Browsing by Subject "conflict-related sexual violence"

This thesis examines silence and silencing that surrounds conflict-related sexual violence in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina. The war in Bosnia in 1992-1995 was marked by the systematic use of conflict-related sexual violence. Women were targeted by the use of conflict-related sexual violence with the goal of achieving genocide. The post-conflict period in Bosnia provides the context for this research. The theoretical discussion of this thesis consists of two parts, the first consisting of theorisation on the use of conflict-related sexual violence. The second consists of theorisation on silence, silencing of women and the silence surrounding conflict-related sexual violence. The research material consists of the five thematic interviews. The interviewees were chosen based on their primary field and experience, ranging from international politics, the UN women, peace and security agenda, women’s rights, human rights, conflicts, to gender-based violence. All of the interviewees are Finnish. Qualitative content analysis was utilised to analyse the research material. The theoretical discussion of this research provided strong guidance in the analysis of the research material. The analysis of the research indicates that silence and silencing manifest themselves in multifaceted ways. Survivors are silenced due to the shame and stigma associated with conflict-related sexual violence, as well as due to trauma. The analysis indicates that conflict-related sexual violence is an unspeakable war crime. The silence surrounding conflict-related sexual violence was also demonstrated to impact society, as the unspeakability of the events of war was shown to prevent society from facilitating a dialogue on the issue. The research material also illustrated how silence can be understood as a representation. The suicides of some survivors of conflict-related sexual violence were represented as the ultimate silence. The neglect to implement policy and legislation on the part of Bosnian politicians was also demonstrated to constitute a form of silencing. Thirdly, the exclusion of women and thus survivors of conflict-related sexual violence from post-conflict processes, such as peace negotiations, was shown to be a form of silencing, as the exclusion of women signifies the exclusion of women’s issues from the negotiations. Finally, impunity for conflict-related sexual violence was demonstrated to be a form of silencing, as impunity cultivates the silence surrounding conflict-related sexual violence. Ultimately, the research results demonstrate that the impact of the silence and silencing that surrounds conflict-related sexual violence in post-conflict Bosnia is an impediment to how survivors, their families, society, as well as the whole nation, has been able to deal with the past experiences of conflict-related sexual violence that took place during the war.