The politics of sexual violence in the Kachin conflict in Myanmar

• Conflict-related sexual violence has been the focus of significant international activism and policy attention. International legal norms and frameworks have evolved to recognize it as a war crime, and a representation of sexual violence as a “weapon of war” is now widely endorsed. This paper examines how international norms about conflict-related sexual violence are adopted and utilized in multiple ways in the armed conflict in Kachin state in Northern Myanmar. Throughout decades of civil war, international norms on sexual violence have constituted key resources for international advocacy and awareness raising by local women activists. Further, women activists have drawn on international norms to effect changes in gendered relations of power within their own communities. However, international norms on sexual violence in conflict have also been effectively used as tools for ethno-nationalist identity politics, rallying support behind the armed insurgency and mobilizing women’s unpaid labour in the service of war. Thus, international norms on conflict-related sexual violence has simultaneously opened up space for women’s empowerment and political agency, andreproduced gendered forms of insecurity and marginalization. Exploring these contradictions and complexities, the analysis sheds light on the multiple political uses and effects of international norms in armed conflict.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

conflict-related sexual violence

international norms

norm translation

Myanmar

Kachin

Gender Studies

Genusvetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

ovr (ämneskategori)