Securing the Future: Transformative Justice and Children ‘Born of War’
| Author | Camile Oliveira,Erin Baines |
| Published date | 01 June 2021 |
| Date | 01 June 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0964663920946430 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Securing the Future:
Transformative Justice
and Children ‘Born of War’
Erin Baines and Camile Oliveira
The University of British Columbia, Canada
Abstract
Children born as the result of conflict related sexual violence often embody painful
memories of war-affected communities. As a result, children ‘born of war’ experience
abuse and neglect, social isolation and a sense of never-belonging. Existing scholarship
grapples with the challenges of seeking justice for children ‘born of war’ given the
complex ways their suffering is entangled with that of so many other victims. In post-
conflict northern Uganda, a community-based organization composed of survivors of
forced marriage and motherhood collectively seeks justice for their children in a process
locally referred to as child tracing. The Women’s Advocacy Network brings together
differently affected victim groups to help identify the paternal relatives of their children,
mediate conflict and transform fractious relationships in order to secure a future for
their children. Through this process, children who once divided communities, propel a
collective reach towards justice.
Keywords
children born of war, post-conflict reconstruction, survivor-led approaches, transforma-
tive justice
Introduction
On the third International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (19 June
2018), the Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) on Sexual Violence
Corresponding author:
Erin Baines, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia, 6476 NW Marine Dr,
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T1Z4.
Email: Erin.baines@ubc.ca
Social & Legal Studies
2021, Vol. 30(3) 341–361
ªThe Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0964663920946430
journals.sagepub.com/home/sls
in Conflict, Ms. Pramila Patten, made an urgent appeal to the international community to
recognize the victim status of children born of war-related sexual violence. The social
status of children ‘born of war’ falls somewhere between the violence of their fathers,
and the shame and stigma of their mothers (Hamel, 2016; Weitsman, 2008). Historically
and globally, these children come to embody the suffering differently situated victim
groups endured throughout a conflict, crisis, or genocide (Carpenter, 2000), sometimes
resulting in social isolation and a sense of never belonging. This is most often at the
hands of extended family and community members who were victims of war violence.
Further, their victim status is often submerged by the egregious sexual violence their
mothers endured, of which the child was a result. They are a ‘hidden’ victim group
(Theidon, 2015) whose suffering is entangled in that of another, complexifying the
concept of victimhood altogether and presenting a significant challenge for justice.
Despite the myriad harms that children ‘born of war’ face, they ‘are more often than
not simply overlooked in the process of transitional justice. It is one thing to conclude
that ...the behaviour of identifiable individuals or groups is the cause of harm, but it is
another to ask whether and in what form this ought to be recognized in a more formal
manner’ (Provost and Denov, 2019: 9).
As Sanchez Parra (2018) further argues, when the children are recognized, such as
in the Victim’s Law in Colombia’s transitional justice framework, they are unintelli-
gible as independent subjects. For instance, in Rimmer’s (2007) exploration of justice
for children ‘born of war’ in East Timor, she argues that ‘the well-being and ability of
children of rape to claim their rights is related to the status of their mothers socially and
legally’ (343). As such, children ‘born of war’s’ victim status and possibilities for
redress are most often framed by discourses on wartime sexual violence (Watson,
2007). As one senior policy-maker observed in conversation with Sanchez Parra: ‘This
is why the issue of these children is so fascinating. It challenges everything, and no one
has really thought about them’ (2018: 57). Efforts to bring children ‘ born of war’ to the
attention of the UN and responsible state parties ‘is set against a backdrop in which
their very existence has been shrouded in silence’ (Dowds, 2019: 226). To return to
Special Representative Patten’s appeal, silence begets violence: ‘stigma can not only
scar, it can kill’. She continues, ‘justice for these crimes is critical’, and demands a
‘survivor-centred, rights-based response that includes efforts to restore peace and the
Rule of Law’.
Recognizing this need, several scholars have investigated and identified the oppor-
tunities as well as the limitations of transitional justice mechanisms (DeLaet, 2007).
These include, for instance, legal possibilities of prosecuting perpetrators, such as the
ongoing trial of Dominic Ongwen at the International Criminal Court (ICC). However,
children ‘born of war’ bring to light the difficulties in relying on mechanisms whose
efficacy hinges on clear categories of victims and perpetrators. Ongwen, for instance,
was himself the victim of egregious crimes against humanity including abduction
(Baines, 2009). Trials, moreover, are limited to the prosecution of individual crimes
by those most responsible, but what of the manifold ways that children suffer at the
hands of war affected communities? Retributive approaches to justice obscure the
complicated ties that bind the child to war affected communities, and the holistic
approaches required to reduce structural violence that diminishes life opportunities
342 Social & Legal Studies 30(3)
To continue reading
Request your trial