Sexual violence in times of war: A new challenge for peace operations?

Gender-Based Violence

“…Sexual violence has been found to increase among refugees, including both domestic violence and violence outside the home. This can be explained by the increase in levels of frustration in refugee settings, and the tendency to take out such frustration on "the weak" (Skjelsbaek 2001 ). Participant stories in our study highlight the relationship between limited resources, stress, tension, and violence in the home, providing support to this explanation.…”

Sexual violence and biased military interventions in civil conflict

“…Koo, 2002) have pointed to a relationship between gender inequality and wartime sexual violence. According to this argument, societies with lower levels of gender equality are more likely to witness higher levels of wartime sexual violence owing to prevailing gender norms (Davies and True, 2015; Enloe, 1983; Skjelsbaek, 2001: 81; Wartenberg, 2012). The extent of gender equality also impacts the reporting patterns of sexual violence (Davies and True, 2015).…”

“…Empirical examples demonstrate that the initiation of sexual violence can be traced to various levels of operational command. In the Balkan wars in the 1990s, for instance, rape appeared to be part of a broader strategy of ethnic cleansing (Skjelsbaek, 2001). During the civil war in Sierra Leone, in-group dynamics at unit level seems to have been the best determinant for gang rape (Cohen, 2013).…”

“…Previous literature on sexual violence has suggested a number of factors that increase the risk of sexual violence in war, focusing on aspects relating to conflict types (e.g. Skjelsbaek, 2001), actor characteristics (e.g. Cohen, 2013; Hoover Green, 2011; Muvumba Sellström, 2015; Wood, 2006), and individual incentives (e.g.…”

Stopping rape

“…Moreover, women's presence assists in engendering trust, improving the reputation of peacekeepers and in facilitating the peace process (Stiehm, 1997;Hudson, 2000;Carey, 2001;Karamé, 2001;Skjelsbaek, 2001;DeGroot, 2002;International Alert, 2002;Allred, 2006;Hagen, 2006;Bridges and Horsfall, 2009). It is also likely that the increased presence of women explains how and why sexual misconduct by military peacekeeping troops was placed on the agenda in the first place (the Namibia mission) (Hudson, 2000).…”