Rape exists in practically all today's societies, even in those states where no official data is available until now. According to the UN reports, rape occurs frequently in the following countries: Afghanistan, Guyana, Cambodia, Colombia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, on the Philippines, in the Slovak Republic Swaziland, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda and Zaire. In Germany, El Salvador, Micronesia, Ireland, Jordan, Kenya, Peru, the Seychelles, Sweden and Tajikistan, a more or less large increase in rape has been observed in recent times. Only in Mauritania, Laos, Georgia and Tunisia does rape appear to occur less.

The actual number of instances of rape is far from being recorded in full, since the unreported number is extremely high. Frequently, the number of reports made to the police is taken as being correct. A study carried out in Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain, the USA and South Korea concluded than 8 to 15% of women had been raped at a young adult age. If the number of attempted rapes are added to this, this provides a rate of 20-27%.

The fear of rape determines the day-to-day life of most women in all countries. They limit the extent of their activity and movement and look to men for protection. It needs to be stated however that the threat of a mugging that causes fear and leads to rape by a unknown person in the dark is statistically relatively unknown. Rape and sexual harassment occur much more frequently in the woman's immediate social surroundings (See the section: "Violence in the Family"). Group rape has increased in many countries however (Papua New Guinea, India, USA).

Women refugees or women in refugees camps are particularly under the threat of rape or sexual coercion. The offenders here are servicemen or officials, bandits, male refugees or men from rival ethnic groups. Sexual "favours" need to be carried out in exchange for goods, money, male protection or "entrance money" for crossing borders. In many countries, female inmates in prisons or in police or military custody are sexually mistreated or sexual violence is threatened to force information or confessions out of them.

The background: Rape is a sexualised form of wielding power and control and not the satisfaction of a sexual drive. It is deeply rooted in patriarchal cultures. This can be seen from the representation of rape in early creation myths and legends. Rape serves to humiliate and intimidate women. The offenders are normally abnormally or mentally disturbed. The aim is to rob the victim of their personality by reducing it to their gender. This is why rape for the victim is much more damaging mentally than other aggressive actions.

Consequences:

	Physical consequences: frequently heavy injuries, sexually transmitted diseases;
	mental problems: traumatisation with long-term mental symptoms (fear, suppression, insomnia and lack of appetite, difficulty concentrating, apathy and depression, impotence, low feeling of self-worth, danger of suicide, alcohol and drug misuse);
	Social consequences: unwanted pregnancies, withdrawal and social isolation, communication problems in the family. The social consequences of rape can be traced back to the third or fourth generation.

Living with the rape is particularly stressful for the victim. In most societies, women cannot reckon with the support of their family, friends or acquaintances, since the victim is often held to be partially guilty while the offender tends to be exonerated in contrast. This attitude is not just widespread within the population but also amongst personnel in the courts and the police, so that rape, when someone is accused of it, is given little attention. If a conviction is made, the offender can reckon with a comparatively small sentence. The court hearing often leads to renewed traumatisation of the victim. If the woman lives in a society where the virginity of unmarried women is of high social value, they need to reckon with being abused or even killed (see the section on "Honour Killings").

What is Being Done Against Rape? Rape and the sexual abuse of women is against the law in practically all countries. However, rape in the eyes of the law is frequently not judged as an attack on bodily integrity and the right of self-determination of the woman, but as an attack on the customs and the morals. The consequence of this is that the reputation of the victim is given much more attention than the actual behaviour of the offender.

"rape" is understood to be forced vaginal sexual intercourse in most countries, other forms of sexual intercourse or the introduction of objects mostly fall under the much more mildly admonished penal crime of "sexual coercion", although the victim probably experiences all forms of sexual abuse as equally degrading. In addition, there are problems of producing evidence for the victim, if no serious injuries were inflicted or if she knew the victim. In Pakistan women even have to produce four male witnesses to be able to clearly provide evidence of rape, otherwise a married woman is under threat of being accused of adultery.

Reforms should contribute to making it more easy for women to accuse someone of rape. In some countries special police stations or rooms are being set up manned by female personnel. In Canada, Australia, Malaysia und many US states, including the sexual past of the victim in the proceedings and as part of the evidence is only permitted in exceptional cases. In India the burden of evidence has been reversed during the trial for group rape or rape in prison. It is assumed that sexual intercourse took place against the will of the victim and the accused must prove the opposite. In Great Britain the tendency to hand out mild punishments to rapists is falling. Special guidelines were created here according to which an offender should receive a minimum sentence of five years.

War has been link to mass rape for hundreds of years. German soldiers raped Soviet women during the Second World War and Soviet soldiers, German women. Japanese soldiers forced Korean, Chinese and Taiwanese women into prostitution during colonialism and the Pacific war (who were referred to as "comfort women"). During the nine month Bengali-Pakistani war in 1971, Pakistani soldiers raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bengali women according to estimates. Rape and sexual torture took place on a large scale, both in the Vietnam war and in the war in Yugoslavia. It can be assumed that in every region where a conflict is taking place at the moment, armed conflict goes hand in hand with sexual violence (East Timor, Kashmir, Haiti, Djibouti etc).

It is difficult to estimate the scale of rape during war, on the one hand because representative figures from current conflict regions are difficult to obtain, and on the other, because the women concerned mostly remain silent due to the trauma or the fear of social stigma or stigma within the family. If concrete figures are available, their representative character is to be doubted, since thy are mostly put together by the opposing political party and used for propaganda purposes.

The background: Today, it is taken as been proven that rape during war does not take place due to lack of sexual satisfaction. Rape also takes place if willing women or prostitutes are available. Rape during war mainly serves the social needs of the rapist, the self-certainty of manliness and power. Since soldiers continually have to surrender themselves to feelings of fear and powerlessness, rapes serves to help them regain their feelings of power and diminish fear. An archaic model of manliness is maintained in armies to match this purpose, which is linked to violence and dominance, whereas womanliness and "womanly" qualities such as fear and empathy are considered with scorn. The soldiers are meant to identify with this model of manliness; rape therefore provides proof of the "manliness" of the soldiers.

An explanation for rape during war cannot be given without the latent existing contempt for women in the respective societies, which is encouraged by rules that hinder feelings of this nature breaking out being put out of force during times of war. Mass rape also serves to demoralise the opponent, who is shown that he is not in the position to protect his family. This comprises an attack on his (male) identity. This is why it is consciously used as a strategy of war or indirectly promoted and tolerated.

The consequences to mental health and the social consequences are similar to those of rape during peacetime. However, here, the trauma is just one part of the mental strain that a victim has to endure due to the consequences of war. The woman suffers grave consequences if a pregnancy results from the rape. Wives are abandoned by their husbands, some commit suicide or flee abroad never to return. This leads to the concept of rape as a method of demoralising and destroying the opponent socially a success.

What is Being Against Mass Rape During War? Since 1949 rape during war counts as a crime against international law. "Women are particularly protected against attacks on their honour and namely against rape, coercion to perform prostitution and unchaste activities" (4th Geneva Convention). This passage has changed nothing in the practice of rape during war. The conviction of rapists (for the first time in front of the International Tribunal in den Haag) first made rape a war crime with all its consequences. It remains to be seen whether this approach will have a deterring effect of future warring parties.

[Author: Dorette Wesemann, Edited by: Ragnar Müller]

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