Ending Impunity for Rape in War: Dreaming of Utopia
The International Journal of Criminal Justice special issue on sexual violence perpetrated in and through armed conflict (the commonly used acronym is CRSV, which stands for Conflict Related Sexual Violence) showcases the UN team of Experts on CRSV as they pursue accountability and redress of wrongs. Some of the contributors to this special issue participated in a highly recommended Webinar, which highlights the Special Issue’s major contributions. [Opinio Juris on the Webinar].
Creating international law that prohibits sexual violence in armed conflict is a major achievement in human rights. The development of international law against CRSV and the effort to enforce this law relies on actions at the level of the United Nations. Thus we can point to United Nations Security Resolution 1325 (in 2000), UN mandate on CRSV in 2009, UN Res 1888 stating that CRSV rights violations of women and girls threatens international peace and security and impedes gender equality and the restoration of peace, and UN Res 2467 establishing a survivor-centered approach for relevant programs and policies. Res 2467 set the stage for field deployment of women’s protection advisers, seeks to establish accountability, access to justice and redress of crimes.
Enforcement of this law, however, cannot succeed unless and until we confront the role of conservative religions in teaching female subordination and in supporting laws, customs, practices, and stereotypes that enable the intimate disempowerment and violent oppression of women and girls.
RALI notes the assiduous avoidance of religion in any of the discussions in this special issue of International Journal of Criminal Justice. Thus, a split occurs at the line of demarcation between religion and terrorism.
This demarcation between religious dogma and terroristic ideology is left unremarked by this team of UN Experts, and yet whatever type of infringement of women and girls’ rights one considers, roots are found in conservative religious dogma. The misogyny preached in conservative religions fosters daily dynamics of subjugation in conservative families. For women and girls thus subjugated, religious dogma and terrorism are intimate partners.
Mary Daly teaches us in Beyond God the Father, that this violence is inherent in the myth of Adam and Eve.
There is an unwritten rule that enforces this absence of religion from the analysis of CRSV or, looking more broadly, in the UN-based discussion of women’s rights in the CEDAW. The reasons for this absence are at once deeply curious and also completely self-evident.
Religious liberty is at the heart of the human rights project through which the UN legal regime of rights-based law is constructed.
Add to that primacy of religious freedom the fact that conservative religions all over the world teach the subordination of women and girls.
The combination of these two basic facts yields a large area of “unspeakable” truths, experience, cultural patterns, laws, habits, practices, and assumptions.
Call them what you will. What we know is that conservative religion preaches the domination of women and girls. Conservative religions teach that women and girls are worth less than their masculine counterparts.
Violence arises out of this type of preaching. Indeed, violence is rooted in the fundamental epistemology that generates such religious discourse.
Insofar as the eradication of CRSV is pursued while conservative religions are upheld and encouraged, real progress against CRSV is unlikely.
RALI asks: in what set of intellectual or juridical circumstances can we honestly discuss the role of conservative religious dogma in promoting cultures of violence against women and girls?
RALI notes the CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and Girls) ban on gender-based “stereotypes” has not been construed to reach religious institutions, religious texts, religious dogma or religious law.
