Russians and French behavior was particularly appalling. Chinese women and girls committed suicide to avoid being raped. The French commander dismissed the rapes, attributing them to "gallantry of the French soldier". American troops also engaged in looting of shops.
Japanese army
The term "comfort women
" is a euphemism for the estimated 200,000, mostly Korean, Chinese, Filipina women who were forced to work as prostitutes in Japanese military brothels during World War II. It is also said of the Nanking Massacre
that the WWII Japanese militants sexually assaulted any women of their defeated city or area neglecting the fact that some of the women they raped were married or pregnant.
Australian army
"A former prostitute recalled that as soon as Australian troops arrived in Kure
in early 1946, they 'dragged young women into their jeeps, took them to the mountain, and then raped them. I heard them screaming for help nearly every night'."
US Army
It has been claimed that some U.S. soldiers raped Okinawan women during the Battle of Okinawa
in 1945. Following the war there were 1,336 reported rapes during the first 10 days of the occupation of Kanagawa prefecture
.
Despite being told by the Japanese military that they would suffer rape, torture and murder at the hands of the Americans, Okinawans "were often surprised at the comparatively humane treatment they received from the American enemy." According to Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power by Mark Selden
, the Americans "did not pursue a policy of torture, rape, and murder of civilians as Japanese military officials had warned."
American marines stationed in Beijing immediately after World War II raped a Chinese schoolgirl. This, and other incidents created ill feelings toward the Americans from the Kuomintang
and Chiang Kai-shek
.
Soviet Red Army
Soviet Russian Red Army
troops are alleged to have looted and terrorized the people of Mukden in Manchuria, China. A foreigner witnessed Russian troops, formerly stationed in Berlin, who were allowed by the Soviet military to go at the city "for three days of rape and pillage".
Rapes were committed by Wehrmacht forces on Jewish women and girls during the Invasion of Poland in September 1939; they were also committed against Polish women and girls during mass executions carried out primarily by the Selbstschutz
units, which were accompanied by Wehrmacht soldiers and on territory under the administration of the German military; the rapes were carried-out before shooting female captives. Only one case of rape was prosecuted by German court during the military campaign in Poland, and even then the German judge sentenced the guilty for Rassenschande
that is a shame against their race as defined by racial policy of Nazi Germany
and not rape. Jewish women were particularly vulnerable to rape during the Holocaust.
Rapes were also committed by German forces on Eastern Front
, where they were largely unpunished (as opposed to rapes committed in Western Europe); the overall number of rapes is difficult to establish due to lack prosecution of the crime by German courts.
Wehrmacht also established a system of military brothels, in which young women and girls from occupied territories were forced into prostitution, the conditions were extremely hard and many women tried to escape their captors.
In Soviet Union
women were kidnapped by German forces for prostitution as well; one report by International Military Tribunal writes "in the city of Smolensk the German Command opened a brothel for officers in one of the hotels into which hundreds of women and girls were driven; they were mercilessly dragged down the street by their arms and hair
French army
French Moroccan
troops, known as Goumier
s, committed rapes and other war crimes in Italy after the Battle of Monte Cassino
and in Germany. In Italy, victims of the mass rape committed after the Battle of Monte Cassino by Goumiers, colonial troops
of the French Expeditionary Corps
, are known as Marocchinate
. According to Italian sources, more than 7,000 Italian civilians, including women and children, were raped by Goumiers.
French Senegal
ese troops too, known as Senegalese Tirailleurs
, who landed on the island of Elba
on June 17, 1944, were responsible of mass rapes though their behaviour was considered less brutal than that of the French North African troops in continental Italy
.
British army
To a lesser extent, Indian troops in the British service were also known in Italy for the number of rapes and violent acts they committed, according to Mondadori.
US Army
Secret wartime files made public only in 2006 reveal that American GIs committed 400 sexual offences in Europe, including 126 rapes in England, between 1942 and 1945. A study by Robert J. Lilly estimates that a total of 14,000 civilian women in England, France and Germany were raped by American GIs during World War II. It is estimated that there were around 3,500 rapes by American servicemen in France between June 1944 and the end of the war and one historian has claimed that sexual violence against women in liberated France was common.
Red Army
After the German armed forces had surrendered, the half of Germany under Soviet Union occupation was split roughly in half and one part was allocated for temporary Polish administration (see Former eastern territories of Germany). In order to ensure that the German territory under communist Polish administration would become permanently de-facto Polish territory, the Polish communists ordered that the German population be expelled
"by whatever means necessary". The communist Polish administrators of the occupied territories as a consequence did little to protect the German population from Polish and Russian rapists. "Even the Soviets expressed shock at the Poles’ behavior. Polish soldiers, stated one report, 'relate to German women as to free booty'."
During the war Polish women were victims of brutal mass rapes by Soviet soldiers. Polish sources claim that there are cases of mass rapes in Polish cities taken by the Red Army
. It is reported that in Kraków
Soviet occupation brought mass rapes of Polish women and girls, as well as plunder of all private property by Soviet soldiers. Reportedly the scale of the attacks prompted communists installed by Soviets to prepare a letter of protest to Joseph Stalin
while masses in churches were held in expectation of Soviet withdrawal.
At the end of World War II, Red Army soldiers are estimated to have raped around 2,000,000 German women and girls. Norman Naimark
writes in "The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949." that although the exact number of women and girls who were raped by members of the Red Army in the months preceding and years following the capitulation will never be known, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, quite possibly as high as the 2,000,000 victims estimate made by Barbara Johr, in "Befreier und Befreite". Many of these victims were raped repeatedly. Antony Beevor estimates that up to half the victims were victims of gang rapes. Naimark states that not only did each victim have to carry the trauma with her for the rest of her days, it inflicted a massive collective trauma on the East German nation. Naimark concludes "The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the GDR in the fall of 1949, until - one could argue - the present." German women who became pregnant after being raped by Soviet soldiers in World War II were invariably denied abortion to further humiliate them as to carry an unwanted child. As a result, according to the book Berlin: The Downfall, 1945 by Antony Beevor
, some 90% of raped Berlin women in 1945 had venereal diseases as results of these consequential rapes and 3.7% of all children born in Germany from 1945 to 1946 had Russian fathers. The history behind this particular rape of the German women by the Soviet troops was considered a taboo topic until 1992. (See also Red Army atrocities
.)
In Romania, the writer Mihail Sebastian
described, that in 1944 Russian soldiers raped local women.
in 1971, numerous women were tortured and raped. Exact numbers are not known and are a subject of debate. Bangladeshi sources cite a figure of 400 women raped by the Pakistan Army. Most of the women were captured from Dhaka University and private homes and kept as sex-slaves inside the Dhaka Cantonment.
It has been estimated that up to 200,000 Bangladeshi women may have been raped during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 by the Pakistan army during night raids on villages. Pakistani sources claim the number is much lower, though having not completely denied rape incidents. One work that has included direct experiences from the women raped is Ami Birangona Bolchhi ("I, the heroine, speak") by Nilima Ibrahim
. The work includes in its name from the word Birangona (Heroine), given by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after the war, to the raped and tortured women during the war. This was a conscious effort to alleviate any social stigma the women might face in the society. How successful this effort was is doubtful, though.
In October 2005 Sarmila Bose
, a Harvard-educated Bengali Indian academic related to the Indian Freedom Struggle
leader Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, published a paper suggesting that the casualties and rape allegations in the war have been greatly exaggerated for political purposes. This work has been criticised in Bangladesh and her research methods have been attacked by expatriate Bengalis as shoddy and biased.
during the occupation by Indonesia
in 1975.
It has been reported that in Peru
, throughout the 12 year internal conflict
, women were frequent victims of sustained war rape perpetrated by government security forces and the Shining Path
. It has also been reported that during the August 1990 invasion of Kuwait
, an estimated 5,000 Kuwait
i women were raped by Iraq
i soldiers.
prompted the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) to deal openly with these abuses. Reports of sexual violence during the Bosnian War
(1992–95) and Kosovo War
(1996–99), part of the Yugoslav wars
, a series of conflicts from 1991 to 1999, have been described as "especially alarming". Since the entry of the NATO in the Kosovo War, rapes of Albanian, and Roma women were committed by ethnic Serbs
.
It has been estimated that during the Bosnian War between 20,000 and 50,000 women were raped. The majority of the rape victims were Muslim women raped by Serbian soldiers. Although men also became victim of sexual violence, war rape was disproportionately directed against women who were (gang) raped in the streets, in their homes and/or in front of family members. Sexual violence occurred in a multiple ways, including rape with objects, such as broken glass bottles, guns and truncheons. War rape occurred as a matter of official orders as part of ethnic cleansing, to displace the targeted ethnic group out of the region.
During the Bosnian War the existence of deliberately created "rape camps" was reported. The reported aim of these camps was to impregnate the Muslim and Croatian women held captive. It has been reported that often women were kept in confinement until the late stage of their pregnancy. This occurred in the context of a patrilineal society, in which children inherit their father's ethnicity, hence the "rape camps" aimed at the birth of a new generation of Serb children. According to the Women's Group Tresnjevka more than 35,000 women and children were held in such Serb-run "rape camps".
During the Kosovo War thousands of Kosovo Albanian women and girls became victims of sexual violence. War rape was used as a weapon of war and an instrument of systematic ethnic cleansing
; rape was used to terrorize the civilian population, extort money from families, and force people to flee their homes. According to a 2000 Human Rights Watch report war rape in the Kosovo War can generally be subdivided into three categories: rapes in women's homes, rapes during fighting, and rapes in detention. The majority of the perpetrators were Serbian paramilitaries, but they also included Serbian special police or Yugoslav army soldiers. Most rapes were gang rapes involving at least two perpetrators. Rapes occurred frequently in the presence, and with the acquiescence, of military officers. Soldiers, police, and paramilitaries often raped their victims in the full view of numerous witnesses.
, Serb forces conducted a sexual abuse strategy on the thousands of Bosnian Muslim girls and women which became known as "mass rape phenomenon". No exact figures on how many women and children were systematically raped by the Serb forces in various camps were established, but estimates range from 20,000 to 50,000. Mass rape mostly occurred in Eastern Bosnia (especially during Foča
and Višegrad massacre
s), and in Grbavica during the Siege of Sarajevo
. Numerous Serbian officers, soldiers and other participants were indicted or convicted of rape as the war crime by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
and the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The events inspired the Golden Bear winner at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival
in 2006, called Grbavica
.
, as well as condoned the acts taking place, without making efforts to stop them. Compared to other conflicts the sexual violence in Rwanda
stands out in terms of the organised nature of the propaganda that contributed significantly to fuelling sexual violence against Tutsi women, the very public nature of the rapes and the level of brutality towards the women. Anne-Marie de Brouwer concludes that considering the massive scale and public nature of war rape during the Rwanda genocide, "it is difficult to imagine anybody in Rwanda who was not aware of the sexual violence taking place." In 1998, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
made the landmark decisions that the war rape during the Rwanda genocide was an element of the crime of genocide. The Trial Chamber held that "sexual assault formed an integral part of the process of destroying the Tutsi ethnic group and that the rape was systematic and had been perpetrated against Tutsi women only, manifesting the specific intent required for those acts to constitute genocide."
In his 1996 report the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Rwanda, Rene Degni-Segui stated that "rape was the rule and its absence the exception." The report also stated that “rape was systematic and was used as a "weapon" by the perpetrators of the massacres. This can be estimated from the number and nature of the victims as well as from the forms of rape.” A 2000 report prepared by the Organisation of African Unity’s International Panel of Eminent Personalities concluded that “we can be certain that almost all females who survived the genocide were direct victims of rape or other sexual violence, or were profoundly affected by it”.
The Special Rapporteur on Rwanda estimated in his 1996 report that between 2,000 and 5,000 pregnancies resulted from war rape, and that between 250,000 and 500,000 Rwandese women and girls had been raped. Rwanda is a patriarchal society and children therefore take the ethnicity of the father, underlining that war rape occurred in the context of genocide.
Within the context of the Rwanda genocide victims of sexual violence were predominantly attacked on the basis of their gender and ethnicity. The victims were mostly Tutsi women and girls, of all ages, while men were only seldom the victims of war rape. Women were part of the anti-Tutsi propaganda prior the 1994 genocide. The December 1990 issue of the newspaper Kangura
published the “Ten Commandments”, four of which portrayed Tutsi women as tools of the Tutsi community, as sexual weapons that would be used by the Tutsi to weaken and ultimately destroy the Hutu men. Gender based propaganda also include cartoons printed in newspapers that portrayed Tutsi women as sex objects. Examples of gender based hate propaganda used to incite war rape include statements by perpetrators such as “You Tutsi women think that you are too good for us” and “Let us see what a Tutsi woman tastes like”. Victims of war rape during the Rwanda genocide also included Hutu
women considered moderates, such as Hutu
women married to Tutsi
men and Hutu women politically affiliated with the Tutsi. War rape also occurred regardless of ethnicity or political affiliation, with young or beautiful women being targeted based on their gender only. Sexual violence against men occurred significantly less frequently, but frequently included mutilation of the genitals, which were often displayed in public. The perpetrators of war rape during the Rwanda genocide were mainly members of the Hutu militia, the “Interahamwe”. Rapes were also committed by military soldiers of the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR), including the Presidential Guard, and civilians.
Sexual violence against women and girls during the Rwanda genocide included: rape, gang rape, sexual slavery (either collectively or individually through "forced marriages"), rape with objects such as sticks and weapons often leading to the victim’s death, sexual mutilation of, in particular, breasts, vaginas or buttocks, often during or following rape. Pregnant women were not spared from sexual violence and on many occasion victims were killed following rape. Many women were raped by men who knew they were HIV
positive and it has been suggested that there were deliberate attempts to transmit the virus to Tutsi women and their families. War rape occurred all over the country and was frequently perpetrated in plain view of others, at sites such as schools, churches, roadblocks, government buildings or in the bush. Some women were kept as personal slaves for years after the genocide, forced to move to neighbouring countries after the genocide along with their captors.
The long-term effects of war rape in Rwanda
for the victims include social isolation (social stigma attached to rape meant some husbands left their wives that had become victim of war rape, or that the victim became unmarriageable), unwanted pregnancies and babies (some women resorted to self-induced abortions), sexually transmitted diseases, including syphilis
, gonorrhoea and HIV
/Aids
(access to anti-retroviral drugs remains limited).
, multiple Human Rights Organizations have reported cases of rape, violence and disappearance of women in the 1990s, claiming to be committed by security forces. Amnesty International
, for instance, believes that these actions might have been just a fraction of a widespread violence, claiming that many women are avoiding to testimony about the forces' treatment. Government officials, including the president, have denied the claims and agreed to co-operate with the investigations and prosecute whomever they find guilty. The UN Special Rapporteur, in the other hand, have reported that individual investigations and proceedings relating to these cases have started at the local magistrates courts.
Some of the notable cases of murdered raped victims and the massacres associated with the rape incidents are - Krishanti Kumaraswamy
, Arumaithurai Tharmaletchumi
, Ida Carmelitta
, Ilayathambi Tharsini
, Murugesapillai Koneswary
, Premini Thanuskodi
, Sarathambal
, Thambipillai Thanalakshmi
, Kumarapuram massacre
and Vankalai massacre.
, Iraq
, Sudan
, Chechnya
, Nepal
, and Afghanistan
.
Commenting on the rape of women and children in recent African conflict zones, UNICEF said in 2008 that rape was no longer just perpetrated by combatants but also by civilians. According to UNICEF rape is common in countries affected by wars and natural disasters, drawing a link between the occurrence of sexual violence and significant uprooting of a society and the crumbling of social norms. UNICEF states that in Kenya reported cases of sexual violence doubled within days of recent post-election conflict erupting. According to UNICEF rape was prevalent in conflict zones in Sudan
, Chad
, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In eastern Congo, the prevalence and intensity of rape and other sexual violence is described as the worst in the world. A 2010 study found that 22% of men and 30% of women in Eastern Congo reported conflict-related sexual violence.
Since fighting broke out in 1998 tens of thousands of people have been raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is estimated that there are as many as 200,000 surviving rape victims living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo today. War rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo has frequently been described as a "weapon of war" by commentators. Louise Nzigire, a local social worker, states that “this violence was designed to exterminate the population.” Nzigire observes that rape has been a "cheap, simple weapon for all parties in the war, more easily obtainable than bullets or bombs." The rape of men is also common. Men who admit to being raped risk ostracism by their community and criminal prosecution, because they may be seen as homosexual, which is a crime in 38 African countries.
Despite the peace process launched in 2003, sexual assault by soldiers from armed groups and the national army continues in the eastern provinces of the country. Evidence of war rape emerged when United Nations troops move into areas previously ravaged by war after the peace process started. Gang rape and rape with objects has been reported. The victims of war rape may suffer from incontinence
and vaginal fistula as a result of particularly violent rape. Witness accounts include an instance of a woman who had the barrel of a gun inserted into her vagina, after which the soldier opened fire. Incontinence and vaginal fistula leads to the isolation of war rape victims from her community and access to reconstructive surgery is limited in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
More than 500 rapes were reported in eastern Congo in August 2010, leading to an apology from Atul Khare
that the UN peacekeepers had failed to protect the population from brutalisation.
continues with impunity" reported:
In the same article Pamela Shifman was reported to have said that:
, Iraq. Prisoners were forced to humiliate themselves. More generally, it has been observed that captured military personnel of both sexes are vulnerable to explicitly sexual humiliation, including rape.
's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo
, confirmed that there's enough evidence that Gaddafi's troops have used rape as a weapon during the Libyan civil war
. He also said, "Apparently, he (Gaddafi) decided to punish, using rape," while witnesses confirmed that the Libyan government has also purchased a large number of Viagra-like drugs. The Libyan government, in the other hand, does not actually recognize the ICC's jurisdiction.
Hundreds of thousands of women were kidnapped by the Japanese military and used as sex slaves during World War II. These were called comfort women
.
Rape camps are a common theme in Nazi exploitation cinema.
Rape camps have also been extensively documented in Bosnia:
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
s committed by soldiers, other combatants or civilians during armed conflict or war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
, or during military occupation, distinguished from sexual assaults and rape committed amongst troops in military service. It also covers the situation where women are forced into prostitution or sexual slavery
Sexual slavery
Sexual slavery is when unwilling people are coerced into slavery for sexual exploitation. The incidence of sexual slavery by country has been studied and tabulated by UNESCO, with the cooperation of various international agencies...
by an occupying power, as in the case of Japanese comfort women
Comfort women
The term "comfort women" was a euphemism used to describe women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.Estimates vary as to how many women were involved, with numbers ranging from as low as 20,000 from some Japanese scholars to as high as 410,000 from some Chinese...
during World War II.
During war and armed conflict, rape is frequently used as means of psychological warfare
Psychological warfare
Psychological warfare , or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations , have been known by many other names or terms, including Psy Ops, Political Warfare, “Hearts and Minds,” and Propaganda...
in order to humiliate the enemy and undermine their morale. War rape is often systematic and thorough, and military leaders may actually encourage their soldiers to rape civilians. War rape may occur in a variety of situations, including institutionalised sexual slavery, war rapes associated with specific battles or massacres, and individual or isolated acts of sexual violence
Sexual violence
Sexual violence occurs throughout the world, although in most countries there has been little research conducted on the problem. Due to the private nature of sexual violence, estimating the extent of the problem is difficult...
. War rape may also include gang rape and rape with objects.
When part of a widespread and systematic practice, rape and sexual slavery are now recognized under the Geneva Convention as crimes against humanity
Crime against humanity
Crimes against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Explanatory Memorandum, "are particularly odious offenses in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings...
and war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
s. Rape is also now recognized as an element of the crime of genocide when committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a targeted group. However, rape remains widespread in conflict zones.
War rape and gender
Kelly Dawn Askin observes that increasingly, the victims of war are civilians. An estimated forty-five million plus civilians died during World War II. Male and female civilians may be subject to torture, but many studies show that war rape is more frequently perpetrated on women than men. This may be due to the reluctance of men to come forward with accusations of being raped, and also an institutional bias amongst NGOs, who frequently focus resources on female victims. A 2010 Journal of the American Medical AssociationJournal of the American Medical Association
The Journal of the American Medical Association is a weekly, peer-reviewed, medical journal, published by the American Medical Association. Beginning in July 2011, the editor in chief will be Howard C. Bauchner, vice chairman of pediatrics at Boston University’s School of Medicine, replacing ...
survey found that 22% of men and 30% of women in Eastern Congo had reported sexual violence connected to warfare. Perpetrators of sexual violence against women and children "commonly include not only enemy civilians and troops but also allied and national civilians and even comrades in arms."
The victims of war rape are usually "civilians", a category first recognized in the 19th century. Although war rape of women is documented throughout history, laws protecting civilians in armed conflict have tended not to recognise sexual assault on women. Even when laws of war have recognised and forbidden sexual assault, few prosecutions have been brought. According to Kelly Dawn Askin, the laws of war perpetuated the attitude that sexual assaults against women are less significant crimes, not worthy of prosecution. War rape has until recently been a hidden element of war, which according to Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
is linked to the largely gender-specific character of war rape - abuse committed by men against women. This gender-specific character has contributed to war rape being "narrowly portrayed as sexual or personal in nature, a portrayal that depoliticizes sexual abuse in conflict and results in its being ignored as a war crime."
"To the victor go the spoils" has been a war cry for centuries, and women classed as part of the spoils of war. Furthermore, war rape has been downplayed as an unfortunate but inevitable side effect of sending men to war. Also, war rape has in the past been regarded as tangible reward to soldiers (which were only paid irregularly), and as a soldier's proof of masculinity and success. In reference to war rape in ancient times, Harold Washington argues that warfare itself is imaged as rape, and that the cities attacked are its victims. He argues that war rape occurs in the context of stereotypes about women and men, which are part of the basic belief that violent power belongs to men, and that women are its victims.
The rape of men by other men is also common in war. A 2009 study by Lara Stemple found that it had been documented in conflicts worldwide; for example, 76% of male political prisoners in 1980s El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
and 80% of concentration camp inmates in Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
reported being raped or sexually tortured. Stemple concludes that the "lack of attention to sexual abuse of men during conflict is particularly troubling given the widespread reach of the problem". Mervyn Christian of Johns Hopkins School of Nursing has found that male rape is commonly underreported.
International law
Prosecution of rapists in war crime tribunals is a recent development. Generally, humanitarian law concerns the maltreatment of civilians and "any devastation not justified by military necessity". War rape has rarely been prosecuted as a war crime. After World War II the Nuremberg TribunalsNuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....
failed to charge Nazi war criminals with rape, although witnesses testified on war rape. The War Crimes Tribunal in Tokyo
International Military Tribunal for the Far East
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East , also known as the Tokyo Trials, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, or simply the Tribunal, was convened on April 29, 1946, to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of crimes: "Class A" crimes were reserved for those who...
did convict Japanese officers "of failing to prevent rape" in the Nanking massacre
Nanking Massacre
The Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, was a mass murder, genocide and war rape that occurred during the six-week period following the Japanese capture of the city of Nanjing , the former capital of the Republic of China, on December 13, 1937 during the Second...
, which is known as the "Rape of Nanking". Justice Richard Goldstone, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
, said that "Rape has never been the concern of the international community."
Customs of war
Some scholars argue that the lack of explicit recognition of war rape in international law or applicable humanitarian law may not be used as a defence by the perpetrator of war rape. Laws and customs of war prohibit offenses such as "inhuman treatment" or "indecent assaults", adding to this domestic military codes and domestic civil codes (national law) may make sexual assault a crime.Humanitarian law prior to World War II
One of the first references to the "laws of war", or "traditions of war" was by CiceroCicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, who urged soldiers to observe the rules of war, since obeying the regulations separated the "men" from the "brutes". Conquering the riches and property of an enemy was regarded as legitimate reason for war in itself. Women were included with "property", since they were considered to be under the lawful ownership of a man, whether a father, husband, slave master, or guardian. In this context, the rape of a woman was considered a property crime committed against the man who owned the woman.
The ancient Greeks considered war rape of women "socially acceptable behaviour well within the rules of warfare", and warriors considered the conquered women "legitimate booty, useful as wives, concubines, slave labour or battle-camp trophy
Trophy
A trophy is a reward for a specific achievement, and serves as recognition or evidence of merit. Trophies are most often awarded for sporting events, from youth sports to professional level athletics...
".
In the Middle Ages, and until the 19th century, this attitude and practice prevailed, and the legal protection of women in war time related directly to the legal protection women were granted in peace times. In medieval Europe, women were considered as an inferior gender by law. Catholic Church sought to prevent rape during feudal warfare through the institution of Peace and Truce of God
Peace and Truce of God
The Peace and Truce of God was a medieval European movement of the Catholic Church that applied spiritual sanctions in order to limit the violence of private war in feudal society. The movement constituted the first organized attempt to control civil society in medieval Europe through non-violent...
which discouraged soldiers from attacking women and civilians in general and through the propagation of a Christianized version of chivalry
Chivalry
Chivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of knighthood which has an aristocratic military origin of individual training and service to others. Chivalry was also the term used to refer to a group of mounted men-at-arms as well as to martial valour...
ideal of a knight who protected innocents and did not engage in lawlessness.
Medieval Islamic military jurisprudence laid down severe penalties for rebels who use "stealth attacks" and "spread terror
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
". In this category, Muslim jurists
Ulema
Ulama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...
included abductions, poisoning of water wells, arson, attacks against wayfarers and travellers, assaults under the cover of night, and rape. The punishment for such crimes were severe, including death, regardless of the political convictions and religion of the perpetrator.
John of Salisbury
John of Salisbury , who described himself as Johannes Parvus , was an English author, educationalist, diplomat and bishop of Chartres, and was born at Salisbury.-Early life and education:...
wrote Policraticus
Policraticus
Policraticus is a book of ethical and political philosophy written by John of Salisbury around 1159. Although addressing a wide variety of ethical questions, it is most famous for attempting to define the responsibilities of kings and their relationship to their subjects...
in an attempt to regulate the conduct of armies engaged in "justifiable" wars. Salisbury believed that acts of theft and "rapine" (property crimes) should receive the most severe punishment, but also believed that obeying a superior's commands whether legal or illegal, moral or immoral, was the ultimate duty of the soldier.
In the 15th and 16th century, despite considerations and systemisation of the laws of war, women remained objects available to the conquering male in any way whatsoever. The influential writer Francisco de Vitoria
Francisco de Vitoria
Francisco de Vitoria, OP was a Spanish Renaissance Roman Catholic philosopher, theologian and jurist, founder of the tradition in philosophy known as the School of Salamanca, noted especially for his contributions to the theory of just war and international law...
stood for a gradual emergence of the notion that glory or conquest were not necessarily acceptable reasons to start a war. The jurist Alberico Gentili
Alberico Gentili
Alberico Gentili was an Italian jurist. He left Italy due to his Protestant faith, travelled in Central Europe, and emigrated to England. In 1580 he became regius professor of civil law at the University of Oxford...
insisted that all women, including female combatants, should be spared from sexual assault in wartime. However, in practice war rape was common.
It is suggested that one reason for the prevalence of war rape was that at the time, military circles supported the notion that all persons, including unarmed women and children, were still the enemy, with the belligerent having conquering rights over them. In the late Middle Ages, the laws of war even considered war rape as an indication of a man's success in the battlefield and "opportunities to rape and loot were among the few advantages open to... soldiers, who were paid with great irregularity by their leaders... triumph over women by rape became a way to measure victory, part of a soldier's proof of masculinity and success, a tangible reward for services rendered... an actual reward of war".
During this period in history, war rape took place not necessarily as a conscious effort of war to terrorize the enemy, but rather as earned compensation for winning a war. There is little evidence to suggest that superiors regularly ordered subordinates to commit acts of rape. Throughout this period of history war became more regulated, specific, and regimented. The first formal prosecution for violations of war crimes did not take place until the late Middle Ages.
Hugo Grotius
Hugo Grotius
Hugo Grotius , also known as Huig de Groot, Hugo Grocio or Hugo de Groot, was a jurist in the Dutch Republic. With Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili he laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law...
, considered the father of the law of nations and the first to conduct a comprehensive work on systematizing the international laws of war, concluded that rape "should not go unpunished in war any more than in peace". Emmerich van Vattel emerged as an influential figure when he pleaded for the immunity of civilians against the ravages of war, considering men and women civilians as non-combatants.
In the late 18th century and 19th century, treaties and war codes started to include vague provisions for the protection of women: The Treaty of Amity and Commerce (1785) specified that in case of war "women and children... shall not be molested in their persons". Article 20 of the Order No. 20 (1847), a supplement to the US Rules and Articles of war, listed the following as severely punishable "Assassination, murder, malicious stabbing or maiming, rape". The Declaration of Brussles (1874) stated that the "honours and rights of the family.... should be respected".
In the 19th century the treatment of soldiers, prisoners, the wounded, and civilians improved and core elements of the laws of war
Laws of war
The law of war is a body of law concerning acceptable justifications to engage in war and the limits to acceptable wartime conduct...
were put in place. However, while the customs of war mandated more humane treatment of soldiers and civilians, new weapons and advanced technology increased destruction and altered the methods of war. The Lieber Code
Lieber Code
The Lieber Code of April 24, 1863, also known as Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field, General Order № 100, or Lieber Instructions, was an instruction signed by President Abraham Lincoln to the Union Forces of the United States during the American Civil War...
(1863) was the first codification of the international customary laws of land war and an important step towards humanitarian law. The Lieber Code
Lieber Code
The Lieber Code of April 24, 1863, also known as Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field, General Order № 100, or Lieber Instructions, was an instruction signed by President Abraham Lincoln to the Union Forces of the United States during the American Civil War...
emphasises protection of civilians and states that "all rape...(is) prohibited under the penalty of death", which was the first prohibition of rape in customary humanitarian law. After World War I the War Crimes Commission, set up in 1919 to examine the atrocities committed by Germany and the other Central Powers during World War I, found substantial evidence of sexual violence and subsequently included rape and forced prostitution among the violations of the laws and customs of war. Efforts to prosecute failed.
The Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals
After World War II, the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals became the first international criminal tribunals of real significance. The victorious powers established them in 1945 and 1946 respectively to prosecute the major war criminals of the European Axis countries (in fact only Germans) and of Japan for "crimes against peace," war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The possibility of prosecuting sexual violence as a war crime was present because of the recognition of war rape as serious violation of the laws of war in the Lieber CodeLieber Code
The Lieber Code of April 24, 1863, also known as Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field, General Order № 100, or Lieber Instructions, was an instruction signed by President Abraham Lincoln to the Union Forces of the United States during the American Civil War...
and the Hague Convention
Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907)
The Hague Conventions were two international treaties negotiated at international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands: The First Hague Conference in 1899 and the Second Hague Conference in 1907...
assertion that "family honour and rights...must be respected".
Also, there was evidence that previous war crimes trials had prosecuted for sex crimes, hence war rape could have been prosecuted under customary law and/or under the IMT (International Military Tribunals) Charter's Article 6(b): "abduction of the civilian population... into slavery and for other purposes" and "abduction unjustified by military necessity". Similarly, it would have been possible to prosecute war rape as crime against humanity under Article 6(c) of the Nuremberg Charter: "other inhumane acts" and "enslavement". However, notwithstanding evidence of sexual violence in Europe during World War II a lack of will led to rape and sexual violence not being prosecuted at the Nuremberg Tribunals
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....
.
The War Crimes Tribunal in Tokyo
International Military Tribunal for the Far East
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East , also known as the Tokyo Trials, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, or simply the Tribunal, was convened on April 29, 1946, to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of crimes: "Class A" crimes were reserved for those who...
prosecuted cases of sexual violence and war rape as war crimes under the wording "inhumane treatment", "ill-treatment," and "failure to respect family honour and rights." According to the Prosecution in excess of 20,000 women and girls were raped during the first weeks of the Japanese occupation of the Chinese city of Nanking. The War Crimes Tribunal in Tokyo included accounts of sexual violence crimes in the trial testimonies as well as public records. On a national level, a commander of the 14th Area Army, General Yamashita, was convicted for, inter alia, "rape under his command." Some 35 Dutch comfort women
Comfort women
The term "comfort women" was a euphemism used to describe women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.Estimates vary as to how many women were involved, with numbers ranging from as low as 20,000 from some Japanese scholars to as high as 410,000 from some Chinese...
brought a successful case before the Batavia Military Tribunal in 1948.
Geneva Conventions
Since 1949 Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly prohibits wartime rape and enforced prostitution. These prohibitions were reinforced by the 1977 Additional Protocols to the 1949 Geneva Conventions.Genocide
In 1998 the International Criminal Tribunal for RwandaInternational Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 955 in order to judge people responsible for the Rwandan Genocide and other serious violations of international law in Rwanda, or by Rwandan...
established by the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
made landmark decisions defining rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
as a crime of genocide under international law. The trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu, the mayor of Taba Commune in Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
, established precedents that rape is an element of the crime of genocide. The Trial Chamber held that "sexual assault formed an integral part of the process of destroying the Tutsi
Tutsi
The Tutsi , or Abatutsi, are an ethnic group in Central Africa. Historically they were often referred to as the Watussi or Watusi. They are the second largest caste in Rwanda and Burundi, the other two being the Hutu and the Twa ....
ethnic group and that the rape was systematic and had been perpetrated against Tutsi women only, manifesting the specific intent required for those acts to constitute genocide."
Judge Navanethem Pillay said in a statement after the verdict: “From time immemorial, rape has been regarded as spoils of war
Spoils of War
Botín de guerra is a 2000 Argentine documentary film directed and written by David Blaustein with Luis Alberto Asurey. The film premiered on 11 April 2000 in Buenos Aires...
. Now it will be considered a war crime. We want to send out a strong message that rape is no longer a trophy of war.” An estimated 500,000 women were raped during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
Professor Paul Walters in his April 2005 statement of support of her honorary doctorate of law at Rhodes University
Rhodes University
Rhodes University is a public research university located in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, established in 1904. It is the province’s oldest university, and is one of the four universities in the province...
wrote:
Under her presidency of the Rwanda Tribunal, that body rendered a judgment against the mayor of Taba Commune which found him guilty of genocide for the use of rape in “the destruction of the spirit, of the will to live, and of life itself.”
The Akayesu judgement includes the first interpretation and application by an international court of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948 as General Assembly Resolution 260. The Convention entered into force on 12 January 1951. It defines genocide in legal terms, and is the culmination of...
. The Trial Chamber held that rape (which it defined as "a physical invasion of a sexual nature committed on a person under circumstances which are coercive") and sexual assault constitute acts of genocide insofar as they were committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a targeted group, as such. It found that sexual assault formed an integral part of the process of destroying the Tutsi ethnic group and that the rape was systematic and had been perpetrated against Tutsi women only, manifesting the specific intent required for those acts to constitute genocide.
In September 1999 the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
published a "Report of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Genocide and Other Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of Rwanda and Rwandan Citizens Responsible for Genocide and Other Such Violations Committed in the Territory of Neighbouring States between 1 January and 31 December 1994". The report states that on September 2, 1998, Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, composed of Judges Laïty Kama, Presiding, Lennart Aspegren and Navanethem Pillay, found Jean Paul Akayesu guilty of 9 of the 15 counts proffered against him, including genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide and crimes against humanity, murder, torture, rape, and other inhumane acts). The Tribunal found Jean Paul Akayesu not guilty of the six remaining counts, including the count of complicity in genocide and the counts relating to violations of article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions
Geneva Conventions
The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war...
and of Additional Protocol II thereto. On October 2, 1998, Jean Paul Akayesu was sentenced to life imprisonment for each of the nine counts, the sentences to run concurrently. Both Jean Paul Akayesu and the Prosecutor have appealed against the judgement rendered by the Trial Chamber.
Crimes against humanity and war crimes
The Rome StatuteRome Statute of the International Criminal Court
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court . It was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome on 17 July 1998 and it entered into force on 1 July 2002. As of 13 October 2011, 119 states are party to the statute...
Explanatory Memorandum, which defines the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...
, recognises rape, sexual slavery
Sexual slavery
Sexual slavery is when unwilling people are coerced into slavery for sexual exploitation. The incidence of sexual slavery by country has been studied and tabulated by UNESCO, with the cooperation of various international agencies...
, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization
Compulsory sterilization
Compulsory sterilization also known as forced sterilization programs are government policies which attempt to force people to undergo surgical sterilization...
, "or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity" as crime against humanity if the action is part of a widespread or systematic practice.
Rape first became recognised as crime against humanity
Crime against humanity
Crimes against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Explanatory Memorandum, "are particularly odious offenses in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings...
when the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
issued arrest warrants based on the Geneva Conventions
Geneva Conventions
The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war...
and Violations of the Laws or Customs of War. Specifically, it was recognised that Muslim women in Foča
Foca
Foča is a town and municipality in southeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina on the Drina river, in the Foča Region of the Republika Srpska entity.-Early history:...
(southeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
) were subjected to systematic and widespread gang rape, torture and sexual enslavement by Bosnian Serb soldiers, policemen, and members of paramilitary groups after the takeover of the city in April 1992. The indictment was of major legal significance and was the first time that sexual assaults were investigated for the purpose of prosecution under the rubric of torture and enslavement as a crime against humanity. The indictment was confirmed by a 2001 verdict by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia that rape and sexual enslavement are crimes against humanity. This ruling challenged the widespread acceptance of rape and sexual enslavement of women as intrinsic part of war. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia found three Bosnian Serb men guilty of rape of Bosniac (Bosnian Muslim) women and girls (some as young as 12 and 15 years of age), in Foča, eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina. Furthermore two of the men were found guilty of the crime against humanity of sexual enslavement for holding women and girls captive in a number of de facto detention centres. Many of the women subsequently disappeared.
Definition of rape
Some commentators use the terms "rape" and "sexual assaultSexual assault
Sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may involve any combination of two or more men, women and children....
" interchangeably. There is no universally accepted definition of "war rape".
The Explanatory Note of the Rome Statute, which binds the International Criminal Court
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...
, defines the "rape" as follows:
"The perpetrator invaded the body of a person by conduct resulting in penetration, however slight, of any part of the body of the victim or of the perpetrator with a sexual organ, or of the anal or genital opening of the victim with any object or any other part of the body."
and
"The invasion was committed by force, or by threat of force or coercion, such as that caused by fear of violence, duress, detention, psychological oppression or abuse of power
Abuse of Power
Abuse of Power is a novel written by radio talk show host Michael Savage.- Plot :Jack Hatfield is a hardened former war correspondent who rose to national prominence for his insightful, provocative commentary...
, against such person or another person, or by taking advantage of a coercive environment, or the invasion was committed against a person incapable of giving genuine consent."
The concept of “invasion” is intended to be broad enough to be gender-neutral and the definition is understood to include situations where the victim may be incapable of giving genuine consent if affected by natural, induced or age-related incapacity.
Effects
War rape has a severe impact on the victims and may be systematic in nature or an isolated act of sexual violence. A recent study lists the physical injury to the victims of war rape as traumatic injuries, sexually transmitted disease, and pregnancy. Because war rapes take place in zones of conflict, access to emergency contraceptionEmergency contraception
Emergency contraception , or emergency postcoital contraception, refers to birth control measures that, if taken after sexual intercourse, may prevent pregnancy.Forms of EC include:...
, antibiotics, and/or abortion are extremely limited. The short-term psychological injuries to the victims include feelings of fear, helplessness, and desperation. Long-term psychological injuries may include depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
, anxiety disorders (including post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSS)), multiple somatic symptoms, flashbacks, difficulty re-establishing intimate relationships, shame, and persistent fears.
War rape may include gang rape and rape with objects, such as sticks and gun barrels. Women victims may suffer from incontinence
Urinary incontinence
Urinary incontinence is any involuntary leakage of urine. It is a common and distressing problem, which may have a profound impact on quality of life. Urinary incontinence almost always results from an underlying treatable medical condition but is under-reported to medical practitioners...
and vaginal fistula as a result of particularly violent instances of rape. Vaginal fistula is a medical condition usually the result of poor childbirth care, and involves the walls between the vagina, bladder and anus or rectum being torn, resulting in severe pain and debilitating incontinence. Women victims of war rape may be stigmatised and excluded from their families or communities as a result of war rape, particularly in societies were female virginity is prized and the husband of a rape victim is considered shamed.
Symbolism
SpivakGayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is an Indian literary critic, theorist and a University Professor at Columbia University. She is best known for the essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?", considered a founding text of postcolonialism, and for her translation of Jacques Derrida's Of Grammatology. She...
characterizes "group rape perpetrated by the conquerors" as "a metonymic celebration of territorial acquisition".
Military strategy
Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
has challenged the view that sees rape and sexual abuse as a by-product of war. According to Amnesty International rape is now used as deliberate military strategy rather than opportunistic rape and pillage of previous centuries. As a military strategy war rape is reportedly used for the purpose of conquering territory by expelling the population therefrom, decimating remaining civilians by destroying their links of affiliations, by the spread of AIDS, and by eliminating cultural and religious traditions. War rape may be described as "weapon of war" or a "means of combat" in the media. With specific reference to recent war rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other African countries the aims of war rape as a military strategy have been listed as follows: increase in military morale, decrease the military morale of the enemy, to offend the enemy, and to loot the maximum of an enemy’s belongings (including women and children).
Commenting on the use of rape in wars, Gita Sahgal said in 2004 that it is a mistake to think such assaults are primarily about "spoils of war" or sexual gratification. She said rape is often used in ethnic conflicts as a way for attackers to perpetuate social control and redraw ethnic boundaries. "Women are seen as the reproducers and carers of the community," she said.
Antiquity
Rape has accompanied warfare in virtually every known historical era. The GreekAncient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
and Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
armies reportedly engaged in war rape, which is documented by ancient authors such as Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
, Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
, and Livy
Livy
Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
. Ancient sources held multiple, often contradictory attitudes to sexual violence in warfare. Rape in the course of war is mentioned multiple times in the Bible: "For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped..." "Their little children will be dashed to death before their eyes. Their homes will be sacked, and their wives will be raped."
In the near east, victorious armies often dealt in homosexual intercourse with the losers.
Roman military officers often used the young boys of defeated peoples for homosexual intercourse, a Roman Historian, Tacitus
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
, noted this happening during the Revolt of the Batavi.
Middle Ages
The Vikings (Scandinavians who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late 8th century to the early 11th century,) have acquired a reputation for "rape and pillage". Viking settlements in Britain and Ireland are thought to have been primarily male enterprises, with a lesser role for Viking females. British Isles women are mentioned in old texts on the founding of Iceland, indicating that the Viking explorers had acquired wives and concubines from Britain and Ireland. Some historians dispute the Vikings' "rape and pillage" image, arguing that exaggeration and distortion in later medieval texts created an image of treacherous and brutal Northmen.Medieval Islamic military jurisprudence laid down severe penalties for those who committed rape. The punishment for such crimes were severe, including death, regardless of the political convictions and religion of the perpetrator.
Female slavery was also common during the medieval Arab slave trade
Arab slave trade
The Arab slave trade was the practice of slavery in the Arab World, mainly Western Asia, North Africa, East Africa and certain parts of Europe during their period of domination by Arab leaders. The trade was focused on the slave markets of the Middle East and North Africa...
, where prisoners of war captured in battle from non-Arab lands often ended up as a concubine slaves (which are considered free when their master dies) in the Arab World
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
. Most of these slaves came from places such as Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
(mainly Zanj
Zanj
Zanj was a name used by medieval Arab geographers to refer to both a certain portion of the coast of East Africa and its inhabitants, Bantu-speaking peoples called the Zanj...
), the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
(mainly Circassians), Central Asia (mainly Tartars
Tartary
Tartary or Great Tartary was a name used by Europeans from the Middle Ages until the twentieth century to designate the Great Steppe, that is the great tract of northern and central Asia stretching from the Caspian Sea and the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean inhabited mostly by Turkic, Mongol...
), and Central and Eastern Europe (mainly Saqaliba
Saqaliba
Saqaliba refers to the Slavs, particularly Slavic slaves and mercenaries in the medieval Arab world, in the Middle East, North Africa, Sicily and Al-Andalus. It is generally thought that the Arabic term is a Byzantine loanword: saqlab, siklab, saqlabi etc. is a corruption of Greek Sklavinoi for...
). Historian Robert Davis claims that the Barbary pirates also captured 1.25 million slaves from Western Europe and North America between the 16th and 19th centuries.
The Mongols, who established the Mongol Empire
Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire , initially named as Greater Mongol State was a great empire during the 13th and 14th centuries...
across much of Eurasia, caused much destruction
Destruction under the Mongol Empire
Destruction under the Mongol Empire refers to widespread loss of life and devastation caused by the Mongolian conquests of the 13th century.Mongol raids and invasions were generally regarded as some of the deadliest in human history...
during their invasions. Documents written during or after Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
's reign say that after a conquest, the Mongol soldiers looted, pillaged and raped. Some troops who submitted were incorporated into the Mongol system in order to expand their manpower. These techniques were sometimes used to spread terror and warning to others.
The sack of Aberdeen in 1644 by the Royalist general Montrose
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose was a Scottish nobleman and soldier, who initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed...
during the Civil War involved large-scale rape.
European colonial era
In German South-West AfricaGerman South-West Africa
German South West Africa was a colony of Germany from 1884 until 1915, when it was taken over by South Africa and administered as South West Africa, finally becoming Namibia in 1990...
during Herero and Namaqua Genocide
Herero and Namaqua Genocide
The Herero and Namaqua Genocide is considered to have been the first genocide of the 20th century. It took place between 1904 and 1907 in German South-West Africa , during the scramble for Africa...
, German soldiers regularly engaged in gang rapes before killing Herero women or leaving them in the desert to die; a number of women from the rebelling Herero tribe were also forced into prostitution.
Indian Rebellion
With the beginnings of the mass media in the 19th century, war rape was occasionally used as propaganda by European colonialistsColonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
in order to justify the colonization of places they had conquered. The most notable example was perhaps during the Indian Rebellion of 1857
Indian Rebellion of 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to...
, known as "India's First War of Independence
India's First War of Independence (term)
The First War of Indian Independence is a term that is sometimes used, predominantly in India, to describe the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which has been described variously outside of India as "uprising", "revolt" and "mutiny".- History :...
" to the Indians and as the "Sepoy Mutiny" to the British, where Indian sepoy
Sepoy
A sepoy was formerly the designation given to an Indian soldier in the service of a European power. In the modern Indian Army, Pakistan Army and Bangladesh Army it remains in use for the rank of private soldier.-Etymology and Historical usage:...
s rebelled against the British East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
's rule in India
Company rule in India
Company rule in India refers to the rule or dominion of the British East India Company on the Indian subcontinent...
. While incidents of rape committed by Indian rebels against English women and girls were generally uncommon during the rebellion, this was exaggerated to great effect by the British media in order to justify continued British colonialism in the Indian subcontinent.
At the time, British newspapers had printed various apparently eyewitness accounts of English women and girls being raped by Indian rebels, but with little physical evidence to support these accounts. It was later found that most of these accounts were false stories created in order to paint the native people of India as savages who need to be civilized by British colonialists, a mission sometimes known as "The White Man's Burden
The White Man's Burden
"The White Man's Burden" is a poem by the English poet Rudyard Kipling. It was originally published in the popular magazine McClure's in 1899, with the subtitle The United States and the Philippine Islands...
". One such account published by The Times, regarding an incident where 48 English girls as young as 10-14 had been raped by the Indian rebels in Delhi, was criticized as a false propaganda story by Karl Marx, who pointed out that the story was written by a clergyman in Bangalore, far from the events of the rebellion.
Boxer Rebellion
During the Boxer RebellionBoxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
, Chinese Boxers regularly killed and mutilated foreigners, including women and children, but did not rape any foreigner.
Western forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance
Eight-Nation Alliance
The Eight-Nation Alliance was an alliance of Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States whose military forces intervened in China to suppress the anti-foreign Boxers and relieve the siege of the diplomatic legations in Beijing .- Events :The...
went on a killing, looting, and raping rampage against Chinese civilians. All of the foreign troops, including the American, British, and Japanese, raped women. It was reported that Japanese troops were astonished by the western troops engaging in raping. Thousands of women were raped by the western forces on a massive scale. The Japanese officers had brought along Japanese prostitutes to stop their troops from raping Chinese civilians. A western Journalist, George Lynch, said "there are things that I must not write, and that may not be printed in England, which would seem to show that this Western civilization of ours is merely a veneer over savagery." All of the nationalities engaged in looting. The Russians and French behavior was particularly appalling. Chinese women and girls committed suicide to avoid being raped. The French commander dismissed the rapes, attributing them to "gallantry of the French soldier". American troops also engaged in looting of shops.
World War I
Alleged rapes were committed during the Imperial German advance through Belgium. During the Allied post war occupation of German territory widespread rape was alleged.World War II
The sometimes widespread and systematic occurrence of war rape by soldiers and civilians of women has been documented. During World War II and in its immediate aftermath, war rape occurred in a range of situations, ranging from institutionalized sexual slavery to war rapes associated with specific battles.Asia
The term "comfort women
Comfort women
The term "comfort women" was a euphemism used to describe women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.Estimates vary as to how many women were involved, with numbers ranging from as low as 20,000 from some Japanese scholars to as high as 410,000 from some Chinese...
" is a euphemism for the estimated 200,000, mostly Korean, Chinese, Filipina women who were forced to work as prostitutes in Japanese military brothels during World War II. It is also said of the Nanking Massacre
Nanking Massacre
The Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, was a mass murder, genocide and war rape that occurred during the six-week period following the Japanese capture of the city of Nanjing , the former capital of the Republic of China, on December 13, 1937 during the Second...
that the WWII Japanese militants sexually assaulted any women of their defeated city or area neglecting the fact that some of the women they raped were married or pregnant.
Australian army
"A former prostitute recalled that as soon as Australian troops arrived in Kure
Kure, Hiroshima
is a city in Hiroshima prefecture, Japan.As of October 1, 2010, the city has an estimated population of 240,820 and a population density of 681 persons per km². The total area is 353.74 km².- History :...
in early 1946, they 'dragged young women into their jeeps, took them to the mountain, and then raped them. I heard them screaming for help nearly every night'."
US Army
It has been claimed that some U.S. soldiers raped Okinawan women during the Battle of Okinawa
Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...
in 1945. Following the war there were 1,336 reported rapes during the first 10 days of the occupation of Kanagawa prefecture
Kanagawa Prefecture
is a prefecture located in the southern Kantō region of Japan. The capital is Yokohama. Kanagawa is part of the Greater Tokyo Area.-History:The prefecture has some archaeological sites going back to the Jōmon period...
.
Despite being told by the Japanese military that they would suffer rape, torture and murder at the hands of the Americans, Okinawans "were often surprised at the comparatively humane treatment they received from the American enemy." According to Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power by Mark Selden
Mark Selden
Mark Selden is a Coordinator of the open access journal The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, a Senior Research Associate in the East Asia Program at Cornell University, and Bartle Professor of History and Sociology at Binghamton University. He graduated from Amherst College with a major in...
, the Americans "did not pursue a policy of torture, rape, and murder of civilians as Japanese military officials had warned."
American marines stationed in Beijing immediately after World War II raped a Chinese schoolgirl. This, and other incidents created ill feelings toward the Americans from the Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
and Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
.
Soviet Red Army
Soviet Russian Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
troops are alleged to have looted and terrorized the people of Mukden in Manchuria, China. A foreigner witnessed Russian troops, formerly stationed in Berlin, who were allowed by the Soviet military to go at the city "for three days of rape and pillage".
Europe
German forcesRapes were committed by Wehrmacht forces on Jewish women and girls during the Invasion of Poland in September 1939; they were also committed against Polish women and girls during mass executions carried out primarily by the Selbstschutz
Selbstschutz
Selbstschutz stands for two organisations:# A name used by a number of paramilitary organisations created by ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe# A name for self-defence measures and units in ethnic German, Austrian, and Swiss civil defence....
units, which were accompanied by Wehrmacht soldiers and on territory under the administration of the German military; the rapes were carried-out before shooting female captives. Only one case of rape was prosecuted by German court during the military campaign in Poland, and even then the German judge sentenced the guilty for Rassenschande
Rassenschande
Rassenschande or Blutschande was the Nazi term for sexual relations between Aryans and non-Aryans, which was punishable by law...
that is a shame against their race as defined by racial policy of Nazi Germany
Racial policy of Nazi Germany
The racial policy of Nazi Germany was a set of policies and laws implemented by Nazi Germany, asserting the superiority of the "Aryan race", and based on a specific racist doctrine which claimed scientific legitimacy...
and not rape. Jewish women were particularly vulnerable to rape during the Holocaust.
Rapes were also committed by German forces on Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
, where they were largely unpunished (as opposed to rapes committed in Western Europe); the overall number of rapes is difficult to establish due to lack prosecution of the crime by German courts.
Wehrmacht also established a system of military brothels, in which young women and girls from occupied territories were forced into prostitution, the conditions were extremely hard and many women tried to escape their captors.
In Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
women were kidnapped by German forces for prostitution as well; one report by International Military Tribunal writes "in the city of Smolensk the German Command opened a brothel for officers in one of the hotels into which hundreds of women and girls were driven; they were mercilessly dragged down the street by their arms and hair
French army
French Moroccan
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
troops, known as Goumier
Goumier
Moroccan Goumiers were soldiers who served in auxiliary units attached to the French Army of Africa, between 1908 and 1956. The term Goumier was also occasionally used to designate native soldiers in the French army of the French Sudan and Upper Volta during the colonial era.-Description:The word...
s, committed rapes and other war crimes in Italy after the Battle of Monte Cassino
Battle of Monte Cassino
The Battle of Monte Cassino was a costly series of four battles during World War II, fought by the Allies against Germans and Italians with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome.In the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was being anchored by Germans...
and in Germany. In Italy, victims of the mass rape committed after the Battle of Monte Cassino by Goumiers, colonial troops
Colonial troops
Colonial troops or colonial army refers to various military units recruited from, or used as garrison troops in, colonial territories.- Colonial background :...
of the French Expeditionary Corps
French Expeditionary Corps (1943-1944)
The French Expeditionary Corps , also known as the French Expeditionary Corps in Italy , was an expeditionary force composed of French soldiers that fought in the Italian Campaign during World War II under the command of General Alphonse Juin....
, are known as Marocchinate
Marocchinate
Marocchinate is a term applied to the mass rape and killings committed during World War II after the Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy by Goumiers, Moroccan colonial troops of the French Expeditionary Corps ), commanded by General Alphonse Juin.- Background :Goumiers were colonial irregular...
. According to Italian sources, more than 7,000 Italian civilians, including women and children, were raped by Goumiers.
French Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
ese troops too, known as Senegalese Tirailleurs
Senegalese Tirailleurs
The Senegalese Tirailleurs were a corps of colonial infantry in the French Army recruited from Senegal,French West Africa and throughout west, central and east Africa, the main province of the French colonial empire...
, who landed on the island of Elba
Elba
Elba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino. The largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, Elba is also part of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago and the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia...
on June 17, 1944, were responsible of mass rapes though their behaviour was considered less brutal than that of the French North African troops in continental Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
British army
To a lesser extent, Indian troops in the British service were also known in Italy for the number of rapes and violent acts they committed, according to Mondadori.
US Army
Secret wartime files made public only in 2006 reveal that American GIs committed 400 sexual offences in Europe, including 126 rapes in England, between 1942 and 1945. A study by Robert J. Lilly estimates that a total of 14,000 civilian women in England, France and Germany were raped by American GIs during World War II. It is estimated that there were around 3,500 rapes by American servicemen in France between June 1944 and the end of the war and one historian has claimed that sexual violence against women in liberated France was common.
Red Army
After the German armed forces had surrendered, the half of Germany under Soviet Union occupation was split roughly in half and one part was allocated for temporary Polish administration (see Former eastern territories of Germany). In order to ensure that the German territory under communist Polish administration would become permanently de-facto Polish territory, the Polish communists ordered that the German population be expelled
Flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II
The flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland was the largest of a series of flights and expulsions of Germans in Europe during and after World War II...
"by whatever means necessary". The communist Polish administrators of the occupied territories as a consequence did little to protect the German population from Polish and Russian rapists. "Even the Soviets expressed shock at the Poles’ behavior. Polish soldiers, stated one report, 'relate to German women as to free booty'."
During the war Polish women were victims of brutal mass rapes by Soviet soldiers. Polish sources claim that there are cases of mass rapes in Polish cities taken by the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
. It is reported that in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
Soviet occupation brought mass rapes of Polish women and girls, as well as plunder of all private property by Soviet soldiers. Reportedly the scale of the attacks prompted communists installed by Soviets to prepare a letter of protest to Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
while masses in churches were held in expectation of Soviet withdrawal.
At the end of World War II, Red Army soldiers are estimated to have raped around 2,000,000 German women and girls. Norman Naimark
Norman Naimark
Norman M. Naimark is an American historian, and author who specializes in modern Eastern European history, and genocide and ethnic cleansing in the region....
writes in "The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949." that although the exact number of women and girls who were raped by members of the Red Army in the months preceding and years following the capitulation will never be known, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, quite possibly as high as the 2,000,000 victims estimate made by Barbara Johr, in "Befreier und Befreite". Many of these victims were raped repeatedly. Antony Beevor estimates that up to half the victims were victims of gang rapes. Naimark states that not only did each victim have to carry the trauma with her for the rest of her days, it inflicted a massive collective trauma on the East German nation. Naimark concludes "The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the GDR in the fall of 1949, until - one could argue - the present." German women who became pregnant after being raped by Soviet soldiers in World War II were invariably denied abortion to further humiliate them as to carry an unwanted child. As a result, according to the book Berlin: The Downfall, 1945 by Antony Beevor
Antony Beevor
Antony James Beevor, FRSL is a British historian, educated at Winchester College and Sandhurst. He studied under the famous military historian John Keegan. Beevor is a former officer with the 11th Hussars who served in England and Germany for five years before resigning his commission...
, some 90% of raped Berlin women in 1945 had venereal diseases as results of these consequential rapes and 3.7% of all children born in Germany from 1945 to 1946 had Russian fathers. The history behind this particular rape of the German women by the Soviet troops was considered a taboo topic until 1992. (See also Red Army atrocities
Red Army atrocities
War crimes perpetrated by the armed forces of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union from 1919 to 1991 include acts committed by the regular army—the Red Army —as well as the NKVD, including the NKVD's Internal Troops. In some cases, these crimes may have been committed on express orders of the early...
.)
In Romania, the writer Mihail Sebastian
Mihail Sebastian
-Life:Sebastian was born to a Jewish family in Brăila. After finishing his secondary studies, Sebastian went on to study law in Bucharest, but was soon attracted to the literary life and the exciting ideas of the new generation of Romanian intellectuals, as epitomized by the literary group...
described, that in 1944 Russian soldiers raped local women.
Bangladesh atrocities
During the Bangladesh Liberation WarBangladesh Liberation War
The Bangladesh Liberation War was an armed conflict pitting East Pakistan and India against West Pakistan. The war resulted in the secession of East Pakistan, which became the independent nation of Bangladesh....
in 1971, numerous women were tortured and raped. Exact numbers are not known and are a subject of debate. Bangladeshi sources cite a figure of 400 women raped by the Pakistan Army. Most of the women were captured from Dhaka University and private homes and kept as sex-slaves inside the Dhaka Cantonment.
It has been estimated that up to 200,000 Bangladeshi women may have been raped during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 by the Pakistan army during night raids on villages. Pakistani sources claim the number is much lower, though having not completely denied rape incidents. One work that has included direct experiences from the women raped is Ami Birangona Bolchhi ("I, the heroine, speak") by Nilima Ibrahim
Nilima Ibrahim
Nilima Ibrahim was an Indian, East Pakistani, and later Bangladeshi educationist, littérateur and social worker. She is well known for her outstanding scholarship on Bangla literature but even more so for her depiction of raped and tortured women in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War in her book...
. The work includes in its name from the word Birangona (Heroine), given by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after the war, to the raped and tortured women during the war. This was a conscious effort to alleviate any social stigma the women might face in the society. How successful this effort was is doubtful, though.
In October 2005 Sarmila Bose
Sarmila Bose
Sarmila Bose is the Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University in 2006....
, a Harvard-educated Bengali Indian academic related to the Indian Freedom Struggle
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...
leader Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, published a paper suggesting that the casualties and rape allegations in the war have been greatly exaggerated for political purposes. This work has been criticised in Bangladesh and her research methods have been attacked by expatriate Bengalis as shoddy and biased.
1974 to 1992
Other documented instances of war rape include the First Liberian Civil War, and in East TimorEast Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
during the occupation by Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
in 1975.
It has been reported that in Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, throughout the 12 year internal conflict
Internal conflict in Peru
It has been estimated that nearly 70,000 people died in the internal conflict in Peru that started in 1980 and, although still ongoing, had greatly wound down by 2000. The principal actors in the war were the Shining Path , the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and the government of Peru.A great...
, women were frequent victims of sustained war rape perpetrated by government security forces and the Shining Path
Shining Path
Shining Path is a Maoist guerrilla terrorist organization in Peru. The group never refers to itself as "Shining Path", and as several other Peruvian groups, prefers to be called the "Communist Party of Peru" or "PCP-SL" in short...
. It has also been reported that during the August 1990 invasion of Kuwait
Invasion of Kuwait
The Invasion of Kuwait, also known as the Iraq-Kuwait War, was a major conflict between the Republic of Iraq and the State of Kuwait, which resulted in the seven-month long Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, which subsequently led to direct military intervention by United States-led forces in the Gulf...
, an estimated 5,000 Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
i women were raped by Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i soldiers.
Former Yugoslavia
Evidence of the magnitude of rape in Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
prompted the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
(ICTY) to deal openly with these abuses. Reports of sexual violence during the Bosnian War
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
(1992–95) and Kosovo War
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
(1996–99), part of the Yugoslav wars
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
, a series of conflicts from 1991 to 1999, have been described as "especially alarming". Since the entry of the NATO in the Kosovo War, rapes of Albanian, and Roma women were committed by ethnic Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
.
It has been estimated that during the Bosnian War between 20,000 and 50,000 women were raped. The majority of the rape victims were Muslim women raped by Serbian soldiers. Although men also became victim of sexual violence, war rape was disproportionately directed against women who were (gang) raped in the streets, in their homes and/or in front of family members. Sexual violence occurred in a multiple ways, including rape with objects, such as broken glass bottles, guns and truncheons. War rape occurred as a matter of official orders as part of ethnic cleansing, to displace the targeted ethnic group out of the region.
During the Bosnian War the existence of deliberately created "rape camps" was reported. The reported aim of these camps was to impregnate the Muslim and Croatian women held captive. It has been reported that often women were kept in confinement until the late stage of their pregnancy. This occurred in the context of a patrilineal society, in which children inherit their father's ethnicity, hence the "rape camps" aimed at the birth of a new generation of Serb children. According to the Women's Group Tresnjevka more than 35,000 women and children were held in such Serb-run "rape camps".
During the Kosovo War thousands of Kosovo Albanian women and girls became victims of sexual violence. War rape was used as a weapon of war and an instrument of systematic ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
; rape was used to terrorize the civilian population, extort money from families, and force people to flee their homes. According to a 2000 Human Rights Watch report war rape in the Kosovo War can generally be subdivided into three categories: rapes in women's homes, rapes during fighting, and rapes in detention. The majority of the perpetrators were Serbian paramilitaries, but they also included Serbian special police or Yugoslav army soldiers. Most rapes were gang rapes involving at least two perpetrators. Rapes occurred frequently in the presence, and with the acquiescence, of military officers. Soldiers, police, and paramilitaries often raped their victims in the full view of numerous witnesses.
Mass rape in the Bosnian War
During the Bosnian warBosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
, Serb forces conducted a sexual abuse strategy on the thousands of Bosnian Muslim girls and women which became known as "mass rape phenomenon". No exact figures on how many women and children were systematically raped by the Serb forces in various camps were established, but estimates range from 20,000 to 50,000. Mass rape mostly occurred in Eastern Bosnia (especially during Foča
Foca massacres
The Foča massacres, also known as the Foča genocide, were a series of killings committed by Serb military, police and paramilitary forces on Bosniak civilians in the Foča region of Bosnia and Herzegovina from April 7, 1992 to January 1994...
and Višegrad massacre
Višegrad massacre
The Višegrad massacres also known as the Visegrad Genocide were acts of mass murder committed against the Bosniak civilian population of the town and municipality of Višegrad during the ethnic cleansing of eastern Bosnia by Serb police and military forces during the spring and summer of 1992, at...
s), and in Grbavica during the Siege of Sarajevo
Siege of Sarajevo
The Siege of Sarajevo is the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. Serb forces of the Republika Srpska and the Yugoslav People's Army besieged Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996 during the Bosnian War.After Bosnia...
. Numerous Serbian officers, soldiers and other participants were indicted or convicted of rape as the war crime by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
and the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The events inspired the Golden Bear winner at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival
56th Berlin International Film Festival
The 56th Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 9 to February 19, 2006.-Jury:*Charlotte Rampling: UK *Matthew Barney: USA*Yash Chopra: India*Marleen Gorris: Netherlands*Janusz Kaminski: Poland*Yeong-ae Lee: Korea...
in 2006, called Grbavica
Grbavica (film)
Grbavica is a 2006 film by Jasmila Žbanić about the life of a single mother in contemporary Sarajevo in the aftermath of systematic rapes of Bosniak women by Serbian troops during the war...
.
Rwanda genocide
During the Rwanda genocide, from April until June 1994, hundreds of thousands of women and girls were raped and/or became the victims of other forms of sexual violence. Although no explicit written orders to rape and sexual violence have been found, evidence suggests that military leaders encouraged or ordered their men to rape TutsiTutsi
The Tutsi , or Abatutsi, are an ethnic group in Central Africa. Historically they were often referred to as the Watussi or Watusi. They are the second largest caste in Rwanda and Burundi, the other two being the Hutu and the Twa ....
, as well as condoned the acts taking place, without making efforts to stop them. Compared to other conflicts the sexual violence in Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
stands out in terms of the organised nature of the propaganda that contributed significantly to fuelling sexual violence against Tutsi women, the very public nature of the rapes and the level of brutality towards the women. Anne-Marie de Brouwer concludes that considering the massive scale and public nature of war rape during the Rwanda genocide, "it is difficult to imagine anybody in Rwanda who was not aware of the sexual violence taking place." In 1998, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 955 in order to judge people responsible for the Rwandan Genocide and other serious violations of international law in Rwanda, or by Rwandan...
made the landmark decisions that the war rape during the Rwanda genocide was an element of the crime of genocide. The Trial Chamber held that "sexual assault formed an integral part of the process of destroying the Tutsi ethnic group and that the rape was systematic and had been perpetrated against Tutsi women only, manifesting the specific intent required for those acts to constitute genocide."
In his 1996 report the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Rwanda, Rene Degni-Segui stated that "rape was the rule and its absence the exception." The report also stated that “rape was systematic and was used as a "weapon" by the perpetrators of the massacres. This can be estimated from the number and nature of the victims as well as from the forms of rape.” A 2000 report prepared by the Organisation of African Unity’s International Panel of Eminent Personalities concluded that “we can be certain that almost all females who survived the genocide were direct victims of rape or other sexual violence, or were profoundly affected by it”.
The Special Rapporteur on Rwanda estimated in his 1996 report that between 2,000 and 5,000 pregnancies resulted from war rape, and that between 250,000 and 500,000 Rwandese women and girls had been raped. Rwanda is a patriarchal society and children therefore take the ethnicity of the father, underlining that war rape occurred in the context of genocide.
Within the context of the Rwanda genocide victims of sexual violence were predominantly attacked on the basis of their gender and ethnicity. The victims were mostly Tutsi women and girls, of all ages, while men were only seldom the victims of war rape. Women were part of the anti-Tutsi propaganda prior the 1994 genocide. The December 1990 issue of the newspaper Kangura
Kangura
Kangura was a Kinyarwanda- and French-language magazine in Rwanda that served to stoke ethnic hatred in the run-up to the Rwandan Genocide. It was established in 1990, following the invasion of the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front , and continued publishing up to the genocide...
published the “Ten Commandments”, four of which portrayed Tutsi women as tools of the Tutsi community, as sexual weapons that would be used by the Tutsi to weaken and ultimately destroy the Hutu men. Gender based propaganda also include cartoons printed in newspapers that portrayed Tutsi women as sex objects. Examples of gender based hate propaganda used to incite war rape include statements by perpetrators such as “You Tutsi women think that you are too good for us” and “Let us see what a Tutsi woman tastes like”. Victims of war rape during the Rwanda genocide also included Hutu
Hutu
The Hutu , or Abahutu, are a Central African people, living mainly in Rwanda, Burundi, and eastern DR Congo.-Population statistics:The Hutu are the largest of the three peoples in Burundi and Rwanda; according to the United States Central Intelligence Agency, 84% of Rwandans and 85% of Burundians...
women considered moderates, such as Hutu
Hutu
The Hutu , or Abahutu, are a Central African people, living mainly in Rwanda, Burundi, and eastern DR Congo.-Population statistics:The Hutu are the largest of the three peoples in Burundi and Rwanda; according to the United States Central Intelligence Agency, 84% of Rwandans and 85% of Burundians...
women married to Tutsi
Tutsi
The Tutsi , or Abatutsi, are an ethnic group in Central Africa. Historically they were often referred to as the Watussi or Watusi. They are the second largest caste in Rwanda and Burundi, the other two being the Hutu and the Twa ....
men and Hutu women politically affiliated with the Tutsi. War rape also occurred regardless of ethnicity or political affiliation, with young or beautiful women being targeted based on their gender only. Sexual violence against men occurred significantly less frequently, but frequently included mutilation of the genitals, which were often displayed in public. The perpetrators of war rape during the Rwanda genocide were mainly members of the Hutu militia, the “Interahamwe”. Rapes were also committed by military soldiers of the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR), including the Presidential Guard, and civilians.
Sexual violence against women and girls during the Rwanda genocide included: rape, gang rape, sexual slavery (either collectively or individually through "forced marriages"), rape with objects such as sticks and weapons often leading to the victim’s death, sexual mutilation of, in particular, breasts, vaginas or buttocks, often during or following rape. Pregnant women were not spared from sexual violence and on many occasion victims were killed following rape. Many women were raped by men who knew they were HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
positive and it has been suggested that there were deliberate attempts to transmit the virus to Tutsi women and their families. War rape occurred all over the country and was frequently perpetrated in plain view of others, at sites such as schools, churches, roadblocks, government buildings or in the bush. Some women were kept as personal slaves for years after the genocide, forced to move to neighbouring countries after the genocide along with their captors.
The long-term effects of war rape in Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
for the victims include social isolation (social stigma attached to rape meant some husbands left their wives that had become victim of war rape, or that the victim became unmarriageable), unwanted pregnancies and babies (some women resorted to self-induced abortions), sexually transmitted diseases, including syphilis
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
, gonorrhoea and HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
/Aids
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
(access to anti-retroviral drugs remains limited).
Sri Lanka civil war
During the Sri Lankan Civil WarSri Lankan civil war
The Sri Lankan Civil War was a conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka. Beginning on July 23, 1983, there was an on-and-off insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , a separatist militant organization which fought to create an independent Tamil state named Tamil...
, multiple Human Rights Organizations have reported cases of rape, violence and disappearance of women in the 1990s, claiming to be committed by security forces. Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, for instance, believes that these actions might have been just a fraction of a widespread violence, claiming that many women are avoiding to testimony about the forces' treatment. Government officials, including the president, have denied the claims and agreed to co-operate with the investigations and prosecute whomever they find guilty. The UN Special Rapporteur, in the other hand, have reported that individual investigations and proceedings relating to these cases have started at the local magistrates courts.
Some of the notable cases of murdered raped victims and the massacres associated with the rape incidents are - Krishanti Kumaraswamy
Krishanti Kumaraswamy
Krishanti Kumaraswamy, also spelled Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, was a minority Tamil girl in Sri Lanka who was raped and murdered in 7 August 1996 by 6 Sri Lankan Army soldiers; the effort to bring her assailants to justice became a cause celebre as a part of the protest against atrocities committed by...
, Arumaithurai Tharmaletchumi
Arumaithurai Tharmaletchumi
Arumaithurai Tharmaletchumi was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman aged 17 who was raped and killed in Kumarapuram in Trincomalee on 16 December 16 2005, and who became a cause celebre of the Sri Lankan civil war because of this.-The incident:...
, Ida Carmelitta
Ida Carmelitta
Ida Carmelitta or Farheen Ida Carmelitta Laila Figerardo was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was gang raped and killed on 12 July 1999 and became a cause célèbre of the Sri Lankan civil war.-Incident:...
, Ilayathambi Tharsini
Ilayathambi Tharsini
Ilayathamby Tharsini also Tharsini Ilayathamby was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was raped and killed in her home town of Pungudutheevu on December 16, 2005.-The incident:...
, Murugesapillai Koneswary
Murugesapillai Koneswary
Murugesapillai Koneswary or Koneswary Murugesapillai was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was raped and killed on 17 May 1997 as part of the ongoing Sri Lankan civil war. The rape and murder received extensive local and international attention....
, Premini Thanuskodi
Premini Thanuskodi
Premini Thanuskodi was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil women who was working as a Chief Accountant for TRO, a legally registered charity in Sri Lanka , when she was kidnapped on June 30 2006 and was later raped and murdered. She was 25 years old...
, Sarathambal
Sarathambal
Sarathambal Saravanbavananthatkurukal or better known as Sarathambal was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was gang raped and killed on 28 December 1999. This became an internationally known incident of the Sri Lankan Civil War.-Incident:...
, Thambipillai Thanalakshmi
Thambipillai Thanalakshmi
Thambipillai Thanalakshmi is a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was 43 when she was raped in Meesalai in Jaffna in Sri Lanka on July 7, 2001. Amnesty International claimed that the Sri Lankan Army soldiers were the culprit.-Incident:...
, Kumarapuram massacre
Kumarapuram massacre
Kumarapuram massacre also known as 1996 Trincomalee massacre or 1996 Killiveddy massacre refers to the murder of 24 minority Sri Lankan Tamil civilians including 13 women and 9 children below the age of 12 allegedly by the Sri Lankan security forces on February 11, 1996 in a village called...
and Vankalai massacre.
Recent occurrences
According to Amnesty International recent documented cases of war rape include ongoing conflicts in ColombiaColombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, Chechnya
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
, Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
, and Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
.
Commenting on the rape of women and children in recent African conflict zones, UNICEF said in 2008 that rape was no longer just perpetrated by combatants but also by civilians. According to UNICEF rape is common in countries affected by wars and natural disasters, drawing a link between the occurrence of sexual violence and significant uprooting of a society and the crumbling of social norms. UNICEF states that in Kenya reported cases of sexual violence doubled within days of recent post-election conflict erupting. According to UNICEF rape was prevalent in conflict zones in Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
In eastern Congo, the prevalence and intensity of rape and other sexual violence is described as the worst in the world. A 2010 study found that 22% of men and 30% of women in Eastern Congo reported conflict-related sexual violence.
Since fighting broke out in 1998 tens of thousands of people have been raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is estimated that there are as many as 200,000 surviving rape victims living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo today. War rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo has frequently been described as a "weapon of war" by commentators. Louise Nzigire, a local social worker, states that “this violence was designed to exterminate the population.” Nzigire observes that rape has been a "cheap, simple weapon for all parties in the war, more easily obtainable than bullets or bombs." The rape of men is also common. Men who admit to being raped risk ostracism by their community and criminal prosecution, because they may be seen as homosexual, which is a crime in 38 African countries.
Despite the peace process launched in 2003, sexual assault by soldiers from armed groups and the national army continues in the eastern provinces of the country. Evidence of war rape emerged when United Nations troops move into areas previously ravaged by war after the peace process started. Gang rape and rape with objects has been reported. The victims of war rape may suffer from incontinence
Urinary incontinence
Urinary incontinence is any involuntary leakage of urine. It is a common and distressing problem, which may have a profound impact on quality of life. Urinary incontinence almost always results from an underlying treatable medical condition but is under-reported to medical practitioners...
and vaginal fistula as a result of particularly violent rape. Witness accounts include an instance of a woman who had the barrel of a gun inserted into her vagina, after which the soldier opened fire. Incontinence and vaginal fistula leads to the isolation of war rape victims from her community and access to reconstructive surgery is limited in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
More than 500 rapes were reported in eastern Congo in August 2010, leading to an apology from Atul Khare
Atul Khare
Atul Khare is a 1984 batch Indian Foreign Service officer.-Early Life and Education:Khare obtained a master’s degrees in business administration and in leadership from the University of Southern Queensland, an advanced diploma in French from the Indian Defence School of Languages, a Bachelor of...
that the UN peacekeepers had failed to protect the population from brutalisation.
Darfur region in Sudan
An October 19, 2004 UN News Centre article titled "UNICEF adviser says rape in Darfur, SudanSudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
continues with impunity" reported:
Armed militias in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region are continuing to rape women and girls with impunity, an expert from the United Nations children’s agency said today on her return from a mission to the region. Pamela Shifman, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) adviser on violence and sexual exploitation, said she heard dozens of harrowing accounts of sexual assaults – including numerous reports of gang-rapes – when she visited internally displaced persons (IDPs) at one camp and another settlement in North Darfur last week. “Rape is used as a weapon to terrorize individual women and girls, and also to terrorize their families and to terrorize entire communities,” she said in an interview with the UN News Service. “No woman or girl is safe.”
In the same article Pamela Shifman was reported to have said that:
every woman or girl she spoke to had either endured sexual assault herself, or knew of someone who had been attacked, particularly when they left the relative safety of their IDP camp or settlement to find firewood.
Iraq war
Male prisoners of war may be subject to rape and sexual violence, which some commentators have interpreted as a way for captors to feminise the captive. Imposing sexual humiliation has been described as expression of masculine domination. Sexual violence against male prisoners of war gained wide publicity after graphic photos documented such abuses on male Iraqi prisoners by US guards at Abu Ghraib prisonAbu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
Beginning in 2004, human rights violations in the form of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, including torture, rape, sodomy, and homicide of prisoners held in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq came to public attention...
, Iraq. Prisoners were forced to humiliate themselves. More generally, it has been observed that captured military personnel of both sexes are vulnerable to explicitly sexual humiliation, including rape.
2011 Libyan civil war
The International Criminal CourtInternational Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...
's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo
Luis Moreno Ocampo
José Luis Moreno OcampoMoreno Ocampo's surnames are often hyphenated in English-language media to distinguish Moreno as a surname, rather than a given name. is an Argentine lawyer who has been the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court since June 16, 2003...
, confirmed that there's enough evidence that Gaddafi's troops have used rape as a weapon during the Libyan civil war
2011 Libyan civil war
The 2011 Libyan civil war was an armed conflict in the North African state of Libya, fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and those seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Benghazi beginning on 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security...
. He also said, "Apparently, he (Gaddafi) decided to punish, using rape," while witnesses confirmed that the Libyan government has also purchased a large number of Viagra-like drugs. The Libyan government, in the other hand, does not actually recognize the ICC's jurisdiction.
Rape camp
A rape camp is a detention facility that is designed for or turns into a place where authorities regularly rape the detainees.Hundreds of thousands of women were kidnapped by the Japanese military and used as sex slaves during World War II. These were called comfort women
Comfort women
The term "comfort women" was a euphemism used to describe women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.Estimates vary as to how many women were involved, with numbers ranging from as low as 20,000 from some Japanese scholars to as high as 410,000 from some Chinese...
.
Rape camps are a common theme in Nazi exploitation cinema.
Rape camps have also been extensively documented in Bosnia:
See also
- Allied war crimes during World War II
- Soviet War Crimes
- Japanese War CrimesJapanese war crimesJapanese war crimes occurred during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Some of the incidents have also been described as an Asian Holocaust and Japanese war atrocities...
- Nanking MassacreNanking MassacreThe Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, was a mass murder, genocide and war rape that occurred during the six-week period following the Japanese capture of the city of Nanjing , the former capital of the Republic of China, on December 13, 1937 during the Second...
- Comfort womenComfort womenThe term "comfort women" was a euphemism used to describe women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.Estimates vary as to how many women were involved, with numbers ranging from as low as 20,000 from some Japanese scholars to as high as 410,000 from some Chinese...
- GenocideGenocideGenocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
- International Criminal Tribunal for RwandaInternational Criminal Tribunal for RwandaThe International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 955 in order to judge people responsible for the Rwandan Genocide and other serious violations of international law in Rwanda, or by Rwandan...
- Joy Division (World War II)The House of DollsThe House of Dolls is a 1955 novella by Ka-tzetnik 135633. The novella describes "Joy Divisions", which were allegedly groups of Jewish women in the concentration camps during World War II who were kept for the sexual pleasure of Nazi soldiers....
- Navanethem Pillay
- RaptioRaptioRaptio is a Latin term referring to the abduction of women, either for marriage or enslavement . In Roman Catholic canon law, raptio refers to the legal prohibition of matrimony if the bride was abducted forcibly...
, the historic term for the abduction and assault of women during war - Sociobiological theories of rapeSociobiological theories of rapeSociobiological theories of rape are theories that explore to what degree, if any, evolutionary adaptations influence the psychology of rapists. Such theories are highly controversial, as traditional theories typically do not consider rape to be a behavioral adaptation. Some object to such theories...
- Total warTotal warTotal war is a war in which a belligerent engages in the complete mobilization of fully available resources and population.In the mid-19th century, "total war" was identified by scholars as a separate class of warfare...
- UN Action Against Sexual Violence in ConflictUN Action Against Sexual Violence in ConflictUnited Nations Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict is an international body within the United Nations system. Its stated purpose is to unite the work of 13 UN entities with the goal of ending sexual violence in conflict...
- War crimeWar crimeWar crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
- Women's rightsWomen's rightsWomen's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
Further reading
- "Unrecognized Victims: Sexual Violence Against Men in Conflict Settings Under International Law, by Dustin A. Lewis, Wisconsin International Law Journal, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 1–49 (2009).
- "IHL Primer on Sexual Violence. International Humanitarian Law Research Initiative, June 2009.
- UN classifies rape a 'war tactic'. 20 June 2008. BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
. - "Rape as an Instrument of Total War". By David Rosen. 4 April 2008. CounterPunchCounterpunchCounterpunch can refer to:* Counterpunch , a punch in boxing* CounterPunch, a bi-weekly political newsletter* Counterpunch , a type of punch used in traditional typography* Punch-Counterpunch, a Transformers character...
. - "Intended Consequences" by Jonathan Torgovnik on MediaStorm
- Duty, Honor, Rape: Sexual Assault Against Women During War by Kevin Gerard Neill. Journal of International Women's Studies.
- Extreme War Rape in Today's Civil-war-torn States by Kathryn Farr. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological AssociationAmerican Sociological AssociationThe American Sociological Association , founded in 1905 as the American Sociological Society , is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology by serving sociologists in their work and promoting their contributions to serve society.The ASA holds its...
, New York City, 11 August 2007. - womensnews.com - Bosnian 'Rape Camp' Survivors Testify in The Hague
- guardian.uk - Women say village became rape camp
- U.S. Department of State dispatch, mentioning a "rape house".