G8 war on sexual violence highlights complex crime

Ever since records began, rape has accompanied warfare the world over – often regarded simply as an unfortunate by-product of conflict. Even the United Nations only classified it as a war crime as late as the 1990s. Aid agencies have therefore welcomed the decision by the British presidency of the Group of 8 (G8) leading economies to focus on a war tactic that Foreign Secretary William Hague has called “our generation’s slave trade.”

But his campaign’s focus on prosecution and tackling a culture of impunity has also drawn criticism for presenting too simple a solution to a complex crime – surrounded by feelings of shame in most cultures – and demands for long-term commitments. “In September 2012, I was at the United Nations when Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide shook up a fluorescent-lit room of bored-looking bureaucrats by saying that what happened during the Bosnian war is ‘repeating itself right now in Syria’,” wrote Lauren Wolfe, the director of Women Under Siege, in a report last week.

Her project, which documents sexual violence in conflict, says Syria is experiencing a “massive rape crisis” not unlike that of the Bosnian war in the 1990s and which is in danger of being ignored. A UN report published last month also said that rape is being used in Syria, a country engulfed for more than two years by a rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad, as a tool to displace the population and in particular by government forces to target the families of rebels.

The report details stories of men forced to rape their wives and daughters during house searches by government soldiers, as well as male prisoners being raped or forced to rape each other during detention by security forces. Syria illustrates many of the problems that aid agencies have with Hague’s focus on prosecution. Not only are women afraid to come forward because of the shame and fear of abandonment by their families. There are also few services on the ground – in Syria itself or in overcrowded refugee camps elsewhere – to help them.

They may also distrust the police and judiciary, or fear reprisals by perpetrators still at large. When Hague takes his cause to other international organisations such as the UN and Nato, as he has promised, it is vital that he make three key demands to help respond to and prevent sexual violence, says Chitra Nagarajan, director of Gender Action for Peace and Security.

Firstly, giving women a more active role in peace negotiations would increase the chances of a lasting peace and ensure that issues relating mainly to them – such as sexual violence – are addressed. In the past 20 years, only one in 40 signatories to peace treaties have been women, according to the UN. Secondly, Hague needs to ensure more funding for women’s groups carrying out the dangerous work on the ground.

Just 1.3 per cent of funding aimed at promoting gender equality in the budget of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) went to women’s rights organisations and ministries, according to a recent report by charity Womankind Worldwide. And lastly, there needs to be a long-term commitment to support women’s rights groups, “especially when we live in a climate of increasing threats to women’s rights activists.”

“Research published last year showed that mobilisation of women’s activists has the longest lasting impact when it comes to addressing violence against women and girls,” says Nagarajan. There are many examples of women activists being attacked: Hanifa Safi, a prominent Afghan politician who advocated women’s rights, and her successor Najia Siddiqi, were both assassinated last year.

In Kosovo, campaigner Nazlie Bala received death threats and was badly beaten outside her home last month after she publicly advocated a proposed law which would give financial support to the victims of sexual war crimes. But even just visiting refugee camps and women’s groups, as Hague and filmstar Angelina Jolie did last month in Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, can make a difference, says Nagarajan, since “people can see that there are people that would follow up an attack.”

Howard Mollett of aid agency CARE International is hopeful of Hague’s initiative. He believes that since the foreign secretary announced his plans to target rape in conflict last year, he has increasingly recognised that long-term action beyond prosecution is needed.

“When he was in the DRC he made a welcome announcement to support health funding there,” says Mollett, who helped set up some of the projects which Hague visited. “And what I understand from our staff who met him on the trip, is that the enormity of the challenge and need for a multifaced approach to deal with and prevent gender-based violence have increasingly dawned on him.”