Engaging male survivors of conflict-related sexual violence as allies in

the quest for gender justice Inaugural Asia-Pacific Conference on Gendered Violence and Violations

Sydney, 10-12 February 2015

Wynne Russell (Dr/Ms) Athena Consortium

www.athenaconsortium.org Wynne.russell@yahoo.com / +61 (0)400-810-710 / Skype: wynne.russell

My aims

• To explain why conflict-related sexual violence against males, adult males in particular, can be thought of as gendered violence.

• To explore why a feminist-inspired approach to acknowledging and responding to the gendered quality of such violence has the potential to help combat violence that we more usually associate with the term ‘gendered violence’ – violence by men and boys against women and girls.

Outline

• 1. Overview of male-directed sexual violence in conflicts

• 2. Discussion of the gender-based quality of such violence

• 3. Exploration of possibilities for engagement

• 4. Responses from interviewees

• 5. Case study: Refugee Law Project

Male-directed sexual violence in conflicts: extent…

• In the last decade alone, sexual violence against male civilians and combatants, both adults and children, has been reported in nearly 30 conflicts across the world.

• If one includes sexual exploitation of boys displaced by violent conflicts, the list encompasses the majority of armed conflicts today.

…and prevalence

• To establish the true prevalence of the male experience of sexual violence, need to define sexual violence in a way that captures the experience of both genders.

Sexual violence against adult males: a diversity of forms

• Five general forms:

– Rape/sexual assault

– Pain and/or damage to the genitals intended to interfere with future sexual pleasure and/or reproduction

– Sexual humiliation (eg. forced masturbation, simulated sex)

– Forced rape/sexual assault of others

– Threats of the above.

Defining sexual violence in a male-friendly way

• Sexual violence includes both physical and psychological violence: – Carried out through sexual means, or – That targets the victim’s sexuality and sexual

health. • This definition of sexual violence captures the

male experience of damage to the genitals as violence targeting sexual health.

Johnson et al. 2008, Johnson et al. 2010.

Prevalence

• Rates much higher than previously recognised, at least in some conflicts. – Liberia, 2008 (1666 adults): 32.6% of the study’s male

former combatants.

– DRC, 2010 (998 adults): 23.6% of the study’s men had experienced sexual violence during their lives.

– Torture survivors world-wide: 50-80%.

Johnson et al. 2008, Johnson et al. 2010

Aims and drivers of conflict-related male-directed sexual violence

• Designed to punish, humiliate, terrify, demoralise and destroy family and community cohesion.

• Intersectionality with race, ethnicity, religion--for instance, in the targeting of Muslim men for sexual humiliation.

• Class, poverty, other political and social inequalities may also come into play

• The political economy of male-directed sexual violence has not yet been adequately examined.

Hersch 2004.

Consequences for male survivors

• Physical: genital mutilation, castration, chronic

pain.

• Psychosexual: PTSD/depression/anxiety,

impotence, substance abuse.

• Psychosocial: loss of respect of wives, families

and communities

Conflict-related sexual violence against adult males as gender-based violence • Adult males: almost always a manifestation of at

least one definition of gender-based violence: violence that is targeted at women or men because of their sex and/or their socially constructed gender roles.

• Boys: can also be gender-based (for instance, castration).

Women’s Caucus 2004; Human Rights Watch 2002 p. 8.

An exceptionally clear attack on masculine identities and masculinities

• Sexual violence against adult males is an attack on:

• The masculine identities of victims

• The masculine identities of other men (men forced to rape other women in front of their husbands)

• Non-violent masculinities (boys/men sexually assaulted or forced to rape as part of indoctrination into militaries/militias).

Male-directed sexual violence and patriarchy

• In this regard, sexual violence by men against men is an act of patriarchal control: a mechanism by which men are placed or kept in a position subordinate to other men.

• Replicates patriarchal organisation of society—which of course includes the subordination of women and girls.

Patriarchal strategies: ‘feminisation’ and ‘homosexualisation’

• “Reducing” victims/survivors to the “inferior” status of women, girls, and homosexual men.

Torture care responses

• Torture care organisations are keenly aware of this impact.

– Staggering range of physical violence, with sexual violence only one of the components.

– Sexual torture is the form that has left the deepest psychological scars

– Compromised sense of masculine identity at the forefront of trauma.

Restoring or transforming masculine identity?

• Approach: working with the client to help him reconcile himself with his own dominant narratives of masculinity—which obviously are heavily culturally influenced.

• Restorative: Can involve a reconnection with traditional masculine qualities—for instance, finding a new sport.

• Transformative: But can also involve a redefinition of masculine qualities such as ‘strength.’

Beyond transformation of personal identity to gender justice

• The transformational potential of care and support for male survivors may not have been fully tapped.

• Suggests the possibility of engaging male survivors in a broader process of advancing gender justice.

• A chance to see male survivors of sexual violence not just as a problem for women and girls, but as an opportunity.

Negative impacts

• Non-violent: withdrawal from family, inability to help economically, substance abuse.

• Violent: strong link between PTSD/depression/loss of self-esteem/ psychosocial strain and violent behaviour.

• Gender role strain: has also been linked to violence.

Vess et al. 2013, p. 7; Fleming et al. 2013, p. 8, 51; Wood and Jewkes 2009, p. 46; Lwambo 2013, p. 50.

Positive potential

• Male survivors have the potential for greater empathy for the experience of women and girls.

• Have experienced the pain, the fear, the short- and long-term physical, psychological and social impact of the kind of violence that women and girls experience at the hands of men.

• Also have experienced the lived consequences of the deep narratives of heterosexual male dominance that under lie violence against women and girls across the globe– the “pointy end of patriarchy.”

• Opportunity to free themselves from the ideology that have led to their own experiences of violence.

Empathy without excuses

• Some attempts to link the degradation of men’s pride to violence, including sexual violence, not only start to resemble excuses, but also “offer no critique of the patriarchal frameworks that shape such ‘pride’.”

• Starting from the perspective of shared experience, however, combines empathy for the male experience of trauma with a feminist focus on transformational potential.

Moffett 2006, p. 134;

Resonates with insights from elsewhere

• Reviews of programs engaging men for sexual assault prevention suggest that men who have been exposed to sexual violence are more likely to prioritise anti-violence ideals.

• Review of men’s engagement programs in El Salvador focused on constructing alternative masculine identities: many male survivors of violence are ready to listen to ideas that challenge violent masculine behaviour.

Stathopoulos 2013, p. 14 ; Bird et al. 2007, p. 113-114.

But is this realistic?

• Conversations with counselors, program managers, academic and other researchers, and advocates working on behalf of male survivors—as well as some generous and courageous survivors themselves.

1. Inside or outside the therapeutic process?

• Interviewees have differed on whether such engagement should be initiated within the therapeutic process. Some interviewees feel that partnerships with profeminist organisations may be the best way forward; others, however, feel that a skilled counselor can use such engagement to foster post-traumatic growth, particularly among men who are already participating in group therapy.

2. Social stigma and loss of masculinity

• All interviewees have agreed as long sexual violence is associated with social stigma and loss of masculinity, male survivors take great risks in exposing their experiences to the community, and may not be willing to publicly acknowledged the shared nature of their and women’s/girls’ experience. – Some interviewees felt that these factors severely limit the

prospects for male engagement. – The experience of the Refugee Law Project in Uganda, however,

suggests that a skilled counselor can help men work through their reluctance if initial stages of engagement involve partnerships with women that benefit male survivors as well—for instance, collective advocacy for better services for sexual violence survivors.

3. Need for support

• Most importantly, all interviewees agreed that in the absence of support for the male experience of sexual violence, male survivors may not be able or ready to reach out to supporting women/girls. – Only a tiny number of programs in conflict zones

worldwide are supporting male sexual violence survivors; the vast majority of male survivors receive no assistance.

– Initiatives designed to raise awareness and break down stigma around male-directed sexual violence are similarly lacking.

Case study

• The Refugee Law Project located at Makarere University, Kampala, Uganda.

• Counseling support for both female and male survivors of sexual violence.

• One brave counselor: Onen (David) Ongwech.

Findings from the RLP

• Support is crucial to engagement.

• A skillful counselor can incorporate engagement into the group therapeutic process and can encourage men to put aside their reluctance to be identified with women.

• Men will advocate for women and girls if women and girls will advocate for them.

Recommendations

• Profeminist organisations should advocate for better programming and therapeutic options for male survivors and for expanded awareness and destigmatisation campaigns.

• Organisations working with male survivors should adopt an explicitly transformational agenda in supporting male survivors and explore opportunities for collaboration between male and female survivors.

• And there is a need for better data collection, both in order to identify the scale of male need and in order to better understand the number of potential allies

References • Bird, Susan et al. (2007) Constructing an alternative masculine identity: the experience of the Centro Bartolome de las Casas

and Oxfam America in El Salvador. Gender and Development, 15(1),.

• Fleming, Paul et al. (2013) Engaging men and boys in advancing women’s agency. World Bank.

• Hersch, S (2004) “”Torture at Abu Ghraib.” The New Yorker, 10 May.

• Human Rights Watch (2002) The war within the war: sexual violence against women and girls in eastern Congo.

• Refugee Law Project

• Lwambo, Desiree (2013) Before the war, I was a man: men and masculinities in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Gender and Development, 21(1), pp. 47-66.

• Moffett, Helen (2006) “ ‘These women, they force us to rape them’: rape as a narrative of social control in post-apartheid South Africa.” Journal of South African Studies, 32(1), pp. 129-144.

• Stathopoulos, Mary (2013) Engaging men in sexual assault prevention. ACSSA Wrap, No. 14. http://www.aifs.gov.au/acssa/pubs/wrap/wrap14/index.html

• Vess, Joseph et al. (2013) The Other Side of Gender: Men as Critical Agents of Change. US Institute of Peace.

• Women’s Caucus (2004) “Clarification of the term ‘Gender.’” Available online at

• http://www.iccwomen.org/resources/gender.htm.

• Wood, Katharine and Rachel Jewkes (1997) Violence, rape and sexual coercion: everyday love in a South Africa township. Gender and Development, 5(2), pp. 41-46.

• For all other references, see:

– Russell, W, A Hilton and M Peel (2011) Care and Support for Male Survivors of Conflict-related Sexual Violence. http://www.svri.org/CareSupportofMaleSurviv.pdf.

– Russell, W, A Hilton and M Peel (2010) Care and Support of Male Survivors of Conflict-related Sexual Violence: Background Paper. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266376422_Care_and_Support_of_Male_Survivors_of_Conflict-Related_Sexual_Violence_Background_Paper_March_2010