The rights of women: Rape is rarely a sexual crime

Women’s rights around the world are an important indicator of global well being.

A major global women’s rights treaty was ratified by the majority of the world’s nations a few decades ago. Yet there are still areas and issues that need to be addressed.

For instance, women often work more than men, yet are paid less, and opportunities for promotion are often harder to come by for women.

Girls and women suffer disproportionately because of poverty. They are often left to fend for themselves and children, unable to move around, take job opportunities, make the most of life.

Girls and women are more likely than men to suffer sexual violence and rape. When they do, they are often treated badly, as if the crime against them was somehow their fault. Globally, statistics show that it is likely that men who rape will get away with their crimes, while the victims pick up the pieces of shattered lives and cope with the trauma, the shame and the humiliation. Often, raped women are treated badly by societies that see them as wanton and immoral.

Worse, violence against women, especially in conflict zones, is often not treated as a priority or given enough attention by the powers-that-be, who are predominantly men. For example, in the Congo over the last twelve years, about 200,000 women and girls, some as young as eight years old, have been gang raped by marauding soldiers. The soldiers see this act as a way to shame, humiliate, subjugate and punish women and their families and communities.

To date, only 27 soldiers have been brought to book for their actions. These low conviction rates will continue unless and until the authorities see rape as a crime against humanity rather than a crime against women.

Whether in a conflict zone or not, rape is rarely a sexual crime. Rape is an assertion of power, of control, a crime of aggression. If we start to see it as such, rather than dwelling on the sexual nature of the act, perhaps those in a position to promote justice, understanding, punishment for the perpetrator and healing for the victim would pay it more than the lip service that is all too frequently the current response.

Rape in conflict zones fits the definition of torture as laid out in the Geneva Convention. If soldiers that rape were charged with torture, war crimes and crimes against humanity, perhaps the arrest and conviction rates would rise and rape would be treated with the seriousness it deserves.