Panel 40: Gendering Violence in Conflict and Post-conflict Settings
Panel organisers: Maria Eriksson Baaz (The Nordic Africa Institute, Sweden) and Maria Stern (Gothenburg Univ., Sweden)
Contact: maria.eriksson-baaz@nai.uu.se
| During recent years there has been an upsurge of attention to the widespread occurrence of gender based violence during conflicts and post conflict situations in Africa, both among policy makers and researchers. Various policy papers, strategies and resolutions have been devoted to the issue, most notably, of course, the UNSCR 1325 and 1820 – all using various definitions. However, the concept of gender based violence is still quite undertheorized. What does the gender in gender based violence mean? How can one establish to what extent acts of violence are linked to the sex/gender of the victim/survivor? Clearly, gender with its binary distinctions, provides an ethical shorthand, and an ordering function through which we make sense of violence. It seems that in many cases the question of the relationship between gender and violence seems to be already settled—in sedimented and problematic ways. For instance, gender based violence has often become synonymous with violence against women and girls. Moreover, the relationship between gender and violence in representations of violent conflict in Africa is familiar terrain: Africa often emerges as feminized, and its conflicts are depicted in sensationalized and racialized images in media accounts and policy reports. Clearly, understanding how gender works in the reproduction and enactment of violence poses a continuously pressing need. How then can we understand the subject of violence in particular conflict and post conflict contexts on the African continent? This panel invites papers that address the relationship between gender and violence from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. It also invites papers addressing gender based violence against men and boys in various post and post conflict settings in Africa. |