Landmines data. Rape data Susannah Sirkin, 26 May 2011 How do we define sexual violence and how do we define conflict? If our definitions are not clear, our data will be less powerful. And yet, we are dealing with an important continuum from domestic violence to rape within relationships, to “transactual” sex in conflict zones by military abusing power, to individual cases of rape by soldiers and police to mass rape inflicted as a deliberate strategy or war or an element of the crime of genocide. We see rape in “conflict” in the post-election violence in Kenya and as an element of the crime of genocide in Darfur. But we also see rampant and unchecked sexual violence in Juarez, Mexico in the context of the “drug wars.” We can be both precise and inclusive as we scan the different contexts in which sexual violence in conflict occurs.
WOMEN FORGING A NEW SECURITY: ENDING SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN CONFLICT | Montebello, Canada: May 23-25, 2011
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