Démocratie

Southern Sudan
Awak Bior, Project Coordinator in Southern Sudan, writes about the problem which exceeds the
borders of SS - the care of victims of sexual violence. Although most of them are women, the men
are not excluded from being victims.
A taboo within a taboo…
Sexual violence against men and boys
“[...] We should never forget that in the pathology of sexual violence in conflict the desire to humiliate
and inflict pain is not always women-specific.”(1)
Whether society is comfortable with this fact or not, men and boys are also victims of sexual violence. In the emerging
debate about sexual violence in the humanitarian arena, this is a fact which should not, indeed must not, go unexamined.
One of the reasons that the ‘victim hood’ of women in sexual violence is so readily accepted – but, one must note,
almost completely neglected in terms of research, funding and humanitarian interventions – is that societies throughout
the world adopt a somewhat “sexist ” view of sexual violence. It is harder to accept that men can be brutalised in
this way than it is to accept that women, history’s perpetual victims and villains of sexuality, suffer from sexual violence.
Whilst the subject of sexual violence against women and girls is reasonably well known and relatively well documented
in many countries throughout the world, the subject of sexual violence against men and boys remains almost
completely untouched, particularly within a post-conflict setting. It is repeatedly stated that underreporting of sexual
violence against women and girls is problematic and presents a challenge to those seeking to address it. What, then of
the unknown men and boys affected by sexual violence for whom there are even more challenging social taboos?
Awak Bior,
Project Coordinator in Southern Sudan.
Footnotes :
(1) Dr Manuel Carballo, Executive Director of ICMH at the International Syposium on Sexual Violence in Conflict and Beyond – Brussels, 21–23 June 2008
Sources and acknowledgements :
http://www.fmreview.org/FNRpdfs/FMR27/12.pdf
http://www.menagainstsexualviolence.org
http://www.who.Int
Photo : Audrey Pallier
Croquis Toyi-Toyi mama, Toos Van Liere
Photo : Audrey Pallier
Croquis Toyi-Toyi mama, Toos Van Liere