Support Programs for Male Survivors of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence

The extent of suffering generated by sexual violence against men in conflict zones is increasingly recognized by the international community and especially by the UNHCR, which has issued guidelines in July 2012 on how to identify and support male victims of rape and other sexual violence in conflict and displacement situations. The challenges in dealing with that suffering are significant, and pertain mostly to the medical, psychosocial, legal and social consequences for the survivors. Yet specific support mechanisms for male survivors are almost nonexistent in conflict zones, where most humanitarian organizations focus on female survivors of sexual violence. Only a few survivors’ groups have spearheaded programs directly and specifically addressing the suffering induced by sexual violence against men. What are the strengths, promises, shortcomings and limits of these programs?

Relief is often privileged over long term prevention, which would require working on how masculinities are built in times of war, and addressing conflict dynamics themselves. The risk that many of these programs are running is also to over focus on sexual violence and hence neglect other forms of violence that are perpetrated during times of conflict, and to which sexual violence is tightly linked. It seems equally important to understand and tackle sexual violence inflicted upon both men and women as interconnected phenomena, while acknowledging male and female survivors’ specific suffering and needs.