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A Terrible New Aspect of DRC War Crimes

If sexual violence against women is often overlooked when discussing war crimes, sexual violence against men is often completely ignored.  But, in recent months the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has seen a massive upsurge in sexual violence against men, the New York Times reports.

Although still in a relative minority in relation to the hundreds of thousands of instances of sexual violence against women in the DRC, the impact on affected men is the same.  In fact some would argue that due to the taboos on homosexuality and resulting social ostracizing of a man who has been ‘made a wife’ by another man, men have an even harder time ‘bouncing back’.

Aid workers have said they cannot fully explain this sudden upsurge – the American Bar Association reports that 10% of reported rapes to its Goma clinic in June were brought by men.

But it would seem the increase of rape against men in a society where such traditional gender roles exist heavily underscores the fact that sexual violence in this context is not a random act – it is being used as a weapon of war by armed groups to force certain communities into submission.

 

Author

Lisa Gambone

Lisa Gambone is a NY attorney who has provided pro bono work for Human Rights Watch, the ICTR Prosecution and Lawyers Without Borders, first while practicing at a large law firm in London, now independently. She has also spent time at the Caprivi high treason trials in Namibia and at human rights organizations in Belfast, London and New York. She has helped edit and provided research for several publications, including case books on the law of the ad hoc tribunals and a critique of the Iraqi Anfal Trial. She holds a JD specializing in International Law from Columbia University, an MA in International Economics and European Studies from Johns Hopkins SAIS, and a BA in International Relations - Security & Diplomacy from Brown University. Here, she covers war crimes and international justice.