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Project

Masculinities, vulnerability and victimhood: male survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in Bosnia and Croatia

The purpose of this project is to examine the predicament of male victims of sexual violence in the aftermath of large-scale conflict in the Balkans. It also analyzes the responses of different local actors and societal organizations to the position of these victims. By doing so, this project fills an important gap in the available literature on conflict-related sexual violence. It also breaks empirical ground by documenting, for the first time, the situation of male victims in the Balkans, an area that during the conflicts in the 1990s was notorious for the prevalence of sexual violence, used by all sides as a tactic of war and ethnic cleansing. To focus our study, we have chosen to conduct a systematic and theory-based empirical examination of this topic in two countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. Our methodology relies on qualitative research strategies and consists of analyzing existing policies and interviewing of service providers (e.g. health professionals), memory entrepreneurs (e.g. war veterans organisations) and male victims. We examine the narratives provided by these different perspectives and see what they can teach us about how concepts of male vulnerability and victimhood function and how they may develop and change in the context of transitional justice initiatives, government policies and efforts by non-governmental organizations.
Date:1 Oct 2018 →  30 Sep 2021
Keywords:Conflict-related violence, Sexual violence, Victims, Masculinities, Balkans, Transitional justice
Disciplines:Other economics and business, Citizenship, immigration and political inequality, International and comparative politics, Multilevel governance, National politics, Political behaviour, Political organisations and institutions, Political theory and methodology, Public administration, Other political science