Gender, violence and reparations in Northern Ireland: a story yet to be told

ABSTRACT

Both reparations and conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) have been marginal to the story of the Northern Ireland transition from conflict. CRSV has received little formal acknowledgement, reflecting more fundamental gender-blindness in harm documentation and transitional justice in the jurisdiction. Likewise, reparations provision has been scant and piecemeal. The article documents the highly partial and deeply inadequate approach to reparations for CRSV in Northern Ireland throughout and after the conflict. We contend that the inadequacies of this approach have been so deficient as to in fact obscure – rather than illuminate – the manifestation of CRSV in the jurisdiction, thus undercutting an essential basis for effective reparations design and delivery in the future. The article ameliorates the identified absence of documentation and understanding of gendered harm in Northern Ireland, by offering a preliminary mapping of CRSV in the conflict. The article concludes that a transformative approach to reparations for CRSV in Northern Ireland would be one that advances recognition of both gender analysis and reparations as essential components of post-conflict justice in the jurisdiction.

KEYWORDS:

• Transitional justice
• transformative reparations
• Northern Ireland
• gender-based violence
• conflict-related sexual violence

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Hedley Abernathy, Yasmine Ahmed and Louise Kennedy, the Special Issue editors, and the anonymous reviewers for their input on earlier drafts. Any errors lie with the authors. The article draws on research that was funded by the Political Settlements Research Programme, which is funded by the Department for International Development (UK).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Catherine O’Rourke is a senior lecturer in human rights and international law, Transitional Justice Institute and School of Law, Ulster University, and 2016–2017 Irish Fulbright Scholar at the Human Rights Program, Institute for Global Studies, University of Minnesota. She teaches, researches and conducts policy work in gender, conflict and international law. She is a member of the Belfast-based Legacy Gender Integration Group, a civil society–academic group working for the integration of gender throughout transitional justice processes addressing the conflict in and about Northern Ireland.

Aisling Swaine is an assistant professor in gender and security, at the Department of Gender Studies, London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research and teaching interests are in conflict-related violence against women; the women, peace and security agenda; and transitional justice. Prior to her current post, Aisling worked extensively with United Nations agencies and international aid organisations in humanitarian and post-conflict settings, as well as at international policy levels, on issues of gender and armed conflict.

ORCID

Catherine O’Rourke http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7217-5833

Aisling Swaine http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5782-5084

Notes

1 Maria Eriksson Baaz and Maria Stern, Sexual Violence As a Weapon of War? Perceptions, Prescriptions and Problems in the Congo and Beyond (London: Zed Books, 2013), 16.

2 Eriksson Baaz and Stern, Sexual Violence, 42–3.

3 The authors note that the overall paper and the discussion here take a specific focus on CRSV impacting women and girls. CRSV is also documented as impacting men and boys. While prevalence estimates are unavailable, a number of scholarly articles have recently mapped the ways that men and boys will be targeted for sexualised harms in a range of jurisdictions. See for example: Sandesh Sivakumaran, ‘Sexual Violence Against Men in Armed Conflict’, The European Journal of International Law 18, no. 2 (2007): 253–76.

4 Aisling Swaine, ‘Beyond Strategic Rape and Between the Public and Private: Violence Against Women in Armed Conflict’, Human Rights Quarterly 37, no. 3 (2015): 755–86.

5 U.N Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, Analytical and Conceptual Framing of Conflict-related Sexual Violence, United Nations, June 2011, http://www.stoprapenow.org/uploads/advocacyresources/1321456915.pdf (accessed November 15, 2016) 2011.

6 Swaine, ‘Beyond Strategic Rape’.

7 United Nations Security Council Resolution 2122, S/RES/2122 (2013), para. 13; United Nations Security Council Resolution 2242, S/RES/2242 (2015), para. 14.

8 United Nations, Guidance Note of the Secretary-General: Reparations for Conflict-related Sexual Violence, June 2014, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Press/GuidanceNoteReparationsJune-2014.pdf (accessed November 12, 2016).

9 Andrea Durbach and Louise Chappell, ‘Leaving behind the Age of Impunity: Victims of Gender Violence and the Promise of Reparations’, International Feminist Journal of Politics 16, no. 4 (2014): 543–62, 544.

10 Fionnuala Ní Aolain, Catherine O’Rourke and Aisling Swaine, ‘Transforming Reparations for Conflict-related Sexual Violence: Principles and Practice’, Harvard Human Rights Journal 28 (2015): 95–144.

11 Ruth Rubio-Marín, ‘The Gender of Reparations in Transitional Societies’, in The Gender of Reparations: Unsettling Sexual Hierarchies while redressing Human Rights Violations, ed. Ruth Rubio-Marín (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 66.

12 Margaret Urban Walker, ‘Transformative Reparations? A Critical Look at a Current Trend in Thinking about Gender-just Reparations’, International Journal of Transitional Justice 10 (2015): 108–32, 109–10.

13 Valerie Couillard, ‘The Nairobi Declaration: Redefining Reparation for Women Victims of Sexual Violence’, International Journal of Transitional Justice 1 (2007): 444–53, 450.

14 Urban Walker, ‘Transformative Reparations?’, 109–10.

15 Catherine O’Rourke, Gender Politics in Transitional Justice (London: Routledge, 2013); Aisling Swaine, Conflict-related Violence Against Women: Transforming Transition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2017).

16 Rosalind Shaw, Lars Waldorf and Pierre Hazan, eds., Localizing Transitional Justice: Interventions and Priorities after Mass Violence (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010), 3.

17 O’Rourke, Gender Politics in Transitional Justice, 246.

18 United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and the Guarantees of Non-recurrence, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-recurrence on his Mission to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Advance Edited Version) (2016), paras 6–7, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G16/257/49/PDF/G1625749.pdf?OpenElement (accessed November 18, 2016).

19 The Northern Ireland Peace Agreement, 10 April 1998.

20 Christine Bell, ‘Dealing with the Past in Northern Ireland’, Fordham International Law Journal 26 (2003): 1093–4.

21 Robin Eames et al., Report of the Consultative Group on the Past, 23 January 2009, http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/victims/docs/consultative_group/cgp_230109_report.pdf (accessed November 10, 2016).

22 Stormont House Agreement, 23 December 2014.

23 Yasmine Ahmed et al., ‘Developing Gender Principles for Dealing with the Past: Note from the Field’, International Journal of Transitional Justice 10, no. 3 (2016): 527–37.

24 Bell, ‘Dealing with the Past in Northern Ireland’.

25 Ruth Rubio-Marin and Pablo de Greiff, ‘Women and Reparations’, International Journal of Transitional Justice 318 (2007): 320.

26 Report of the Special Rapporteur, para. 60.

27 The impact of Brexit on the UK's human rights treaty obligations is still unclear, in particular as regards its membership of the European Convention on Human Rights. Nevertheless, the obligation to make reparations to victims of human rights violations emerges from several treaties to which the UK is party and is unlikely to be affected by Brexit; see House of Commons House of Lords Joint Committee on Human Rights, The Human Rights Implications of Brexit: Fifth Report of Session 2016–17 (London, 2016), https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt201617/jtselect/jtrights/695/695.pdf (accessed May 10, 2017).

28 Fioinnuala Ní Aoláin, The Politics of the Force: Conflict Management and State Violence in Northern Ireland (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2000).

29 Bertha McDougall, Support for Victims and Survivors: Addressing the Human Legacy (Belfast: Report of the Interim Commissioner for Victims Survivors, 25 January 2007), 48.

30 Eames et al., Report of the Consultative Group, 91.

31 Legacy Gender Integration Group, Workshops Report, 13–14, https://www.ulster.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/74070/Legacy-Gender-Integration-Group_Workshops-Report_Developing-Gender-Principles-for-Dealing-with-the-Legacy-of-the-Past_18-11-2015.pdf (accessed November 20, 2016).

32 S.6(3) Criminal Injuries (Compensation) (Northern Ireland) Order 1977; and s5(9) Criminal Injuries (Compensation) (Northern Ireland) Order 1998.

33 Criminal Injuries (Compensation) (Northern Ireland) Order 1977, 3(2)(b).

34 Criminal Injuries (Compensation) (Northern Ireland) Order 1977, 6(3)(a).

35 House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee, Fourth Report (2004), para. 28–30.

36 Marie Breen Smyth, The Needs of Individuals and their Families Injured as a Result of the Troubles in Northern Ireland (Belfast: WAVE Trauma Centre, 2012), 9.

37 Ibid.

38 We Will Remember Them. Report of the Northern Ireland Victims Commissioner, Sir Kenneth Bloomfield KCB, Summary Report (Belfast: NIO, April 1998).

39 We Will Remember Them.

40 Criminal Compensation (Northern Ireland) Order 2002.

41 A Guide to the Northern Ireland Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2002, Part 9, https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/doj/ni-criminal-injuries-compensation-scheme-2002.pdf (accessed July 12, 2017).

42 Ibid.

43 Report of the Review of Criminal Injuries Compensation in Northern Ireland, Background Briefing, Recommendation 18.

44 CAJ submission to review of Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, 3.

45 J. S. Fitzpatrick et al., ‘Living with the Trauma of The Troubles: Report on a Developmental Project to Examine and Promote the Further Development of Services to Meet the Social and Psychological Needs of Individuals Affected by Civil Unrest in Northern Ireland’ (Belfast: Department of Health and Social Services, 1998); Northern Ireland Executive, ‘Reshape Rebuild Achieve’ (Belfast: Victims Unit of the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister, 2002).

46 Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparations for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, adopted by UN General Assembly 2005, UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1996/17.

47 Breen Smyth, Needs of Individuals; Stuart McGee, Exploring Models for the Proposal of Special Pension for those Injured in the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ (Belfast: WAVE Trauma Centre, 2013); Victims Commission for Victims and Survivors, A Pension for People Severely Injured in the Trouble: Commission Advice Paper (11 September 2013).

48 The account draws heavily on the unpublished PhD thesis of Aisling Swaine, ‘Transition or Transformation: An Analysis of Before, During and Post-Conflict Violence Against Women in Northern Ireland, Liberia and Timor-Leste’, (PhD diss., Ulster University, 2011).

49 O’Rourke, Gender Politics in Transitional Justice, 63–82.

50 Bell, ‘Dealing with the Past in Northern Ireland’, 1128.

51 John Jackson and Sean Doran, Judge without Jury: Diplock Trials in the Adversary System (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996).

52 Ibid.

53 Nell McCafferty, The Armagh Women (Dublin: Focus Ireland, 1981).

54 John McGarry and Brendan O’Leary, Explaining Northern Ireland (Hoboken NJ, Wiley, 1995), 44.

55 Amnesty International, Report of an Amnesty International Mission to Northern Ireland (28th November – 6th December 1977) (London: Amnesty International, 1978), 13.

56 McCafferty, Armagh Women.

57 Amnesty International, Report of an Amnesty International Mission to Northern Ireland.

58 Amnesty International, ‘Women: Victims and Fighters’, AI Index 71/02/86 (1986), 4.

59 Baaz and Stern, Sexual Violence As a Weapon of War?, 44–5.

60 Swaine, ‘Transition or Transformation’.

61 Swaine, ‘Beyond Strategic Rape’, 772.

62 Michael Farrell, Northern Ireland: The Orange State (London: Pluto Press, 1980), 303.

63 McGarry and O’Leary, Explaining Northern Ireland, 43, 244.

64 Swaine, ‘Beyond Strategic Rape’.

65 Suzanne Breen, ‘Known IRA Men Cleared up Gangrape Scene Claims Rape Crisis Chief’, Sunday Tribune, 13 November 2005; Suzanne Breen, ‘IRA in New Crime Scene Cover-up Controversy: Provos Linked with Community Scheme Accused of Rape Clean-Up’, Sunday Tribune, 13 November 2005; Suzanne Breen, ‘Grand-Niece of Provo Legend Endured Horrific Sexual Abuse’, Sunday Tribune, 17 January 2010.

66 David McKittrick, ‘Loyalist Gang Linked to “Horrific” Party Killing: Belfast Woman Beaten and Shot’, Independent, 8 April 1994; Paula Mackin, ‘Rebel Rapist Death Threat’, The Sunday World, 6 March 2011 (on file with author); John Cassidy, ‘Sis-in-Law Accuses UVF Chief of Rape’, The Sunday World, 24 January 2010.

67 Andrée Murphy, An Argument for a Gender Focus in the Transitional Debate (Belfast: Relatives for Justice, 2010), http://relativesforjustice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Hannahs-Speech-LRes2.pdf (accessed July 12, 2017).

68 Breen, ‘Grand-Niece of Provo Legend’.

69 Swaine, ‘Beyond Strategic Rape’.

70 Ibid.

71 Monica McWilliams and Joan McKiernan, Bringing It out in the Open: Domestic Violence in Northern Ireland (Belfast: HMSO Publications, 1993).

72 Swaine, ‘Beyond Strategic Rape’, 775.

73 Ibid., 772.

74 Anne McMurray, ‘Women's Experience of Violence: Mapping Experiences and Responses: A Pilot Study’, Women's Centres Regional Partnership (December 2009), http://www.nirwn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/WCRP_Women__Violence_Report_Final.pdf (accessed November 30, 2016).

75 McWilliams and McKiernan, Bringing It out in the Open.

76 Pamela Montgomery and Viv Bell, Police Response to Wife Assault: A Northern Ireland Study (Belfast: Northern Ireland Women's Aid Federation, 1985).