Children

The donation feature was set up to assist the Children’s writer/blogger, Cassandra Clifford, to raise funds to purse a research project on the use of rape as a weapon of war. In order to conduct her research, write, attend and present on her findings, Cassandra will have to raise funds independently. Thus the FPA has set-up the donation capability on the site to assist Cassandra in achieving her independent research, and allow her to continue working to improve the lives of others around the globe. Please see the details below for more on Cassandra’s research on the project and upcoming presentation.

Conference:
7th Global Conference Violence and the Contexts of Hostility
Monday 5th May - Wednesday 7th May 2008
Budapest, Hungary

Hosting Organization:
Inter Disciplinary Net’s Violence and the Contexts of Hostility project

Organization and Conference Goals:
The project is multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary in nature and aims to identify and understand violence in contemporary life. We seek to pay particular attention to the different contexts and sites where violence develops, occurs and where its effects are felt; from the interpersonal to the international, from the empirical to the symbolic. It is also our interest to identify the motives, dynamics and the functions that violence has for individuals, groups, populations and societies, as well as for bonds and social relations in the private, institutional and public spheres of life. Likewise, we seek explore and understand how violence is represented and dealt with in media, art and literature. Violence has been part of societies and used as a political tool in multiple ways: to unite or divide, to produce fear and compliance, to incite or neutralize mobilization, to resist domination or to impose subordination. It has been touted as the only path for liberation or the inevitable road to annihilation and destruction, as a necessary means for transformation or as the ultimate form to avoid change and defend the status quo. And despite global, national and local efforts to minimize, reduce or eliminate it remains a horrifying feature of today’s world and life.

What Will I Do?:
I will have a research paper submitted and published in a book along with the other conference panelists. My paper will be made availible online, and thus once finalized availible for public view. At the conference I will sit on a panel and field questions from the organization, conference attendees and other panelists.

Title:
Rape as a weapon of war, the long term effects on it’s victims and society.

Abstract:

The theme of this paper will be on ‘Violence, Victims and Others -Understanding violence by understanding the impact it has on its victims.’ The paper will look at the use of rape as a tool of war, including the short and long term effects it has on the individual, as well as the societal and political future of a country. The paper will aim to look at the following key questions; Does rape as a tool of war leave a country with less chances of a solid and stable political future?

What are the long term effects on the society as a whole? What are the ongoing effects of stigmatizing, victims, including a look into the effects of marriages among victims. This will also entail looking at the inequality and gender discrimination woman face in times of war, including social exclusion, and how this symbolic form of violence effects that marginalization in the future.

The paper will also aim look at how is rape displayed in the media, and the effects of stigmatization that it has when highly publicized on the whole versus when it is barley of mention in the public media.

How does rape as a tool of war, differ from general violent rapes in non-war situations? What promotes an individual to use rape as a tool of war, including looking for the key motivating factors. What function does rape have in modern day warfare, and how does it compare in a historical perspective.

The paper will conclude with how to bring victims of rape from victim-hood to survivor, and the use of survivors to combat, educate and prevent rape as a tool of warfare.

Thank You!