Friday, October 11, 2013

Rape: A weapon of terror, domination, and destruction in the context of genocide



                The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, implemented in 1951, is the international doctrine that defines both the crime of genocide as well as the punishment for such a crime. Article 2 clause B states that genocide includes: “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.” It is through this clause that the incitement of mass rape can be prosecuted as part of genocide. But why is this important?
                Genocide, under the auspices of ethnic cleansing, attempts to remove any trace of a group from a society. In order to do this, a group must intimidate, terrorize, and dominate their target group to remove them from their social order. One method that is utilized to do this is mass rape. Incited by those deemed as ‘authorities,’ members of the population commit rape on a large scale to cause mass panic and terror in their target group. Through this terror, the target group is broken or forced to leave in order to protect their women.
                Just as genocide is committed often based on race and ethnic divisions, rape is used during these times of instability based on these lines. Often the rationale behind this brutality is that the women of the target group are subhuman. Therefore the act is justified in the minds of the attackers. These attacks, thus, are an important dimension of genocide to discuss.     
 
In incidents such as those that occurred Yugoslavia, Rwanda, The Congo, and the Sudan have given the international community grizzly images of how rape can be used as an instrument of genocide. This has led to several actions by the International Criminal Court to try perpetrators under the crime of ‘rape as genocide.’ The New York Times reports these actions:
                One essential difference must be made in this discussion. This is between rape in the context of war, and genocidal rape. The differences come when discussing: the aim of the aggressors, whether the conflict is one sided or not, knowledge of the perpetrator, and whether or not an element of control exists. All of these approaches are discussed in the Center of Law and Globalization’s article Genocide Rape Is Different Than War Rape. The article can be found here:
                In conclusion, the discussion of rape in genocide is an important element to be understood. This knowledge can lead to a better understanding of what factors lead to a genocide, and how a genocide progresses. This leads to a better understanding of how strained race relations can devolve into a situation such as genocide where rape is implemented as a tool of destruction.

Image courtesy of: http://deltawomen.blogspot.com/2013/03/rape-is-genocide.html

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