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Violence Against Women During Armed Conflicts
against women. 67 It humiliates and stigmatises the victim and can have horrific
physical and mental consequences. 68 A powerful indication of the suffering that
gender-based violence can cause to men is the fact that they have been forced to rape
their own daughters. They have also been made to stand and watch their female
relatives being sexually abused. Little has been documented on the trauma that men
must face when seeing this happen and the psychological impact that this must have. 69
The improvements that have been made to recognise the violence that women face in
wartimes has had a negative impact on male victims because of their complete nonrepresentation.
For example, it has been claimed that no international organisation or
NGO has established a research programme that focuses on male victims of sexual
violence. 70 Male sufferers are less likely to admit that they have been subject to sexual
violence because of the stigma and fear this can cause. There is also a lack of
experienced professionals who look out for the signs of males being abused because
of the greater focus on women victims. 71 This is a big problem because although we
know that sexual violence against men exists in conflicts, we have no idea about the
extent to which this occurs. 72 There is also a lack of sufficient humanitarian assistance
available for male rape survivors, which is likely to have damaging consequences. 73
Therefore, Carpenter makes the valid assertion that it is impossible to know whether
women suffer more sexual violence during armed conflict than men, because no
comparable data exists. 74
Gender-stereotyping needs to be eradicated 75 and it has been argued that ‘the single
biggest gap in programming’ needs to be closed. 76 Although a real concern exists that
gender-mainstreaming could move the focus away from women and solely onto men,
this could be avoided if both male and female violence is dealt with concurrently
rather than as separate issues. 77 There needs to be a shift from focusing only on the
violence that women face in armed conflicts because male victims are currently left
voiceless, defenceless and unprotected by international law. In the same way that
gender-equality cannot occur without considering the effects on both men and
women; gender-based violence against women cannot be solved without also dealing
with the violence that men similarly face in matching circumstances.
67 Ibid 270.
68 W. Russel, ‘Sexual violence against men and boys’ (2007) 27 Forced Migration Review, 22.
69 R. Charli Carpenter (n53) 96.
70 A. DelZotto and A. Jones (n60).
71 S. Sivakurmaran (n62) 256.
72 Ibid, 254.
73 R. Charli Carpenter (n53) 95.
74 Ibid 87-88.
75 S. Sivakurmaran (n62) 275.
76 R. Charli Carpenter (n53) 87.
77 Ibid 99.
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