“If you don’t take off your clothes, we’re going to kill you” : Sexual electoral violence as a silent weapon in Burundi and implications for humanitarian action
Abstract: Previous research on electoral violence has explored the variation in manifestation, perpetrators, victims and causes or motivations. While explanations have prescribed to structural and electoral factors or the nature of politics, nature of elections and electoral institutions, the causes and motivations behind sexual electoral violence has been under-researched. This in-depth single case study of sexual violence against women associated with the opposition in Burundi explores the possibilities of building bridges between theory on electoral violence and sexual and gender-based violence. In order to shed light over the disciplinary grey-zone, the study makes a theoretical contribution by suggesting a novel definition necessary to capture the phenomenon. The fusion of previous research suggests that similarly to wartime rape, sexual electoral violence can be used as an effective tool of political coercion. The argument is explored empirically with the case of Burundi, concluding that strategic rape is not exclusive to wartime contexts and under sociocultural conditions of high stigmatisation of sexual violence, it can be used as silent weapon of repression against the opposition. Reducing sexual electoral violence to general sexual violence is problematic for both policy-making and humanitarian action, as they require diverse action. The political dimension of sexual violence unravels the divide within the heart of humanitarian action between the classic Dunantist philosophy and its new, more progressive counterpart.
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