WAR

Throughout history, mass rape has been the least condemned and most silenced of war crimes. Yet these atrocities that have happened in every war since the beginning of recorded human history have never made it into our history books.

Today, social media is finally shining a light on it, unfortunately only because rape is still very much used as a weapon of war today.

(Historical narrative coming soon)

CHANGE MAKERS

Susan Brownmiller

An American feminist journalist, author, and activist best known for her 1975 book Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape.  Brownmiller argues that rape had been previously defined by men rather than women, and that men use it as a means of perpetuating male dominance by keeping all women in a state of fear. The New York Public Library selected Against Our Will as one of 100 most important books of the twentieth century.

Robin Morgan

Since the early 1960s she has been a key radical feminist member of the American Women’s Movement, and a leader in the international feminist movement. Her 1970 anthology Sisterhood is Powerful has been widely credited with helping to start the contemporary feminist movement in the US, and was cited by the New York Public Library as “One of the 100 Most Influential Books of the 20th Century.” She has written more than 20 books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, and is also known as the editor of Ms. magazine.

Gloria Steinem

An American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist, who became nationally recognized as a leader and a spokeswoman for the feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Steinem was a columnist for New York magazine, and a founder of Ms. magazine. In 1969, Steinem published an article, “After Black Power, Women’s Liberation,” which brought her to national fame as a feminist leader.

Kim Bok-dong

One of among approximately 200,000 so-called Korean “comfort women” forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers before and during World War II. Now an activist seeking an apology and retribution from Japan for what they endured.

Lauren Wolfe

An award-winning journalist and photographer, she is currently a columnist at Foreign Policy magazine and the director of WMC Women Under Siege, a journalism project on sexualized violence in conflict originated by Gloria Steinem at the Women’s Media Center in New York. The project includes a live, crowd-sourced map of sexualized violence in Syria. Wolfe also serves on the advisory committee of the Nobel Women’s Initiative’s International Campaign to Stop Rape & Gender Violence in Conflict.

Patricia Sellers

Special Advisor for Prosecution Strategies to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Visiting Fellow, Kellogg College, International lawyer and legal consultant in international human rights law, international criminal law, humanitarian law and human rights law. Special Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict and governments and I.Os and NGOs. From 1994-2007, Professor Sellers was the Legal Advisor for Gender Related Crimes and Senior Acting Trial Attorney in the Office of the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

Stella-Duque

A clinical psychologist and Executive Director of MADRE’s sister organization Taller de Vida in Bogotá, Colombia. Taller de Vida provides critical services to Afro-Colombian and Indigenous women, youth, and children who have been displaced by violence, including former child soldiers and those at risk of forced recruitment by the paramilitaries.  Through Taller De Vida, Stella started the “Saquen mi cuerpo de la guerra (“Take my body out of the war”) campaign.

Eve Ensler

A prominent activist addressing issues of violence against women and girls. In 1998, her experience performing The Vagina Monologues inspired her to create V-Day, a global activist movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day raises funds and awareness through annual benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues. In 2010, more than 5,400 V-Day events took place in over 1,500 locations in the U.S. and around the world.

ORGANIZATIONS MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Women Under Siege Project
VDay
Nobel Women’s Initiative
W.A.M
Women for Women
Stop Rape In Conflict
Global Fund For Women #unbroken
Art Works Projects

CURRENT ARTICLES

• The Secret War Crimes.
• Israeli rabbi who advocated rape of ‘comely gentile women’ during war becomes chief army rabbi.
• UN report: South Sudan allowed soldiers to rape civilians in civil war.
• Why has it taken 65 years to recognize that rape is a weapon of war?
• War’s overlooked victims.
• UN investigates claims of mass rape by DR Congo rebels.
• The Military’s Dirty Little Human Trafficking Secret.
• When Peacemakers Become Perpetrators.
• Gaddafi ‘supplies troops with Viagra to encourage mass rape.
• Uncomfortable Secrets About Women in “Comfort Women.”

THE PROSECUTORS: Rape and pillage are concepts as old as war itself. Certainly war carries with it the idea of gathering the spoils found by those who stand victorious on the battlefield. But does sexual violence have to be a part of war? And what are the risks and sacrifices involved in ensuring that the legal system provides justice for everyone?
THE INNOCENTS (Les Innocentes; in French) is a 2016 drama film directed by Anne Fontaine is about a young French Red Cross doctor sent to assist the survivors of the German concentration camps in 1945 Poland. She discovers several nuns in advanced stages of pregnancy during a visit to a nearby convent. They have been raped by Soviet soldiers.
THE UNCONDEMNED: In 1997, a group of lawyers and activists prosecuted rape as a crime against humanity. This is the story of their fight for the first conviction.