The recent and/or ongoing asserted genocides of the Uyghurs, Rohingya, Yazidis, and Tigrayans all include, prominently, allegations of sexual violence and, in some instances, prevention of births. But whether these are discrete prohibited acts or elements thereof, or should be viewed in composite or as evidence of the intent to destroy the group in whole or in part depends upon a fulsome analysis. This panel of experts will use gendered legal analyses to examine the similarities and differences of each manifestation, and whether or not there are elements that are more or less difficult to discern.
Events
Gender and Genocide in the 21st Century: How Gender Shapes Genocide
In 2014, ISIS soldiers massacred Yazidi men and boys, while the women and girls of child-bearing age were separated and distributed around the region to ISIS soldiers to be their slaves. In 2017, Myanmar's military used rape and sexual mutilation as weapons of war against Rohingya women fleeing for their lives. As a result of the Chinese Communist Party's coercive birth prevention programs targeting the Uyghurs and other minorities over the last several years, the estimated population loss from suppressed birth rates in southern Xinjiang alone ranges between 2.6 and 4.5 million. Beginning in 2020, armed forces in Ethiopia have used rape and sexual violence to inflict lasting physical and psychological damage not only on victims, but on whole communities. In this discussion, Akila Radhakrishnan and Emily Prey will examine the oft-overlooked, under-litigated gendered dynamics of genocide, why it is so crucial to engage in gendered analyses, and what state parties to the Genocide Convention, including the United States, can do to further these conversations.
Four years of Impunity: Seeking Justice, Accountability, and Solidarity
Commemoration and Accountability: Recognizing Genocide and Ethnic Persecution
Description:
In commemoration of the 4th anniversary of the Rohingya Genocide, the Global Justice Center and the U.S. Campaign for Burma invite you to join the discussion on the need to recognize the Rohingya genocide and draw on the connection to the atrocities suffered by other ethnic groups, as well as holding the Burmese military accountable for their crimes against humanity.
Participants:
- Aung Myo Min, National Unity Government
- Sharifah Shakirah, Rohingya Women Development Network
- Grant Shubin, Global Justice Center
Yazidi Genocide: Slavery, Gender, & Sexual Violence
Description:
The Yezidi Genocide sadly included a number of highly gendered and especially brutal crimes. When ISIS abducted Yezidi women, elderly women were executed. Other women and girls were sorted and selected like animals, trafficked through a highly organized slavery system that included court documents certifying ‘ownership’, and subjected to horrific sexual violence, in some cases for many years. Even today thousands of Yezidis, mostly women, remain unaccounted for and missing. Panelists will discuss the legal and psychological impact of slavery, crimes of sexual violence in the context of a mass atrocity like the Yezidi Genocide, and how to best legally address these crimes.
Participants:
- Akila Radhakrishnan, President, Global Justice Center (Host)
- Patricia Visuer Sellers, Special Gender Advisory to the ICC Prosecutor's Office
- Beth Van Schaack, Visiting Professor of Human Rights, Stanford Law School
- Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, Associate Professor of Clinical Law, Cardozo School of Law
- Alexandra Lily Kather, Visiting Fellow for Global Justice, Goldsmiths University London
- Mayan Hussein, Psychotherapist, Free Yezidi Foundation