AFRICA: How to Counter Rape as a Weapon of War

The incentive to use rape as a weapon of war in Africa would be less if more was done to ensure men were involved in discussions about gender equality, claims the director of a human rights project in Uganda.

In an interview with Christian Aid, Chris Dolan, director of the Refugee Law Project, based at Makerere University, in Kampala, Uganda, said: "If gender equality were a reality, the incentive to use rape of men and women as a weapon of war would be reduced. Unfortunately much of the gender work done to date has presented 'gender' as essentially a discussion about women's rights, rather than a conversation about the ramifications for both sexes. As such, most men in most communities believe gender has nothing to do with them."

He added: "It is quite amazing how, once the terms of a debate have been set - in this case about sexual violence being something affecting women only - it becomes impossible and even unthinkable to discuss other realities."

Research by Dolan and his colleagues has particularly focused on cases of sexual violence against men, a taboo issue rarely acknowledged by governments, health agencies and non-government organisations (NGOs).

"At a practical level, most institutions do not consider sexual violence against men and, as a result, have no service provision for them. Clinics, hospitals and aid agencies dealing with sexual violence need to make provision for male victims and make it feasible for men to report without exposing themselves to public shame... Counsellors need to be trained on how to ask the right questions," says Dolan.

Research by Dolan found that male rape has been a factor in various conflicts across Africa, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, although it is rarely reported by those who have been attacked because of the associated shame and stigma. In some cases men have been forced to rape "the enemy" or be killed themselves. Men not able to penetrate another person often resort to using pieces of wood or bottles.

Interestingly, in Uganda, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which waged war in northern Uganda for more than 20 years, was understood not to advocate male rape during the conflict. Dolan said the rape of men "has consistently been attributed to members of the Ugandan army, not the LRA".

Rape is "substantially under-reported" by women, but men almost never report it, said Dolan.

Stigma and shame

While women face the shame and stigma of attack, which can result in being ostracised from their communities, Dolan said research he carried out recently in DRC on community perceptions of sexual violence suggested the shame was worse for a man because of the higher status men are afforded in their communities.

"It is hard to imagine how the stigma could be worse, given the way in which women who have survived rape are often marginalised and even expelled from their families. Nonetheless, that is the perception and it seems to be closely linked to two things.

"Firstly, prevailing patriarchal gender norms continue to place men above women; the obvious result of being placed higher is that you have further to fall, both in your own eyes and in the eyes of those watching. Indeed, in many places for a man to be raped is effectively for him to be reduced to a woman, a status he has been brought up to believe is inferior.

"Secondly, many respondents felt women were built by nature to be penetrated in a way that men were not and that their rape was therefore somehow less of a violation."

If men did seek help after being raped, they often did so months after the attack, when it was often more difficult to deal with the physical and psychological effects. And while women who have been raped are often accused of wanting it, men are often accused of being gay, a particularly uncomfortable label in some African states where homosexuality is illegal. Dolan says one NGO in eastern DRC reported that six of the 16 cases of male rape it had worked with had either died of health complications or committed suicide.

The Refugee Law project provides counselling to victims of sexual and political violence. In 2008 it released the documentary Gender against Men, which explored sexual and gender-based violence against men in the conflicts of the Great Lakes region. The aim of the documentary was to raise awareness of the issue and to encourage more support for victims.

Little support seems to exist for men raped in conflict. While the few places that specialise in dealing with sexual violence cases will take male victims, the numbers are very low. This, says Dolan, is partly a reflection of the under-reporting of such cases, and partly because there is nothing to indicate to victims that these places are open to men as well as women.

"Male victims, just like female victims, should be able to access medical care in which the service providers are informed and have set aside any residual moral judgements," said Dolan. "The only priority of medical staff should be the victim's dignity and recovery."