International crimes: violence visited on women

1
International crimesviolence visited on women

• Two examples of the physical and psychological
  wars waged on women in the world

2
Moving from the intimate to the global in our
understanding of gendered violence

• Violence in the home and community devastates the
  lives of millions of women and girls in the
  world.
  
• The United Nations Development Fund for Women
  estimates that a least one of out of every three
  women in the world will be beaten, coerced into
  sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime.
• In some countries that rate increases to 70
  according to the World Health Organization.
  

3
Violence against women and girls are human rights
violations and include

• Rape
• Domestic violence
• Acid burning
• Dowry deaths
• So-called honor killings
• Human trafficking
• Female genital mutilations
• Other harmful practices

4
According to Amnesty International, hundreds of
thousands of women face horrific violence
duringarmed conflict.

• As refugees or internally displaced persons.
• Rape as well as other acts of brutality and
  torture are applied as tactics of war.
  
• There is no protected status for women or girls
  in warfare.
  
• A woman or girls age, social status, or
  motherhood does not keep them from harm.

5
A historic incidentSystem of institutionalized
sexual slavery in war

• Used by the Japanese Imperial Army before and
  during World War II
  
• Women forced into sexual servitude were
  euphemistically known as comfort women
  
• Women and girls were kidnapped from their
  families, primarily from Korea, the Philippines,
  and China
  
• More than 200,000 women and girls were enslaved
  in this manner by the Japanese Imperial Army
  

6
Attempts to bring this history to light

• Sixty years after the end of WWII, survivors of
  the sexual slavery system have been denied
  justice
  
• San José Congressman Mike Honda successfully
  passed a resolution calling on the Japanese
  Government to accept responsibility
  
• Others also want an official apology and
  reparations, as well
  

7
Important documentation

• Comfort women want justice, not comfort by
  Dai Sil Kim-Gibson
  
• Film Sa-I-Gu by Kim-Gibson is an oral history by
  some of the survivors
  
• Amnesty International continues to document these
  incidents

8
One exampledocumented by Amnesty International

• Young, Korean woman running an errand for family
• Kidnapped off the street and shipped to China by
  Japanese military
  
• Sex slave for the Japanese
• Denied ability to return home by the Chinese
• 58 years later, she was permitted to return and
  tell her story

9
A contemporary example

• Civil war in Rwanda
• Residents flee to neighboring countries, but
  there is no refuge to be found
  
• Last ten years, more than 5 million people
  deadsa
  

10
In refugee camps and villages

• Gang rape of women common form of intimidation
• Girls as young as 6 women as old as 70
• Family members forced to witness, sometimes even
  assist by holding down, retrieving from hiding
  places

11
Important documentation

• Competing Masculinities Probing Political
  Disputes as Acts of Violence Against Women from
  Southern Sudan and Darfur by Rogaia Mustafa
  Abusharaf
• Film In Transit by Bent Jorgen Perlmutt, Nelson
  Walker III and Louis Abelman, Directors and
  Producers