Wartime Rape

In the mid-1990s, the recognition of systematic use of rape during the wars in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia garnered increased public attention. However, rape has been used as a strategic and specific weapon in the course of wars throughout history. In the 20th century alone, wartime rape was highly prevalent and perpetrated in many countries. During the Rape of Nanjing in 1937, Japanese soldiers raped an estimated 20,000 to 80,000 Chinese women. They also systematically raped women in Korea and the Philippines. Also in World War II, when the Soviet Union's Red Army invaded Berlin, soldiers committed between 20,000 and 100,000 rapes. U.S. soldiers have also perpetrated rape of Vietnamese women during war, most notably during the My Lai massacre. Rape has also been documented in the war for independence in Bangladesh and the civil wars in Liberia, Uganda, and Rwanda. Following the atrocities in World War II, the Geneva Convention of 1949 stated that rape in war was a prohibited attack on individual women. Though this ruling officially considers wartime rape to be a form of torture, cruel treatment, and violence to the life of the victim, it was described as an attack on an individual woman's honor, not a violation of rights, and thus not a “grave breach” governed by universal jurisdiction. The implication of this was that sexual assault and wartime rape was seen as an individual act or a “by-product” of war rather than an organized form of warfare.

This perspective shifted after reports of the estimated 20,000 women who were raped in Yugoslavia combined with approximately 250,000 rapes in Rwanda. Feminist activists, the media, and scholars brought international attention not just to the high rates of rape during these wars (e.g., the prevalence of wartime rape is estimated to be 300% to 400% higher than the prevalence of U.S. civilian rape) but also recognition that rape in war is more violent than domestic rape. Rape in war often occurs in conjunction with other violent acts to women or their families, such as being murdered, left to die, imprisoned, raped multiple times, or family members being beaten or killed. With this evidence, the war crimes tribunals of the United Nations began to prosecute rape as a “grave” war crime in 1994.

Wartime rape serves a different function than domestic rape does. It has been widely noted that rape as a weapon of war is used for political reasons. Rape in this context often occurs publicly, terrorizes the community as a whole, and is used to enforce the authority of the invading military. Further, women may be viewed as property and thus considered part of the “spoils” or reward soldiers can claim. Thus, it has been posited that wartime rape is a form of demoralization and emasculation of one's opponents as raping the civilians of their country “proves” that they have failed in the basic duty to protect the women (their property). Another purpose of wartime rape, especially during war among different ethnic groups, is intentional impregnation with the goal of “ethnic cleansing.” Finally, when women are murdered, left to die, or are badly wounded after being raped, this act takes the form of genocide. Wartime rape, viewed through this political lens, is a crime against the women who are attacked and against the defending soldiers, their community, and the overall political structure of the invaded country or region. In this sense, the degradation of women is both the goal and the means by which invading military can publicly assert dominance.

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