Rape, a crime against humanity - by Johan Obbes

What are women’s rights and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies?
Many times we hear certain phrases used in daily conversations, that we begin to experience a saturation of the impact or severity of its meaning. Women’s rights are one of these phrases.

In the year 2011, we as South Africans can be proud to say that we have one of the most inclusive and progressive constitutions in the world, and that the majority of all vulnerable groups in our country are protected by our laws. Yet simply having a law as protection for a vulnerable collective group of people, does not always ensure that this law will be enforced correctly or even serve its purpose to protect them. We can even go as far as to say that whenever there is power…there might be an abuse of that power. Perhaps not with every person in power, yet we need no evidence to see that abuse usually happens when someone or a collective group of people use that power to create an “in and out” group, when power is used to separate instead of integrate. For centuries, women had very few, if any rights and every small victory for women’s rights has not gone without the bloodshed and sacrifice of a human being somewhere in the world. Today in Africa we still find women being discriminated against by their own spouses, families, governments, cultures and countries laws.

The long walk to freedom

Where does the term human rights come from? 17th century natural law philosophers in the West, developed the theory of natural rights. Back in the day many of these philosophers defended slavery and an inferior status of women in law. A group of people was known as the “Natural law philosophers” who argued that natural rights where not derived from god, but were "universal, self-evident, and intuitive", a law that could be found in nature. They believed that natural rights were allocated only to men who lived (according to them) "in the highest form of society". Thus, natural rights were something found in the nature of men and this saw the first movement of “rights” not as human rights but as “natural rights”.

Yet in Greece some philosophers reasoned that human nature depended on gender, ethnic, and other qualifications and thus came to regard women along with children, slaves and non-whites, as neither "rational" nor "civilised" thus not valuing them as human beings worthy of rights. They claimed the inferior status of women was common sense. They believed that women could not be treated as equal due to their inner nature as women.

Thankfully the changes brought about by philosophers such as William Wilberforce and Charles Spurgeon, who argued for the abolition of slavery and advocated for women to have rights equal to that of men, paved the way for women to be seen as equal human beings in the eyes of the law, and the term “natural rights” became “human rights”.

In 1946 the United Nations established a Commission on the Status of Women which serves as an international forum for women's rights, which serves a commitment to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women. Yet having this amazing commission in place, to ensure the rights of women after the Second World War proved to be hopeful in the fight for women’s rights, still we cannot forget how the Second World War saw one of the worst crimes against humanity with millions of Jews dying in the Holocaust.

The question is then asked, with such amazing laws and commissions in place to protect women, is it really worth having a month dedicated to women’s rights? Is the problem really bigger than any of the other challenges which we face in the world?

From 1945 we moved to 1994, only to see another shattering crime against humanity where nearly 800 000 Tutsi indigenous members were murdered in Rwanda by members of the Hutu indigenous group.

An International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was established by the United Nations and discovered incidences of the most horrific rape known to mankind, as element of the crime of genocide. The Trial Chamber held that rape, and sexual assault formed an integral part of the process of destroying the Tutsi ethnic group and that the rape was systematic and had been perpetrated against Tutsi women only, manifesting the specific intent required for those acts to constitute genocide.

From the stories heard by the tribunal afterwards it was clear; “From time, rape has been regarded as spoils of war. Now it will be considered a war crime. We want to send out a strong message that rape is no longer a trophy of war.” An estimated 500,000 women were raped during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.

Today we are celebrating Women’s month in South Africa, with widespread media visibility, advocacy and lobbying for harsher punishment on perpetrators who abuse women, or in some cases…even just the implementation of these rights to be taken seriously. The question then still remains, why do we as the human race still discriminate against another human being if we are all humans. Why do this to another human being who is our equal?

What makes us think that one human being has the right to exclusivity in deciding who is inferior to whom?! Which brings me back to the question – “Is it really worth it to have a month dedicated to women’s rights”

As a human being I expect all MY rights to be respected and enforced. How is this different to expecting the same for any other human being especially a vulnerable group of people. Whether it is the Holocaust, Rwandan genocide or rape, it is all a crime against humanity.

Article Written by Johan Obbes