Human trafficking networks are a well known profiteer for Libyan officials. Before the NATO backed military intervention occurred in Libya in 2011, then leader Mu’ammar Gaddafi would boast about the success human traffickers had in bringing African asylum-seekers to European countries. Today, these human trafficking networks exist in abundance. Government officials, individual traffickers, and arguably the Libyan economy have financially benefited from smuggling.
The global migration crisis has left millions fleeing their home countries in search of a better life. Unfortunately, they have been subject to abuse and oftentimes left to rot in detention centers along the smuggling routes, in Libya, or in underground economies. European countries, especially those on the frontier of shared Mediterranean Sea channels with Libya, have financed and implemented preventative tactics which abandon, trap, or forget transient populations. This then begs the question “Are European countries defying the law of non-refoulement?”
In this week’s episode, Rai is joined by a team from Critica Research and Analysis. She is joined by Founder Dr. Nadia Al-Dayel, Executive Director Dr. Aaron Anfinson, and Research Practitioner Graeme Anfinson. The four discuss human trafficking networks in Libya, who and why people are leaving their home countries, the details of the journey these victims endure, the dangers of the route itself, and the lack of aid from the international community. Lastly, the team discuss different ways listeners can help from home.
Disclaimer: The views expressed by the participants are not policy views (official or unofficial) from any federal agency or the United States government. Critica Research and Analysis Critica is non-partisan research center with multidisciplinary expertise drawn from international institutions and contexts. It provides insight on issues of conflict, security, and human rights. Their analysis meets the highest standard of scholarship. Their research is published in peer reviewed journals aimed at policy makers and academia.
If you want to keep up with our speakers: Critica Research and Analysis – https://www.criticaresearch.com/ Dr. Nadia Al-Dayel | @N_Al_Dayel Dr. Aaron Anfinson | @AaronAnf Graeme Anfinson | @AnfinsonGraeme
Rape has been a weapon of war for millennia. Though, historically rape was viewed as a mere spoil of war or as an act of sexual gratification, it is a strategic tactic used for ethnic cleansing and social control.
History of Rape as a Weapon
In the 1990s, while observing human rights violations throughout their programming, Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) began examining rape as a weapon of war. MSF observed “rape camps” in Bosnia as a strategy for ethnic cleansings, where women were raped to birth Serbian babies[1]. In 1994, MSF observed systematic rape in Rwanda following the genocide, where Tutsi women were raped by HIV-infected men, recruited, and deployed by the Hutu led government[2]. Though this was the first-time rape was defined as a strategy of war, it was not the first time such tactics had been used.
During World War II, rape was used to terrorize and demoralize enemy populations and troops. Sexual enslavement of women in Japanese conquered territories occurred to prevent troops from raping women in other villages. Their school of thought was that if they had a secured group of women to relieve their sexual pleasures with, it would deter them from sexually assaulting the masses[3]. German women also experience systemic rape by advancing Russian soldiers. In 1971, state-backed Pakistani troops raped anywhere between 200,000 – 400,000 Bengali women during the Bangladeshi Liberation movement[4]. And this was seen time and time again in more places like Sierra Leone, the former Yugoslavia, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In recent times, we are seeing this same deployment of strategy in Ethiopia where Ethiopian and Eritrean forces are aggressing several forms of sexual violence against the Tigrayan population including rape, sexual slavery, gang rape, sexual mutilation, and torture[5]. Or for women in the Ukraine who are grappling with the threat of rape as a weapon of war as evidence of sexual violence emerges from areas overtaken by Russian forces[6].
Intentionality and Reasoning
Rape and sexual violence are gendered weapons used to terrorize and displace communities[7]. Though rape has been implored on men and boys, the literature denotes majority of attacks are against women and girls. Women and girls are responsible for child rearing and domestic duties.
In Darfur for instance, women and girls living in displaced persons camps or towns are required to collect firewood, water, frequent the market in exchange for goods and tend to the livestock.
Leaving their areas of refuge often pose a great risk of being raped[8]. These communities are almost entirely dependent on humanitarian aid where there are “minimal employment opportunities”[9]. Therefore, collecting firewood for cooking and fodder for livestock is essential to supplement the families’ income. Men face threats of death or violence when leaving their perimeters of residence. By leaving their perimeters and relative safety of the camps to collect firewood, water or other household supplies, women risk being attacked. Due to deforestation, women are “compelled to venture even further away”[10].
Rape when used as a “weapon of war” affects the social fabric of communities. Rape stigmatizes the woman, her family members and community at large. Men are unwilling to marry a woman who has been raped, husbands may abandon their wives after the fact, and she may be disowned for disgracing her family[11]. Moreover, communities in Darfur are unwilling to discuss the violence.
Consequences to Rape
Rape and sexual violence have numerous social, economic and medical consequences. Women and girls who suffer from sexual violence have a spectrum of health concerns that require action. As discussed in Sexual Violence and its Consequences Among Displaced Persons in Darfur and Chad by Human Rights Watch (2005), this may include:
“treatment of injuries that may have occurred in the course of the sexual violence, information and preventative treatment for sexually transmitted infections, (including HIV and hepatitis), information and access to services to prevent or terminate unwanted pregnancies, and counseling to address the emotional and psychological impact of sexual violence. Sexual violence can result in numerous medical consequences, including internal bleeding, fistulas, incontinence, and infection with sexually transmitted diseases such as Hepatitis B and C and HIV/AIDS.”[12]
In addition, rape purports social and economic consequences such as the loss of familial support, becoming unmarriageable due to stigma, and pressure to provide economic security through other means[13].
What is being done?
In the late 20th century, efforts were made to prosecute rape as a weapon and strategy of war under existing international law[14]. The primary statute, Article 27 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (1949) had existing language that protected women “against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault”; this protection was extended in an additional protocol adopted in 1977[15]. In 1993, the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights (now termed the UN Human Rights Council) “declared systemic rape and military sexual slavery” as crimes against humanity “punishable as violations of women’s human rights”[16]. In 1995, the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women recognized that rape by armed groups during wartime as a war crime. In 2008, the UN Security council denoted that “rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity of a constitutive act with respect to genocide”[17]. In 2010, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women at its forty-seventh session pursued article 21 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, “to adopt a general recommendation of women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations[18].” In 2016, the 17 sustainable development goals were adopted by the UN for the 2030 Agenda. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls aims to end violence against women.
Are These Institutions Doing Enough?
Though international laws prohibit the use of rape as a weapon of war, the endemic use of rape as a weapon has often been committed by states with impunity. In 2002, the International Criminal Court (ICC) was established to end impunity for international crimes “such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity”[19]. Though defendants have been charged with breaking international laws of rape and sexual violence as acts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, it has not yet been brought to the ICC. The ICC has limited resources and a restrictive mandate, enabling it to prosecute the very few at the top. Moreover, because of the deep-rooted history of rape during times of war, the issue of gender-based violence in conflicts receives inadequate attention in the discourse on gender equality and sustainable development[20]. According to the Global Justice Center (2012) “The failure to treat war rape like other illegal weapons or war tactics removes the central protection of the laws governing the conduct of war from rape victims”[21].
By recognizing and enforcing consequences we will…
Promote deterrence by changing norms which legitimize rape during times of war
Raise awareness regarding the number of women and girls injured or killed by rape. According to the Global Justice Center (2012), “Global indices that track fatalities and injuries by weapons type do not consider rape to be a weapon for these purposes”[22]
Provides new avenues for victim compensation including to the victim’s family, or to the victim for the purposes of restitution such as: becoming “HIV infected, forced pregnancy and child-bearing, and child rearing costs for children born of war rape”[23]
Global Rights Defenders 