Title Participants "Silent or Inaudible? Male Survivor Stories in Bosnia-Herzegovina" "Heleen Touquet" "Self-care for gender-based violence researchers - Beyond bubble baths and chocolate pralines" "Heleen Touquet" "From “It rarely happens” to “It’s worse for men”: Dispelling myths and misconceptions about sexual violence against men and boys in conflict and displacement." "Heleen Touquet" "When Reconciliation Becomes the R-Word: Dealing with the Past in Former Yugoslavia" "Heleen Touquet, Ana Milosevic" "Unintended consequences: the EU memory framework and the politics of memory in Serbia and Croatia" "Ana Milosevic, Heleen Touquet" "© 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. The shared memories of the Second World War have played a crucial role in the process of integration of the European Union (EU). After the Enlargement to the East, the EU also sought to accommodate the historical experiences of the former communist countries. The result of this process was an EU memory framework that focused on shared suffering under totalitarian (both fascist and communist) regimes. This article examines the impact of this framework and its equalization of fascism and communism on Croatia (new member state) and Serbia (in accession talks). We conclude that the framework is used locally as an opportunity structure to renegotiate ideological conflicts." "Sexual violence against men and boys in conflict and forced displacement: implications for the health sector" "Heleen Touquet" "Sexual violence against men and boys is commonplace in many conflict-affected settings and may be frequent in relation to forced displacement as well. Adolescent boys, forming the majority of unaccompanied minors globally, are a particularly vulnerable group. Yet sensitised health services for adult and adolescent male sexual violence survivors are scarce, and barriers to accessing care remain high. We describe current challenges and gaps in the provision of health care for male survivors in settings affected by conflict and forced displacement, and provide suggestions on how to improve service provision and uptake." "Out of the shadows? The inclusion of men and boys in conceptualisations of wartime sexual violence" "Heleen Touquet, Ellen Gorris" "Researchers increasingly acknowledge that men and boys are frequent victims of sexual violence in conflict alongside women and girls, who remain the group that is disproportionately affected. This increasing awareness has contributed to significant efforts to include men and boys in conceptualisations of conflict-related sexual violence in policy as well as in international criminal law. This article analyses the changes that have occurred in these two fields in recent years. We argue that while a major shift towards including male victims in international policy on wartime sexual violence took place in 2013-2014, this development has yet to be consolidated in salient policy guidelines and handbooks. While men and boys’ potential victimisation is frequently recognised, most policy documents do not treat the topic of male victimisation in depth. International criminal law on the other hand has pioneered gender-neutral and inclusive definitions. However, the interpretation and application of the gender-inclusive approach is often left to the discretion of judges and the prosecution who at times fail to take the experience of males fully into account, signalling the continuing influence of gender stereotypes and deeply held cultural myths. A renewed effort to fully integrate male victims into conceptualisations of conflict-related sexual violence in both policy and law is therefore advised." "Out of the shadows? The inclusion of men and boys in conceptualisations of wartime sexual violence" "Heleen Touquet" "Researchers increasingly acknowledge that men and boys are frequent victims of sexual violence in conflict alongside women and girls, who remain the group that is disproportionately affected. This increasing awareness has contributed to significant efforts to include men and boys in conceptualisations of conflict-related sexual violence in policy as well as in international criminal law. This article analyses the changes that have occurred in these two fields in recent years. We argue that while a major shift towards including male victims in international policy on wartime sexual violence took place in 2013-2014, this development has yet to be consolidated in salient policy guidelines and handbooks. While men and boys’ potential victimisation is frequently recognised, most policy documents do not treat the topic of male victimisation in depth. International criminal law on the other hand has pioneered gender-neutral and inclusive definitions. However, the interpretation and application of the gender-inclusive approach is often left to the discretion of judges and the prosecution who at times fail to take the experience of males fully into account, signalling the continuing influence of gender stereotypes and deeply held cultural myths. A renewed effort to fully integrate male victims into conceptualisations of conflict-related sexual violence in both policy and law is therefore advised." "The co-evolution of EU’s Eastern Enlargement and LGBT politics: An ever gayer Union?" "Koen Slootmaeckers, Heleen Touquet" "Changing Frames of Reconciliation: The Politics of Peace-Building in the former Yugoslavia" "Peter Vermeersch, Heleen Touquet" "© 2015 Sage Publications. In this article, we examine reconciliation as a category of political practice. More particularly, we explore the ways in which the term reconciliation has been employed and invested with meaning in the recent legal, social, and political discussions on transitional justice and EU accession in the former Yugoslavia. Much of the literature on the former Yugoslavia highlights the need for reconciliation and envisages it as the ultimate goal of a process of societal and political transformation. But what does reconciliation mean? Our assertion is that reconciliation is a dynamic term; its meaning varies across discursive fields and according to the implicit assumptions associated with it. This article investigates a number of ways in which the term reconciliation has been given meaning in the former Yugoslavia through an exploratory analysis of three related fields of political discussion: (1) transitional justice, in particular the arena of discursive interaction surrounding the completion of the activities of the ICTY in The Hague; (2) the human rights and enlargement agenda of the EU; and (3) local and regional civil society initiatives, including the RECOM initiative, which calls for the establishment of a mechanism for truth-telling and reconciliation across all the countries of the former Yugoslavia. On the basis of an analysis of public statements by politicians and activists, as well as some interviews with key actors in these three fields, we show that reconciliation is mobilized in varying and often conflicting ways."