July 18th, 2011, 04:47
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Will Storr:The rape of men
The Observer, Sunday 17 July 2011
Of all the secrets of war, there is one that is so well kept that it exists mostly as a rumour. It is usually denied by the perpetrator and his victim. Governments, aid agencies and human rights defenders at the UN barely acknowledge its possibility. Yet every now and then someone gathers the courage to tell of it. This is just what happened on an ordinary afternoon in the office of a kind and careful counsellor in Kampala, Uganda. For four years Eunice Owiny had been employed by Makerere University's Refugee Law Project (RLP) to help displaced people from all over Africa work through their traumas.
...
It's not just in East Africa that these stories remain unheard. One of the few academics to have looked into the issue in any detail is Lara Stemple, of the University of California's Health and Human Rights Law Project. Her study Male Rape and Human Rights notes incidents of male sexual violence as a weapon of wartime or political aggression in countries such as Chile, Greece, Croatia, Iran, Kuwait, the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia. Twenty-one per cent of Sri Lankan males who were seen at a London torture treatment centre reported sexual abuse while in detention. In El Salvador, 76% of male political prisoners surveyed in the 1980s described at least one incidence of sexual torture. A┬аstudy of 6,000 concentration-camp inmates in Sarajevo found that 80% of men reported having been raped.
I've come to Kampala to hear the stories of the few brave men who have agreed to speak to me: a rare opportunity to find out about a controversial and deeply taboo issue. In Uganda, survivors are at risk of arrest by police, as they are likely to assume that they're gay тАУ a crime in this country and in 38 of the 53 African nations. They will probably be ostracised by friends, rejected by family and turned away by the UN and the myriad international NGOs that are equipped, trained and ready to help women. They are wounded, isolated and in danger. In the words of Owiny: "They are despised."
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jul/17/the-rape-of-men
http://www.willstorr.co.uk
https://www.malesurvivor.org/images/logo.gif
MaleSurvivor: Overcoming sexual victimization of boys and men
http://www.malesurvivor.org
Our History
In October of 1988 the first professional Conference on Male Sexual Victimization was held in Minneapolis. This ground-breaking conference, organized by a few dedicated mental health providers, brought together professionals who wanted to better understand and treat adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse. At that time, only limited information could be offered to those who participated. But those present had great enthusiasm and the clear recognition that the conference was a necessary and valuable resource, where professionals could share practical information and ask questions. And it was a safe place for some to acknowledge their own sexual victimization.
The energy generated by the first conference helped fuel the production of the second conference a year later in Atlanta. This conference was a great success in many ways. It brought together over 400 professionals┬Чmany pioneer writers, researchers and practitioners in the area of male sexual victimization. A conversation was initiated too, about who we were as a dedicated group, and what we wanted to accomplish. We knew that we wanted to build on the conference theme and continue holding meetings after each conference in order to evaluate our efforts and envision our future.
In the wake of that first conference, there was a great deal of discussion about the growing movement among mental health professionals to address the therapeutic needs of adult male survivors of sexual abuse. In November of 1994 a core group of individuals, who had either attended or organized, many of the previous conferences, decided to incorporate as a non-profit organization. These same individuals spearheaded the initial organizing efforts, formed an interim board designated to write bylaws, and became the first Board of Directors of The National Organization on Male Sexual Victimization.
At the 1995 conference in Columbus, Ohio, the bylaws were voted on, as was a slate of candidates for the remaining board vacancies. Those who voted gave overwhelming approval for the organization to incorporate and this occurred in November of 1995, in the state of Minnesota. Since then NOMSV (now MaleSurvivor) has been moving forward on several fronts, from organizing National Conferences to creating this World Wide Web site.
MaleSurvivor Discussion Board
http://www.malesurvivor.org/board/ubbthreads.php
Survivors Speaking Out
http://www.malesurvivor.org/speaking-out.html
Articles and Books
http://www.malesurvivor.org/bibliography.html
http://www.malesurvivor.org/bookstore.html
National Center for Victims of Crime: Male Rape
http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/main.aspx?dbNa ... ntID=32361 (http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/main.aspx?dbName=DocumentViewer&DocumentID=32361)
Al Jazeera: Inside Story тАУ The Silent Victims of Rape (25:29)
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/IbhrNgetKEw
Will Storr:The rape of men
The Observer, Sunday 17 July 2011
Of all the secrets of war, there is one that is so well kept that it exists mostly as a rumour. It is usually denied by the perpetrator and his victim. Governments, aid agencies and human rights defenders at the UN barely acknowledge its possibility. Yet every now and then someone gathers the courage to tell of it. This is just what happened on an ordinary afternoon in the office of a kind and careful counsellor in Kampala, Uganda. For four years Eunice Owiny had been employed by Makerere University's Refugee Law Project (RLP) to help displaced people from all over Africa work through their traumas.
...
It's not just in East Africa that these stories remain unheard. One of the few academics to have looked into the issue in any detail is Lara Stemple, of the University of California's Health and Human Rights Law Project. Her study Male Rape and Human Rights notes incidents of male sexual violence as a weapon of wartime or political aggression in countries such as Chile, Greece, Croatia, Iran, Kuwait, the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia. Twenty-one per cent of Sri Lankan males who were seen at a London torture treatment centre reported sexual abuse while in detention. In El Salvador, 76% of male political prisoners surveyed in the 1980s described at least one incidence of sexual torture. A┬аstudy of 6,000 concentration-camp inmates in Sarajevo found that 80% of men reported having been raped.
I've come to Kampala to hear the stories of the few brave men who have agreed to speak to me: a rare opportunity to find out about a controversial and deeply taboo issue. In Uganda, survivors are at risk of arrest by police, as they are likely to assume that they're gay тАУ a crime in this country and in 38 of the 53 African nations. They will probably be ostracised by friends, rejected by family and turned away by the UN and the myriad international NGOs that are equipped, trained and ready to help women. They are wounded, isolated and in danger. In the words of Owiny: "They are despised."
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jul/17/the-rape-of-men
http://www.willstorr.co.uk
https://www.malesurvivor.org/images/logo.gif
MaleSurvivor: Overcoming sexual victimization of boys and men
http://www.malesurvivor.org
Our History
In October of 1988 the first professional Conference on Male Sexual Victimization was held in Minneapolis. This ground-breaking conference, organized by a few dedicated mental health providers, brought together professionals who wanted to better understand and treat adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse. At that time, only limited information could be offered to those who participated. But those present had great enthusiasm and the clear recognition that the conference was a necessary and valuable resource, where professionals could share practical information and ask questions. And it was a safe place for some to acknowledge their own sexual victimization.
The energy generated by the first conference helped fuel the production of the second conference a year later in Atlanta. This conference was a great success in many ways. It brought together over 400 professionals┬Чmany pioneer writers, researchers and practitioners in the area of male sexual victimization. A conversation was initiated too, about who we were as a dedicated group, and what we wanted to accomplish. We knew that we wanted to build on the conference theme and continue holding meetings after each conference in order to evaluate our efforts and envision our future.
In the wake of that first conference, there was a great deal of discussion about the growing movement among mental health professionals to address the therapeutic needs of adult male survivors of sexual abuse. In November of 1994 a core group of individuals, who had either attended or organized, many of the previous conferences, decided to incorporate as a non-profit organization. These same individuals spearheaded the initial organizing efforts, formed an interim board designated to write bylaws, and became the first Board of Directors of The National Organization on Male Sexual Victimization.
At the 1995 conference in Columbus, Ohio, the bylaws were voted on, as was a slate of candidates for the remaining board vacancies. Those who voted gave overwhelming approval for the organization to incorporate and this occurred in November of 1995, in the state of Minnesota. Since then NOMSV (now MaleSurvivor) has been moving forward on several fronts, from organizing National Conferences to creating this World Wide Web site.
MaleSurvivor Discussion Board
http://www.malesurvivor.org/board/ubbthreads.php
Survivors Speaking Out
http://www.malesurvivor.org/speaking-out.html
Articles and Books
http://www.malesurvivor.org/bibliography.html
http://www.malesurvivor.org/bookstore.html
National Center for Victims of Crime: Male Rape
http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/main.aspx?dbNa ... ntID=32361 (http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/main.aspx?dbName=DocumentViewer&DocumentID=32361)
Al Jazeera: Inside Story тАУ The Silent Victims of Rape (25:29)
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/IbhrNgetKEw