https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8065-188X
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ABSTRACT
Examining the case of Mali, this work analyses the discursive strategies utilised by key actors to legitimise the UN’s Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The analysis traces the legitimisation strategies deployed in both the official and unofficial discourses surrounding the operation. Using van Leeuwen’s conceptualisation of legitimisation, this work uncovers the subtle and not-so-subtle ways the dominant discourse foregrounds certain gendered harms. We argue that the primarily Western conceptualisation of the situation in Mali foregrounds the rape (of young girls) to form the strongest pro-intervention argument. Within this logic, the focus on the bodies of violated women and children aims at providing the undeniable and ultimate proof of barbarity of local rebels. This leads to an immediate need for deployment and continuation of a robust peacekeeping mission.
Notes on contributors
Katerina Krulisova is a Lecturer in International Relations at Nottingham Trent University, UK. Her research focuses on female perpetrators of political violence, gendered narratives within R2P legitimisations, and securitisation of misogyny. Katerina also serves as an academic advisor to the Czech Working Group on Women, Peace and Security and researches WPS in Central and Eastern Europe.
Šárka Kolmašová is an assistant professor at the Department of International Relations and European Studies of the Metropolitan University Prague and a Research Fellow at the Center for Security Studies (C4SS). In her research, she focuses on military interventions, Responsibility to Protect and the dynamic of norms in international order. She published in journals including Politics & Gender, Cambridge Review of International Affairs and Europe-Asia Studies. She is the author of Metamorphoses of Humanitarian Intervention: From Rwanda to Libya and several chapters in edited monographs.
Notes
1 See Enloe, ‘The Risks of Scholarly Militarization’; Åhäll, ‘The Dance of Militarisation’; Wibben, ‘Why we need to Study (US) Militarism’; Eastwood, ‘Rethinking Militarism as Ideology’.
2 See Sjoberg, ‘Feminist Interrogations of Terrorism’; Auchter, ‘Gendering Terror’; Bhattacharyya, Dangerous Brown Men; Shepherd, ‘Veiled References’.
3 Duncanson, ‘Beyond Liberal vs Liberating’; Martin de Almagro, ‘Producing Participants’, Kirby and Shepherd, ‘The Futures Past of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda’; Hudson, ‘The Power of Mixed Messages’; Basu, ‘The UN Security Council and the Political Economy of the WPS Resolutions’.
4 Abu-Lughod, ‘Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving’; Basham, ‘Liberal Militarism as Insecurity, Desire and Ambivalence’; Enloe, The Morning after; Parashar, ‘Discursive (in) Securities and Postcolonial Anxiety’;
5 For more detailed discussion on robust peacekeeping see Hunt, ‘All Necessary Means to what Ends?’. For more on R2P legitimisation and sexualised violence see Kolmasova and Krulisova, ‘Legitimizing Military Action through “Rape-as-a-Weapon” Discourse in Libya’.
6 We refer to the critical scholarship of Cynthia Enloe and Charli Carpenter, who challenged the essentialist understanding of innocent women/children (Enloe, Maneuvers; Carpenter, 'Innocent Women and Children'). The logic has important discursive as well as practical implications. For Carpenter, the main problem is violation of civilian immunity and problematic exclusion of men from protection. In contrast, Enloe criticised women are losing agency if understood as innocent and vulnerable receivers of assistance. We build on their work to emphasise further implications of such essentialism, namely enhanced urgency of calls for protection, if the most vulnerable part of population was threatened.
7 See Wood, ‘Rape as a Practice of War’; Mertens and Pardy, ‘“Sexurity”and its Effects in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’; Meger, ‘The Fetishization of Sexual Violence in International Security.’
8 By robust peacekeeping, we mean peace operations, which have broad mandate to use all necessary means to protect civilians, yet still requiring a consent of the host nation and/or the main parties to the conflict.
9 Sjoberg, Gendering Global Conflict, 6.
10 Zalewski and Parpart, ‘Introduction’.
11 Karlsrud, ‘The UN at War’.
12 Sjoberg, ‘Looking Forward, Conceptualizing Feminist Security Studies’, 602.
13 Houge and Skjelsbæk, ‘Securitising Sexual Violence’, 19.
14 Meger, Rape Loot Pillage.
15 Hirschauer, The Securitization of Rape, 2.
16 This is not to say that war rape is anything novel. Henry (‘Parades, parties and pests’, 44) provides an overview of conflicts where rape was documented in the last two centuries.
17 Aroussi, ‘Perceptions of Justice and Hierarchies of Rape’; Buss, ‘Rethinking “Rape as a Weapon of War”’; Clark, ‘The First Rape Conviction at the ICC’; Engle, ‘Feminism and its (dis) Contents’; Houge and Lohne, ‘End Impunity!’.
18 Bellamy and Davies, ‘WPS and Responsibility to Protect’; Davies, ‘Addressing the Gender Gap in R2P’; Davis, ‘Women Peace and Security’; Davies and Stamnes. ‘GR2P Special Issue’; Davies and True, The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace, and Security; Hultman and Johansson, ‘Responding to Wartime Sexual Violence’; Jennings, ‘Conditional Protection?’; Murphy and Burke, ‘Sexual and Gender-based Violence and the Responsibility to Protect’; Tanyag, ‘Bridging the Protection Gap’; Skjelsbæk, ‘Responsibility to Protect or Prevent?’.
19 Baaz and Stern, Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War?; Meger, ‘The Fetishization of Sexual Violence in International Security’.
20 Aisling (‘Beyond strategic rape’, 759) notes that “it is increasingly acknowledged that strategic rape might not be the predominant form of violence that women experience during conflict.” Gray (‘The ‘war’/‘not-war’divide:’, 189) adds that “several recent studies have suggested that domestic violence – taken here to mean violence perpetrated against one’s spouse, common-law spouse, or dating partner – is likely to be the most prevalent form of SGBV in warzones.”
21 Boesten, ‘Of Exceptions and Continuities’, 514.
22 Baaz and Stern, Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War?, 4.
23 Boesten, ‘Of Exceptions and Continuities’, 510.
24 Meger, ‘The Fetishization of Sexual Violence in International Security’.
25 This leads to the codification of sexualised violence as a threat to international peace and security, a process that remains to be addressed via traditional “security prerogatives”, such as international intervention or robust peacekeeping mission. Meger, ‘The Fetishization of Sexual Violence in International Security’, 17, emphasis ours.
26 Houge and Skjelsbæk, ‘Securitising Sexual Violence’, 30.
27 Henry, ‘Parades, Parties and Pests’. For literature on male survivors of war, rape see Dolan, ‘Has Patriarchy been Stealing the Feminists' Clothes?’; Gorris, ‘Invisible Victims?’; Schulz, ‘Displacement from Gendered Personhood’ Touquet and Gorris, ‘Out of the Shadows?’; Zalewski, Drumond, Prügl, Stern, Sexual Violence Against Men in Global Politics; For analysis of female perpetrators of sexualised violence in conflicts see Brown, ‘Female perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide’; Cohen, ‘Female combatants and the perpetration of violence’; Sjoberg, Women as wartime rapists; Krulisova, ‘A Mother’s Violence in Global Politics’.
28 For an interesting discussion on victimhood see Cole, Cole, The Cult of True Victimhood.
29 Boelsten (‘Of exceptions and continuities’, 516) adds that “[o]n a socio-political level, such a hierarchy may have two distinct effects: it allows victim-survivors of war-related violence to organise and seek accountability or reparation based on that exceptionality, which in itself may provide some form of justice. Secondly, it may send a message that while systematic wartime rape is a crime to be redressed, forms of sexual violence that are seen as domestic or private are not.”
30 Houge and Skjelsbæk, ‘Securitising Sexual Violence’, 20.
31 Gray, Harriet. “The ‘war'/‘not-war’divide: Domestic violence in the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative.” The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 21, no. 1 (2019): 189–206.
32 There is a number of scholars challenging the continuum hypothesis. Boelsten (‘Of exceptions and continuities’, 510) notes that “Wood (2014, 463) has criticised the idea of a continuum of gender-based violence as “banal” and only valid in the “abstract”; Cohen, ‘Female Combatants and the Perpetration of Violence’ finds that gender inequality does not explain sexual violence in conflict; and Azuero Quijano and Kelly (2012; cited in Davies and True 2015, 6) suggest that assuming a link between peacetime inequality and wartime sexual violence constitutes “simplistic cultural arguments”.”
33 Gray, ‘The “war”/“not-war” Divide, 195.
34 Mertens and Pardy, ‘“Sexurity” and its Effects in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’.
35 Such representations can be linked to War on Terror narratives, Allison (‘Feminism and the war on terror’, 320) argues that this was represented as a “war fought, at least partly, to free the women of Afghanistan, from the cruel oppression of the Taliban.”
36 Boelsten, ‘Of Exceptions and Continuities’, 514.
37 Ibid.
38 See note 36 above.
39 Mgbeoji, ‘The Civilised Self and the Barbaric Other’.
40 Mertens and Pardy. ‘“Sexurity” and its Effects in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’, 2-3.
41 Baaz, and Stern, Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War? 19. They also point to other gender stereotypes that are crucial for understanding the discourse: the notion of a perfect heterosexual masculine citisen-soldier construction; feminine chastity and virginity and their symbolic status as bearers of ethnic/national and cultural identity; and the overall argument of humiliation and feminization of enemy men through the tactics of rape. They further highlight that militaries are not perfectly working institutions and that chain of command may, and often does, fail; that there are essential micro-dynamics within militaries or irregular forces that might influence the levels of sexualised violence; and that situations of forward panic or cycles of violence may influence the soldiers' decisions.
42 Kirby, ‘How is Rape a Weapon of War?’.
43 Baaz, and Stern, Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War?
44 Puar and Rai, ‘Monster, Terrorist, Fag’.
45 Ibid., 124.
46 Mohanty, ‘Under Western Eyes’.
47 Mohanty et al., Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism, 56.
48 Cited in Allison, ‘Feminism and the War on Terror’, 320. The notion of innocence is critically analyzed in Kinsella’s work, arguing that “the massacre of women and children signals a worse crime than the massacre of civilians” (The Image Before the Weapon, 9), where sexualised violence becomes the ultimate assault on individual and collective femininity. On top of that, the laws of humanitarian protection are based on the rope of Orientalist victimhood, where uncivilised nations are portrayed as unable to recognise and implement the protection of civilians (Ibid, 17).
49 Wodak, Disorders of Discourse; Wodak and Meyer, Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis.
50 Fairclough, Language and Power; Fairclough, Discourse and Social Change; Fairclough, Critical Discourse Analysis; Fairclough, Analysing Discourse.
51 Van Dijk, Prejudice in Discourse; Van Dijk, Ideology.
52 Van Leeuwen, ‘Legitimation in Discourse and Communication’; Van Leeuwen, Discourse and Practice; Van Leeuwen and Wodak, ‘Legitimizing Immigration Control’.
53 Fairclough, Critical Discourse Analysis.
54 Berger and Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality. This is contrasted to the traditional linguistic paradigm, discourse is not a mere verbal or non-verbal expression; rather, it is perceived as a form of social practice that constitutes changes or consolidates social practices.
55 Here, social reality is understood as an inter-subjective construct, which is formed by discursive practices of actors maneuvering within established power structures. Thus, language can be used in particular ways to uphold political predominance. Berger and Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality.
56 Lazar, Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis, 142.
57 Charbonneau and Sears, ‘Fighting for Liberal Peace in Mali?’.
58 Berger and Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality, 111.
59 Van Leeuwen, ‘Legitimation in Discourse and Communication’, 93.
60 Reyes, ‘Strategies of Legitimization in Political Discourse’.
61 Van Leeuwen, ‘Legitimation in Discourse and Communication’.
62 Fairclough, Analysing Discourse.
63 Van Leeuwen, Legitimation in Discourse and Communication’, 92.
64 Ibid
65 Ibid., 94.
66 Ibid.
67 Ibid., 102.
68 Van Leeuwen and Wodak, ‘Legitimizing Immigration Control’, 110.
69 Seckinelgin et al., ‘Securitization of HIV/AIDS in Context’.
70 Al Jazeera English, ‘Mali’.
71 Charbonneau and Sears, ‘Fighting for Liberal Peace in Mali?, 6.
72 Tardy, ‘Mali’; Karlsrud, ‘Towards UN Counter-Terrorism Operations?’.
73 Karlsrud, ‘The UN at War’, 46.
74 Charbonneau and Sears, ‘Fighting for Liberal Peace in Mali?’, 9.
75 UN Doc. S/RES/2100, 2.
76 See note 73 above.
77 See note 73 above. Similarly, Resolution 2227 extending MINUSMA’s mandate, reiterates that UN strongly condemns “all abuses and violations of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law, including those involving extrajudicial and summary executions, arbitrary arrests and detentions and ill-treatment of prisoners, sexual and gender-based violence, as well as killing, maiming, recruitment and use of children, attacks against schools and hospitals” UN Doc. S/RES/2227, 3.
78 Kreft, ‘The gender mainstreaming gap: Security Council resolution 1325 and UN peacekeeping mandates’, 142.
79 UN Doc. S/RES/2295, 9.
80 Ibid., 7.
81 Ibid.
82 Houge and Skjelsbæk, ‘Securitising Sexual Violence’.
83 UN News Service, ‘UN News - Senior UN Official Condemns “Alarming” Reports of Sexual Violence in Mali’.
84 UN News Service, ‘UN News - Interview with Zainab Hawa Bangura, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict’.
85 Baaz and Stern, Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War?
86 UN Doc S/2015/203.
87 Ibid., 11.
88 See note 85 above.
89 UN Doc S/2015/203, 12.
90 UN Doc./A/HRC/22/33, 9.
91 Ibid., 11.
92 Ibid.
93 Ibid.
94 Ibid., 18. The report further citing cases of child and forced marriage and sexualised violence against women held in detention facilities. Based on these findings, the OHCHR, recommends, most importantly, strengthening of the capacity of the United Nations in “the prevention, monitoring and follow-up of human rights violations” and to “establish a mechanism for monitoring, analyzing and reporting sexual violence related to conflict, and deploy specialists to protect women and children, as prescribed by Security Council resolutions 1612 (2005) and 1960 (2010)”.
95 Khan, ‘Afghan Women’, 162.
96 Omari, ‘Their Untold Stories Eat Away at Them.’
97 See note 95 above,
98 UN News, ‘Rape and torture among serious rights violations spawned by Mali crisis – UN report’.
99 UN Doc. A/HRC/25/72, 13.
100 See note 98 above.
101 Ibid.
102 In his second report, Baldo adds that sexualised violence has not only been committed by the rebel groups but also Malian army, noting that “the sexual crimes recorded tended to highlight the actions of Malian armed forces and civilians, as perpetrators. The Independent Expert notes with concern the difficulty of collecting information on sexual violence committed by armed groups, particularly in occupied areas. As this issue is still taboo in Mali, the available data might be masking the extent of the phenomenon.” UN Doc A/HCR/28/83, 15.
103 UN Doc A/HCR/28/83
104 UN Doc A/HCR/31/76, 17, emphasis ours.
105 Foreign & Commonwealth Office, ‘Ending sexual violence in conflict is central to peace building, conflict prevention and reconciliation.’ The argument that follows is that “[w]omen and girls, men and boys are still being subjected to sexual violence every day. In Mali, where survivors are forced to withdraw complaints so that the perpetrators can escape justice. In Syria, where not a single person has been prosecuted for Da’esh’s vile acts. In South Sudan, where we see the continuing abhorrent use of rape as a sickening means of punishing communities.”
106 Associated Press, ‘UN: Sexual violence increasingly used as 'terrorism' tactic’.
107 ICC, ‘Situation in Mali’.
108 ICC, Article 53(1) Report, 13.
109 Townsend, Mass rape, amputations and killings – why families are fleeing terror in Mali.’
110 Webb, ‘Hague Court may Probe Mali Rape, Killings’.
111 News24, ‘ICC May Look into Mali Rapes, Killings’.
112 McElroy, ‘France Warns West Would Be Drawn into Mali Offensive’.
113 BBC, ‘UN Adopts Resolution on Northern Mali.’
114 See note 112 above,’
115 Karimi, ‘U.N. Security Council Seeks Detailed Mali Military Intervention Plan.
116 The National, ‘Tuareg Insurgents in Mali Raped Hundreds of Women and Girls, UN says’.
117 See note 115 above.
118 Ibid.
119 BBC, ‘UN Adopts Resolution on Northern Mali.’
120 UN Doc. A/HRC/25/72
121 BBC, ‘UN’s Minusma Troops “sexually assaulted Mali woman”.’
122 See note 120 above.
123 S/2019/280.
124 Jennings and Bøås, ‘Transactions and Interactions’.
125 Forestier, ‘ICC to War Criminals’.
126 See note 124 above.
127 Ibid.
128 Ibid.
129 Ibid.
130 BBC, ‘Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi’.
131 Burke, ‘ICC Ruling for Timbuktu Destruction “should be deterrent for others”’; Al Jazeera, ‘Guilty Plea at ICC Timbuktu Artefacts Destruction Case’.
132 FIDH, ‘Mali / Complaint filed on behalf of 80 victims of rape and sexual violence during the occupation of northern Mali’.
133 Koettl, ‘Child Soldiers, Rape, Displacement’.
134 Human Rights Watch, ‘Mali: War Crimes by Northern Rebels’.
135 See note 133 above.
136 FIDH, ‘Mali’.
137 Spivak, ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’
138 Omari, ‘’Their Untold Stories Eat Away at Them’’.