Rape as Weapon of War in the Eastern DRC? : The Victims' Perspective
نویسنده
چکیده
Rampant sexual violence is one of the most horrendous human rights abuses taking place within Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) armed conflict. The UN has called these abuses “strategic” and a “weapon of war.” Both labels carry specific implications within the human rights discourse. However, there is a lack of structured data exploring these concepts in the context of the DRC. To address this empirical gap, twenty-five rape survivors were interviewed. In the eyes of the victims the rapes served a multitude of different purposes and appear to be both endemic and indiscriminate. The rapes are the modus operandi of the war.
منابع مشابه
Rape as a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been appropriately acknowledged as "the rape capital of the world." While the country has been trapped in conflict, the use of rape as a weapon of war has been rampant and unyielding. The sexual violence inflicted upon women has been nothing less than brutal and destructive, physically, socially, and psychologically. This paper analyzes the use of rape a...
متن کاملRape with Extreme Violence: The New Pathology in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo
On any given night in eastern DRC, armed groups of men will overrun a village and divide into bands of three to five, forcing themselves into houses where they seize and serially rape women and young girls. Some mutilate female genitals with guns, pieces of glass, wood, or heated plastic. Some take their victims to the forest and torture them as sex slaves for days, months, or years. As Stephen...
متن کاملMental health of victims of sexual violence in eastern Congo: associations with daily stressors, stigma, and labeling
BACKGROUND The conflict-ridden context of eastern Congo has set the scene for grueling human rights violations, with sexual violence as one of the 'weapons of war'. Currently, sexual violence continues, with a considerable increase in civilian perpetrators. However, little is known regarding the particular impact of different experiences of sexual violence on adolescents' mental health. This st...
متن کاملSexual Violence toward Children and Youth in War-Torn Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
BACKGROUND The epidemic of gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has garnered popular media attention, but is incompletely described in the medical literature to date. In particular, the relative importance of militarized compared to civilian rape and the impact on vulnerable populations merits further study. We describe a retrospective case series of sexual abuse ...
متن کاملFistula and traumatic genital injury from sexual violence in a conflict setting in Eastern Congo: case studies.
The Eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is currently undergoing a brutal war. Armed groups from the DRC and neighbouring countries are committing atrocities and systematically using sexual violence as a weapon of war to humiliate, intimidate and dominate women, girls, their men and communities. Armed combatants take advantage with impunity, knowing they will not be held to ...
متن کامل