Due to the international importance attached to the reporting of conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) over the last two decades, scholars have been able to examine the magnitude of the problem across different situations and types of conflict. But what changes to intensity and type of violence occur during different phrases of conflict intensity? Is reporting consistent across different conflicts and different regional experiences of conflict-related SGBV? This book examines different conflict situations in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia over the past decade, 2010–2020. The chapters in the book use a mixed-method approach to explore the patterns of violence in situations of one-sided violence, state-led violence, non-state-led violence, low intensity violence, terrorism and fragility. They investigate the trajectory of international and prevention efforts, and the development of country-level responses to reports of sexual and gender-based violence in these various conflict situations. The book explains how and why these responses were mobilised in response to reports and considers the conditions for effective reporting in real time considering the patterns and the structural root causes of the violence.

Due to the international importance attached to the reporting of conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) over the last two decades, scholars have been able to examine the magnitude of the problem across different situations and types of conflict. But what changes to intensity and type of violence occur during different phrases of conflict intensity? Is reporting consistent across different conflicts and different regional experiences of conflict-related SGBV? This book examines different conflict situations in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia over the past decade, 2010–2020. The chapters in the book use a mixed-method approach to explore the patterns of violence in situations of one-sided violence, state-led violence, non-state-led violence, low intensity violence, terrorism and fragility. They investigate the trajectory of international and prevention efforts, and the development of country-level responses to reports of sexual and gender-based violence in these various conflict situations. The book explains how and why these responses were mobilised in response to reports and considers the conditions for effective reporting in real time considering the patterns and the structural root causes of the violence.

In the mid 1970s, at the peak of the women’s movement, feminist activism and research opened the door to questions that are still pressing today. While sexual violence has gained public awareness and become a subject in academic debate, efforts to understand and strategies to prevent this form of violence remain inadequate. Who are the perpetrators? How is sexual violence tied to other forms of violence? What are the consequences for individual victims and societies? Compiled by the International Research Group ‘Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict’ (SVAC), this volume takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding wartime sexual violence. Its enquiry employs four key relationships: War/Power, Violence/Sexuality, Gender/Engendering and Visibility/Invisibility. Through these, the authors identify gaps in existing knowledge to develop a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the field. This volume is the result of long-standing cooperation. The International Research Group ‘Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict’ (SVAC) is a network of interdisciplinary scholars and NGO experts founded in October 2010. Sociologists, philosophers, historians, literary and legal scholars as well as NGO professionals from Europe, the US, Asia and Africa bring together empirical and theoretical studies focusing on sexual violence in different theatres of armed conflict. The group compares source material and promotes the systematic development of research questions and methods.

This book brings together a unique blend of researchers, civil society and community activists all working on different aspects of conflict sexual violence on the African continent. The contributions included here offer a detailed reading of the social and political climate within which some patterns of sexual violence unfold, and the increased policy and institutional responses shaping post-conflict environments. The chapters are organized around three main themes: the continuities between conflict sexual violence and post-conflict insecurity; the troubling category of "victim" and its representation in post-conflict settings; and the international contexts – such as international programming, aid and justice interventions – that shape how conflict sexual violence is addressed. The authors come to the topic from various academic disciplines - anthropology, gender studies, law, and psychology - and from different non-academic contexts, including civil society organizations in affected regions, and policy and activist organizations in the Global North. Collectively the chapters in this volume offer complex and detailed analysis of some of the debates and dynamics shaping contemporary understandings of conflict sexual violence, highlighting, in turn, new insights and emerging topics on which further research and advocacy is needed.

In the era of #metoo, Gender, Power and Violence provides a better understanding about the ways in which institutional structures shape, or have mishandled, gender based violence.

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. Although wartime sexual violence against men occurs more frequently than is commonly assumed, its dynamics are remarkably underexplored, and male survivors’ experiences remain particularly overlooked. This reality is poignant in northern Uganda, where sexual violence against men during the early stages of the conflict was geographically widespread, yet now accounts of those incidents are not just silenced and neglected locally but also widely absent from analyses of the war. Based on rare empirical data, this book seeks to remedy this marginalization and to illuminate the seldom-heard voices of male sexual violence survivors in northern Uganda, bringing to light their experiences of gendered harms, agency, and justice.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of women become victims of sexual violence in conflict zones around the world; in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone, approximately 1,100 rapes are reported each month. This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the causes, consequences and responses to sexual violence in contemporary armed conflict. It explores the function and effect of wartime sexual violence and examines the conditions that make women and girls most vulnerable to these acts both before, during and after conflict. To understand the motivations of the men (and occasionally women) who perpetrate this violence, the book analyzes the role played by systemic and situational factors such as patriarchy and militarized masculinity. Difficult questions of accountability are tackled; in particular, the case of child soldiers, who often suffer a double victimization when forced to commit sexual atrocities. The book concludes by looking at strategies of prevention and protection as well as new programs being set up on the ground to support the rehabilitation of survivors and their communities. Sexual violence in war has long been a taboo subject but, as this book shows, new and courageous steps are at last being taken Ð at both local and international level - to end what has been called the “greatest silence in history”.