Why prevalent sexual violence in some conflicts is not as highly prioritized by the international community as it is in others : CAR and Uganda

Abstract

This research sets out to analyse the role of framing in the variance in United Nations responses to conflict-related sexual violence which has pervaded war since time immemorial but has historically eluded the international community. The study will adopt a social contructivist interpretation of framing as an aspect of agenda-setting theory. The role of framing will be determined by analysing variances in framing of conflict-related sexual violence in general contexts and in the specific contexts of the Central African Republic and Uganda by the United Nations. In order to infer the framing of sexual violence, the textual analysis of 95 UN-reports was undertaken. In turn, framing was analysed using the structured, focused comparison method. Conflict-related sexual violence was found to be predominantly framed as a weapon of war, however, this frame was not ascertained consistently in the respective case studies. The variance in framing did not directly correspond to the variance in responses due to the role of other variables. Hence, it was determined that a direct causal relationship between framing and response variance could not be established, however, the role of framing was not rejected because it was, nonetheless, proven to be a factor in determining responses.