Recognizing Gender-Based Violence Against Civilian Men and Boys in Conflict Situations
Author(s): R. CHARLI CARPENTER
Source: Security Dialogue , MARCH 2006, Vol. 37, No. 1 (MARCH 2006), pp. 83-103
Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd.
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Recognizing Gender-Based Violence
Against Civilian Men and Boys in
Conflict Situations
R. CHARLI CARPENTER*
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs,
University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA
While gender-based violence has recently emerged as a salient topic in
the human security community, it has been framed principally with
respect to violence against women and girls, particularly sexual
violence. In this article, I argue that gender-based violence against men
(including sexual violence, forced conscription, and sex-selective
massacre) must be recognized as such, condemned, and addressed by
civilian protection agencies and proponents of a 'human security'
agenda in international relations. Men deserve protection against these
abuses in their own right; moreover, addressing gender-based violence
against women and girls in conflict situations is inseparable from
addressing the forms of violence to which civilian men are specifically
vulnerable.
Keywords Gender-based violence • humanitarian • protection •
sexual violence • conscription
Introduction
THE PROTECTION of war-affected civilians is front and center on the
new human security agenda within international institutions (Golberg
& Hubert, 2001). As part of this agenda, organizations engaged in the
protection of civilians have recently begun to address gender-based violence,
both in times of war and in post-conflict situations. In theory, gender-based
violence is 'violence that is targeted at women or men because of their sex
and/or their socially constructed gender roles'.1 It includes, but is not limited
to, various forms of sexual violence.2 Understood in this way, both men and
Women's Caucus, 'Clarification of the Term "Gender"'; available at http://www.ytech.nl/iccwomen/
wigjdraftl /Archives/oldWCGJ/resources/gender.htm (accessed 2 February 2006).
In addition to rape, sexual violence is now understood to include sexual slavery, forced impregnation,
sexual mutilation, and forms of harassment or humiliating treatment such as being forced to disrobe
publicly; see Human Rights Watch (2003).
SECURITY
DIALOGUE
© 2006 PRIO, www.prio.no
SAGE Publications, http://sdi.sagepub.com
Vol. 37(1): 83-103, DOI: 10.1177/0967010606064139
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84 Security Dialogue vol. 37, no. 1, March 2006
women can be victims and perpetrators, and th
owing to configurations of gender ideas that justify
However, with rare exceptions, international e
based violence in conflict situations, and docume
for and evaluating such efforts, have so far tended
kinds of gender-based violence to which wom
adult civilian men and older boys are sometimes
wartime sexual violence, as well as other forms o
kinds of harms have not generally been analyzed
efforts to counteract gender-based violence in conf
The main goal of this article is to problematize
grammatic gap in the human security literatur
of gender-based violence explicitly to the exper
boys in armed conflict. The article uses an inclu
based violence' to discuss a range of harms not
such within the human security community.3 W
scholarship within the field of international rela
contribute not to academic debates but to a c
among human security practitioners of how gen
fests in conflict zones.
I begin with an overview of approaches to gender-based violence within
the network of organizations concerned with the protection of war-affected
civilians. I then highlight three specific forms of gender-based violence
faced by men and boys in conflict situations: sex-selective massacre, forced
recruitment, and sexual violence. All these patterns of violence might be
objectively considered 'gender-based', and all constitute civilian protection
issues, but none appear to date as salient issues on the human security
agenda (Carpenter, 2006). Recognition of this conceptual gap illuminates a
problem with grave implications for humanitarian programming and our
understanding of human security. While an explanation of this is beyond the
scope of the present article, I conclude with some thoughts about the contra
dictory relationship between the 'securitization' of gender-based violence
and the protection of war-affected civilians.
3 For example, the Liu Institute's (2005) Human Security Report 2005 includes a short section describing male
vulnerability to death, indirect death, and displacement in war zones, and it mentions that sex-selective
killing is a form of gender-based violence. It does not, however, address sexual violence or forced con
scription against men, and it does not distinguish violence against civilian men from T^attle deaths'.
Adam Jones's Gendercide Watch website does discuss forced conscription alongside massacre, but his
'gendercide' frame cannot accommodate sexual violence. I argue that a 'gender-based violence' frame is
most appropriate to describe and draw attention to all of these practices.
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R. Charli Carpenter Gender-Based Violence against Men and Boys 85
Constructing 'Gender-Based Violence' in
Conflict Situations
In recent years, gender-based violence in armed conflict has increasingly
been recognized as a human security issue broadly, as manifest in UN
Security Council Resolution 1325, which called 'on all parties to armed con
flict to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based
violence'. Resolution 1325 refers to earlier activities within the international
women's movement that sought to redefine violence against women as a
human rights issue and link it to the emerging 'human security' discourse
(Joachim, 2003). This resolution and subsequent Security Council activities
are only the most recent manifestations of a longer trend toward recon
ceptualizing gender violence both as a security threat in itself and as an
extension of broader security problems such as disarmament.4
By reconceptualizing gender violence not just as a humanitarian concern
but as a 'security' problem, advocates for women's human rights and for the
protection of civilians have strategically connected the discourse of 'high
politics' to the previously overlooked social dynamics underpinning violent
conflict.5 Ole Waever (1995) has dubbed the process of constructing a prob
lem as a security threat 'securitization'. To treat something as a 'security'
issue is to imbue it with a sense ot importance and urgency that legitimizes
the use of special measures outside the usual political process to deal with it'
(Smith, 2005: 34). However, expanding the security agenda in this way has
not necessarily involved a radical reconstitution of the idea of security or,
in this case, of the gender roles that underpin the very logic of gendered
violence. Instead, I argue that much of the 'human security' discourse in
international institutions is based upon a highly gendered understanding of
who is to be secured, characterized by the exclusion of civilian males as
subjects of 'protection' or as victims of 'gender-based violence'.6
According to a recent report from the Reproductive Health for Refugees
Consortium (RHRC), 'gender-based violence is an umbrella term for any
harm that is perpetrated against a person's will; that has a negative impact
on the physical or psychological health, development and identity of the
person, and that is the result of gendered power inequities that exploit dis
tinctions between males and females, among males, and among females
(Ward, 2002: 8-9). Although an 'official' definition of gender-based violence
Even before the emergence of 'women, peace and security' on the international agenda, gender-based vio
lence was defined as a particular programmatic concern in humanitarian settings. For overviews of these
developments, see Mertus (2001); Baines (2005). On feminist redefinitions of security, see Tickner (2001).
For example, the Human Security Network presented a statement emphasizing gender-based violence
under this rubric during the Security Council's debate on 'Women, Peace and Security'; see Jaffer (2004).
This is consistent with the predictions of much feminist scholarship on the gendered construction of
'security' as a service provided to vulnerable 'women and children' by 'good' men charged with their
'protection' against "bad' men; see Yuval-Davis (2004); Tickner (2001).
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86 Security Dialogue vol. 37, no. 1, March 2006
does not exist, and in fact the term is conteste
human security literature are worded along the s
Gender-based violence refers to violence targeted to a p
or that affects them because of their special roles or re
(Benjamin & Khadija, 1998).
The description 'gender-based violence' clarifies that
rooted in prescribed behaviors, norms and attitudes bas
Gender-based violence is violence directed at an individu
his or her specific gender role in society (Human flights
In the context of definitions such as these, most of
men and boys face in conflict situations qualify as g
should be addressed as part of efforts by human
eradicate such violence. As the Liu Institute (2005
and as the Women's Caucus acknowledges, mo
older boys face during wartime - sexual mutilatio
selective massacre - may qualify conceptually as
Moreover, since part of the gender-mainstreamin
assistance has claimed to involve a move away f
'gender' as encompassing relationships among al
i m o rri n a fV* o I idrl roc cinrr rn<-,firr»ir7otÎAr> mon ond on u,„ n-.cio
gender might have been an integral part of this proce
Given the intention behind and inclusiveness of these
interesting that the concept of gender-based violenc
exclusively to the issue of violence against women
sector, even where gender-mainstreaming documen
relational character of gender analysis and to war's eff
'The bottom line', asserts the proceedings of UNH
Lessons Learned Conference, 'is that gender-bas
nantly men's violence towards women and children
World Health Organization conflates gender-based
against women on its website.9 Indeed, various 'fact
violence circulated by NGOs claim that the UN Ge
definition of violence against women is the 'UN
Based Violence',10 though the UN document defines
Women's Caucus, 'Clarification of the Term "Gender"'; available at ht
wigjdrat'tl /Archives/oldWCGJ/resources/gender.htm (accessed 2 Febr
Within the United Nations system, the term 'gender mainstreaming' br
ing the implications for women and men of any planned action, in
programmes, in all areas and at all levels'; see ECOSOC (1997a: 2).
See http://www.who.int/gender/violence/en/ (accessed 30 January 20
For example, see the International Planned Parenthood Federation Fact
Based Violence'; available online at http:/ / www.ippf.org/resource/gbv
2005).
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R. Charli Carpenter Gender-Based Violence against Men and Boys 87
which many scholars and practitioners consider to be only a subse
gender-based violence.11
Even when gender terminology is used in its broader sense, internatio
organizations have seldom given due attention to male victims of gen
based violence. The Background Paper for the Inter-Agency Stand
Committee's statement on gender mainstreaming in humanitarian assist
is illustrative. Although the paper begins by claiming it will summarize
'differential impact of emergencies and crisis situations on women and gir
men and boys', it provides detailed analysis only of the former. There
section on 'Violence Against Women', but not on gender-related abus
males. The report contains three sentences on 'masculinity' as an 'impor
factor when considering boys' and men's involvement in armed militia
their acts of violence against women' (IASC, 1999: 3).The gender-based
lence males themselves experience is not mentioned, except as a means
highlighting women's plight:
In many cases, women and teenage girls in conflict zones are the sole providers
protectors for their families, as wives, mothers and sisters, since their husbands, b
ers, sons and fathers have either been exiled or killed or are away on combat du
(IASC, 1999: 2).
Even the RHRC report cited above, which acknowledges that men and b
can be victims of sexual violence and also briefly lists 'forced conscription
boys' as a form of gender-based violence, largely excludes attention to
ian males:
Although gender-based violence encompasses violence against boys and girls and men
and women, the findings of this report focus almost exclusively on women and girls.
The reasons for this orientation are two-fold: first, gender-based violence programming
targeting men and boy survivors is virtually non-existent among conflict-affected populations;
and second, women and girls are the primary targets of gender-based violence world
wide (Ward, 2002: 4; italics added by author).
The justification is extremely counter-intuitive, since the overall objective of
the report claimed to be 'to provide a baseline narrative account of some of
the major issues, programming efforts, and gaps in programming related to
the prevention of and response to gender-based violence among conflict
affected populations worldwide' (Ward, 2002: 3). The author acknowledges
that attention to men and boys is the single biggest gap in programming, yet
uses this as a reason for excluding them from analysis rather than for calling
attention to their vulnerabilities (Ward, 2002: 16). This is combined with a
statement that women and girls are the primary targets of gender-based
11 According to the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, 'the term "violence
against women" means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical,
sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary
deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life' (United Nations, 1993).
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88 Security Dialogue vol. 37, no. 1, March 2006
violence, an assertion that is impossible to confirm w
on the victimization of men and boys.
I argue that these tendencies in the human security
reconsideration. The need to sensitize humanitarian workers to women's
issues is pressing, and UN efforts to do so represent crucial steps forward.
However, the exclusion of the gender-specific victimization of civilian men
and boys from both the discourse and the programmatic realities of this
agenda is problematic, serving neither to protect the civilian population nor
to promote gender mainstreaming as a policy.
In the following sections, I sketch some of the major forms of violence to
which civilian men and boys are particularly exposed during conflict situa
tions, drawing on secondary sources as well as interviews conducted with
humanitarian practitioners between June 2001 and October 2003. In present
ing the evidence, I aim to make the case both that these forms of abuse
are endemic and that they can correctly be conceptualized as gender-based
violence. I then turn in conclusion to some thoughts about what the failure
to do so tells us about the human security community, in practical and
theoretical terms.
Sex-Selective Massacre as Gender-Based Violence
Men are more vulnerable to getting killed. That's a pretty big deal. Getting sick, getting
raped, getting attacked are all pretty bad things but dead is dead and they are much
more vulnerable to getting killed than women.
Programme Officer, US Office of Disaster Assistance, July 2002
The empirical record suggests that, of all civilians, adult men are most likely
to be targeted in armed conflict. The singling out of men for execution has
now been documented in dozens of ongoing conflicts worldwide.12 More
often than women, young children, or the elderly, military-age men and
adolescent boys are assumed to be 'potential' combatants and are therefore
treated by armed forces - whether engaged in formal battle, in low-intensity
conflict, or in repression of domestic civilian populations - as though they
are legitimate targets of political violence (IASC, 2002: 175; Lindsey, 2001;
Liu Institute, 2005:110).
Though so common historically as to be seen as 'natural', these patterns of
sex-selective violence are gender-based, because they are rooted in assump
tions about male wartime roles, assumptions that both reflect and reproduce
The most comprehensive source for such data is the human rights watchdog group Gendercide Watch,
whose website contains extensive case literature and news reports; see http;//www.gendercide.org.
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R. Charli Carpenter Gender-Based Violence against Men and Boys 89
gendered hierarchies prevalent in both peacetime and war.13 Althoug
primary data on the motivations of belligerents who massacre men h
not been collected for this study, several interrelated explanations can
gleaned from secondary literature on the subject.
Some authors have emphasized the property status of women relative
men (Ehrenreich, 1997; Niarchos, 1995). If the point of killing is to elimin
a human community, only the humans must be killed. Their chattels (dom
ticated animals, belongings, women, children) can simply be appropriat
booty. A related belief suggested by some scholars is that men, but
women, are assumed to carry ethnicity (Wing & Merchan, 1993). There
eliminating an ethnic group only requires the destruction of male member
women, who simply absorb the ethnicity of those who 'own' them and fat
the children to whom they give birth, can be appropriated as reproduc
vessels (Allen, 1996). Although this explanation would only hold in ca
where target groups were delineated according to ethnicity, it does ap
ili nn 1 ir
1^ VV/ U i. V^/V/X V- XX VXXL
African Rights, collaborators with the genocidaires persuaded them to spare
women because they did not have an ethnicity - 'the bad ones were men'
(African Rights, 1995a: 692) - and female survivors reported being told they
were safe because 'sex has no ethnic group' (Human Rights Watch, 1999:
296). In Rwanda, as well, some Tutsi women were transferred as 'wives' to
the Hutu genocidaires after their husbands and children were killed (Baines,
1999).14 In some cases, sex-selective mercy can be explained by systems of
reciprocity. Lindner (2004: 47), discussing women's relative security and
freedom of movement during warfare in what she terms 'honor societies',
describes a 'kind of contract between the warring parties not to rape each
other's women' during the warfare in Lebanon.
Perhaps one of the most convincing explanations for sex-selective massacre
is the gendered way in which the concept of the 'civilian' has been con
structed in international society (Carpenter, 2006). In particular, the codified
laws requiring belligerents to distinguish between combatants and civilians
on the basis of a person's actual participation in an armed conflict are
interpreted in practice according to the use of sex as a shortcut to distinction.
Grossman (1995: 174V who has rnnrhir+pH an pvfpnchrp cfnHv rm fho
logical processes by which soldiers rationalize killing, suggests as much
when he writes: 'If a soldier kills a child, a woman, or anyone who does not
represent a potential threat, then he has entered the realm of murder (as
opposed to a legitimate, sanctioned combat kill) and the rationalization
process becomes quite difficult'.
13 Paradigmatic historical examples include the razing of Melos and the sacking of Carthage; see Chalk &
Johnasson (1990); Jones (2000).
14 However, as Baines argues, even this de-ethnicized construction of sex broke down in the later stages of
the genocide, when Tutsi women were also constructed as a 'threat'.
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30 Security Dialogue vol. 37, no. 1, March 2006
There is much evidence of this rationale toda
insurgency operations. Rummel (1994: 329) repo
initially sought to crush the East Pakistani in
conducting 'sweeps ... of young men who wou
bodies of youths would be found in fields, floa
army camps'. In Rwanda, where genocidaires to
cover which were boys to be killed (African Righ
blast of the genocide was accompanied by an i
'mistake' of the 1959 revolution, when male ch
to return as guerilla fighters' (Jones, 2002: 73).
A counterpoint to the argument that sex-selec
is gender-based would be to say that men ar
women to take up arms and belligerents simply
in eliminating young women. Yet, it is notable
pate in armed conflicts: the Liu Institute has r
15% of government armed service personnel ar
in some guerilla groups (Liu Institute, 2005; Gol
& Warnock, 1995), and in many conflicts larg
attempt to remain in the civilian sector (Kidron &
cases, however, such patterns of atrocity hold,
assumptions of gender, rather than purely stra
legitimate considerations, that account for this pa
ple, in Colombia, where the Revolutionary
(FARC) consist of between 30% and 40% wome
of rebel suspects by the government and righ
continued to predominantly target men (H
Gendercide Watch, 2006). Conversely, in the fo
conflict characterized by mass resistance to m
men on all sides (Wilmer, 2002), adult men and
most vulnerable to summary execution,15 and
tarian workers in the region consistently desc
Bosnian Serb Army authorities that every bat
combatant and therefore a legitimate target (U
The case for sex-selective massacre should no
Kuper (1981) calls 'root and branch' genocide t
victim population stands in stark contrast to
limited killings particularly associated with
counter-insurgency operations. Moreover, cou
have died and continue to die in war, particula
such as starvation, disease, and indiscriminate
probabilistic sense, however, adult men and old
15 One witness reported 'a paramilitary gunman announcing,
alone ..as for the Muslim men, he ran his finger across his throa
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R. Charli Carpenter Gender-Based Violence against Men and Boys 91
females and younger children to be targeted outright by enemy forces.
Gendered assumptions about wartime roles explain this tendency and there
fore need to be specifically addressed by human rights advocates working in
the area of civilian protection in armed conflict.
Forced Recruitment as Gender-Based Violence
Conscription's often an issue. Officially refugees were not allowed to cross the Afghani
border into Pakistan last year, only 'vulnerable' groups, only women and children. But
in fact the men were perhaps the most vulnerable and the women themselves were most
concerned about the men who had the risk of being conscripted to the Taliban at this
time.
UNHCR Official, Evaluation and Policy Unit, August 2002
vviuie iurueu reuruiiiiieiu ui uiuiureii is increasingly cuiiuemiieu, rne lurœu
recruitment of adults, a practice largely targeted at lower-class males, is st
considered legitimate and is neither condemned nor addressed by civi
protection organizations. Although it is gradually becoming accepted th
right of conscientious objection exists, derived from Article 18 of th
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, this is only applica
to individuals who make the case that their religious beliefs prohibit killing
(OHCHR, 1993). The right not to be subject to the denial of fundamen
human rights implicit in military service itself remains a gap in internatio
law.16 As a UNICEF official told me unequivocally in a 2002 interview:
We don't protect men from forced conscription. Forced conscription is not a hum
rights violation. Forced conscription of children is. We will advocate against the recr
ment of children. But every government has a right to conscript men unless they h
it in their laws that they shouldn't.
This has meant that there is very little protection within the humanitar
community for civilian men attempting to flee conscription. Some pro
tions exist in the refugee regime for draft evaders 'who fear persecution o
political grounds' (UNHCR, 2002:11) or who are fleeing a conflict charac
ized by massive humanitarian law violations (USCR, 1992), but the act
forcible recruitment itself is not considered a form of political repress
or slavery, and the concept of 'gender-based persecution' as grounds f
asylum has been articulated primarily with reference to the kinds of p
cution faced by women.
The United States Selective Service System website, describing the basis on which claims for conscientio
objector status may be affirmed, warns that 'a man's reasons for not wanting to participate in a war m
not be based on politics, expediency, or self-interest'; see http://www.sss.gov/FSconsobj.htm (acce
30 January 2006).
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92 Security Dialogue vol. 37, no. 1, March 2006
These international norms play out in context-s
protection of men and boys from forced recruitm
Yugoslavia. Contrary to the notion shared by bel
national community that most of the adult men wer
hostilities, approximately 700,000 people had fled
the war's onset, and over 9,000 charges of deserti
alone (Wilmer, 2002: 157). The same year, the Uni
Refugees considered the question of whether the
to draft evaders during the breakup of the form
pointed out that 'deserters generally engender little
context. . . the UN Handbook on Procedures for Determ
holds that states have a sovereign right to conscr
1992: 21-24). Given such prevailing norms, the case
forced recruitment is a form of violence - indeed, of
be condemned by governments and, as gender-ba
addressed by humanitarian practitioners operating
First, is forced recruitment 'violence'? Involuntary
military service through both actual and threaten
objectors are harassed even in societies that recognize
Among countries that prosecute 'draft dodgers',
fines and the death penalty (ECOSOC, 1997b). In t
may be fined and imprisoned for up to five years, a
it the risk of male-on-male sexual violence in pris
2001). Elsewhere in the world, the use of press g
dodgers into serving is common (Jones, 2004). In
system of extortion is in place whereby families desp
out of the military are forced to make cash paym
(Human Rights Watch, 2002b); in Iraq, the proble
so severe after the 1991 Gulf War that the Hussei
policy of mutilating captured deserters by removi
hospitals (Erdem, 1994).
However violent it may be, is forced recruitmen
that it is so in two respects. First, it is gender-b
selective - that is, adult men are typically targeted in
and even younger boys (though this is changing in
to a lesser degree. In the USA, for example, youn
refusing to register with the selective service, forgo
such as grants for college education. Similarly, Israel,
well as men, allows women but not men a limited
objection (War Resisters International, 2003).
Second, forced recruitment is gender-based inso
naturalized by collectively held assumptions ab
nationalism, and militarism. As several feminist s
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R. Charli Carpenter Gender-Based Violence against Men and Boys 93
the emergence of mass conscription in the early modern period su
imposed the 'able-bodied adult male' onto the concept of the militariz
state (Steans, 1998). 'The hierarchical order of gender relations was ideo
cally underpinned by the designation of arms-bearing man as the prote
of weak and defenseless woman' (Hagemann, 2000: 189). Gendered hier
chies result in men being pressed into military service, but masculinized an
male-dominated military institutions in turn reify gender hierarchies
'women and children' are made defenseless by their exclusion from the bear
ing of arms, and as disproportions of male soldiers create the appearanc
a masculinized nation-at-arms naturally willing (rather than forced) to figh
In conflict situations, such as the Balkans, this in turn justifies the percept
that men are threats, which invites sex-selective patterns of atrocity again
men who manage to remain in the civilian sector.
The uncritical assumption that adult men should be required to fight f
their country when asked raises questions about conflict-prevention policie
particularly in areas wnere tite international community is attempting
prevent the violent outbreak of ethnic or civil war. If adult men are de
the right to remain in the civilian sector, they may have little choice but t
join the armed forces. Moreover, if, as civilians, adult men are denied
protection afforded other demographic groups, they may reluctantly take
arms simply to protect themselves. Such policies are counterproductive
conflict-prevention strategies, which have a stake in reducing the number
individuals actively engaged in violent conflict.
In short, forced recruitment of adult males deprives civilian men of th
liberty and civilian families of their male kin, while reproducing the s
gender structures that naturalize gendered perceptions of threat and p
other civilian males at risk of lethal violence. It is thus a form of gender-bas
violence that should be addressed by human rights advocates engaged in
protection of civilians and the mitigation of violent conflict.
Sexual Violence Against Males as
Gender-Based Violence
I imagine there are quite a lot of cases in which young men are being abused and no one
is talking about it. Especially in conflict situations in certain countries one does not talk
about the abuse of young men.
Swedish Red Cross Worker, May 2002
Sexual violence in armed conflict has typically been defined as an issue
affecting women.17 Even those authors who admit that men also get raped
See, for example, Copelon (1994); MacKinnon (1994).
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94 Security Dialogue vol. 37, no. 1, March 2006
often mention this only in passing, and often
'Yes, men do get raped, but it is usually by o
frequently than is the case for women,' writ
menting on the Foca Indictment at the Intern
the former Yugoslavia. Similarly, a recent repor
without any systematic data that while me
killed than women, women are far more vuln
Institute, 2005:110). In interviews carried out wi
I was often told that women comprised the vast
these same practitioners told me they were
that assessed the extent of men's vulnerability
Despite the tendency to treat sexual violence
women, men and boys have historically been
for sexual violence in particular and gender-s
attention of the human rights community. As Z
both the forms this violence takes and the pa
cates are very different for men than for w
I want to draw attention to and 'reframe' se
sexual violence that are recognized in the lit
specifically as the gender-based atrocities that th
Rape and Sexual Mutilation
Perhaps the most prevalent form of sexual vi
boys involves a combination of rape and sexu
tration of male prisoners and enslavement o
women for sexual purposes has been a notable
out history (Ehrenreich, 1997). Such acts, alo
'the enemy's' women, are a means of using b
gendered violence to 'feminize' and thereb
(Lentin, 1997).
More recently, such crimes appear most like
during times of armed conflict, alongside oth
Final Report of the Commission of Expert
numerous cases of sexual assault against men
Herzegovina, primarily in detention camps, w
tion, circumcision or other forms of sexua
prisoners were forced to perform sexual act
prisoners, and there were reports that some pri
the testicles of other prisoners. One incident
up naked while Serb women from outside undre
prisoner had an erection, his penis was cut of
suffering electric shocks to the scrotum (Ba
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R. Charli Carpenter Gender-Based Violence against Men and Boys 95
being humiliated and mutilated, men may be raped anally in detention o
forced to sexually service male guards. Cases of male rape have also bee
reported in the war in Sierra Leone (Human Rights Watch, 2003). Adolescent
boys appear to be the most vulnerable (Nordstrom, 1999).
The human rights community has been slow to label such violence again
males as sexual violence specifically. For example, Jones & del Zotto (2002
23) have observed that although sexual mutilation of men was reported i
the context of the Bosnian concentration camps, it has not been prosecuted a
rape or sexual violence at the Hague tribunal, being described rather as
'torture' or 'degrading treatment', and witness-protection initiatives unde
taken by the tribunal have identified only female victims of rape as in need
of protection and psycho-social attention.
Similarly, while the humanitarian assistance community has taken stride
in addressing the physical and psycho-social needs of female rape survivor
it has been noted that services for male survivors of such violence in conflict
situations are nearly non-existent (Ward, 2002: 4). This needs to be changed,
and recognizing that men are also victims, as well as the main perpetrators,18
of sexual violence in armed conflict should be an important component of
any agenda to address gender-based violence.
Civilian Men Forced To Rape
Another common form of sexual violence to which men have been exposed
in time of war, one that is seldom recognized as such and for which a
suitable label has not even been invented,19 occurs when a man is forced to
sexually assault another person, often a family member. In detention, male
prisoners have been forced to rape or mutilate other prisoners. In Bosnia,
there were cases of fathers and sons detained together, forced at gunpoint to
anally rape each other (Bassiouni, 1994: 8). Other testimonies from the
Balkans referred to fathers and brothers forced to rape their female relatives
(Robson, 1993). In other wartime contexts, such as the occupation of Nanking
during World War II or more recent violence in Africa and South Asia,
fathers have been forced to rape their daughters, brothers to rape their
sisters, or sons to rape their mothers (Chang, 1997). According to a Human
Rights Watch report on sexual violence in Sierra Leone:
The rebels have forced civilians to commit incest, one of the biggest taboos in any
society. One survivor witnessed the RUF trying to force a brother to rape his sister in
This is a probabilistic statement only: women have also been involved in acts of sexual violence. The
Bassiouni Report documents cases of Serb women participating in sexual torture of Bosniac men; see
Bassiouni (1994: 8). During the Rwandan genocide, there have been numerous cases of Hutu women
encouraging and abetting mass rape and sexual enslavement, and a woman has been convicted of
planning and fomenting systematic rape; see African Rights (1995b).
The term 'forced incest' is sometimes used, but this only captures cases in which men are forced to rape
family members, rather than, for example, other male prisoners in detention.
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96 Security Dialogue vol. 37, no. 1, March 2006
Sambanya village in Koinadugu district. When the brothe
shot him. Fathers were forced to rape their daughters.
naked in front of their daughters and vice versa. (Human
Some may argue that it is incongruous to claim
family members are victims rather than perpetrato
only the 'passive' partner in a sexual assault
victim, regardless of elements of coercion involv
the exercise of power, however, we cannot ignor
assault is used against men as well as women
gendered constructions of protector/protected role
izing entire societies. Although there has been
psycho-social reactions of men to these forms of
that such acts are deeply humiliating, violating priv
family relationships, and other cultural norms. T
familial healing after such trauma will depend on
the women and the men who have been subject t
Secondary Victimization: Rape of Women as Psycho
They gathered five young girls together, including my f
put them in the back room .. . one of them opened the d
of the girls were. One of them took us and lined us up righ
'Don't you want to see what we do to your daughters?' W
alone but they said, 'If you continue to talk, we will bur
of you.' A rebel had his gun pointed at us the whole tim
the door. My daughter was crying but they covered her m
Interview with a male survivor of the 1999 invasion of Fr
cited in Human Rights Watch (20
From a gender-based violence perspective, it is
psycho-social harm to men of being forced to wi
their female relatives in time of war. The literatur
women has often emphasized the assault of w
municate messages to enemy men (Brownmiller,
very little specific effort to recognize the trauma o
relatives of the victims. Indeed, the emphasis h
redefining sexual violence as a crime against a w
contradistinction to a traditional construction o
men's property rights (Aafjes & Goldstein, 19
advance in our understanding of gender-based viole
the fundamental fact that men are also affected by
Just as women are deeply harmed by the loss of m
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R. Charli Carpenter Gender-Based Violence against Men and Boys 97
(a point often noted in the gender and armed conflict literature), and just as
parents may be victimized by watching their children suffer, the psycho
social impact for an adult man of watching a female relative raped and/or
killed can be understood itself as a form of secondary torture, stemming from
the manipulation of gender-based roles and identities as a form of psycho
logical warfare. I concur with Anne Tierney Goldstein (1993:22), who writes:
Men, too, are injured by the sexual assault of women for reasons untainted by offensive,
antiquated notions of chastity and ownership. To watch helplessly as someone you love
is tortured may be as bad or worse than being tortured yourself, and international law
should be able to reach and punish such harms.
To those who would respond that taking aim at the effect of rape on male
bystanders risks obfuscating the fundamental physical harm to women
themselves, it should be pointed out that a number of studies suggest that for
many female rape survivors, it is not the rape itself but the social stigmatiza
tion in the aftermath that constitutes the deepest trauma (Nikolic-Ristanovic,
2000). To the extent that men's experience of this can be validated and
psycho-social support provided, it may be possible to alleviate those side
effects, encourage more progressive constructions of rape survivors, and
promote post-atrocity healing among rape victims and male family mem
bers. Additionally, to the extent that 'strategic rape' of women is intended to
be a psycho-social attack on men of a group, addressing the psycho-social
consequences could undermine the utility of rape as a strategy of war and
thus serve as a prevention mechanism.
Conclusion: Implications for Human Security
Discourse and Practice
This article has argued that international efforts to address gender-based
violence in the context of the civilian protection agenda have relied on the
assumption that women and girls are the major victims of such violence,
ignoring the fact that, in conflict situations, adult men and adolescent boys
also face major risks of abuse and violence based upon culturally constructed
notions about gender roles. In particular, I have argued that the human secu
rity proponents have failed to adequately recognize, condemn, or respond
to adult men's risk of summary execution, sexual violence or mutilation,
and conscription as a human rights abuse and a human security problem.
How might the human security community begin to address gender-based
violence against men and boys in conflict zones? This would necessitate,
first, a change in the way that human rights data is collected and interpreted.
There is a remarkable lack of gender-specific data on atrocities in complex
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38 Security Dialogue vol. 37, no. 1, March 2006
emergencies.20 There is a general understanding
than men to be displaced or sexually assaulted,
than women to be massacred, detained, or rec
difficult to confirm or study these general patt
the patterns by context without the collection o
experiences of both men and women in comp
while it is plausible that women and girls compr
victims, the truth is we have no means of as
disaggregated prevalence data.
Understanding the proportion of adult men,
arms in a particular context is also important in
civilian population and the particular gender
may be exposed. It is common to claim in the
the vast majority of civilians are women and chi
a marginal category in terms of civilian prote
relevant numbers will vary greatly depending
and Eritrea, the combatant population also in
women or children. Data may also be a usefu
received by those humanitarian practitioner
argue with belligerents on behalf of civilian m
was that such men were potential combatants
the protection of the civilian immunity norm
1997). Possibly, available statistics on the pro
arms in a particular context could provide b
tarian workers, whose efforts to advocate
civilians are only as good as the normative an
are able to make. Data on male deaths in war
cized by the Liu Institute, need to be disaggr
deaths' and massacre of civilian males in ord
assumptions.
Finally, men's needs for culturally appropria
social support, and perhaps better measures
addressed in humanitarian programming, in t
mainstreaming agenda that takes into accoun
civilian population. There is some evidence tha
assists men, but can promote the well-bein
generally in conflict zones and can assist in in
gender-based violence. In Tanzania, for exam
Committee found that 'encourag[ing men] to
of violence and how it was directed toward t
20 A good example of such an approach is the report on war
Physicians for Human Rights (1999).
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R. Charli Carpenter Gender-Based Violence against Men and Boys 99
. .. helped men to understand how women experience violence because th
are women' (UNHCR, 2001: 9). When men's experiences of gender-base
violence are named and validated, this arguably can provide a jumpingpoint
for including them as partners in efforts to reduce other forms of g
der-based violence in conflict situations.
Yet, concerns are sometimes raised that naming gender-based violence
against men as such will only draw attention away from women's issues. As
one UNHCR gender-mainstreaming official told me, 'I recognize our dis
course is a bit outdated. But it's very difficult because as soon as you stop
talking about women, women are forgotten. Men want to see what will they
gain out of this gender business, so you have to be strategic.' As Chant &
Gutmann (2001: 19) describe in a recent analysis commissioned by Oxfam,
one of the main reasons for the marginalization of men's issues in gender
mainstreaming is the well-founded fear that this will divert already limited
funds away from women-focused initiatives.
jljli 111. J » iv. » * / Li. IV t.iii|yiLU0XL> iiu_ii_>L. IVillUXll vil ^CiLUCi/ 1UULCJI XX ICIX L Uli IX LCI Vf UUl
gender must be defined inclusively so as not to remain synonymous only
with women. In short, I suggest that human security advocates and those
seeking to address gender-based violence must take seriously the gender
mainstreaming instruments that have been developed to assess the needs
and vulnerabilities of populations across lines of gender, ethnicity, class, age,
and other social distinctions, rather than reifying an essentialized notion
of women as victims and men as perpetrators that feeds into all forms of
gender-based violence endemic in war-affected areas.
R. Charli Carpenter holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Oregon and is
currently Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public
and International Affairs. She has published widely, has held numerous grants for her
work on gender and humanitarian action, and is the author of Innocent Women and
Children: Gender, Norms and the Protection of Civilians (Ashgate, 2006). The author grate
fully acknowledges the assistance of the University of Oregon's Center for the Study of
Women in Society, whose funds supported the research on which this project is based.
Simon Reich, Phyllis Coontz, Lene Hansen, Terrell Carver, Adam Jones, Helen Kinsella,
and several anonymous reviewers provided helpful feedback on an earlier version of this
article. The author can be contacted at charli@pitt.edu.
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