Dear Esteemed Readers,
Appologies and thanks for your patience, while I have been busy on other projects traveling, thus not giving the Children's blog my full attention. However I wanted to report back to you that my trip to Budapest, Hungary was a success, I attended the 7th Annual Conference on Violence and the Contexts of Hostility, where I sat and presented on the panel on Sex, Sexuality and Violence
My paper was, Rape as a Weapon of War: The Long Term Effects on Victims and Society (See link to full paper below). The theme of this conference was on ‘Violence, Victims and Others -Understanding violence by understanding the impact it has on its victims.’ The paper studies the use of rape as a tool of war, including the short and long term effects it has on the individual, as well as the societal and political future of a country.
The paper looks at the following key questions: Does rape as a tool of war leave a country with less chance of a solid and stable political future? What are the long term effects on the society as a whole? What are the ongoing effects of stigmatizing, victims, including a look into the effects of marriages among victims. This will also entails looking at the inequality and gender discrimination women face in times of war, including social exclusion, and how this symbolic form of violence affects that marginalization in the future and in times of peace. What promotes an individual to use rape as a tool of war, and what are key motivating factors? What function does rape have in modern day warfare, and how does it compare in a historical perspective? The paper concludes with recommendations on for more in depth analysis and studies on primary and secondary victims, as well as the rapist. These recommendations lead into how to work towards a sustainable end to the use of rape as a weapon of war.
Please see the following link to Download Conference Paper, but stay tuned as I will be doing a more in depth study and more extensive paper which I hope to have released for publication in the coming months.
Again thank you for your readership and support.
Cassandra
