When war is better than peace: The post-conflict realities of children born of wartime rape in northern Uganda

Denov, Myriam; Lakor, Atim Angela

doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.02.014

Cited by 38 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Families and societies are often unable to psychologically extricate children born of war/genocide from the violent circumstances surrounding their conception. For this reason, children born of wartime rape are frequently victims of indirect and direct forms of violence, such as abandonment, infanticide, abuse, and discrimination (Carpenter, 2007;Goodhart, 2007;Weitsman, 2008;Denov and Lakor, 2017). Indeed, while the child is a secondary victim of the rapist's assault on the mother, the child is rarely perceived as such by the maternal family (Carpenter, 2000).…”

Section: "Not Human Beings": Navigating Ethnicity Identity and Belonmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Intergenerational Legacy of Genocidal Rape: The Realities and Perspectives of Children Born of the Rwandan Genocide Against the Tutsi

Denov

Woolner

Bahati

et al. 2017

J Interpers Violence

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Brutal acts of sexual violence were documented on a mass scale during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. While existing scholarship on sexual violence has significantly increased our understanding of the challenges confronting survivors, gaps in knowledge remain regarding the lived experiences of children born of genocidal rape. This study sought to explore the realities and perspectives of children born of genocidal rape, and the existing opportunities and challenges they experienced in postgenocide Rwanda. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with 60 participants born of genocidal rape in Rwanda. Findings highlight the key challenges that these youth face in the postgenocide context, including struggles with identity and belonging, ambivalence in the mother–child relationship, and a desire to learn of their biological origins and heritage. The findings suggest that children born of conflict-related sexual violence face a distinct set of challenges and needs that have yet to be formally addressed. Our findings highlight the need for the development of programs, policies, and services specific for this important, yet overlooked group of young people affected by armed conflict.

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Section: "Not Human Beings": Navigating Ethnicity Identity and Belonmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Intergenerational Legacy of Genocidal Rape: The Realities and Perspectives of Children Born of the Rwandan Genocide Against the Tutsi

Denov

Woolner

Bahati

et al. 2017

J Interpers Violence

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“…For instance, research suggests that responses to rape in some societies can be a source of structural violence, with raped women being labelled ‘spoiled goods’ and rejected by their families, their livelihoods may be impacted as a result of ostracisation or ill‐health brought on by the initial violation (Clark, , 158). Where these health, social and economic needs are left unaddressed, they may be ‘passed on’ to the child born of rape with enduring, intergenerational effects (Denov and Lakor, ; Neenan, 2018a). Negative labels are often attached to these children by their communities, such as, ‘children of bad memories’ or ‘children of hate’ in Rwanda; ‘children of shame’ in Kosovo; ‘children of the enemy’ in East Timor (Theidon, , 193).…”

Section: Children Born Of Sgbv On the Global Stagementioning

confidence: 99%

Children Born of Sexual and Gender‐Based Violence in Conflict: The International Criminal Court, Ecological Environments and Human Development

Dowds

2019

Children & Society

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Children born of sexual and gender‐based violence in conflict have slowly gained international attention, even featuring in international criminal justice processes, such as those at the International Criminal Court (ICC). These children suffer unique harms due to the circumstances surrounding their birth, with a burgeoning literature documenting the long‐term and multigenerational impact on their development. This article contributes to this existing literature by applying Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of human development to ICC responses to these children, yielding a more nuanced understanding of the ICC as part of the ecological environment in which child development occurs.

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“…In their battle against the UPDF, the LRA abducted an estimated 60,000-80,000 children into armed conflict (Shanahan & Veale, 2016). Children were preferred for several reasons: It was thought that they would not know the area well enough to escape, they would be easier to indoctrinate than adults, it was an efficient tactic to terrorize families and communities, and, as will be addressed further below, it gratified Kony's vision and desire to create a "new clan" (Denov & Lakor, 2017).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The majority of these females became mothers, and their pregnancies were the result of repeated sexual violence by their commander "husbands." This forced wife system had a clear objective to produce a new clan and a new generation of LRA fighters (Denov & Lakor, 2017).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mask-Making and Drawing as Method: Arts-Based Approaches to Data Collection With War-Affected Children

Green

Denov

2019

International Journal of Qualitative Methods

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Globally, the numbers of children living in conflict zones and displaced by war have risen dramatically over the past two decades, and with this, scholarly attention to the impacts of war on children. More recently, researchers have examined how war-affected children are being studied, revealing important shortcomings. These limitations relate to the lack of child participation in research, the need for researchers to engage children in the research process as "active agents" rather than "passive objects" under study, as well as the need for researchers to pay closer attention to ethical dilemmas associated with researching war-affected children. To address these realities, innovative research methods that can be adapted across diverse sociocultural contexts are warranted. In light of these shortcomings, our research team integrated two arts-based methods: mask-making and drawing, alongside traditional qualitative data collection methods with a particularly marginalized population of young people: children born in captivity within the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda. In this article, we provide information on the context of northern Uganda. We describe how the use of mask-making and drawing was used as data gathering tools and the ways in which these arts-based methods had important benefits for the research participants, researchers, and impacted on the validity of the research as a whole. We propose that the use of these participatory visual methods enriched the themes elicited through more traditional methods. The article describes how these arts-based mediums fostered community building among children typically excluded from their communities and were successful as a tool to build trust between participants and the research team when exploring sensitive topics. The article concludes with implications for future research with war-affected children.

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When war is better than peace: The post-conflict realities of children born of wartime rape in northern Uganda

Cited by 38 publications

References 21 publications

The Intergenerational Legacy of Genocidal Rape: The Realities and Perspectives of Children Born of the Rwandan Genocide Against the Tutsi

The Intergenerational Legacy of Genocidal Rape: The Realities and Perspectives of Children Born of the Rwandan Genocide Against the Tutsi

Children Born of Sexual and Gender‐Based Violence in Conflict: The International Criminal Court, Ecological Environments and Human Development

Mask-Making and Drawing as Method: Arts-Based Approaches to Data Collection With War-Affected Children

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