Challenging Conceptions: Children Born of Wartime Rape and Sexual Exploitation

Governments, international organizations, and international laws and courts increasingly pay attention to conflict-related sexual violence. The core of the UN Women Peace and Security Agenda is stopping conflict-related sexual violence against women. Yet, with over two decades of grappling with conflict-related sexual violence and its legacies, there is only passing mention of the potential and obvious outcomes of sexual violence: pregnancy, abortion, forced maternity. What do we know about children conceived through acts of sexual abuse? What are their life chances? How do they exist with their mothers and within their families? In this collection we hear from the leading researchers and practitioners from around the globe, each of whom has spent decades working with women who survived wartime rape and with their children who were the result of that violence. This ground-breaking collection explores the life cycles of children born of wartime rape across time and space. It shines light on why young people born of rape are or are not able rejoin their families and society in the post-conflict. It explores the different ways these children learn about their origins and how they, their families and societies react to that understanding. It reveals the local, national, and international actions of how children born of wartime rape and their families are positioned in society and how they strive to transcend this and position themselves as they move from abuse, marginalization and pain into belonging and justice.

Table of Contents:
Ch.1 Challenging Conceptions Part One - Life Cycles: Children Born of Wartime Rape Across Time and Space Ch. 2 "They're Called Bui Doi": (Re)framing the politics of Amerasians and Children Born of War Ch. 3 Reconstructing the "Small Family" after Democratic Kampuchea: Forced Marriage, Ritual Renewal and Parent-Child Entanglement in Cambodia Ch. 4 Unintended Consequences or Desired Outcome? Children Born of War and their Role in National Rebirth Part Two - Beyond Stigma: Gender, Kinship and Belonging in Northern Uganda Ch. 5 Gender, Kinship and Children Born of Rape in Patriarchal Northern Uganda Ch. 6 Kinship and belonging among Children Born of War in northern Uganda: "I am a child who is not from here" Ch. 7 Missing Fathers: Children Born of Wartime Rape and Their Perspectives on Fathers and Fatherhood in Northern Uganda Part Three - (In)visibility: Concealment, Disclosure, and the Question of Categories Ch. 8 Triptych: Seeing Children Born of Wartime Rape Ch. 9 The Unknown Youth of Al-Shabaab: Children Born from Al-Shabaab Sexual Violence Ch. 10 Contested Identities: Gender, Reproduction and War in Colombia Ch. 11 The Complexity of Sexual Violence, Birthing and Status after the Fall of the Caliphate Part Four - Transformations: Intergenerational Reconciliation and Justice Ch. 12 "Where would you send the pain?": Agency and Resilience in Three Children Born of War in Bosnia and Herzegovina Ch. 13 The Role of Spirituality and Ritual in the Acceptance of Children born of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Ch. 14 Moving Beyond Rwanda's "Children of Bad Memory": A Conversation on Working with Mothers and Children Born of Wartime Rape Ch. 15 Local Inspiration, Global Implementation: Upholding the Rights of Children Born of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence

About the Author :
Kimberly Theidon, PhD, Henry J. Leir Professor in International Humanitarian Studies, Co-Director, Gender and Intersectional Analysis and Women's/Femmes' Leadership Program, the Fletcher School of Global Affairs, Tufts University Dyan Mazurana, PhD, Research Professor, Co-Director of Gender and Intersectional Analysis and Women's/Femmes' Leadership Program, Fletcher School of Global Affairs; Research Professor, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy; Research Fellow, World Peace Foundation; Research Director, Feinstein International Center, Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy Dipali Anumol is a doctoral candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she earned her Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy in 2019.

Review :
Context-sensitive long-term work with children born of conflict-related sexual violence should provide greater opportunities for them to express themselves in their own time, on their own terms and maybe even through means that go beyond verbal accounts. As Mazurana's work in Mozambique reveals, when healing from violence, words can sometimes fall short. Other means that allow the processing of these experiences can be more attuned to the victims' needs. Along this line, she further urges us to look at the forms of emotional, social and spiritual support already present in these children's communities. Close collaboration between those already working with local resources and practices and those who come to assist these children from outside can offer a promising way forward.