Transitional Justice for Male Victims of Conflict-Related Sexual and Gender-Based Violence?
Transitional Justice for Male Victims of Conflict-Related Sexual and Gender-Based Violence?

Summary/Abstract: Globally, conflict-related "sexual violence is committed against men more frequently than is often thought" (Sivakumaran 2007). However, this growing attention has not yet translated into sufficient policies or transitional justice instruments for male sexual violence victims. Only very limited research specifically analyzes justice and accountability for male victims of sexual violence. Throughout this restricted body of literature, a heavy emphasize is placed on retributive justice and judicial accountability. Such a narrow focus, however, risks ignoring other potential transitional justice mechanisms which may theoretically offer redress and accountability for male victims. Against this backdrop, this paper proposes to discuss some of the challenges male victims of SGBV face in accessing justice and legal protection. Moreover, the paper argues to consider non- or semijudicial transitional justice mechanisms to provide redress for male victims of sexual violence, and calls for victim-centric empirical research to establish male victims' perspectives with regards to transitional justice.

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