|
| |
Women and Armed Conflict; International Justice
auf Deutsch
Chechen women at the funeral
of two sisters who were killed and whose bodies were burned in Chechnya.
A third sister carried their remains across the border for burial. Ingushetia,
2000. © 2000 Peter Bouckaert/Human Rights Watch
|
In armed conflicts raging around
the globe, soldiers and paramilitaries terrorize women with rape, sexual
and other physical violence, and harassment. These tactics are tools of
war, instruments of terror designed to hurt and punish women, wrench communities
apart, and force women and girls to flee their homes. Women in Sudan, Iraq,
Democratic
Republic of Congo, Sierra
Leone, Rwanda, Kosovo,
and Bosnia and
Herzegovina have reported brutal rapes, sexual assaults, sexual slavery,
and mutilation committed by male combatants. In some cases, perpetrators
first raped then killed their victims. Those who survived the attacks suffered
from psychological trauma, permanent physical injury, and long-term health
risks, especially HIV/AIDS.
Often, the end of war does not
signal the end of violations against women. In the post-conflict period,
many women confront discrimination in reconstruction programs, sexual and
domestic violence in refugee camps, and violence
when they attempt to return to their homes. In Afghanistan,
women of all ethnicities have been compelled to restrict their participation
in public life even after the fall of the Taliban to avoid being targets
of violence by armed factions and those seeking to enforce repressive Taliban-era
edicts. Afghan women, especially outside of Kabul, continue to face serious
threats to their physical safety, denying them the opportunity to exercise
their basic human rights and to participate fully and effectively in rebuilding
their country. In Iraq,
insecurity and fear of sexual violence and abduction are keeping women
in their homes and out of schools or away from work.
Until recently, many viewed
violence against women as an inevitable, if regrettable, consequence of
war. This attitude guaranteed impunity for perpetrators, effectively silencing
women who suffered gruesome sexual and physical abuses. The creation of
the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and the International Criminal Court hold
out some hope that women in war-torn countries might finally gain greater
access to justice for crimes of sexual violence.
Since 1998, these tribunals have convicted individuals of rape as an instrument
of genocide, a form of torture, and a crime against humanity.
|
| 
|
|
|
