Sexual violence or torture?

Abstract

This chapter examines 131 conflict-specific reports produced between 2000 and 2016 by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the two leading reporting organisations for human rights abuses in conflict settings. It explores some of the scholarly perspectives on framing sexual violence against men in armed conflict as torture rather than sexual violence, as well as some of the conceptual and policy impacts this frame might have. The chapter discusses the importance of International non-governmental organisations (INGOs) as framers of the discourse around human rights abuses. It argues that both INGOs and international legal instruments play a significant role in constructing sexual violence in armed conflict, and mutually reinforce each other in this regard through the frequent use of international legal definitions of crimes in INGO-produced reports documenting human rights abuses. The chapter considers the analysis and discussion of the Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reports.