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DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.53.05.22
How to Cite:
Rufanova, V., Shablystyi, V., Spilnyk, S., Sydorenko, N., & Mozol, S. (2022). Conflict-related sexual violence as a threat to peace
and security of the world. Amazonia Investiga, 11(53), 220-226. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.53.05.22
Conflict-related sexual violence as a threat to peace and security of the
world
Сексуальне насильсво, повязане з конфліктом, як загроза миру і безпеці світу
Received: May 5, 2022 Accepted: June 7, 2022
Written by:
Rufanova Viktoriia94
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1125-6277
Shablystyi Volodymyr95
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0210-1772
Spilnyk Serhiy96
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8532-798X
Sydorenko Nataliia97
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4622-2779
Mozol Stanislav98
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2226-7908
Abstract
The aim of the article is to conduct a review of
the main trends in the impact of sexual violence
in the course of armed conflict on the growing
threat to world peace and security. The subject of
the study is conflict-related sexual violence. The
research methodology includes the following
methods of scientific knowledge: dialectical,
logical, normative and dogmatic, monographic,
system and structural, summarization. Research
results. The concept of sexual violence related to
the conflict, provided in international legal acts,
is considered, its features and characteristics are
studied. The goals of the use of sexual violence
during armed or military conflict are established.
Practical meaning. It is emphasized that every
military conflict is accompanied by sexual
violence, despite the adopted international
agreements, conventions and resolutions that
prohibit such actions. Value / originality. It is
noted that conflict-related sexual violence
remains a systematic, widespread, pervasive and
universal phenomenon that poses a direct threat
to world peace and human security.
94
Ph.D in Law, Associate Professor, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology of Dnipropetrovsk State
University of Internal Affairs (Ukraine).
95
Doctor of Legal Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Criminal Law Disciplines of the Educational and Scientific Institute
of Law and Innovative Education of Dnipropetrovsk State University of Internal Affairs (Ukraine).
96
Doctor of Legal Sciences, Associate Professor, Deputy Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office (Ukraine).
97
Candidate of Public Administration Sciences, Doctor of Legal Sciences, Associate Professor, Associate Professor at the Department
of Administration and Management of Dnipropetrovsk State University of Internal Affairs (Ukraine).
98
Doctor of Legal Sciences, Professor, Professor of the Department of Criminology and Penal Law of the National Academy of
Internal Affairs, Ukraine.
Rufanova, V., Shablystyi, V., Spilnyk, S., Sydorenko, N., Mozol, S. / Volume 11 - Issue 53: 220-226 / May, 2022
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Keywords: armed conflict, peace, security,
sexual violence, threat, war.
Introduction
Full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation on
the territory of Ukraine has endangered not only
the territorial integrity, independence and
sovereignty of Ukraine. The whole concept of
international security is under threat. A
significant number of international agreements
and treaties have not provided reliable protection
of human rights and freedoms from the atrocities
of authoritarian regimes.
The Charter of the United Nations (UN) of 1945
prohibited war, but armed conflicts started more
than they ended. At the same time, civilians are
increasingly becoming their victims. For
example, only 2% of civilians died during the
Franco-Prussian War. The war in Vietnam lost 3
million civilian lives compared to 150 thousand
militaries, or 95% (Senatorova, 2018, p. 7).
On the one hand, the world has formulated a
prohibition of war. However, in parallel, there is
a process of codification of international
humanitarian law, which defined the laws and
customs of war, protection of victims of war
(Hague Conventions and Declarations of 1899
and 1907; Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their
Additional Protocols).
Not only internationally declared rules and laws
of war are grossly violated during a military
conflict; violations of fundamental human rights,
enshrined in the international human rights
standards and international humanitarian law, are
becoming significant.
Every military conflict, being a global threat to
human security, at the local level leads to an
increase in the number and variety of forms of
sexual violence (rape, sexual slavery, forced
pregnancy, etc.). The vulnerability of women and
girls to the threats of sexual violence, abduction,
torture and murder is maximized during the
military conflict (UN General Assembly, 2000;
Tudorică, 2021).
Victims of such crimes are both women who find
themselves in the occupied territories and those
who have left their homes in search for a safe
place for themselves and their children. The latter
are often victims of rape, human trafficking,
harassment, sexual slavery, etc. This situation
creates a state of danger not only for the
population of a particular country, where an
armed conflict is taking place; the level of global
security is also becoming fragile, as the aggressor
country cynically wants to demonstrate to the
world not only ignoring the provisions of
international agreements, but also their own
dominance through violence and neglect of
fundamental principles of a civilized and legal
State.
Thus the purpose of this article is to conduct a
review of the main trends in the impact of sexual
violence during armed conflict on the growing
threat to world peace and security. Any military
conflict not only violates the rule of law, but also
exacerbates the dangerous situation and
instability, undermines development, and creates
favorable conditions for the rise in crime,
including cross-border crime.
Methodology
The methodological basis for the study is
dialectical method, according to which such
phenomena as sexual violence in the course of
armed conflict is examined and its consequences
are considered.
Logical method makes it possible to study the
negative impact on equality between women and
men during military conflicts, as well as how
sexual violence related to the aggression
exacerbates the threat to peace and security.
Normative and dogmatic method is used to
investigate the content of international legal
instruments, which enshrine that all parties to the
armed conflict should take special measures to
protect women and girls from gender-based
violence, especially rape and other forms of
sexual violence in armed conflict.
Monographic method is applied to examine the
views of the researches on the problem of
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committing sexual violence during armed
conflicts.
With the help of system and structural method
the goals of the use of sexual violence during
armed or military conflict are established.
The method of summarization allows to conclude
that each military conflict is accompanied by
sexual violence, despite the adopted international
agreements, conventions and resolutions that
prohibit such actions.
Literature Review
A number of foreign and domestic researchers
have considered the problem of sexual violence
in the course of armed conflicts. In particular,
Gaggioli (2015) states that conflict-related sexual
violence has always been wide spread
phenomenon during all wars in every country and
still “holds its positions” in the course of armed
conflicts.
Beck (2004), in her turn, substantiated that
women are raped in war not because of their sex,
but because they belong to “another camp” and
are therefore enemies. Accordingly, rape has a
special function both in war and in peacetime: it
is a method of deliberate, systematic
intimidation, by which all men keep all women
in constant fear.
Seifert (1993) provides ample evidence that rape
should be considered an important element of
military strategy. The author develops five
explanations for the function of rape in war.
Finally, light is shed on the logic of "silence" that
characterizes war crimes against women to this
day.
Dudorov and Pysmenskyy (2019) examined
international legal instruments regulating the
protection of sexual sphere and condemning the
violations against sexual integrity of the person.
They also investigated the methods to protect this
sphere in a number of European countries, as
well as studied their legal policy concerning this
issue.
Movchan et al., (2021) based on the research
conducted concluded that the ways of
committing violence including sexual one do not
change over time. Women and children remain
the most vulnerable sector of society due to their
psychological features.
Levchenko and Loban (2021) investigated the
sexual related offences against the child. In
particular, they drew the distinction between the
concepts of sexual freedom and sexual integrity
of the child and substantiated that all crimes
against the sexual integrity of a child are
characterized by direct intent. At the same time,
the mental attitude of the perpetrator to the age of
the victim may take the form of a careless form
of guilt.
Results and Discussion
The duality of the world is inextricably linked to
the equality of women and men. In 2015, the UN
General Assembly adopted a Resolution
“Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development” (United Nations,
2015). The goals that, in the opinion of the world
community, are able to ensure peace, security of
mankind and its sustainable development are
formulated in this document. Thus, one of the
main goals of sustainable development of the
world, ensuring peace and security of mankind is
the recognition of gender equality, which is not
only a fundamental right of every person, but is
also positioned as a fundamental condition for
achieving peace and sustainable development.
It should be noted that the Russian Federation,
having signed the Agenda for Sustainable
Development until 2030 (United Nations, 2015),
agreed with the declared provision that ensuring
sustainable development is not possible without
peace and security. The need to build a peaceful,
just society free from social barriers based on
respect for human rights, the rule of law and the
respect for self-determination by every people is
recognized.
The decision by Members of the United Nations
to redouble their efforts to resolve and prevent
conflicts and provide assistance to post-conflict
countries, including by ensuring active and
visible participation of women in the peace
process is the confirmation of this thesis.
Particular emphasis was placed on the need to
comply with international law in terms of
removing obstacles to the exercise of the right to
self-determination of peoples living under
occupation, as this negatively affects economic
and social development (United Nations, 2015).
However, current events have shown that paper-
based provisions may run counter to the real
policies of individual States. After all, the whole
world is in danger today.
Military conflicts, being one of the world’s most
dangerous threats, have a negative impact on
equality between women and men. Being a
widespread manifestation of armed conflict,
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sexual violence has been a silent topic for a long
time. This is due in part to the fact that violence
against women was seen as an inevitable side
effect of war. However, in recent years there has
been a change in the perception of the nature of
sexual violence related to military conflict.
According to the provisions of the Rome Statute
of the International Criminal Court (Articles 6, 7,
8) (International Criminal Court, 2011;
Shablystyi et al., 2021), sexual violence related
to conflict both includes attributes and is an act
of genocide, a war crime and a crime against
humanity. In our opinion, such a legal assessment
of sexual violence indicates a high level of
danger as a socio-legal phenomenon, which has
negative multidimensional consequences as
regards the violation of fundamental rights
human rights and the and the nature and trends of
the development of the theatre of hostilities, as
well as, in general, the dynamics of the military
conflict itself.
To answer the question of how sexual violence
related to the conflict exacerbates the threat to
peace and security, we should recall that
according to the Academic Dictionary of the
Ukrainian language (Slovnyk.UA, 2022), peace
is the absence of disagreement, enmity, quarrels.
Peace is consent; lack of armed struggle between
two or more peoples, States. Security is a state
where no one is threatened. That is, in the case of
conflict-related sexual violence, peace a priori no
longer exists, as military conflict has developed,
and the state of security is replaced by the state
of extreme danger of becoming a victim of sexual
violence and other illegal acts. Conflict-based
sexual not only does it not promote peace, it
exacerbates and prolongs military conflict. As
sexual violence is a manifestation of aggression,
the desire to demonstrate power and dominance,
respectively, it affects not only women and girls,
but also men and people with other gender
identities as victims of conflict-related sexual
violence. According to Kharitonova (2022),
violence is used to violate social and legal norms,
to humiliate people and communities. Often such
sexual violence is a way for criminals to attract
political attention and thus declare themselves as
a dangerous armed group that should be
perceived seriously. During many wars, “sexual
conquest” of enemy women was considered both
a reward for military success and a trophy. Ruth
Seifert (1993) noted that one of the unwritten
rules of war is to allow the victors to sexually
assault women immediately after the battle. In
our opinion, such an “unwritten rule” about
receiving women’s bodies as a reward for
winning a battle is a manifestation of established
gender inequality and treatment of women as a
“secondary member of the society”,
permissibility of disregard for her rights, interests
and desires. For example, the published cases of
sexual abuse of women in Ukraine by the
Russian military fully confirm their worldview
and attitude towards women in a peaceful life. It
is known that the criminal legislation of Russia
Federation does not provide for liability for
domestic violence, although according to NGOs,
this phenomenon is very common and
widespread in Russia. This situation breeds
impunity and proves permissibility of such
actions, which ultimately leads to discord of the
moral face of a citizen of the Russian Federation.
The threat posed by conflict-related sexual
violence to peace and security is articulated
internationally. Thus, in 1992, the problem of
mass rape was taken into account by the UN
Security Council. Systematic violence against
women during armed conflict has been
recognized as an international crime.
In 1998, the International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda found the perpetrator of the rape for the
first time as having committed a crime against
humanity and a crime of genocide (The
Prosecutor v. Jean-Paul Akayesu, 1998). In 2001,
the International Criminal Tribunal for
Yugoslavia became the first international
tribunal to recognize rape as a crime against
humanity (Gaggioli, 2015).
It is these cases that have irreversibly changed
the landscape of international humanitarian law,
giving victims the opportunity to speak out about
the crimes they have witnessed and experienced.
It has been proven to the whole world that
everyone will be held accountable for atrocities
committed during armed conflicts. In 2002, the
Rome Statute (International Criminal Court,
2011) combined various forms of sexual violence
into one article and recognized them as a separate
category of crimes against humanity (Article 7):
rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced
pregnancy, forced sterilization and any other
forms of sexual violence of comparable severity.
A landmark event at the international level that
has clearly put key questions in one line was
adopted on October 31, 2000. The UN Security
Council Resolution 1325 (United Nations, 2000)
stressed that all parties to the armed conflict
should take special measures to protect women
and girls from gender-based violence, especially
rape and other forms of sexual violence in armed
conflict. Along with calls to protect women from
conflict-related sexual violence, the Resolution
1325 emphasized the special role of women in
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conflict prevention and resolution, as well as
peacebuilding. Equal and meaningful
participation of women in peace and security is a
central goal of the Resolution 1325. This
Resolution formed the basis for the Women’s,
Peace and Security Agenda (WPS) (United
Nations Development Programme, 2019), which
demonstrates the link between peace and security
and the disproportionate impact of armed conflict
on women and girls. It is women and children
who are most negatively affected by military
conflicts, including refugees and internally
displaced persons, as they are a target for military
elements.
Based on the analysis of international documents,
we believe that conflict-related violence can be
used as:
1) weapons of war, tactics or strategy of war
(UN Security Council Resolution
1820/2008). However, only in 10% of cases
the military is actually ordered to commit
sexual violence. In most cases, commanders
allow rape, but do not order rape (DW,
2022). Thus, in the first comprehensive
study of sexual violence perpetrated by
German soldiers during World War II, Birgit
Beck (2004) concludes that rape committed
by Wehrmacht soldiers should not be
considered a military strategy: firstly, no
document containing an order for Germans
to commit sexual acts is yet known, and,
secondly, military law defined “sexual
misconduct” as a crime against military
discipline, which rarely resulted in the
sentencing of rapists. However, German
soldiers were not punished for crimes
against the Soviet civilian population. The
exception was “serious acts”; however,
sexual violence during hostilities was not
considered as one (Tertyshnik & Fomenko,
2021);
2) sexualized violence, which is a consequence
of gender inequality particularly exacerbated
in times of war. Men demonstrate power
over the weaker sex;
3) the form of humiliation of the enemy,
attempt to demonstrate superiority and
insignificance of troops who cannot protect
their women and girls;
4) tactics of terror, torture, ethnic and religious
opposition. This form is characterized by
publicity when men are raped using cruel
methods and foreign objects. For example,
Daesh militants and other extremist groups
use conflict-related sexual violence as a
means of attracting and retaining new
militants, promising them “wives” and sex
slaves. These groups make money from sex
slavery by selling women and girls in open
markets and collecting ransoms from
shocked communities.
22 years have passed since the signing of the
Resolution 1325. However, little has been done
in this direction, despite the fact that sexual
violence related to the conflict continues to be
committed systematically and with shocking
brutality around the world. Therefore, there are
doubts as to whether the signatory States
intended to implement it.
According to the UN Secretary General Antonio
Guterres, today women are actually
peacekeepers, active defenders of human rights,
they are the ones who solve important
humanitarian issues, but quite often remain on
the periphery of official peace processes.
However, half of humanity cannot be distracted
from peace and security. Besides, the imbalance
between men and women remains quite
significant. It is reflected in an increase in the
level of violence and misogyny faced by women
and girls in every society. Therefore, achieving
gender parity remains a priority (UN Women,
2021). Today it is important to form the correct
paradigm of world development prospects. It is
better to reduce the cost of armaments to enhance
military capability of the countries, while
increasing investment in gender equality, as it
has a high return as peace dividends. After all, it
is more promising to invest in a world
characterized by economic development,
technological progress and mass prosperity.
Instead, funding the militarization of States leads
to assassinations, sexual violence, bullying,
torture and destruction of all the achievements of
civilization.
Conclusions
Summarizing the above, it should be noted that
conflict-related sexual violence remains a
systematic, widespread, pervasive and universal
phenomenon that poses a direct threat to world
peace and human security. The negative trends in
the impact of conflict-related sexual violence are
reflected in the fact that the world has not yet
made progress in counteracting the phenomenon
under study. Every military conflict is
accompanied by sexual violence, regardless of
international agreements, conventions and
resolutions that prohibit such actions.
At the same time, noting the generally negative
trends, it is worth emphasizing the active formal
desire of the international community to end the
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inevitable effect of any conflict – the commission
of sexual violence. This problem needs a
comprehensive solution. As we were shown, it is
not enough to declare on paper the determination
to act against violations of women’s rights; it is
important to ensure that the State responds
adequately to all cases of wrongdoing, including
objective and fair punishment. This will avoid
impunity. It is impunity that indirectly
determines the spread of crime and creates the
illusion of permissiveness. This, in turn, destroys
all the basis and principles of world security,
peace and development.
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