United Nations — Some of the most harrowing cases of gender-based violence Kathryn Bolkovac came across while working as a U.N. human rights investigator in Bosnia involved a perpetrator dubbed "the Doctor" by the women and girls he abused.
"It was ('the Doctor's') practice to insert Deutsche Mark coins into the vaginas of young girls as they danced (in strip clubs)," she told IPS.
Gender inequalities were so deeply rooted into social structures that even men who worked for the U.N. participated in sexual harassment of various forms.
Gender-based violence, including psychological and sexual abuse, often represents a perverse expression of dissatisfaction with regard to power and self-worth on the part of the perpetrator.
"My fellow International Police Task Force monitor ... admitted to me (and U.N. management) that he had (purchased) a young girl from a local bar in Ilid?a to keep at home with him as his 'girlfriend'," said Bolkovac.
Men who worked at the U.N. Mission in Bosnia Herzegovina (UNMIBH) hung pictures with "inappropriate depictions of women" on the walls of their offices, she added.
And DynCorp employees - who are private military contractors embedded with the U.N. - circulated rape tapes around military bases, she noted.
Bolkovac herself also faced harassment: "The U.N. personnel manager approached me to introduce himself and to tell me I was 'kind of cute'," she told IPS.
"(In another case,) the contingent commander invited me to a Fourth of July celebration at the U.S. embassy and asked what type of undergarments I might be wearing," she said.
Bolkovac presented her book, co-written with Cari Lynn and entitled The Whistleblower: Sexual Trafficking, Military Contractors and One Woman's Fight for Justice, at the U.N. Bookshop at the start of this month.
Her story also inspired a film directed by Larysa Kondracki, entitled "The Whistleblower", which was screened at U.N. headquarters in October 2011, following a special request from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. A panel discussion with senior U.N. officials on violence against women and girls ensued.
On Feb. 14, 2013, Ban delivered a message in support of One Billion Rising, a daylong exclamation that showcased the solidarity and collective strength of women across the globe. The number "one billion" referred to the estimate that one in every three women is raped or beaten in her lifetime.
"The global pandemic of violence against women and girls thrives in a culture of discrimination and impunity," said Ban. "By standing together, we can end violence against women and girls, and build a world where all live free from harassment and fear."
But on the same day as One Billion Rising, another occurrence rattled the gender frameworks. It involved a world renowned Olympian, known as the "Blade Runner", who shot and killed his girlfriend while she sat on the bathroom stall.
Recipe for gender-based violence
Oscar Pistorius is a South African athlete with carbon-fibre racing legs. Once seen as a role model for young amputees, Pistorius fell from grace when he allegedly murdered Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day.
This happened shortly after 17-year-old Anene Booysen was gang raped and mutilated to death. The perpetrators abandoned her body at a construction site not far from her home.
Both events brought attention to widespread gender-based violence, the topic of the upcoming Commission on the Status of Women's (CSW) 57th session, to be held at U.N. headquarters Mar. 4-15.
According to a synthesis report entitled "Addressing Inequalities", gender-based violence reflects "unequal power relations between men and women, girls and boys - in the economic, social (including legal) and political spheres.
Dean Peacock, co-founder and executive director of the Sonke Gender Justice Network, told IPS, "In South Africa, like in the U.S., there's a very strong association between gun ownership and manhood."
Bushmaster Firearms International, the same company that produced the .223 calibre semiautomatic rifle used in the mass shooting of a school in Newtown, Connecticut, ran an advertising campaign labelling Bushmaster guns as a "Man Card".
Peacock explained the dangers surrounding notions of masculinity in South Africa, where much of the population suffers from long-term structural unemployment.
"Men face a social expectation and a social pressure to be able to provide for their families - make sure their children can go to school, put food on the table - but they're (often) not able to do that, so they carry around a tremendous sense of failure," he said.
"They internalise and blame themselves for what are structural problems created by our economic policies and (South Africa's) position in the global economy.
Men then compensate for their failure to live up to that pressure by engaging in a range of risky practices that grants them some fleeting sense of either escape or power," he continued.
Many consume alcohol to deal with their sense of failure. "There's also a social expectation generated in a significant part by the world of advertising that men should drink, and that drinking is a mark of being a man," said Peacock.
"So if you (consider) the nexus of alcohol, guns, and - perhaps most importantly - the social pressure and expectation that men be dominant in their relationships with women (and) have the ultimate authority in their relationships and their homes... you've got a recipe for men's violence against women," he explained.
He advocated for psychosocial support for children exposed to violence, as well as policies in the education sector that integrate topics related to gender equality into the curricula.
Peacock also warned of the dangers facing women and girls in conflict and post-conflict situations, when there is a lack of legal systems to hold people accountable for their actions.
Gender-based violence and development
The U.N. is currently constructing a new development framework, known as the post-2015 development agenda, to replace the Millennium Development Goals when they expire in 2015.
A public consultation took place online and through social media platforms under the auspices of the U.N. Development Group between September 2012 and January 2013, focused on addressing inequalities.
It culminated with a public dialogue, which featured civil society experts and U.N. officials, who met from Feb 18-19 in Copenhagen.
One reoccurring topic brought up by both the public participants and the experts in discussion was how to incorporate gender-based violence - something that the MDGs failed to address - into the new development framework.
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Very imformative piece!!.. With addition I would also like to remind my African families that the Europeans whilst in Africa for 500 years used rape with impunity!!!!!!!. During the enslavement period no black woman young child was safe from sexual abuse!!!!!!!!.. These are things we as a people must rid from our pscye!!!!!. When I hear tyhese holier than thou" western NGOs who forgets the attroccities by western former imperial enslavers this boils my blood??? Africa did not have a culture of reape nor did it use rape as a tool??? African Man has always respected the place of a woman in the family as a birth giver of life a tiller of the soil a grower a nourisher!!!!; it was the Europeans who came and changed these practices.. Never do we hear or see white women playing the role that black women play especially in Africa regarding the roles I have mentioned??? This shows us today how deep our roots were??? there is nop question in rural araeas who does most of the planting accorss Africa!!!!!... Africas mans had estreme cognizance of the roel of the woman.. It is fair to say she was like the earth "the true mother earth". There is no doubt we have been subjkect to long periods of brain washing more than any other people on the planet, what I am seeing today is the re-evolution of the conscious black man"!!!... Man in Africa today are seeing after a very long time the worth of thier cultures and the destructive nature of the whites and the impact it had on thier civilizations. Western authors seems to like to make belive Africa is the same size of Europe and north America lumping and disrespecting the strong and profound culturual identitites of ther many black African nations that the whites encountered. For example we hear mention of the ancient Egyptians then we switch gear to the Ibo tribes people????????? The I bos are just as ancient as the Egyptinas as they werre at soem time all one!!!.. This is not here nor there but we must rfelect on our past and its ancient rites" it is our duty to maintian our heriatges and drift far away from the propoganda west and thier destrucxtive ways>>> These westyerners are the earths most prolific identified serial pathological rapers p[lunderers the warth has ever seen 'ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. When black people traveled the earth they borught with them food stuffs seed for p[lanting improving economies they brought along Righetousness they taught civility. Greece is one of our most profoundstatements of how black cultures has impacted white minds!!!!!!!!!. I would suggest to most black people to abstain from l;istening to the rantings of whites when they start on thier pulpit of cynical critiques!!!; they offer nothing more than dysfunction speratisms deceit.. Look at India they were affected so much by the west that India!!!!. "In the west because they have sO many scape goats, they do not criminalise theirr rapers what they do is transpose thier crimes on thier minority communites making them the criminals allowing for the status quo' to retain its superirority holier than thou pulpit' of morality!!!. Asas mentioned in the article of Japan ; this si the problem with US troops thery are rapers as well as Uk troops they go around the world raping and pillaging; this has been thier experience for centuries' nothng has changed for these criminals"!!!!!. . This residual cruise left upon the contiennt especially i pl;aces like S. Africa Congo, where the rapers were serial most pathologica this has left undoubtedly this severe imbalance of what is right from wrong. The idea that you preach superirority high morality coupled with these attroccities which one is right you do not differnciate you accept it all as right????????." Africa needs to remodel our dientity far from those who were our occupiers!!!!!!!! On a factual impact of reality wake up calls the west has impacted negatively 10 out of 10 in reverse positively its 2 out of 10 if that!!!!