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Lisa Sharlach
APSA 2004
the Islamic government, are raping women and girls in Darfur as part of a larger
campaign of terrorism (and possibly even genocide) (HRW 2004). The lurid photographs
publicized this spring of the sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners in U.S. custody illustrate not
only the contemporary use of sexual violence as a torture tactic during interrogation, but
also the fact that men, as well as women, can be the victims.
Under international law and customary law, rape by agents of the state (police,
soldiers, intelligence agents, and the like) – or by any other party -- is never permissible.
Even when a state of emergency is declared, a security officer would have a difficult time
explaining why perpetrating an act of sexual violence was necessary to protect the nation.
Article 4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the ICCPR) does
permit states to derogate, or limit, some human and civil rights during a state of
emergency. Such derogation is permissible only if the leaders deem that the level of
violence within the country disrupts national security. The derogation clauses in regional
and international human rights instruments specify, however, that some rights are non-
derogable (the state may not violate them under any circumstances). Among these non-
derogable human rights is freedom from torture and other inhumane or degrading
treatment (McEntee 1996, 7-8; Aafjes 1998, 58). It would seem plausible that rape by
state agents is inhumane and degrading and, if used to elicit information, may constitute
torture. Therefore, freedom from rape would appear to be among the non-derogable
human rights. Nevertheless, soldiers, police, and other state and non-state political actors
violated women’s right to bodily integrity in both South Africa and Peru with seeming
impunity.
Limitations of this study are the problem of a small sample size (only two
examples) and of selection on the dependent variable (the study does not include a case
of civil war in which rape apparently was not used as a political strategy). This essay,
then, represents only an attempt at preliminary, in-depth case study research into the use
Convention