Lydiah Kumento Bosire
17 July 2008
(Page 3 of 4)
Further, given the high stigma for SGBV and the fact that reintegration of victims back into their communities can be one the hardest processes, is it possible that singling out victims of rape for the purposes of redress as understood by the international community, can be disrupting, unless coupled with strategies to support community reintegration of the affected women? On the realm of practical action where advocates capitalize on the victimization of rape to pursue a (necessary) agenda of redistribution and the economic empowerment of women, do we have empirical evidence of how such redistribution is causally related to sustainably addressing SGBV in conflicts? This is not to say that the "symptoms" should not be addressed. But we have a challenge when all advocacy efforts assume they are inherently beneficial, while they may be decrease rather than increase the agency of affected women. Further, it is possible leave the political problem on the wayside, or worse, for advocacy to become an act of "doing something", a substitute for a political solution.
The last point is that we must also debate - and soul-search- on whether the focus on rape and other criminal outcomes of these political processes criminalizes African wars (and makes them deserving of courts and policing rather than robust diplomacy and political settlements), feeding into an image of Kaplan's 'Coming Anarchy'. The problem of rape needs to be solved, but the solution is not another condemnatory declaration. What are the triggers of meaningful action, who are the people at the helm of that trigger, are they being engaged? It might be that activists need to be pitching their tents outside the doors of the political actors who must resolve the conflict, while also looking to formal and formal accountability processes to make modest contributions to the problem. It means that the paths taken by advocates have to provoke and demand that things be different, especially at the level of politics.
I raise these issues not to distract us from the advocacy goal of drawing attention to rape of women, but as a way to point to gaps where scholars and practitioners must engage. At its most modest, transitional justice can be taken to be a process that can help populations to re-imagine the possibilities of citizenship and democracy, bringing into the picture those who have been outside the reach of the state. This is particularly the case of women who have experienced SGBV, who, through transitional justice debates, can be allowed to see themselves as citizens owed protection by the state debate. Beyond that, as discussed above, transitional justice has major shortcomings when it comes to addressing SGBV. Academic and practitioner debates too have left many questions unaddressed. While action is important, such action must be considered within a broader picture, and this broader picture is messy and political, but it cannot be ignored.
*Lydiah Kumento Bosire is a co-convenor, Oxford Transitional Justice Research. She focuses her research on processes of accountability in Africa, with a special interest in Uganda. Previously, Lydiah was Project Manager for the International Center for Transitional Justice, a Technical Officer at the World Health Organization, and a consultant at the United Nations Population Fund.
*Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/
Notes:
1. International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), "International investigative mission: War crimes in the Central African Republic," REPORT n° 355 February 2003, Online, http://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/FIDH_Report_WarCrimes_in_CAR_English_Feb2003.pdf
2. ICC, "Prosecutor opens investigation in the Central African Republic," 22 May 2007, Online, http://www.icc-cpi.int/pressrelease_details&id=248&l=en.html
3. Katy Glassborow, "CAR Case to Focus on Sexual Violence," IWPR, AR No. 113, 24-May-07, Online at http://www.iwpr.net/?p=acr&s=f&o=335830&apc_state=henh
4. ICC, "Mandat d'arrêt à l'encontre de Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo," 23 May 2008, Online, http://www.icc-cpi.int/library/cases/ICC-01-05-01-08-1-tENG.pdf
5. ICC, "ICC Arrest Jean-Pierre Bemba - massive sexual crimes in Central African Republic will not go unpunished," 24 May 2008, Online, http://www.icc-cpi.int/press/pressreleases/371.html
6. Ibid.
7. Human Rights Watch, ICC: "Congo's Former Vice-President Arrested International Court Should Pursue Other Top Officials in the CAR and Congo"
8. Katy Glassborow, "CAR Case to Focus on Sexual Violence," IWPR, AR No. 113, 24-May-07, Online at http://www.iwpr.net/?p=acr&s=f&o=335830&apc_state=henh
9. Adrienne Fricke and Amira Khair, "Law without Justice: An assessment of Sudanese Laws Affecting Survivors of Rape," Refugee International, 2007, p. i
10. Voice of America (VOA), "Sudan's President Denies Involvement in Darfur Violence," VOA News, March 20, 2007 in Adrienne Fricke and Amira Khair, "Law without Justice: An assessment of Sudanese Laws Affecting Survivors of Rape," Refugee International, 2007.
11. See http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/reports/2005/sudan03.pdf
12. Adrienne Fricke and Amira Khair.
13. UN General Assembly, "Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Sudan, Sima Samar," 3 March 2008, United Nations, A/HRC/7/22
14. ICC, "The Prosecutor v. Ahmad Muhammad Harun ("Ahmad Harun") and Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman ("Ali Kushayb")," Case ICC-02/05-01/07
Online at http://www.icc-cpi.int/cases/Darfur/c0205/c0205_pr.html
15. See, for instance, Joanne Csete and Juliane Kippenberg, War within the war: Sexual violence against Women and Girls in Eastern Congo, Human Rights Watch, 2002; International Alert Women's Peace Programme, "Women's Bodies as a Battleground: Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls During the War in the Democratic Republic of Congo," International Alert, 2005; and Amnesty International, Democratic Republic of Congo Mass rape: Time for remedies, Amnesty International, 2004.
16. ICC, "Written Submissions of the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict Submitted in application of Rule 103 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence," 17 March 2008 http://www.icc-cpi.int/library/cases/ICC-01-04-01-06-1229-AnxA-ENG.pdf
17. Cape Town Principles and Best Practices 7 (April 30,1997), available at www.unicef.org/emerge/files/Cape_Town_Principles(l).pdf
18. ICC, "Submission of Amended Document Containing the Charges Pursuant to Decision ICC-01/04-01/07-648 26.06.2008," para 89. Online, http://www.icc-cpi.int/library/cases/ICC-01-04-01-07-649-Anx1A-ENG.pdf
19. Taylor Toeka Kakala and Katy Glassborow, "Sexual Violence Charges for DRC Cases Scrapped," IWPR AR No. 172, 29-May-08,
Online, http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=hen&s=o&o=l=EN&p=acr&s=f&o=344835
20. See for example, ICC, "Prosecution's Response to "Victims and Witnesses Unit's considerations on the system of witness protection and the practice of 'preventive relocation," 7th July 2008, ICC-01/04-01/07-664, Online http://www.icc-cpi.int/library/cases/ICC-01-04-01-07-664-ENG.pdf
21. ICC, "Decision on the Requests for leave to appeal the Decision on Evidentiary Scope of the Confirmation Hearing, Preventive Relocation and Disclosure under Article 67(2) of the Statute and Rule 77 of the Rules"
22. Christine Bell and Catherine O'Rouke, "Does Feminism Need a Theory of Transitional Justice? An Introductory Essay," International Journal of Transitional Justice, Vol.1 No.1, 2007, p. 337
23. Michelle Staggs Kelsal and Shanee Stepakoff, " 'When We Wanted to Talk About Rape': SIlencng Sexual Violence at the Special Court for Sierra Leone," International Journal of Transitional Justice, Vol.1 No.3, 2007, p.363
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