Transitional Justice, Education, and Sexual Violence Stigma: The Results of a Schools‐based Study in Bosnia‐Herzegovina
| Date | 01 December 2018 |
| Author | Janine Natalya Clark |
| Published date | 01 December 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12128 |
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY
VOLUME 45, NUMBER 4, DECEMBER 2018
ISSN: 0263-323X, pp. 509±37
Transitional Justice, Education, and Sexual Violence
Stigma: The Results of a Schools-based Study in Bosnia-
Herzegovina
Janine Natalya Clark*
Within the context of armed conflict, the problem of sexual violence-
related stigma is routinely acknowledged. Sustained efforts to tackle it,
however, have often been lacking. This article argues that transitional
justice processes have an important role to play in fighting stigma, and in
creating new attitudinal spaces that enable those who have suffered
sexual violence to tell their stories without fear of being mocked or
judged. Underscoring crucial linkages between education and transi-
tional justice, the article introduces a novel schools-based project in
Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). Based on analysis of over 800 question-
naires, it demonstrates how a series of talks delivered in BiH high schools
on the issue of conflict-related sexual violence led to some positive and
important attitudinal changes vis-a
Á-vis common rape myths. These
educational efforts to tackle stigma are theorized in the article as
highlighting a crucial attitudinal dimension of transitional justice.
INTRODUCTION
Speaking in June 2016 at an event to mark the International Day for the
Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, the then United Nations (UN)
Deputy Secretary-General, Jan Eliasson, underlined that `Sexual violence is
unique in often stigmatizing the victim, rather than the perpetrator of the
509
*Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston,
Birmingham B15 2TT, England
j.n.clark@bham.ac.uk
Thanks to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for funding the schools
project through its Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) scheme, and the Leverhulme Trust
for supporting earlier fieldwork in BiH (2014±2015), funded through a Leverhulme
Research Fellowship (RF-2014±060). Thanks also to Thomas Stocks for inputting and
analysing all questionnaire data, and to Elizabeth Dartnall for feedback on the question-
naire. Finally, thank you to Dr Branka AnticÂ-S
Ïtauber for delivering most of the school talks.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
crime. We must take this into account as we design support for survivors.'
1
In his April 2017 report on conflict-related sexual violence, the UN
Secretary-General, AntoÂnio Guterres, stressed that:
Shame and stigma are integral to the logic of sexual violence being employed
as a tactic of war or terrorism: aggressors understand that this type of crime
can turn victims into outcasts, thus unravelling the family and kinship ties that
hold communities together.
2
In August 2017, based on a workshop organized in the Central African
Republic, the Christian charity Tearfund noted that:
The stigma associated with SGBV [sexual and gender-based violence] is part
of the reason it is used as a weapon of war in different contexts globally . ..
The survivor will be cut off from their community and family ties holding
communities together will start to disintegrate.
3
As these examples attest, the problem of stigma relating to conflict-
related sexual violence (including rape, forced prostitution, and sexual
slavery) is widely acknowledged.
4
Serious and sustained efforts to tackle the
issue, however, have often been lacking. In short, efforts to help victims/
survivors
5
by addressing their immediate needs ± for example, for medical
care and psycho-social support ± have frequently detracted from the wider
environments in which these men and women live. As a result, the
imperative of actively fighting social stigma has been sidelined. As its point
510
1 UN, `Shift Shame, Stigma from Victims to Perpetrators of Sexual Violence in
Conflict, Deputy Secretary-General Tells Panel Commemorating International Day'
(21 June 2016), at .
2 UN, Report of the Secretary-General on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (2017) S/
2017/249, at .org/en/events/e limination-of-s exual-violence- in-conflict/
pdf/1494280398.pdf>.
3 Tearfund, `Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative: Central African Republic Stigma
Workshop' (August 2017), at
attachment_data/file/645637/SV_Workshop_Report_-_CAR.pdf>.
4 See, for example, M.S. Denov, `Wartime Sexual Violence: Assessing a Human
Security Response to War-Affected Girls in Sierra Leone' (2006) 37 Security
Dialogue 319; E. Dartnall and R. Jewkes, `Sexual Violence against Women: The
Scope of the Problem' (2013) 27 Best Practice and Research Clinical Obstetrics
and Gynaecology 3; K. Amone-P'Olak, E. Ovuga, and P.B. Jones, `The Effects of
Sexual Violence on Psychological Outcomes in Formerly Abducted Girls in
Northern Uganda: The WAYS Study' (2015) 3 BMC Psychology 1.
5 The issue of how to refer to those who have experienced sexual violence is
extremely complex. This article employs the terminology of `victim/survivor', to
underline that individuals may view themselves as victims, survivors or both. While
it is important to acknowledge that some men and women may define themselves as
neither victims nor survivors, `research taking a victim-only perspective may fail to
provide alternative models for conceptualizations and social treatment of women
[and men] who have been raped, instead risking reinforcement of the status quo
view of them as perpetual victims': J.H. Hockett and D.A. Saucier, `A Systematic
Literature Review of ``Rape Victims'' Versus ``Rape Survivors'': Implications for
Theory, Research and Practice' (2015) 25 Aggression and Violent Behavior 1, at 10.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
of departure, this article asks whether transitional justice ± broadly defined
as `a set of policy interventions designed to bring justice, disclose truth, and
promote reconciliation in order to foster peace and establish democracy in
the aftermath of political conflicts and authoritarian regimes'
6
± has a part to
play in addressing stigma.
Gready and Robins note that `the mainstream definition of transitional
justice has four pillars: criminal prosecutions, truth commissions, reparations
and institutional reform.'
7
Yet, within these pillars, little attention is
typically given to wider social attitudes and prejudices that may obstruct key
transitional justice goals, including establishing the truth and giving those
who have suffered a voice.
8
The existence of stigma, for example, can
constrain the narratives that victims/survivors tell, by limiting what they feel
able to disclose.
9
Fundamentally, the process of narrativization requires a
`trustworthy community of listeners'; in order to be trustworthy, listeners
must be `strong enough to hear without injury; and strong enough to hear
without having to deny the reality of experience or blame the victim . . .'.
10
The presence of stigma substantially restricts the scope for `trustworthy
communities of listeners' to form and take root.
Arguing that transitional justice processes should give attention to the
`ecological environments'
11
in which victims/survivors both live and
manage their experiences of trauma, this article identifies an important role
511
6 R. David and S.Y.P. Choi, `Getting Even or Getting Equal? Retributive Desires and
Transitional Justice' (2009) 30 Political Psychology 161, at 162.
7 P. Gready and S. Robins, `Rethinking Civil Society and Transitional Justice:
Lessons from Social Movements and ``New'' Civil Society' (2017) 21 International
J. of Human Rights 956, at 956.
8 In this regard, it is important to acknowledge that the UN Basic Principles and
Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross
Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of Inter-
national Humanitarian Law do contain some provisions relating to social attitudes.
As an illustration, they refer to `Guarantees of non-repetition', examples of which
include `Promoting the observance of codes of conduct and ethical norms, in
particular international standards, by public servants, including law enforcement,
correctional, media, medical, psychological, social service and military personnel,
as well as by economic enterprises': UN General Assembly, Basic Principles and
Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations
of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International
Humanitarian Law (21 March 2006) A/RES/60/147, para. 23(f). Such recom-
mendations, however, are very general and do not pertain specifically to sexual
violence-related stigma.
9 N. Henry, `The Impossibility of Bearing Witness: Wartime Rape and the Promise of
Justice' (2010) 16 Violence against Women 1098, at 1101.
10 E.S. Uehara et al., ```Eloquent Chaos'' in the Oral Discourse of Killing Fields
Survivors: An Exploration of Atrocity Narrativization' (2001) 25 Culture, Medicine
and Psychiatry 29, at 54.
11 U. Bronfenbrenner, The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature
and Design (1979) 3.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
for transitional justice in tackling sexual violence stigma. Part of this role
involves fostering the development of facilitative ecologies ± a term used in
this article to denote social attitudinal spaces wherein victims/survivors feel
supported and able to tell their stories without fear of being judged, criticized
or marginalized. If the concept of facilitative ecologies thus foregrounds a
major attitudinal dimension of transitional justice work, it also highlights
crucial linkages ± which to date remain underexplored ± between education
and transitional justice. The empirical part of the article presents the results
of the author's ongoing impact research in high schools in Bosnia-
Herzegovina (BiH). By engaging young people on the issue of sexual
violence, the aim of this project ± which can be viewed as an example of
attitudinal transitional justice ± is to challenge common rape myths that feed
social stigma. To focus on schools alone is not sufficient to create facilitative
ecologies, but it is a significant first step.
The article is divided into four sections. The first section focuses on one
of the central goals of transitional justice, namely, giving victims
12
a voice.
It argues that notwithstanding important developments ± particularly in the
international prosecution of sexual violence ± aimed at giving victims a
voice, these developments will remain limited as long as the wider social
attitudinal environment is left unaltered. The second section builds the
argument that transitional justice processes should give more attention to the
wider social context, in order to transform social ecologies and enhance the
`voice' that victims/survivors have. Schools represent one part of these
social ecologies, and the third section introduces the author's continuing
work in BiH high schools aimed at fighting sexual violence stigma. The
final section explores the impact of this work. Analysing the data from over
800 questionnaires, it demonstrates that the interactive school talks on
sexual violence did bring about some positive attitudinal changes. These
results underscore that transitional justice processes should not only be
about dealing with the past, but also about giving more attention to negative
social attitudes that can exacerbate the suffering of victims/survivors in the
present.
GIVING VICTIMS A VOICE
As the burgeoning field of transitional justice continues to grow and expand,
scholars increasingly disagree on a number of core issues. For example,
where do the boundaries of transitional justice lie; what should transitional
justice encompass; are we expecting too much from it; what is the
512
12 Although this article refers to individuals who have suffered sexual violence as
`victims/survivors', it uses the term `victims' in the context of transitional justice.
This is consistent with standard transitional justice terminology, which primarily
speaks about `victims' rather than `survivors'.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
relationship between transitional justice and peacebuilding?
13
Regardless of
how broadly or narrowly the parameters of transitional justice are drawn, a
commonly-stated goal of transitional justice ± and in particular of truth and
reconciliation commissions (TRCs) and criminal prosecutions ± is to give
victims a voice.
14
Citing from the final report of South Africa's TRC during
the 1990s, for example, Verdoolaege notes that `The emphasis of the HRV
[human rights violations] hearings was on ``the validation of the individual
subjective experiences of people who had previously been silenced or
voiceless''.'
15
The website of the International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yu goslavi a (ICTY) , which re cently c omplete d its mand ate,
underlines that the Tribunal's work `provided thousands of victims the
opportunity to be heard and to speak about their suffering'.
16
At an event to
commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Rome Statute,
Herman von Hebel, the then Registrar of the International Criminal Court
(ICC), emphasized the `need to ensure that the voice of victims will continue
to be heard and to be increasingly heard.'
17
Within the judicial framework of the ICC and the Extraordinary
Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), there is provision for victims
not only to testify but also to participate in trial proceedings.
18
The ICC's
513
13 L. Wardorf, `Anticipating the Past: Transitional Justice and Socio-Economic
Wrongs' (2012) 21 Social & Legal Studies 171; P. Gready and S. Robins, `From
Transitional to Transformative Justice: A New Agenda for Practice' (2014) 8
International J. of Transitional Justice 339; E. Schmid and A. Nolan, ```Do No
Harm''? Exploring the Scope of Economic and Social Rights in Transitional Justice'
(2014) 8 International J. of Transitional Justice 362; D.N. Sharp, `Emancipating
Transitional Justice from the Bonds of the Paradigmatic Transition' (2015) 9
International J. of Transitional Justice 150; P. Hazan, `Beyond Borders: The New
Architecture of Transitional Justice?' (2017) 11 International J. of Transitional
Justice 1; P. McAuliffe, Transformative Transitional Justice and the Malleability of
Post-Conflict States (2017).
14 N. Siddiqui, `Theater and Transitional Justice in Afghanistan: Creating Spaces for
Change' (12 January 2010), International Centre for Transitional Justice Briefing, at
English.pdf>.
15 A. Verdoolaege, `Dealing with a Traumatic Past: The Victim Hearings of the South
African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Their Reconciliation Discourse'
(2009) 6 Critical Discourse Studies 297, at 298.
16 ICTY, `Achievements' (n.d.), at .
17 H. von Hebel, `Remarks at Coalition for the ICC Launch Forum Commemorating
the 20th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Rome Statute' (15 January 2018), at
18 Article 68(3) of the Rome Statute stipulates that:
Where the personal interests of the victims are affected, the Court shall permit
their views and concerns to be presented and considered at stages of the
proceedings determined to be appropriate by the Court and in a manner which is
not prejudicial to or inconsistent with the rights of the accused and a fair and
impartial trial. Such views and concerns may be presented by the legal
representatives of the victims where the Court considers it appropriate .. .
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
website underlines that `For the first time in the history of international
criminal justice, victims have the possibility to share their views and con-
cerns in the proceedings, represented by a lawyer.'
19
This new scope for the
participation of victims is significant and can enrich the judicial record. At
the ECCC, for example, Case 002 (involving the defendants Nuon Chea and
Khieu Samphan) did not involve any charges of sexual violence. In 2009,
however, the co-prosecutors in the case requested investigations into the
crimes of forced marriage and forced sexual relations. Emphasizing that this
development was entirely the result of the efforts made by civil parties and
their legal representatives, Killean maintains that the inclusion of these
forced-marriage charges:
highlighted the potential of Civil Party participation to contribute to the
Court's narrative; due to the work of the Civil Parties and their lawyers, the
experiences of many victims would be more accurately reflected in the
indictment against the most senior members of the Khmer Rouge.
20
On the other hand, while civil party participation purportedly gives
victims a voice, the extent to which it does ± and can do so ± in practice is
open to question. For example, the potential number of victims who are
eligible to participate in trial proceedings necessarily outstrips the number
who can actually participate.
21
This means that only limited voices can be
heard. The fact, moreover, that victim participation occurs through the
medium of legal representatives effectively collectivizes diverse voices into
a single voice, thereby silencing and compressing individual viewpoints and
concerns. According to Killean and Moffett, therefore, `There remains a real
514
ICC, Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998) Art. 68(3), at
statute_english.pdf>. Rule 23 of the ECCC's Internal Rules states that:
1. The purpose of Civil Party action before the ECCC is to:
a) Participate in criminal proceedings against those responsible for crimes within
the jurisdiction of the ECCC by supporting the prosecution; and
b) Seek collective and moral reparations, as provided in Rule 23quinquies.
ECCC, Internal Rules (rev. 9) (16 January 2015), Rule 23, at
sites/default/files/legal-documents/Internal_Rules_Rev_9_Eng.pdf>.
19 ICC, `Victims' (n.d.), at .
20 R. Killean, `An Incomplete Narrative: Prosecuting Sexual Violence Crimes at the
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia' (2015) 13 J. of International
Criminal Justice 331, at 340. In its first judgment against Noun and Khieu (Case
002/01), the EEEC Trial Chamber found that `. .. regulation of marriage was a CPK
[Communist Party of Kampuchea] policy'. It further held that `Evidence concerning
the nature and implementation of the policy of regulation of marriage, and its extent
will be the subject of Case 002/02.' Prosecutor v. Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan,
002/19-09-2007/ECCC/TC, Trial Chamber Sentencing Judgment (2014) s. 1446.
The trial judgement in Case 002/02 is expected later this year.
21 R. Killean and L. Moffett, `Victim Legal Representation before the ICC and ECCC'
(2017) 15 J. of International Criminal Justice 713, at 718.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
risk that within the courtroom victim participation is a token effort, rather
than a genuine representation of voice and legal agency.'
22
In general, and not only in the particular context of criminal trials, the
extent to which victims' voices are actually heard ± and the potential impact
of these voices ± will depend on multiple factors, from the prevailing
political context and the level of regime change to simple practicalities and
the country-specific operationalization of individual or combined transitional
justice mechanisms. Discussing Canada's Indian Residential Schools TRC
(2008±2015), for example, James expresses `concerns about how a victim-
centred approach functions in a sociopolitical context dominated by the
institutional perpetrators and individual beneficiaries of the injustices.'
23
Particular voices, moreover, may be marginalized, a point which feminist
scholars have frequently stressed.
24
Reflecting on the work of the South
African TRC (1994±1998), for example, Ross notes that:
. .. the emphasis on spectacular events of violence ± abduction, torture, killing,
and severe ill-treatment ± forecloses an understanding of the subtleties of
oppression and the diverse ways in which apartheid affected different
categories of people.
25
Women's experiences were frequently silenced.
26
Even when victims are
given a platform, the emphasis on public remembering and recounting may
conflict with local preferences and ways of dealing with the past, as Shaw
found during her work with war victims in Sierra Leone. In her words, `The
friction of a globalized universal traveling through a particular place and
time may enable wheels to turn, but sometimes those wheels may get
stuck.'
27
The above examples highlight that the aim of giving victims a voice is far
from straightforward. When one takes a step back and observes the wider
picture, however, it is unquestionable that important progress has been made.
Emphasizing this point, Karstedt remarks that:
Looking back at the conspicuous absence of victims at the time of the
Declaration [Universal Declaration of Human Rights], and comparing it with
their undeniable and strong presence in the contemporary international human
515
22 id., p. 740.
23 M. James, `A Carnival of Truth? Knowledge, Ignorance and the Canadian Truth and
Reconciliation Commission' (2012) 6 International J. of Transitional Justice 182, at
203.
24 See, for example, F. NõÂ AolaÂin, `Women, Securit y, and the Patriarchy of
Internationalized Transitional Justice' (2009) 31 Human Rights Q. 1055.
25 F.C. Ross, `An Acknowledged Failure: Women, Voice, Violence and the South
African Truth and Reconciliation Commission' in Localizing Transitional Justice:
Interventions and Priorities after Mass Violence, eds. R. Shaw and L. Waldorf, with
P. Hazan (2010) 87.
26 id.
27 R. Shaw, `Memory Frictions: Localizing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
in Sierra Leone' (2007) 1 International J. of Transitional Justice 183, at 207.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
rights regime, in international courts, tribunals or in Truth and Reconciliation
Commissions, makes us aware of the distance travelled and of achievements
gained.
28
Of particular significance are the developments that have occurred in
relation to rape and other forms of sexual violence ± crimes that have
historically been marginalized. Regarding the post-war Nuremberg trial of
22 leading Nazi war criminals, for example, McDonald notes that `the
French prosecutor specifically asked forgiveness from the tribunal for his
decision to avoid citing atrocious details of crimes of sexual violence,
although he had no problem reciting atrocious details of other war crimes.'
29
Moreover, although the voluminous trial transcripts contained extensive
evidence of sexual violence, this was not reflected in the 732-page index that
accompanied them: `Neither ``rape'' nor ``women'' is included in any
heading or subheading in this index.'
30
The word rape was similarly absent
from the Tribunal's judgment.
31
The International Military Tribunal for the
Far East fared considerably better in this regard. For example, `the Tokyo
Indictment did include allegations of gender-related crimes',
32
and its
judgment recorded the mass rapes of approximately 20,000 Chinese women
in Nanking in 1937.
33
However, the Tokyo Tribunal did not give any of
these women the opportunity to testify, and it critically ignored the
thousands of `Comfort Women' who were forced into sexual slavery to serve
the needs of the Japanese imperial army.
34
If women's bodies were traditionally framed as war booty,
35
over the last
two decades there have been major strides forward in the international
prosecution of sexual violence. At the International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda (ICTR), for example, the trial of the former mayor of Taba com-
mune, Jean-Paul Akayesu, was not only the first case to define rape in
516
28 S. Karstedt, `From Absence to Presence, From Silence to Voice: Victims in Inter-
national and Transitional Justice since the Nuremberg Trials' (2010) 17 Inter-
national Rev. of Victimology 9, at 10.
29 G.K. McDonald, `Friedmann Award Address Crimes of Sexual Violence: The
Experience of the International Criminal Tribunal' (2000) 2 Columbia J. of
Transnational Law 1, at 10.
30 K.D. Askin, `Prosecuting Wartime Rape and other Gender-Related Crimes under
International Law: Ex traordinary Advan ces, Enduring Obstacl es' (2003) 21
Berkeley J. of International Law 288, at 296.
31 R.J. Goldstone, `Prosecuting Rape as a War Crime' (2002) 34 Case Western Reserve
J. of International Law 277, at 279.
32 Askin, op. cit., n. 30, p. 302.
33 Goldstone, op. cit., n. 31, p. 279.
34 McDonald, op. cit., n. 29, p. 10.
35 R.B. Westbrook, ```I Want a Girl, Just Like the Girl that Married Harry James'':
American Women and the Problem of Political Obligation in World War II' (1990)
42 Am. Q. 587, at 592; C.S. Snyder et al., `On the Battleground of Women's Bodies:
Mass Rape in Bosnia Herzegovina' (2006) 21 Affilia 184, at 185.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
international law,
36
but also `the first case in history that rendered a con-
viction for either genocide or crimes against humanity through sexual
violence.'
37
At the ICTY, the Trial Chamber in Delalic et al. established that
rape can constitute an act of torture;
38
the Furundz
Ïija trial was the first to
focus solely on sexual violence;
39
and in the Kunarac et al. trial, the defini-
tion of enslavement as a crime against humanity was broadened to include
sexual enslavement.
40
Several cases have drawn much-needed attention to
the use of conflict-related sexual violence against men,
41
and successful
convictions in cases such as the Charles Taylor trial at the Special Court for
Sierra Leone (SCSL)
42
and the Jean-Pierre Bemba Gomba trial at the ICC
demonstrate that top-ranking leaders and political figures can be held to
account for sexual violence crimes
43
(although the Bemba verdict was
recently overturned on appeal).
44
517
36 Prosecutor v. Jean-Paul Akayesu, ICTR-96-4-T, Trial Chamber Judgment (1998) s.
688.
37 A. Obote-Odora, `Rape and Sexual Violence in International Law: ICTR Contribu-
tion' (2005) 12 New England J. of International and Comparative Law 135, at 146.
Ultimately, the Trial Chamber found Akayesu guilty on nine of the 15 counts laid
out in the amended indictment, including rape as both genocide and as a crime
against humanity. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and this was upheld on
appeal.
38 Prosecutor v. Zejnil Delalic
Â, Pavo Mucic
Â, Hazim Delic
Âand Esad LandzÏo, IT-96-21-
T, Trial Chamber Judgment (1998) s. 496.
39 Prosecutor v. Anto FurundzÏija, IT-95-17/1- T, Trial Chamber Judgment (10
December 1998).
40 The Trial Chamber expressed its:
general agreement with the factors put forward by the Prosecutor, to be taken
into consideration in determining whether enslavement was committed. These
are the control of someone's movement, control of physical environment,
psychological control, measures taken to prevent or deter escape, force, threat of
force or coercion, duration, assertion of exclusivity, subjection to cruel treatment
and abuse, control of sexuality and forced labour.
Prosecutor v. Dragoljub Kunarac, Radomir Kovac
Âand Zoran Vukovic
Â, IT-96-23-
T&IT-96-23/1-T, Trial Chamber Judgment (2001) s. 543.
41 See, for example, Prosecutor v. Dus
Ïko Tadic
Â, IT-94-1-T, Trial Chamber Opinion &
Judgment (1997) s. 206; Prosecutor v. Stevan Todorovic
Â, IT-95-9/1-S, Trial Cham-
ber Sentencing Judgment (2001) s. 38; Prosecutor v. Issa Hassan Sesay, Morris
Kallon and Augustine Gbao, SCSL-04-15-T, Trial Chamber Judgment (2009) s.
1208.
42 Prosecutor v. Charles Ghankay Taylor, SCSL-03-01-T, Sentencing Judgment
(2012) s. 40.
43 V. Oosterveld, `Gender and the Charles Taylor Case at the Special Court for Sierra
Leone' (2012) 19 William and Mary J. of Women and Law 7, at 33.
44 On 21 March 2016, the ICC convicted the former Congolese vice-president, Jean-
Pierre Bemba Gombo, of crimes against humanity (rape and murder) and war crimes
(rape, murder, and pillage) committed in the Central African Republic by troops
from his Mouvement de libe
Âration du Congo (MLC): Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre
Bemba Gombo, ICC-01/05-01/08-3343, Trial Chamber Judgment (2016). This was a
highly significant judgment, not least because Bemba was the first defendant to be
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
These important developments in the prosecution of sexual violence have
been accompanied by various procedural efforts aimed at facilitating the
testimony process. Article 68(2) of the Rome Statute, for example, states
that:
As an exception to the principle of public hearings provided for in Article 67,
the Chambers of the Court may, to protect victims and witnesses or an
accused, conduct any part of the proceedings in camera or allow the
presentation of evidence by electronic or other special means.
45
It adds that these protective measures `shall be implemented' in cases
involving victims of sexual violence or child victims/witnesses, unless the
Court ± having regard to all the circumstances and, in particular, the views of
the victim or witness ± orders otherwise.
46
While acknowledging these advances, some scholars underline that
criminal trials, by their very nature, accord only a limited voice to those who
have suffered sexual violence. Drawing on their experiences at the ICTY, for
example, Gopalan et al. recall that `It was frustrating for some when their
only experience of the courtroom was a harsh cross-examination by the
defence without any opportunity to tell their story in their own words first.'
47
Making a similar point, Henry distinguishes between two types of testimony:
one that focuses on the facts of what happened (the description of the rape)
and the other that centres on the emotional aftermath of rape and its impact.
While criminal trial processes call for the first type of narrative, this is
`probably not the story that victims would want, or feel comfortable, to
518
convicted of rape at the ICC: J.N. Clark, `The First Rape Conviction at the ICC: An
Analysis of the Bemba Judgment' (2016) 14 J. of International Criminal Justice
667. He was subsequently sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment. On 18 June 2018,
however, the Appeals Chamber reversed the judgment and acquitted Bemba. It
found that the Trial Chamber had made a number of `serious errors' in assessing
whether Bemba, as a commander, had taken all necessary and reasonable measures
to prevent or repress the commission of crimes by his subordinates. Among these
errors, the Appeals Chamber found that `the Trial Chamber erred by failing to
properly appreciate the limitations that Mr Bemba would have faced in investigating
and prosecuting crimes as a remote commander sending troops to a foreign country':
Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, ICC-01/05-01/08 A, Appeals Chamber
Judgment (2018) s. 189.
45 ICC, op. cit., n. 18, Art. 68 (2).
46 id. Some TRCs have made similar provisions. Vis-aÁ-vis the South African TRC, for
example, Ross notes that `In some instances, where testimonies were thought to
render testifiers particularly vulnerable (as was the case with young women
testifying about rape), testifiers were permitted to speak from behind screens': F.C.
Ross, `On having voice and being heard: some after-effects of testifying before the
South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission' (2003) 3 Anthropological
Theory 325, at 333±4.
47 P. Gopalan, D. Kravetz, and A. Menon, `Proving Crimes of Sexual Violence' in
Prosecuting Conflict-Related Sexual Violence at the ICTY, eds. S. Brammertz and
M. Jarvis (2016) 125.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
tell'.
48
It is important to stress, however, that although the rigours of the trial
process undoubtedly constrain the types of narrative that are permissible in a
court of law,
49
this is not the whole picture. Whether they occur in the formal
setting of a courtroom or in a more community-based forum, testimony and
story telling take place within a wider context.
50
To date, transitional justice
practice has critically neglected these social ecologies ± and the way in
which they impact on the narratives and stories articulated by victims/
survivors of sexual violence.
THE MISSING LINK: SOCIAL ECOLOGIES AND TRANSITIONAL
JUSTICE
Social ecology refers to the interaction and interlocking of different micro,
meso, exo, and macro systems. Embodying the fundamental idea that we are
part of the environment that surrounds us,
51
it entails `investigations that go
beyond the immediate setting containing the person to examine the larger
contexts, both formal and informal, that affect events within the immediate
setting'.
52
From a social-ecological perspective, therefore, it is artificial to
look at individuals and individual behaviour in isolation. They are neces-
sarily part of a wider whole and of `[n]esting interacting spheres of social
relationships . . .'.
53
The concept of social ecology has been utilized and discussed in many
different contexts, including health,
54
bullying,
55
resilience,
56
and crime.
57
519
48 Henry, op. cit, n. 9, p. 1106. Herman goes much further, saying `If one set out by
design to devise a system for provoking intrusive post-traumatic symptoms, one
could not do better than a court of law': J. Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The
Aftermath of Violence ± From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror (2015) 72.
49 T.G. Phelps, `Narrative Capability: Telling Stories in the Search for Justice' in
Transforming Unjust Structures: The Capability Approach, eds. S. Deneulin, M.
Nebel, and N. Sagovsky (2006) 111.
50 C. Hackett and B. Rolston, `The Burden of Memory: Victims, Storytelling and
Resistance in Northern Ireland' (2009) 2 Memory Studies 355, at 357.
51 M.E. Krasny and K.G. Tidball, Civic Ecology: Adaptation and Transformation from
the Ground Up (2010) xii.
52 U. Bronfenbrenner, `Toward an Experimental Ecology of Human Development'
(1977) 32 Am. Psychologist 513, at 527 (emphasis in the original).
53 B.A. Kohrt et al., `Social ecology of child soldiers: Child, family, and community
determinants of mental health, psychosocial well-being and reintegration in Nepal'
(2010) 47 Transcultural Psychiatry 727, at 728.
54 J.G. Grzywacz and J. Fuqua, `The social ecology of health: leverage points and
linkages' (2000) 26 Behavioral Medicine 101.
55 F. Jamal et al., `The social ecology of girls' bullying practices: exploratory research
in two London schools' (2015) 37 Sociology of Health & Illness 731.
56 M. Ungar, `The Social Ecology of Resilience: Addressing Contextual and Cultural
Ambiguity of a Nascent Construct' (2011) 81 Am. J. of Orthopsychiatry 1.
57 C.E. Kubrin and R. Weitzer, `New Directions in Social Disorganization Theory'
(2003) 40 J. of Research in Crime and Delinquency 374.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
To date, however, it remains strikingly underexplored in relation to transi-
tional justice. This is surprising because these social ecologies can signifi-
cantly affect how individuals deal with experiences of trauma. Highlighting
this point, Herman notes that: `Because traumatic life events invariably
cause damage to relationships, people in the survivor's world have the power
to influence the eventual outcome of the trauma.'
58
By extension, and
relatedly, social ecologies necessarily influence processes of story telling
and narrative, shaping what can and cannot be said ± and how it is said. As
Porter underlines, `Narratives are made up of a series of stories that are told
within social, cultural, and political contexts.'
59
These contexts, which necessarily frame any transitional justice process,
are particularly important in relation to story telling involving sexual
violence. According to Caruth:
trauma . .. is always the story of a wound that cries out, that addresses us in the
attempt to tell us of a reality or truth that is not otherwise available. This truth,
in its delayed appearance and its belated address, cannot be linked only to
what is known, but also to what remains unknown in our very actions and our
language.
60
Yet, if victims/survivors live in an environment where they are judged,
blamed, and stigmatized, the scope for their wounds to `cry out' may be
restricted.
61
This became clear during my fieldwork (conducted as part of a
Leverhulme Research Fellowship) in BiH in 2014±2015, where I conducted
interviews with 79 men and women who had suffered various acts of sexual
violence (primarily rape) during the 1992±1995 Bosnian war.
62
Some female
interviewees had experienced verbal and/or physical abuse from their
husbands, while others had endured taunts and cruel words from neighbours
520
58 Herman, op. cit., n. 48, p. 61.
59 E. Porter, `Gendered Narratives: Stories and Silences in Transitional Justice' (2016)
17 Human Rights Rev. 35, at 37.
60 C. Caruth, Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History (1996) 4.
61 Discussing the so-called `Comfort Women' who were made to serve the sexual
needs of the Japanese imperial army during World War Two, for example, Karstedt
points out that: `. .. Korean families, communities and society silenced these women
and their memories of sexual and violent abuse during the post-war period':
Karstedt, op. cit., n. 28, p. 17.
62 The use of sexual violence was a prominent feature of the Bosnian war. See, for
example, C.A. MacKinnon, `Rape, Genocide and Women's Human Rights' (1994)
17 Harvard Women's Law J. 5; A. Stiglmayer (ed.), Mass Rape: The War against
Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1994); B. Allen, Rape Warfare: Hidden Genocide
in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia (1996); K.D. Askin, War Crimes against
Women: Prosecution in International War Crimes Tribunals (1997); L. Hansen,
`Gender, Nation, Rape: Bosnia and the Construction of Security' (2000) 3
International Feminist J. of Politics 55; I. Skjelsbaek, The Political Psychology of
War Rape: Studies from Bosnia and Herzegovina (2012); E. Helms, `Rejecting
Angelina: Bosnian War Rape Survivors and the Ambiguities of Sex in War' (2014)
73 Slavic Rev. 612; O. SimicÂ, Silenced Victims of Wartime Sexual Violence (2018).
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
(and particularly other women) who readily cast blame.
63
In one case, an
interviewee's neighbour had accused her of having willingly `slept' with
enemy soldiers.
64
Another interviewee explained that her closest neighbour,
and former friend, had told her that because she chose to stay in the area when
the war broke out in 1992, it was her own fault that she was raped.
65
These
were not isolated cases,
66
and interviewees frequently expressed feeling
unsupported. Indeed, one of the major challenges of working with victims/
survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in BiH is precisely the fact that
some of them are afraid to speak out, fearing negative reactions from others.
To cite Hackett and Rolston, `At the individual level, trauma and fear may
lead to silence rather than speech, while at the social level there may not be
spaces in which stories can be told and listened to sympathetically.'
67
Transitional justice has a crucial role to play in fostering these spaces
through the development of facilitative ecologies. The concept of para-
translation, used in translation studies, is useful for illustrating this point.
Paratranslation stresses `the essential role performed by paratextual elements
in translation, that is, their participation, together with text, in the con-
struction of meaning of the published work.'
68
In an interview, the words
spoken constitute the main text. Everything else surrounding the interview
forms the paratext.
Extending the analogy, societal attitudes about sexual violence, and the
existence of stigma, constitute a crucial paratext that interlocks with and
influences the main text ± that is, the narratives of victims/survivors.
Transitional justice is overwhelmingly concerned with the main text. It
focuses on victims'/survivors' individual stories; what happened to them,
when, how, who hurt them? What it neglects is the broader paratext ± and the
fact that i ndivid uals `co nstruct n arrati ves from c ultural ly avail able
``narrative templates'', ``public narratives'' or ``meta-narratives'' . . .'.
69
521
63 According to Hayes et al., part of the explanation for victim blaming lies in just
world belief (JWB) and, more specifically, `just world-other' ± the conviction that
people only get what they deserve. When this belief is shaken, people look for ways
to re-stabilize it. `To maintain one's JWB, it may be natural for people to neutralize
or deny the occurrence of injustice, or even hold the victim accountable for their
misfortune in order to restore one's belief in a just world-other': R.M. Hayes, K.
Lorenz, and K.A. Bell, `Victim Blaming Others: Rape Myth Acceptance and the Just
World Belief' (2013) 8 Feminist Criminology 202, at 206.
64 J.N. Clark, Rape, Sexual Violence and Transitional Justice Challenges: Lessons
from Bosnia-Herzegovina (2017) 206.
65 id.
66 None of the 13 male interviewees, however, spoke about stigma or gave examples of
any negative encounters.
67 Hackett and Rolston, op. cit., n. 50, p. 356.
68 J.Y. FrõÂas, `Paratextual Elements in Translation: Paratranslating Titles in Children's
Literature' in Translation Peripheries: Paratextual Elements in Translation, eds. A.
Gil-BajardõÂ, P. Orero, and S. Rovira-Esteva (2012) 118.
69
D.J. Harding et al., `Narrative change, narrative stability and structural constraint: The
case of prisoner reentry narratives' (2016) 5 Am. J. of Cultural Sociology 261, at 265.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
The central point is that if transitional justice processes overlook the wider
social context in which victims/survivors narrate and tell their stories, core
transitional justice goals ± including truth telling and giving victims a voice
± may be compromised.
The focus of transitional justice thus needs to extend beyond victims and
perpetrators. In addi tion to looking at the suff ering and actions of
individuals, it also needs to address the fact that `Traumatic events destroy
the sus taini ng bond s betw een ind ividu al and co mmun ity'.
70
More
specifically, it needs to help to restore what Laub has called an `empathic
dyad'
71
between victims/survivors and those around them. For this to
happen, it is essential that transitional justice processes tackle wider societal
attitudes. The ICTY, for example, which completed its mandate at the end of
2017, insisted that its judgments `contributed to . . . combatting denial and
preventing attempts at revisionism'.
72
In the absence of concerted efforts to
tackle the social-attitudinal context that sustains denial and revisionism,
however, such claims remain unconvincing. As one illustration, reactions in
Croatia and BiH to the courtroom suicide of Slobodan Praljak
73
± in
November 2017 ± showed that this former Bosnian Croat general and
convicted war criminal was highly respected and admired. To his supporters,
he was a war hero and a victim of a huge injustice.
74
His crimes and
wrongdoings were conveniently overlooked.
75
Similarly, many convicted
war criminals continue to enjoy widespread backing and adulation from
within their own ethnic group.
76
This spotlights a critical gap within
transitional justice work ± both in BiH and more generally ± that stems
precisely from a failure to target social attitudes.
522
70 Herman, op. cit., n. 48, p. 214.
71 D. Laub, `Traumatic Shutdown of Narrative and Symbolization: A Death Instinct
Derivative?' (2005) 41 Contemporary Psychoanalysis 307, at 315.
72 ICTY, op. cit, n. 16.
73 T. Embury-Dennis, `Slobodan Praljak death: Bosnian Croat war crimes suspect dies
after ``drinking poison'' during tribunal at The Hague' Independent, 29 November
2017, at
dri nk -p oi so n-t he -h ag ue -tr ia l- wa r- cri me s- bo sn ian -c ro at -g ene ra l- mu sl ims -
a8082416.html>.
74 A. MacDowall, `Slobodan Praljak's Suicide Reopens Old Wounds in Bosnia'
Guardian, 2 December 2017, at
slobodan-praljak-suicide-reopens-old-wounds-bosnia>.
75 Praljak was the commander of the Bosnian Croat army (HVO) in BiH. In May 2013,
he was found guilty of crimes against humanity, violations of the laws or customs of
war, and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. He was sentenced to 20 years'
imprisonment: Prosecutor v. Jadranko Prlic
Â, Bruno Stojic
Â, Slobodan Praljak,
Milivoj Petkovic
Â, Valentin C
Ïoric
Âand Berislav Pus
Ïic
Â, IT-04-74-T, Trial Chamber
Judgment (2013). After his conviction and sentence were upheld on appeal, in
November 2017, Praljak committed suicide by drinking a small vial of cyanide.
76 `UN Prosecutor: Bosnia Nationalists ``Glorifying War Criminals''' Balkan Insight, 8
Jun e 201 7, at < ww w.b alk ani ns igh t.c om/ en /ar tic le /un -pr ose cu tor -bo sni a-
nationalists-glorifying-war-criminals±06-08-2017>.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
This imperative `attitudinal dimension', in turn, foregrounds an important
role for education in transitional justice practice. RamõÂrez-Barat and Duthie
point out that `. . . to date neither education reform nor the teaching of the
recent past has been treated with the seriousness it deserves within the scope
of transitional justice.'
77
Seeking to redress this, in October 2016, I
commenced a research project focused on high schools in BiH. Through
interactive discussions with young people on the issue of sexual violence, the
aim was to directly confront social attitudes and prejudices that foster
stigma, and to thereby contribute to developing new narrative spaces within
a wider framework of facilitative ecologies.
ADDRESSING SEXUAL VIOLENCE STIGMA IN BIH
During my work with male and female victims/survivors in BiH in 2014 and
2015, the issue of social stigma emerged as a recurring theme. Despite this,
the problem has largely been left unaddressed, within both transitional
justice processes and the civil society sector. Non-governmental organiza-
tions (NGOs) that work with victims/survivors have repeatedly called for
`justice'. According to Bakira Hasec
ÏicÂ, for example, the president of the
organization Z
Ïena ± Z
Ïrtva Rata who was herself raped during the Bosnian
war, `The most important thing is the war crimes verdict; we want to fight
for justice, and the only justice is that war criminals are arrested and
sentenced.'
78
More recently, there has been a growing emphasis on the need
for reparations and, more specifically, compensation. A lawyer from TRIAL
International, for example, has underlined that `The symbolic message of a
compensation award is strong: it is a societal recognition of what she
79
[the
victim/survivor] went through. In that sense, it also holds strong preventive
potential.'
80
Supporting victims/survivors, however, also requires more systemic
change, and specifically attitudinal change. Perceiving a critical gap that
needed to be addressed, I sought to explore ways of harnessing education to
tackle sexual violence stigma, by piloting a series of interactive discussions
523
77 C. RamõÂrez-Barat and R. Duthie, `Introduction' in Transitional Justice and
Education: Learning Peace, eds. C. RamõÂrez-Barat and R. Duthie (2017) 12.
78 D. Dz
ÏidicÂ, ```20,000 Women Sexually Assaulted'' during Bosnian War' Balkan
Insight, 29 September 2015, at
victims-still-waiting-for-justice-09-28-2015>.
79 Male victims/survivors in BiH have been heavily overlooked: see J.N. Clark,
`Masculinity and Male Survivors of Wartime Sexual Violence' (2017) 17 Conflict,
Security & Development 287.
80 B. Elmahdy, `Bosnia: ``Compensation Empowers War Crimes Survivors'', Says
TRIAL' JusticeInfo.net, 22 November 2016, at
recon cili atio n/30 729- bosni a-co mpen sati on-e mpowe rs-w ar-c rime s-su rviv ors-, -
according-to-trial.html>.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
in high schools across BiH. If schools form part of a larger social-ecological
system,
81
they are also ± and relatedly ± `a place for prevention and changing
social norms'.
82
Young people in BiH high schools did not directly experience the war.
However, a myriad of factors ± from political rhetoric and media stories to
the ongoing discovery of mass graves and commemorations of massacres ±
all contribute to keeping the past alive. The war, moreover, has indirectly
touched BiH youth in different ways. They might have lost members of their
family;
83
their parents may have subconsciously `passed on' their own
trauma through their words, fears, and beliefs;
84
and many post-war stressors
still exist. According to research by Al-Sabah et al., for example:
Student focus group members described the persisting influences of the war on
their lives in a variety of ways . .. including war-related trauma reminders, loss
reminders, and secondary adversities . . . that impaired their concentration at
home and school.
85
Another legacy of the war that directly affects young people is the
education system, which is deeply fragmented. Multiple curricula, the
persistence of `two schools under one roof',
86
and the fact that students learn
different versions of history and religion, depending on their ethnicity, all
contribute to fostering ethnic divides.
87
In this climate, speaking to young
people about the use of sexual violence during the Bosnian war ± which
remains a highly-charged topic ± could potentially create new tensions. To
avoid this, and to shift the focus away from BiH, the project was
purposefully designed around the global issue of conflict-related sexual
violence. The aim was to create a `neutral' space in which students could
reflect on and discuss a range of questions pertaining to sexual violence,
524
81 K.G. Tidball and M.E. Krasny, `Toward an Ecology of Environmental Education
and Learning' (2011) 2 Ecosphere 1, at 3.
82 UNESCO, `Comprehensive Sexuality Education Combats Violence against Women
and Gir ls' (n .d.) , at ps:/ /en. unesc o.or g/ne ws/co mpre hens ive-s exua lity -
education-combats-violence-against-women-and-girls>.
83 E. Vulliamy, `Bringing up the bodies in Bosnia' Guardian, 6 December 2016, at
84 V. Volkan, `Bosnia-Herzegovina: Chosen Trauma a nd Its Transgenerational
Transmission' in Islam and Bosnia: Conflict Resolution and Foreign Policy in
Multi-Ethnic States, ed. M. Shatzmiller (2002) 86.
85 R. Al-Sabah et al., `Adolescent Adjustment, Caregiver-Adolescent Relationships,
and Outlook Towards the Future in the Long-Term Aftermath of the Bosnian War'
(2015) 8 J. of Child & Adolescent Trauma 45, at 49.
86 T. Hadz
ÏiristicÂ, `Two Schools Under One Roof: A Lesson in Ethnic Unmixing from
Bosnia's Segregated School System' (2017), at
wfd/c an-e urope -mak e-it /tea- hadz irist ic/t wo-sc hool s-und er-o ne-r oof-l esso n-in-
ethnic-unmixing-from-bosnia->.
87 V. Perry and M.T. Becker, `Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Impact of an Unreformed
System' in Education in Non-EU Countries in Western and Southern Europe:
Education around the World, ed. T. Sprague (2016) 154.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
thereby gaining new knowledge and understanding that they could ultimately
apply to the local context. Previous initiatives, in particular, Education for
Peace,
88
have highlighted the transformative potential of education in BiH.
89
This project, which like Education for Peace was `designed to be both
universal and specific',
90
can itself be viewed as a form of peace education.
Having previously worked closely with Snaga Z
Ïene,
91
a women's NGO in
Tuzla, I trained the organization to deliver a series of interactive talks on
conflict-related sexual violence in high schools across BiH.
92
At the start of
each talk, students were shown two short video clips ± the first of a female
survivor and activist, Jineth Bedoya Lima, in Colombia,
93
and the second of
a teenage boy in the Democratic Republic of Congo who suffered anal rape.
As an ice-breaker, students were asked to describe how they felt as they
watched the clips. `Sad', `angry', `powerless' were the most commonly-used
words. As the discussion progressed, they were asked to reflect on a range of
questions, including: what is sexual violence, why are rape and other forms
of sexual violence used as weapons of war, how do these crimes affect
human lives, and are those who directly experience sexual violence them-
selves at fault. Challenging what Sjoberg has termed `gender normativity',
94
the talks underlined that fact that sexual violence affects men as well as
women, and that the perpetrators of these crimes are not exclusively male.
95
The students who participated in the talks were requested to complete a
pre- and post-talk questionnaire. They were asked some general questions
about the use of sexual violence during the Bosnian war (for example, do
they feel comfortable speaking about the topic, and is it an issue that BiH
society should openly speak about) and in conflict situations more generally.
The main part of the pre-talk questionnaire focused on gender and society,
and students were asked to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement
525
88 See `Educatio n for Peac e ± Bosnia a nd Herzeg ovina' ( n.d.), a t //
efpinternational.org/efp-bih>.
89 See S. Clarke-Habibi, `Transforming Worldviews: The Case of Education for Peace
in Bosnia and Herzegovina' (2008) 3 J. of Transformative Education 33; S. Clarke-
Habibi, `Teachers' perspectives on educating for peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina'
(2018) 15 J. of Peace Education, at
17400201.2018.1463209>.
90 Education for Peace, op. cit., n. 88.
91 Snaga Z
Ïene, at
92 The talks were not recorded but notes were taken. Full ethics approval for this
project, which is being funded by the Economic and Social Research Council
(ESRC) through its Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) scheme, was granted by the
Humanities and Social Sciences Ethics Review Committee at the University of
Birmingham on 21 June 2016.
93 I recently had the opportunity to meet Jineth Bedoya Lima. She explained that she
prefers the term `survivor' rather than `victim'. For her, survival is about being able
to transform and move to a new phase of one's life. (Meeting in BogotaÂ, 20 February
2018.)
94 L. Sjoberg, Women Wartime Rapists: Beyond Sensation and Stereotyping (2017) 33.
95 id.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
with the following six statements: `I think that if a man is insulted, he should
be prepared to physically fight to defend his honour';
96
`I think that if a wife
does something wrong, her husband has the right to punish her'; `I think
there are situations when a woman deserves to be beaten'; `I think that if a
woman dresses provocatively or gets drunk, she is inviting men to rape her';
`I think that when a woman is raped, she is usually to blame for putting
herself in that situation'; and `A real man would not allow himself to be
raped'. Consistent with the project's social-ecological emphasis, students
were asked not only what they themselves think in relation to these
statements, but also what their friends and family think. This was a way of
gaining insights into the provenance of their views. In the post-talk
questionnaire, students were asked the same set of statements. They were
also asked to reflect on the talks; were they useful, would they like more
talks on sexual violence in school, did they rethink any of their views?
For the above-mentioned statements, a four-point Likert scale was used
and students were given the following response options: `Strongly agree',
`Agree', `Disagree', and `Strongly disagree'. It is important to note that
scholars continue to debate what constitutes an `optimal' Likert scale. As
Adelson and McCoach point out:
Some have argued that including a middle category allows respondents to
indicate a neutral response and be more discriminating in their response,
making the scale scores more reliable and the scale more preferred by subjects
. . .
97
Conversely:
. .. others have expressed concern that with a middle category respondents will
be less discriminating and declare themselves neutral more often, while
omitting the neutral point forces respondents to be more thoughtful, resulting
in more precise ratings.
98
Leaning towards the second view, I opted to use a four-point Likert scale
rather than a five-point or seven-point version. For the purpose of analysing
the data, a four-point scale was also used, running from 1 = strongly agree to
4 = strongly disagree.
In the first stage of the project, interactive talks were given in seven high
schools in Tuzla Canton (five in Tuzla, one in Srebrenik and one in Z
Ïivinice)
in November and December 2016. From these seven schools, 278 students
(177 female students and 101 male students) completed a pre- and post-talk
questionnaire. The data from these schools will be referred to as the Tuzla
526
96 It should be noted that because the talks did not address issues around male honour,
this particular statement was only included in the pre-talk questionnaire but not in
the post-talk questionnaire.
97 J.L. Adelson and D.B. McCoach, `Measuring the Mathematical Attitudes of
Elementary Students: The Effects of a 4-Point or 5-Point Likert-Type Scale' (2010)
70 Educational and Psychological Measurement 796, at 797.
98 id.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
Canton dataset. In the second stage of the project, between January and May
2017, interactive talks took place in a further 14 schools throughout BiH. Six
of these schools were in the BiH Federation (Busovac
Ïa,
99
Mostar, Odz
Ïak,
Vares
Ï, and Vitez), four were in Republika Srpska (East Sarajevo, Foc
Ïa,
Srebrenica, and Vis
Ïegrad) and four were in Brc
Ïko District. From across these
14 schools, 529 students (267 female students and 262 male students)
completed questionnaires. These 529 questionnaires will be referred to as the
main dataset.
All of the 807 students (444 female and 363 male) who took part in the
talks were in their final year of high school and the majority of them were 18
years old. A small number of them were 17 years old. They were randomly
selected to participate in the project and all of them were given a project
information sheet and an informed consent form to complete. Each school
talk lasted approximately one hour and the talks were given to two groups of
students in each school. On average, there were 20 students in each group.
All of the groups were mixed gender, with the exception of two of the groups
in Tuzla where all of the students ± due to the gender composition of the
school ± were male. The majority of the talks were delivered by the head of
Snaga Z
Ïene, a practising doctor. Two psychologists from the NGO were also
on standby, to speak to any students who became upset or distressed.
Additionally, Snaga Z
Ïene's contact details were provided on the participant
information sheet.
As anticipated, there were some important gender differences in the
students' answers to the questionnaire.
100
In the main dataset (529 students),
for example, the statement `If a man is insulted, he should be prepared to
physically fight to defend his honour' elicited significantly different
527
99 In Busovac
Ïa, talks took place in two schools that were officially `two schools under
one roof'. The Bosniak and Bosnian Croat students in these two schools were
following different curricula.
100 In contrast, students generally gave very similar answers regardless of their ethnicity
(Bosniak, Bosnian Serb or Bosnian Croat) and there were few regional or inter-
entity differences (that is, differences between students in the BiH Federation and
those in Republika Srpska, or in Brc
Ïko District). Three exceptions can be noted.
First, regarding the statement `If a wife does something wrong, her husband has the
right to punish her', 42 per cent of all students in the main data set strongly
disagreed. However, 10 per cent more students from Republika Srpska (RS) strongly
disagreed compared to students from the Federation and Brc
Ïko District. Secondly, in
response to the question `Should Bosnian society as a whole talk more about the
rapes and sexual violence committed during the Bosnian war', the majority of
students (47 per cent) selected yes, 13 per cent said no and 40 per cent did not know.
The majority of students from RS answered `I don't know' and a higher proportion
said no compared to students in the Federation and Brc
Ïko District. Thirdly, asked
whether their views had changed as a result of the project, 35 per cent of students in
total answered in the affirmative. A slightly higher proportion of students from RS
(38 per cent) answered yes compared to students from the Federation (34 per cent)
or Brc
Ïko District (32 per cent).
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
responses from male students (M 2.89, SD 0.85) and female students
(M 3.45, SD 0.72), t(526) ÿ8.1, p<0:001). Only 2 per cent of
female students and 5 per cent of male students strongly agreed with the
statement. A higher percentage of female and male students ± 7 per cent and
27 per cent respectively ± agreed with it. Interestingly, a lower percentage of
female students (33 per cent) disagreed with the statement than male
students (42 per cent). However, while 57 per cent of female students
strongly disagreed with the statement, only 26 per cent of male students did
so. In the Tuzla Canton dataset, there was also a significant ± and more
pronounced ± difference between the responses of male students (M 2.75,
SD 0.93) and female students (M 3.46, SD 0.64), t(267) ÿ7.41,
p<0:001.
In some cases, however, the gender differences were less marked than
anticipated. Vis-aÁ-vis the statement `When a woman is raped, she is usually
to blame for putting herself in that situation', the average response in the pre-
talk questionnaires was signifi cantly different between male stu dents
(M 3. 43, SD 0.6 9) an d fem ale s tud ent s (M 3.67, SD 0 .6) ,
t(523) ÿ4.3, p<0:001. In the post-talk questionnaires, similarly, the
average responses of male students (M 3.44, SD 0.68) and female
studen ts signi ficant ly diffe red (M 3.72, SD0 .52), t(502) ÿ5.1,
p<0:001. Yet, while there was a skew among female students towards
strongly disagree in both the pre- and post-talk questionnaires, the difference
between male and female responses was less prominent than for the previous
statement about male honour. In the Tuzla Canton dataset, there were also
significant differences between the average responses of male and female
students in relation to this particular statement. These differences were
observed in the pre-test measure (male: M 3.4, SD 0.66; female:
M3.76, SD 0.48), t(269) ÿ5, p<0:001, as well as in the post-test
measu re (male : M 3.3, SD 0.57 ; femal e: M 3.79, SD 0.44),
t(264) ÿ7, p<0:001. Although these gender differences were more
significant than those in the main dataset, they were smaller than those seen
(in both datasets) vis-aÁ-vis the statement about male honour.
Taking the data as a whole, there was a significant difference between the
average responses of male and female participants to both the pre-talk
measu res (ma le: M 15. 8, SD 2.8 ; fema le: M 17.5, S D 2.4),
t(507) ÿ7.1, p<0:001 and the post-talk measures (male: M 16.3,
SD 3.1; female: M 18, SD 2.4), t(494) ÿ6.7, p<0:001. Similar
findings emerged from the Tuzla Canton dataset in relation to both the pre-
talk measures (male: M 13.22, SD 2, female: M14.69, SD 1.45),
t(267) ÿ7.05, p<0:001 and the post-talk measures (male: M 13.32,
SD 2; female: M 15.05, SD 1.6), t(264) ÿ7.9, p<0:001. The data
thus indicate that female students overall gave more progressive answers
than male students.
Nevertheless, a small proportion of female respondents did still express
views supportive of victim blaming. In the main data set, for example, 11 per
528
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
cent of female students (compared with 13 per cent of male students) agreed
with the statement `If a woman dresses provocatively or gets drunk, she is
inviting men to rape her'. A further 3 per cent strongly agreed (5 per cent of
male students did so). In the Tuzla Canton dataset, the percentage of female
students agreeing with this statement was slightly higher at 15 per cent (only
2 per cent strongly agreed), although more male students (24 per cent) also
agreed (and 9 per cent strongly disagreed). According to Cowan, `The
women who have a tendency to victim blame in situations in which women
are harassed and raped appear to have a predisposition to dislike and distrust
women.'
101
While this article does not embrace such a sweeping statement,
the fundamental point is that efforts to tackle sexual violence stigma in BiH
need to be gender inclusive and to avoid essentializing `men' as the ultimate
problem. CARE International's work with young men in the Western
Balkans is a case in point. While its `Young Men Initiative' is both important
and necessary, the strong association that it makes between men and
violence
102
means that young women ± and their own negative social
attitudes ± are overlooked.
Looking at wider social attitudes, the analysis revealed that responses to
`My family think . . .' were generally aligned to responses for `I think . . .'. In
the main dataset, this was the case for all the statements with the exception
of `There are times where a woman deserves to be beaten' (`My family
thinks . . .', M 3.7; `I think . . .', M3.6). In contrast, respondents often
perceived their friends as less likely to disagree strongly with each of the
gender and society statements. The biggest difference in mean scores was in
relation to the statement `If a man is insulted, he should be prepared to
physically fight to defend his honour'. This difference could be seen in both
the main dataset (`I think . ..', M 3.2; `My friends think . . .', M 2.9) and
in the Tuzla Canton dataset (`I think . . .', M 3.4; `My friends think . . .',
M2.9). This may indicate that participants simply felt inclined to provide
more progressive responses to the `I think . . .' statements. As Randall and
Fernandes note, `. .. individuals may present themselves in a favorable light,
regardless of their true feelings or actual behavior'.
103
However, the data might also be read as highlighting social pressures ± or
perceived social pressures ± on young people to adopt certain viewpoints.
While the questionnaire data are limited in this regard, it would be
interesting as a follow-up to explore the perceptions that young people have
529
101 G. Cowan, `Women's Hostility toward Women and Rape and Sexual Harassment
Myths' (2000) 6 Violence against Women 238, at 245.
102
According to CARE International's website, for example, `Regional tensions and the
economic crisis exacerbate an uncertainty over the future for boys in general. For
many, their daily experiences include violence as both victims and perpetrators':
CARE International, `Working with Youth' (n.d.), at
en/about-us/working-with-youth/>.
103 D.M. Randall and M.F. Fernandes, `The Social Desirability Response Bias in Ethics
Research' (1991) 10 J. of Business Ethics 805, at 806.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
about each other's opinions. More broadly, the data underscore the need for
transitional justice processes to give more attention to social ecologies ±
which include families and peer pressures ± that inform and sustain
individual viewpoints. As Herman accentuates, `. .. social context is created
by relationships with friends, lovers and family.'
104
An essential part of addressing negative attitudes and prejudices relating
to sexual violence is to create a space for discussion and questions. In BiH,
such a space currently does not exist. It is therefore unsurprising that in the
pre-talk questionnaire, 90 per cent of students in the main dataset revealed
that they felt very uncomfortable speaking about the issue of sexual violence
during the Bosnian war. The fact that 95 per cent of female students (as
compared to 85 per cen t of male students) ex pressed feeling ve ry
uncomfortable further underscores the critical importance of developing
gender-inclusive approaches.
105
Interestingly, 55 per cent of female students
and 38 per cent of male students said that BiH society as a whole should talk
more about the sexual violence committed during the war, for example,
through media discussions and community events. Only 11 per cent of
female students and 16 per cent of male students disagreed (and 35 per cent
of female students and 46 per cent of male students were unsure). In other
words, the data reveal strong cross-gender support for the creation of new
discursive spaces around the issue. The students' receptiveness, in turn, helps
to explain the fact that there were some important attitudinal shifts reflected
in the post-talk questionnaire.
EVIDENCE OF ATTITUDINAL CHANGE
Immediately following the conclusion of each interactive school talk, the
students were asked to complete a second questionnaire. This was designed
as a tool for gauging the impact of the talks and for assessing whether any
positive attitudinal shifts in the students' views had occurred. As previously
noted, students were requested to express their levels of agreement or
disagreement with the same set of gender and society statements that formed
a key part of the pre-talk questionnaire. They were not asked a second time
about the views of their families and friends.
It was highlighted in the previous section that in both the main dataset and
the Tuzla Canton dataset, there was a statistically significant difference
530
104 Herman, op. cit., n. 48, p. 9.
105 In the Tuzla Canton dataset, in contrast, only 46 per cent of female students (and 26
per cent of male students) said that they felt very uncomfortable speaking about
sexual violence during the Bosnian war (while 26 per cent of female students ± and
25 per cent of male students ± said that they felt uncomfortable). It is unclear why
substantially fewer students in the Tuzla Canton dataset compared to the main
dataset expressed feeling very uncomfortable.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
between the average responses of female and male participants to the pre-
talk and post-talk measures. However, in the main dataset, the difference in
average total attitudinal change between female (M 0.47, SD 2.1) and
male (M 0.46, SD 2.4) participants was not significant: t(476) ÿ0.04,
p>0:05. In other words, notwithstanding the fact that male students
initially expressed more negative attitudes than female students, the data
indicate that the school talks ultimately had a similarly positive effect on
both genders. In the Tuzla Canton dataset, although there was a greater
average total at titudinal cha nge between fema le students (M 0.35,
SD 1.57) and male students (M 0.06, SD 1.69 ), t(262 ) ÿ1.43,
p>0:05, it was not statistically significant.
Returning to the main dataset, analysis of the data reveals that there was a
significant positive difference between the overall scores in the pre-talk
(M 16.7, SD 2.8) and post-talk (M 17.2, SD 3) attitudinal measures:
t(485) ÿ5.1, p<0:001. Separate paired t-tests on the individual pre- and
post-talk statements indicate that statistically significant attitudinal changes
occurred in three of the five statements (excluding the statement `I think that
if a man is insulted, he should be prepared to physically fight to defend his
honour', which as previously noted was only included in the pre-talk
questionnaire but not in the post-talk questionnaire). These changes, two of
which caused the observed positive effects in the main dataset, can be seen in
Table 1.
Clear evidence of positive attitudinal change occurred vis-aÁ-vis two
particular statements: `If a woman dresses provocatively or gets drunk, she is
inviting men to rape her' and `A real man would not allow himself to be
raped'. Issues surrounding victim blaming and the use of sexual violence
531
Table 1. Attitudinal changes in the main dataset.
Main dataset Pre-test Post-test T, sig
I think that if a wife does
something wrong, her husband has
the right to punish her
M3.55
SD 0.69
M3.51
SD 0.7
t(525) 1.4
>0.05
I think that there are times when a
woman deserves to be beaten
M3.63
SD 0.68
M3.55
SD 0.68
t(523) 2.7
0.005**
I think that if a woman dresses
provocatively or gets drunk, she is
inviting men to rape her
M3.24
SD 0.82
M3.46
SD 0.75
t(524) ÿ7.1
<0.001***
I think that when a woman is
raped, she is usually to blame for
putting herself in that situation
M3.55
SD 0.66
M3.58
SD 0.62
t(519) ÿ1.1
>0.05
I think that a real man would not
allow himself to be raped
M2.7
SD 1.1
M3.05
SD 0.9
t(506) ÿ8.2
<0.001***
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
against men were directly addressed in the talks. In relation to the statement
`I think there are times when a woman deserves to be beaten', there was a
significant reduction in the mean score after the talks. While this was not the
desired result, it was caused by a slight shift from students selecting
`strongly disagree' to `disagree'. However, when the students' responses are
divided into two groups ± a strongly agree/agree group and a strongly
disagree/disagree group ± the mean responses across the pre- and post-talk
questionnaires are identical. In short, students varied in the extent to which
they disagreed with the statement, but the overall numbers who disagreed
with it in some way did not change. This is unsurprising; the issue of
domestic violence was only indirectly touched upon during the talks. The
data thereby suggest that this is a topic that should be given more attention
within schools, and indeed this is one of the themes that this project will
address as it moves into its next phase (discussed below).
In the Tuzla Canton dataset, the results were more modest. There was a
significant difference between the overall scores in the pre-talk (M 14.13,
SD 1.81) and post-talk measures (M 14.39, SD 1.93), t(264) ÿ2.56,
p<0:05. As can be seen in Table 2, however, significant attitudinal
change occurred only in relation to the statement: `If a woman dresses
provocatively or gets drunk, she is inviting men to rape her'. It is important
to note that the pre-talk version of the questionnaire (which was initially
envisaged as a pilot) used in this part of BiH did not include the statement `A
real man would not allow himself to be raped'. This was only included in the
post-talk questionnaire. This means that when assessing the overall impact of
the talks, the mean scores for the Tuzla Canton dataset necessarily look
lower, although the two datasets are not comparable due to the different
number of pre- and post-talk statements. The post-talk mean scores for the
`real man' statement, however, were similar in both the Tuzla Canton dataset
532
Table 2. Attitudinal change in the Tuzla Canton dataset.
Tuzla Canton dataset Pre-test Post-test T, sig
I think that if a wife does
something wrong, her husband has
the right to punish her
M3.64
SD 0.59
M3.65
SD 0.57
t(266) ÿ0.4
>0.05
I think that there are times when a
woman deserves to be beaten
M3.75
SD 0.52
M3.7
SD 0.51
t(266) 1.6
>0.05
I think that if a woman dresses in a
provocative way or gets drunk, she
is inviting men to rape her
M3
SD 0.87
M3.39
SD 0.76
t(267) ÿ6.1
<0.001***
I think that when a woman is
raped, she is usually to blame for
putting herself in that situation
M3.63
SD 0.58
M3.62
SD 0.54
t(519) 0.2
>0.05
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
(M 3.2) and the main dataset (M 3). As this statement generated the
principal attitudinal change in the main dataset, it is possible that its absence
from the pre-talk questionnaire used in Tuzla Canton concealed attitudinal
changes around this particular item. It is interesting to note that in the post-
talk data from Tuzla Canton, the average response to this statement was
significantly different between male students (M 2.8, SD 0.92) and
female students (M 3.6, SD 0.66), t(261) ÿ8.1, p<0:001. This is
similar to the post-talk difference between male participants (M 2.8,
SD 1) and female participants (M 3.33, SD 0.86), t(497) ÿ6.22,
p<0:001 in the main dataset.
Analysis of the pre- and post-talk questionnaires thus indicates that the
interactive school talks did have some positive impact on students' ideas and
thinking about sexual violence. That the distinctive positive post-talk atti-
tudinal shifts occurred in relation to only two statements (and one statement
in the Tuzla Canton dataset) is consistent with the findings of Black et al.'s
study.
106
This suggested that `perhaps specific subscales within sexual
assault attitudes may be more susceptible to attitude change and attitude
change maintenance.'
107
Moreover, the positive attitudinal shifts occurred in
relation to two statements which can be seen as examples of `rape myths'.
Rape myths have been defined as `prejudicial, stereotyped, or false beliefs
about rape, rape victims, and rapists'
108
and `a combination of stereotypical
attitudes about rape with the cultural functioning of a myth'.
109
In this
regard, it is important to acknowledge that the questionnaire data tell us little
about the social prevalence of the beliefs reflected in the two statements ± or
about their functionality and social impact. According to Newcombe et al.,
however, the most common clusters of attitudes that constitute rape myths
are:
victim responsibility (e.g., `She asked for it'), disbelief of rape claims (e.g., `It
wasn't really rape'), and the belief that rape only happens to certain kinds of
women (e.g., `Only women who dress suggestively are raped') . . .
110
Both the notion that a woman can invite men to rape her, based on how she
dresses or how much alcohol she has consumed, and the idea that only
`lesser' men are raped clearly contain elements of victim blaming and
533
106 The study involved 100 participants and seven peer educators in a sexual assault
prevention programme focused around theatre.
107 B. Black et al., `Evaluating a Psychoeducational Sexual Assault Prevention Program
Incorporating Theatrical Presentation, Peer Education, and Social Work' (2000) 10
Research on Social Work Practice 589, at 603.
108 M.R. Burt, `Cultural Myths and Support for Rape' (1980) 38 J. of Personality and
Social Psychology 217, at 217.
109 O. Smith and T. Skinner, `How Rape Myths are Used and Challenged in Sexual
Assault Trials' (2017) 26 Social & Legal Studies 441, at 443.
110 P.A. Newcombe et al., `Attributions of Responsibility for Rape: Differences across
Familiarity of Situation, Gender and Acceptance of Rape Myths' (2008) 38 J. of
Applied Social Psychology 1736, at 1738.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
imputed responsibility. From this perspective, they can be viewed as rape
myths.
In the post-talk questionnaire, students were explicitly asked whether their
opinions had changed as a result of the project. In the main data set, 35 per
cent of students answered in the affirmative, of whom 57 per cent were
female and 43 per cent were male. The majority of students (55 per cent)
maintained that their views had not changed, while 10 per cent were unsure.
In the Tuzla Canton dataset, similarly, 35 per cent of students (40 per cent of
female students and 28 per cent of male students) said that their views had
changed following the talks. A further 40 per cent (an equal percentage of
female and male students) answered that their views remained unaltered, and
25 per cent (21 per cent of female students and 33 per cent of male students)
did not know whether their views had changed. While these results present a
somewhat mixed picture, the fact that 35 per cent of students in both datasets
claimed that their views had changed as a result of the talks is encouraging.
It is also encouraging that a high proportion of students in both datasets
seemingly appreciated the value of the talks. When asked whether their
participation in the project had been useful, 33 per cent of students in the
main dataset said that it was `Very useful' and 45 per cent said that it was
`Useful'. More female students (43 per cent) selected `Very useful' than
male students (22 per cent), but more male students (48 per cent) selected
`Useful' than female students (41 per cent). Only 14 per cent of students
selected `Not useful' as their answer, of whom 11 per cent were female and
18 per cent were male; and only 8 per cent felt that the talks were a waste of
time (5 per cent of female students and 11 per cent of male students).
Overall, the average response of female students was skewed slightly
towards an assessment of the talks as `Very useful' (M 1.8, SD 0.8),
while the responses of male students were skewed slightly towards `Not
useful' (M 2.2, SD 0.9), t(466) 5.12, p<0:001.
In the Tuzla Canton dataset, students were given the option of five
possible answers. A near majority (49 per cent) said that the talks were very
useful and 28 per cent found the talks useful. A further 18 per cent found
them somewhat useful. Only 3 per cent of students said that the talks were
not very useful and 2 per cent maintained that the talks were a waste of time.
In contrast to the main dataset, a slightly higher percentage of male students
(50 per cent) than female students (48 per cent) found the talks very useful,
whereas more female students (31 per cent) than male students (24 per cent)
found the talks useful. An equal percentage of female and male students (3
per cent) assessed the talks as not very useful, and more male students (4 per
cent) than female students (1 per cent) viewed the talks as a waste of time.
Consistent with these results, the majority of students overall ± 58 per cent
in the main dataset and 86 per cent in the Tuzla Canton dataset ± said that
they would like more school talks on the topic of conflict-related sexual
violence. Although a considerably higher percentage of female students (69
per cent) than male students (46 per cent) in the main dataset expressed
534
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
support for further talks, in the Tuzla Canton dataset support was extremely
high among both genders (89 per cent and 80 per cent respectively).
The key aim of this project is to utilize education as a way of creating new
facilitative ecologies that enable victims/survivors of sexual violence to
speak about their experiences without fear of being judged or stigmatized.
111
Yet, the creation of facilitative ecologies necessarily requires long-term
(attitudinal) change; and what the questionnaire data cannot tell us is
whether those students who appeared to alter their views as a result of the
school talks have since reverted to their pre-talk views. It is, moreover,
impossible to assess this through additional measures as the students have
now left school. In other words, there is no way of gauging the long-term
impact of the talks. According to Suarez and Gadalla, however, `Most rape-
prevention programs have been found to have only a short-term impact on
the participants . . .'.
112
It is also important to acknowledge that there are multiple factors that
shape and inform young people's views about sexual violence, from social
media and popular culture to families and peer pressure. One of the obvious
shortcomings of this project is that it has sought to create new discursive
spaces within BiH high schools without also addressing the wider social
ecologies in which these schools exist. While this necessarily raises further
questions about the long-term impact and success of the talks, it also
supports the argument that transitional justice processes need to give more
attention to the wider environments in which victims/survivors live. Facilita-
tive ecologies cannot be created in isolation, or in a single sector. Beyond
schools, they also need to be created, inter alia, within communities, within
institutions and within the media. Situating the questionnaire data within this
wider context highlights not only its limitations but also its potential
significance. In particular, the data lend support to the argument that there is
a crucial attitudinal dimension of transitional justice that needs to be
developed and emphasized.
535
111 According to Ahrens, `rape survivors are silenced by a range of negative reactions
including blaming, ineffective, insensitive, and inappropriate responses': C.E.
Ahrens, `Being Silenced: The Impact of Negative Social Reactions on the
Disclosure of Rape' (2006) 38 Am. J. of Community Psychology 263, at 271.
112 E. Suarez and T.M. Gadalla, `Stop Blaming the Victim: A Meta Analysis on Rape
Myths' (2010) 25 J. of Interpersonal Violence 2010, at 2011. During the 1990s, for
example, Foubert and Marriot introduced a programme in the United States entitled
`How to Help a Sexual Assault Survivor'. They trained male undergraduates to talk
to young men (in fraternity pledge classes) about, among other things, rape, the
common experiences of male and female victims/survivors, and sexism. Participants
completed a pre-test, a post-test immediately after the talk, and a further post-test
two months later. The initial post-test results were positive. Two months later,
however, `belief in rape myths among program participants rose significantly', even
if these beliefs remained lower than pre-programme levels: J.D. Foubert and K.A.
Marriott, `Effects of a Sexual Assault Peer Education Program on Men's Belief in
Rape Myths' (1997) 36 Sex Roles 259, at 265.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
CONCLUSION
Lambourne has developed a transformative model of transitional justice that
accentuates transformation rather than simply transition. As she theorizes it:
Transformative justice not only deals with the past but also establishes
conditions and structures in order to ensure justice in the present and the
future, creating a longer-term vision and commitment than suggested by the
term `transitional justice'.
113
Transformative justice, which should be viewed as an integral component of
transitional justice, also extends to social attitudes and social milieu. The
very concept of `dealing with the past' becomes vacuous if social attitudes
and prejudices that keep the past alive, or that prolong the suffering of war-
affected groups, are left unaddressed. Focused on the issue of sexual
violence stigma, this article has argued that the extent to which transitional
justice processes aid and benefit vict ims/survivors of conflict-relat ed
violence will be limited as long as little or no effort is made to alter the
wider `contextual configuration'
114
and to foster facilitative ecologies in
which men and women are able to narrate their stories without fear of the
consequences. These facilitative ecologies can potentially enable new, more
diverse and richer forms of narrative and story telling within transitional
justice. They can also contribute to actively engaging victims/survivors in
the fight against sexual violence stigma. Based on their work in northern
Uganda, for example, Baines and Stewart underline how, through story
telling, `survivors might renegotiate their social marginalization and insist on
their innocence and social worth'.
115
The article has emphasized the importance of education in this regard,
underlining the latter's `transformative potential'.
116
Although it has focused
on BiH, the schools project which it has presented is an example of a more
attitudinal-focused approach to transitional justice that can open up new
discursive and narrative spaces ± and thus new textual/paratextual relation-
ships ± in which victims/survivors are supported rather than stigmatized. The
importance and relevance of such an approach extends far beyond BiH and
the former Yugoslavia.
Moving forward, this project was never simply about one-off talks. The
aim was always to bring about wider curricular change in BiH, so that young
people in BiH high schools could have the opportunity to talk about sex,
536
113 W. Lambourne, `Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding after Mass Violence' (2009)
3International J. of Transitional Justice 28, at 45. See also Gready and Robins, op.
cit., n. 13, p. 339.
114 C. Goodwin, `Action and Embodiment within Situated Human Interaction' (2000)
32 J. of Pragmatics 1489, at 1490.
115 E. Baines and B. Stewart, ```I cannot accept what I have not done'': Storytelling,
Gender and Transitional Justice' (2011) 3 J. of Human Rights Practice 245, at 247.
116 RamõÂrez-Barat and Duthie, op. cit., n. 77, p. 12.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
sexual violence and how to support victims/survivors. Snaga Z
Ïene and I are
now working closely with various Ministries of Education in BiH, with a
view to introducing sex and relationship education classes into their C
ÏOZ
(C
Ïas Odeljenske Zajednice) curricula.
117
These classes will cover, among
other things, issues surrounding domestic abuse, sex and consent, conflict-
related sexual violence, rape myths, and stigma, and will commence with
immediate effect in Oras
Ïje.
537
117 C
ÏOZ are weekly classes that students have with their form tutors.
ß2018 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2018 Cardiff University Law School
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