- SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN ARMED CONFLICT - THE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURTS The purpose of this thesis is to describe the phenomenon of sexual violence against women in armed conflicts and to describe the influence of the international criminal courts in understanding of this phenomenon. Sexual violence appears in almost every armed conflict. Until the establishment of the international criminal courts in the ninetees the issue of sexual violence against women in armed conflict was overlooked. The prohibition of such treatment was existing, for example The Hague Convention or The Geneva Convention, however no efficient sanction mechanism to punish the perpetrators was existing. The violence against woman was moreover understood as her honour attack without any consequences for the community and the society as a whole. It was a private crime. Mass violation of the human rights in the area of Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda made the United Nations to begin with prosecuting and punishing such treatment. Rape and other forms of sexual violence was recognized as a war crime and the crime against humanity on the basis of the judgements of the international criminal courts. Rape can, under certain circumstances, fulfill the fact of the case of genocide. The international criminal courts strongly made...

Karolina Svobodová The Causes of Sexual Violence in the Armed Conflict in the DRC abstract My dissertation thesis (The Motivations of Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) is a case study of sexual violence in armed conflict in the DRC examining and analysing the causes of its intensity and extent. The main research questions of the study are: - What are the causes of the systematic sexual violence in the armed conflict in the DRC? - Why sexual violence in the armed conflict in the DRC occurs in the large extent and with high intensity? The research theoretically stems from the constructivism as one of the three main scientific approaches to sexual violence in armed conflicts. Since the constructivism presents male and female identities as social constructs, it seems as the best approach to sexual violence where gender of victims and perpetrators is often generalized by supporters of essentialism. Hence, the inherent neutralism of constructivism makes it very suitable instrument for an empirical research. Further, the study works with combination of feminism, cultural anthropology, and feminist evolutionary psychology in the construtivist framework. This blend may seem incoherent but it allows a complex insight into the issue of sexual violence in the DRC and an interpretation of its...

In much existing literature the incidence of sexual violence during Hindu-Muslim conflict has been attributed to the militant ideology of Hindu nationalism. This thesis interrogates this view. It first examines the ideological framework laid down by the founding ideologues of the Hindu nationalist movement with respect to sexual violence. I argue that a justification of sexual violence against Muslim women is at the core of their ideology. In order to examine how this ideology has contributed to the actual incidents, this thesis studies the episodes of Hindu-Muslim violence that occurred in 1969, 1985, 1992 and 2002 in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat. An examination of these episodes shows that sexual violence against Muslim women, in both extreme and less extreme forms, were significantly motivated by Hindu nationalist ideology. However, in addition to this ideology, patriarchal ideas that serve to normalize sexual violence as ‘sex’ and sanction its infliction to maintain gendered hierarchies also motivated such crimes. Moreover, this thesis argues that the manifestation of Hindu nationalist and patriarchal motivations in acts of sexual violence was enabled by the breakdown of neighbourhood ties between Hindus and Muslims in 1969 and 2002. By contrast, during the 1985 and 1992 riots Hindus and Muslims strengthened neighbourhood ties despite extensive communal mobilization, which seems to have prevented the perpetration of extreme sexual violence against Muslim women. Thus, by providing a comprehensive analysis of the contribution of Hindu nationalist ideology, and arguing for the significance of the patriarchal ideas and neighbourhood ties in the infliction of sexual violence during conflict, this study contributes to and departs from the existing literature.

This thesis set out to research why ISIS combatants use sexual violence when they target the Yazidi community in particular. The aims have been to provide an understanding of why ISIS target Yazidi women and girls with sexual violence and develop a better understanding of both groups and thus hopefully provide assistance that is contextually adapted to the needs of Yazidi women and girls who have been targeted by ISIS. This has been done through a case study, where ISIS has been the case and the Yazidi population has been the subunit of analysis. Materials that have been released by ISIS, as well as witness statements that have been made available as secondary sources have been analysed, by applying the three theories/conceptual frameworks evolution theory, feminist theory, and the strategic rape concept to this data. The results are that the three frameworks separately cannot provide an explanation for the phenomena. Evolution theory did not provide any explanations for ISIS’ behaviour at all, not even when combined with the other frameworks. However, feminist theory in combination with the strategic rape concept explains the behaviour of ISIS, to a certain extent. There is however, a gap today in wartime sexual violence conceptualizations that need to be filled with an overarching theory that includes elements of both feminist theory and the strategic rape concept. The reasons for ISIS’ use of sexual violence are multi-layered. Sexual violence is used as strategy of war for political and religious reasons, as well as, to an extent, because of misogyny. ISIS are aiming to assimilate the area of the caliphate, while at the same time violently targeting the Yazidi population, by using their interpretation of religion as a justification, and until they reach this target of homogeneity for the caliphate, they will continue using sexual violence as a strategy of war and for the appropriation of territory and justify it with religion.

Notre étude s’intéresse au travail des fonctionnaires internationaux du Bureau du Représentant spécial du Secrétaire général de l’ONU chargé de la question des violences sexuelles commises en période de conflit (RSSG-VSC) en République démocratique du Congo (RDC) sous le prisme de l’idéal type wébérien de la bureaucratie. À partir de six entretiens semi-directifs et de l’analyse de sources publiques onusiennes, cette étude vise à mettre en perspectives les points de vue des fonctionnaires du Bureau au regard de leurs missions et des moyens dont ils disposent pour les remplir. Ce travail s’intéresse aussi à la portée de l’action du Bureau du RSSG-VSC en RDC, du point de vue de ces fonctionnaires internationaux basé au siège. Aucune étude qualitative n’a été menée sur le travail des fonctionnaires du Bureau du RSSG-VSC par le passé. De plus, les rapports annuels du Secrétaire général disponibles au grand public ne permettent pas de comprendre l’intégralité de son action en RDC. Ainsi, ce projet de recherche cherche précisément à combler cette lacune. L’analyse des données recueillies montre que la création du mandat aurait été préméditée : en effet, malgré plusieurs résolutions du Conseil de sécurité et appels à la cessation de ces violences, la perpétration de ces crimes perdurait. Ainsi, le mandat du Représentant spécial du Secrétaire général pour les Enfants et les conflits armés aurait permis, grâce à un travail de plaidoyer combiné avec les appels de la communauté internationale, à la création du mandat du RSSG-VSC. Les objectifs du mandat, à savoir mettre fin aux violences sexuelles liées aux conflits à travers le monde en contribuant à libérer la parole des victimes, assurer leur réintégration dans les communautés, comblant les lacunes et renforçant les connaissances sur ces crimes sont partagés par tous les répondants, de manière identique. De plus, la vision de leur travail au sein du Bureau est unanimement partagée. Toutefois, les points de vue des répondants divergent davantage lorsqu'ils abordent le thème de la portée des actions du Bureau. Les défis à relever par le mandat sont encore nombreux afin d’éradiquer de la surface de la planète les violences sexuelles liées aux conflits. / Our study focuses on the work achieved by international civil servants at the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC), regarding the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) through the prism of the Weberian bureaucracy. Based on six semi-directive interviews and the analysis of United Nations public sources, this study aims to providing perspectives on the views of the Office’s officials in relation to their missions and the means at their disposal to carry them out. This academic work also focuses on the scope of the work of the RSSG-VSC Office in the DRC, from the point of view of these international officials based in headquarters. So far, no qualitative studies had been conducted on the topic of the work of these civil servants. In addition to that, the Secretary-General’s annual reports drafted by this Office do not provide an understanding of the full scope of the work done in the DRC. Thus, this research project seeks to fill this gap. The analysis of the data collected shows that the creation of the mandate would have been premeditated: indeed, despite several Security Council resolutions and call for the end to conflict-related sexual violence, these crimes continue to be perpetrated. Thus, the mandate of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict would have enabled the creation of the mandate of the SRSG-SVC, through advocacy work combined with multiple calls from the international community. The mandate’s goals which are ending conflict-related sexual violence around the world by helping to free victims’ voices, ensuring their reintegration into communities, filling gaps and strengthening knowledge about these crimes are shared by all respondents. In addition, the vision of their work within the Office is unanimously shared. However, respondents’ views differ when addressing the scope of the Office’s actions. The mandate still faces many challenges to end rape in war.