Sexual Torture Research Articles

Violencia político sexual desde octubre a diciembre de 2019 en Chile: análisis de contexto y prácticas institucionales de agentes del estado

El presente artículo busca exponer los elementos necesarios para intentar comprender la situación de violencia política sexual que experimentan en forma focalizada y desproporcionada las mujeres y disidencias sexuales entre octubre y diciembre de 2019, dando cuenta del continuo de este tipo de violencia que se ha ejercido en nuestro país desde la dictadura (y más atrás aún), y en tiempos de democracia, lo que se ha expresado en las denuncias recibidas en el contexto de manifestaciones estudiantiles y recientemente, durante el denominado “estallido social en Chile”. Además, busca ser un aporte para las políticas públicas que emanen del Estado, que deben preve¬nir, investigar, sancionar y erradicar dichas conductas mediante la concep¬tualización de este tipo de violencia a partir de su utilización en conflictos armados y el fallo Mujeres Víctimas de Tortura Sexual vs. México, de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos.

“Beyond the Fifty Shades…”: Intersections of Sadomasochism and Sexual Torture

“Beyond the Fifty Shades…”: Intersections of Sadomasochism and Sexual Torture

Parrilla urethra: A sequalae of electric shock torture to genitals in men. A 40 case series in Kashmir (India).

Since the 20th century, electric shock torture has become one of the most prevalent methods of torture partly because it produces sequelae that are more challenging to visibly detect, particularly when administered using high voltage and low current. In sexual torture, a wire is wrapped around the head of the penis and a wire electrode is inserted into the urethra.This produces unbearable pain and can lead to urethral strictures with devastating physical and psychological consequences. To document electric shock torture to genitals as an etiologic agent in urethral stricture and erectile dysfunction amongst survivors of electric torture introducing the term "parrilla urethra" for the electric shock torture urethral stricture. The study included 40 patients who attended the Department of Urology, Directorate of Health services, Srinagar, Kashmir, India with obstructive lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) / obstructive uroflowmetry between March 2010 and November 2014. All cases had an antecedent of electric shock torture to genitals six months to one year prior to examination. Pre-post psychological impact and well-being was used through Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scores. The mean age of patients was 35.6 years. Most of the urethral strictures were located in the anterior urethra. Some degree of erectile dysfunction was present in all (100%) of patients. Psychological sequelae including depression, anxiety, acute stress disorder and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder were observed. Patients were treated with standard urethroplasty procedures after addressing the urethral stricture.This improved both physical and psychological sequelae of torture.

Legal Protection Against Women in Sexual Violence

Introduction: Sexual violence is one of the morbidities and mortality factors in women. Sexual violence of women causes physical and physiological sequences that make them vulnerable to health problems. Material and method: It was normative legal research with a literature study and document study as a method to collect the research data. Findings: Marital sexual abuse or the highest personal relation was incest with 1,071 cases followed by raping with 818 cases, and molestation with 321 cases. Meanwhile, marital rape reached 195 cases. The forms of sexual violence consist of sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, coercion of contraceptive use, compulsion in abortion, rape, marital compulsion, prostitution, sexual bondage, and sexual torture. The protection against victims of sexual violence was considered to be not optimal due to a lack of public understanding of the causes and effects of sexual violence. Conclusion: So far, the legal protection against women in sexual violence cases have not been optimally implemented. The minimum legal protection triggered impunity, reoccurrence, and even the victims’ frustration to accept justice and recovery.

South Sudanese Refugee Survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Torture: Health and Justice Service Responses in Northern Uganda.

This British Academy/Leverhulme-funded research investigated the health and justice service responses to the needs of South Sudanese refugees living in refugee settlements in Northern Uganda who had been subjected to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and torture. It involved the collection and thematic analysis of the narratives of 20 men and 41 women who were refugee survivors of SGBV and torture, including their experiences in South Sudan, their journeys to Uganda and experiences in refugee settlements, in particular their access to health and justice services. Thirty-seven key stakeholders including international, government, non-government organisations and civil society organisations were also interviewed regarding their experiences of providing health and justice services to refugees. All refugees had survived human rights abuses mainly carried out in South Sudan but some had also occurred on route to Uganda and within Uganda. Despite the significant impact of their experiences, the analysis indicated that there was limited service response in refugee settlements in Northern Uganda once the immediate humanitarian crisis ended. The thematic analysis indicated five main themes coming from the interviews. These included: the nature of refugee experiences of SGBV and torture, including domestic violence and child abduction and forced marriage; issues associated with service provision such as lack of adequate screening and under resourcing of health and justice services; a lack of gender sensitivity and specialist services, particularly for men; the sustained involvement of civil society organisations and local non-governmental organisations in providing counselling and offering emotional support and hope to survivors; and enhancing health and justice responses and services to improve refugee recovery, dignity and resilience. The authors recommend that integrated gendered and culturally sensitive service provision should be adopted, which brings together formal and informal health, justice services and survivor support programmes.

A criminal tribunal and a wide-ranging reparation programme is necessary for the victims of sexual violence and torture in Iraq.

The frequency and extreme nature of sexual violence committed in Iraq, primarily by the self-declared Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from 2014 onwards, has shocked the international community. Now, four years later, victory over ISIL has been proclaimed but addressing past atrocities and their consequences has barely begun. There is a wide discrepancy between Iraq's human rights obligations, stressed by the United Nations (UN), and the reality on the ground, shaped by the Iraqi authorities. The present paper aims to highlight this discrepancy by providing an overview of the crimes committed, their qualification under international law, and the efforts of Iraqi authorities to punish those responsible. It will also discuss legal frameworks and the role of the UN, before positing some possible solutions. Object of the inquiry. The primary object of this inquiry is the conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) that has taken place in Iraq since 2014. The term CRSV is used in the international discourse to designate sexual violence occurring during or following armed conflict. UN bodies have set a gravity threshold for defining CRSV-incidents or patterns of acts of sexual violence such as "rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity" (UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, 2011, p. 3).

Sex work, social support, and stigma: Experiences of transgender women in the Dominican Republic

Background: Transgender populations, and especially those in resource-limited settings, are at an elevated risk of experiencing stigma and discrimination.Aims: This study sought to examine the relationship between parental, familial, and other social support, experiences of stigma and discrimination, quality of life, and sex work in a national sample of transgender women in the Dominican Republic (n = 291).Methods: Descriptive analyses for the outcome variable, sex work, as well as for measures associated with socio-demographics, social support, stigma, quality of life, and experiences of abuse and violence were performed. Bivariate analysis examined differences between respondents involved in sex work and those not involved in sex work.Results: We found that participation in sex work was associated with low social support and quality of life and increased experiences of stigma, discrimination, and abuse. Specifically, Dominican transgender women involved in sex work received less social support than their non-sex working peers; they experienced heightened arguments and problems with non-parental family members, professors or bosses, classmates, and close friends, as well of loss of friendships. Involvement in sex work was also associated with higher levels of stigma and discrimination, lower quality of life, and experiences of sexual abuse, torture, and experiences of attempted murder on one’s life.Discussion: Transgender women participating in sex work require more rather than less social support from family members and loved ones, especially in areas where workplace discrimination policies that affect transgender individuals are nebulous, such as the Dominican Republic.

Healthcare professionals as gatekeepers in research involving refugee survivors of sexual torture: An examination of the ethical issues.

This paper examines the ethical issues that arise when healthcare providers act as gatekeepers to research involving vulnerable populations. Traumatised refugees serve as an example of this subset of research participants. Highlighting the particular vulnerabilities of this group, we argue that specific ethical considerations are required that go beyond the conventional research approaches. While gatekeeping responds to some of those vulnerabilities, it risks wronging through unwarranted paternalism. Instead, we will propose that a relational ethics of justice and care serves as a more appropriate framework for responding to the challenges of research involving traumatised refugees. Specifically, such a framework allows us to reflect more deeply on the role of the gatekeeper. In conclusion, we recommend that clinicians and researchers collaborate with survivors' advisory groups in the development of specific research ethical guidelines.

Risky dis/entanglements: Torture and sexual violence in conflict

Conflict-related sexual violence has become increasingly recognized in international spaces as a serious, political form of violence. As part of this process, distinctions between the categories of ‘sexual violence’ and ‘torture’ have blurred as scholars and other actors have sought to capitalize on the globally recognized status of torture in raising the profile of sexual violence. This move, while perhaps strategically promising, even already fruitful, prompts us to heed caution. What might we inadvertently engender by further pursuing such positioning? While torture and sexual violence have both been widely framed within the academic literature as strategic in recent decades, only torture, and not sexual violence, has emerged from elements of this literature as (potentially) legitimate, despite the slippages between them as categories of violence. This article offers one avenue for thinking through what an invigorated focus on sexual torture as a category of violence might unwittingly render possible, and thus for reflecting on the possible stakes of collapsing the categories of sexual violence and torture. Ultimately, we argue that we should perhaps resist the urge to frame sexual violence as torture and instead cleave to the sticky signifier of ‘the sexual’, despite the ways in which it has served to normalize, perpetuate and obfuscate grievous harms throughout history.

Sexual torture among Arabic-speaking Shi'a Muslim men and women in Iraq: Barriers to healing and finding meaning.

Rape and sexual torture are frequent experiences among torture survivors, but relatively little is known about how victims respond to and find meaning in these experiences. This study used secondary qualitative interview data from 47 male and female Shi'a Arab victims and survivors of sexual torture and rape in Saddam Hussein's Iraq to examine how sexual torture affected them, what were the barriers to healing, how they found meaning in their experiences, and how their experiences varied by gender. Respondents experienced profound psychological effects that lasted for years, including: shame, feeling broken and prematurely aged, and wanting to isolate themselves from others. Most female victims who were unmarried at the time of sexual torture never got married. Many survivors found meaning in their experiences by defining their suffering as unjust, placing their experience in the context of a hopeful narrative of Iraqi history, turning to religion, and calling for vengeance upon their persecutors. The results of this study show how survivors of sexual torture, most of whom did not receive psychological treatment, draw upon their own resources to find meaning in existential trauma.

"Breaking the silence through MANTRA: Empowering Tamil MAN survivors of torture and rape.

The prevalence of sexual torture, including rape as a form of torture against men in the context of war and persecution, has been widespread throughout history and across cultures. Despite this, literature examining this highly complex and pervasive problem has only recently begun to emerge. This is partly a reflection of the taboo nature of the topic, which results in lack of disclosure, a poor understanding of the issue, and leads to gaps in effective therapeutic interventions. This paper aims to provide a reflective narrative on an intervention trialled at the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS). It outlines the therapeutic strategies that were integrated in culturally sensitive ways and the phases and themes that emerged as the men overcame their resistance to speak about their experiences of torture. The combination of group and individual therapy that integrates exposure therapy in a culturally appropriate way can assist clients to revisit their traumatic experiences and 'break their silence' as they heal and recover. When male survivors of sexual torture share and verbalise their past horrors it assists them to make meaning and develop a new, broader perspective, on their experiences. Accompanied by a diminishing sense of shame, and "therapeutic activism," it instils hope and the motivation to assist others in crisis, particularly regarding the issue of male rape.

Gendering the State of Emergency Regime in Turkey

Since the 20th of July 2016, Turkey has been under the state of emergency. Reiteration of the hegemonic relationship between power, masculinity and violence for the reassertion of political rule is the central feature of state of emergency regimes. In Turkey, we experience sharp and sudden shifts of power within the political and legal sphere, and these shifts impact on gender norms and gender policies. This article aims to present the effects of the security state on women’s and LGBTI individuals’ life spaces, in order to gender Turkey’s state of emergency rule. It will discuss how the weakening of the separation of powers, and the granting of extreme powers to the executive, almost completely prevent any opportunities for advancing the women and LGBTI movements’ agenda through different modalities of the three branches of the state. The emergency measures ravage many of the women and LGBTI movement’s long-term struggles and achievements. The article will also discuss the government’s interventions in Kurdish municipalities and the closing down of women’s organizations, shelters and solidarity centers; such interventions meant the violent interruption of the institutional solidarity networks that had gained women’s trust with their long-term work. Moreover, public spaces are becoming extremely insecure for women and LGBTI individuals under the regime of the security state. The conservative and militarist individuals and groups that took over public spaces are supported by the sexist rhetoric of government officials. Encouraged by their new powers, conferred to them by the state of emergency regime, the police use extensive physical violence against women during gatherings and demonstrations. Sexual harassments and torture while under custody, against female and male detainees, are widespread.The article aims to analyze the state of emergency as a mechanism that works against all kinds of anti-oppression solidarities and alliances. However, I also establish that despite all of the draconian governmental measures, and the rising sexist violence in all segments of society, women and LGBTI groups resist the state of emergency regime in solidarity.

Geographical distribution of torture: An epidemiological study of torture reported by asylum applicants examined at the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen

Using reports from 154 examinations of alleged torture victims among asylum applicants to Denmark conducted by the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, between 2001 and 2013, we have categorized the victims into four geographical regions, as well as according to the conflict that caused them to flee. The torture incidents described by the victims were divided into 12 different categories defined by the Istanbul Protocol. These data were cross referenced in order to identify any differences in the prevalence of the 12 forms of torture. The study showed that crush injuries were only reported by refugees from Asia, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, and that incidents of electrical torture were reported twice as frequently by torture victims from Middle Eastern and North African countries, though it was lower among Iraqis, Iranians and ethnic Kurds. Sexual torture was reported by 78% of females and 25% of males.

Breadth, Conversation, and Controversy

The “big tent” mission of the Journal of Global Security Studies is well illustrated by this issue, as our first four articles explore issues from ontological security to cyber secrecy to sexual torture to traditional analyses of compellent threats. The next three articles illustrate the value of conversation between different parts of the field in their juxtaposition of arms control, humanitarianism, and empire; security governance and domestic politics; and reflexivity about casual claims in the study of ethnic conflict. Our final article, a research innovation, issues a critique of a well-respected network dataset. Our first article uses an ontological perspective to ask whether the concept of moral injury—harm to an individual's conscience from a moral transgression that produces emotional shame—could be affecting the US body politic. Jelena Subotic and Brent Steel argue that the endless “war on terror” has led the United States to commit moral injury. They trace how its three main consequences—loss of control, ethical anxiety, and relational harm—explain the most central anxieties at the core of current US identity. The piece offers a different window into understanding the increasingly apparent moment of crisis in contemporary global politics.

Incommunicado detention and torture in Spain, Part III: 'Five days is enough’: the concept of torturing environments

Torture is changing in western societies, evolving from pain-producing torture to more subtle mixed psychological methods that are harder to detect. Despite this, there is not an adequate understanding of the complexities of contemporary psychological techniques used in coercive interrogation and torture. The interrogation and torture techniques used on 45 detainees held in short-term incommunicado detention in Spain during the period 1980-2012 were analyzed. The list of torture categories set out in the Istanbul Protocol (IP) were assessed quantitatively. Software-aided qualitative analysis of the testimonies was conducted, using both inferential and deductive approaches to deduce a classification of torture techniques from the point of view of the survivor. The most frequent methods according to the IP categories used against detainees were isolation and manipulation of environment (100%), humiliation (93%), psychological techniques to break down the individual (91%), threats (89%) and forced positions and physical exercises until extenuation (80%). Additionally, with a frequency of between 51 and 70%, mild but constant blows, being forced to witness the torture of others, hooding (mainly dry asphyxia) and unacceptable undue conditions of detention were also frequent. Sexual torture was also widespread with sexual violence (42%), forced nudity (38%) and rape (7%). Qualitative analysis showed that most detainees were submitted to coercive interrogation using a wide array of deceptive techniques. This is often a central part of the torturing process, frequently used in conjunction with many other methods. It was found that giving false or misleading information or making false accusations was most frequently used, followed by maximization of responsibility or facts and giving false information regarding relatives or friends. Different patterns of harsh interrogation, ill-treatment and torture are described that appear to have been tailored to the profile of Basque detainees. The study shows the need to improve the conceptualization of psychological torture suggested by the IP. Key to this view is the idea that we must not concern ourselves with 'torture methods' but with Torturing Environments. The concept of Torturing Environments is defined and proposed as a focus for future study.

Preventing Autonomous Weapon Systems from Being Used to Perpetrate Intentional Violations of the Laws of War

Autonomous Weapon Systems (AWS) are essentially weapon systems that, once activated, can select and engage targets without further human intervention. While these are neither currently fielded nor officially part of any nation’s defense strategy, there is ample evidence that States and defense contractors are currently developing AWS for future deployment. In the near-term, such weapons will mainly follow the wide-area loitering concept, which largely attacks targets from a distance. In the longer term, it is likely that militaries will develop and field bipedal / humanoid robots with a degree of manual dexterity, and the capability to undertake both rescue missions, and ‘close quarters combat’ with human subjects. This raises questions on how such machines may be used in times of armed conflict, occupation or internal strife. Given their potential capability for human-like physical interactions, there is a concern – following empirical research – that such machines may be deliberately programmed to commit inhumane acts against civilians, such as rape, broader sexual violence, and torture. Furthermore, as AWS units will be programmed to logically follow ex ante instructions, there is a real risk that such terrorizing acts will occur more easily, more frequently and, once initiated, indefinitely; potentially unconstrained by the moral or ethical brakes, or the physical limitations of human soldiers. However, there are also a number of legal and technical safeguards that may mitigate this risk, thereby realigning the technology of AWS with its original and intended purpose. These include: 1) capability limitations in the near-term; 2) positive design-led safeguards; 3) a ‘kill switch’ function; 4) pre-emptive legal safeguards to enhance non-proliferation efforts; and 5) digital evidence to aid the prosecution of war crimes. Importantly, none of these are individually watertight, but collectively they offer a package of safeguards that should sufficiently mitigate the risk of sexual violence, torture and other forms of repression using AWS.

Why Do States Use Sexual Torture against Political Prisoners? Evidence from Saddam Hussein's Prisons

Why Do States Use Sexual Torture against Political Prisoners? Evidence from Saddam Hussein's Prisons

Psychiatric Sequelae of Former "Comfort Women," Survivors of the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery during World War II.

“Comfort women” refers to young women and girls who were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese military during World War II. They were abducted from their homes in countries under Imperial Japanese rule, mostly from Korea, and the rest from China, Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Netherlands, etc. “Comfort women” endured extreme trauma involving rape, sexual torture, physical abuse, starvation, threats of death, and witnessed many others being tortured and killed. This article reviews all the studies that have investigated the psychiatric or psychosocial sequelae of the survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery. Most importantly, a recent study which conducted a psychiatric evaluation on the former “comfort women” currently alive in South Korea is introduced. The participants’ unmarried rate was relatively high and their total fertility rate was relatively low. Majority of the participants reported having no education and being the low economic status. They showed high current and lifetime prevalence of posttraumatic disorder, major depressive disorder, somatic symptom disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and alcohol use disorder. Participants showed high suicidality and majority of the participants still reported being ashamed of being former “comfort women” after all these years. This article high-lights the fact that the trauma has affected the mental health and social functioning of former “comfort women” throughout their lives, and even to the present day.

Accerchiare e soffocare il nemico. Il Plan Condor e le dittature del Cono Sud dell'America Latina

This contribution stems from a victimological consultancy carried out in favour of the relatives of desaparecidos of Italian nationality, in the legal proceedings at the Superior Court of Justice in Rome, whose verdict was reached on 27 January 2017. Thus, totally unprecedented forms of social cruelty have come to light, among which the deliberate use of sexual torture, kidnapping of children as spoils of war and death flights, with the ensuing phenomenon of desaparecidos (i.e. the disappeared). The analysis of testimonials and of the comparison with the legal sources placed in the case-files, has made it possible to collect a number of elements highlighting some peculiar characteristics of violence employed by Operation Condor. All this has made it possible to clarify the complex repressive system meant to entrap not only the dissidents but also the entire social body in the Southern Cone in Latin America, by means of a control system ruled by the political and military top ranks of the nations involved, under the vigilant direction of the Cia and of the US government.

(In)Visibility And Representation: Social Justice In Recent Chadian Documentary Films

ABSTRACTThis essay examines how Chadian filmmakers Mahamat-Saleh Haroun and Moubarack Idriss Nour revisit and, at times, re-enact history to provide voice and perspective to key moments in Chadian history. Moubarack Idriss Nour's feature documentary, Le Tchad entre histoire et espoir (2014) and Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's Hissein Habré: Une tragédie tchadienne (2016) are both set against the backdrop of Chad's tumultuous history and its legacies for future generations. Nour provides a historical framework and uses colonial footage and archives, anthropological and historical sources, television interviews, and newscasts to celebrate the achievements of Chadian's current President Idriss Déby Itno. Haroun, on the other hand, revisits critically the cult figure of yesteryear, Hissène Habré, and the legacies of his regime: human rights abuses, including sexual slavery, torture, and mass political killings. Both documentary films include archival research, testimonial accounts of repression, torture, arbitrary arrests, and incarceration. However, the ways in which they conceive and structure their narratives and represent Chadian history, its political leaders, and its spokespersons differ diametrically in their respective documentaries. This essay will compare and contrast the ways in which both filmmakers use the documentary genre and its potential, either to create national heroes and/or critique the culture of violence that has permeated the social fabric of the country. As they represent Chad on screen, Haroun and Nour both focus on the country's violent past but differ in their representation of their homeland, its leaders and their respective visions, and the exploration of the “affective forces” of violence (Abel, 2008) as a necessary step in their cinematic expression to achieve their vision of rebuilding the country and ensuring its sustainable future.