NYAPRS Note: Yesterday you saw an article about female service persons suicide rates, and the links to trauma and sexual assault for persons experiencing stress that leads to suicide after training or combat. These two articles emphasize how complex this issue has become for the US military on an international level, particularly given a decrease in sexual assault reporting this year that may be indicative of programmatic changes being made, but may also indicate sub-standard or manipulative reporting techniques. In 2014, an average of 52 service persons a day—that’s over twice an hour— experienced sexual assault. If we cannot solve the problem of sexual assault in our military, we may never be able to combat the full impact of suicidality among our veterans.
Warning: these articles and their reporting methods may trigger stress or trauma.
The US Military’s Sexual-Assault Problem Is So Bad the UN Is Getting Involved
Mother Jones; Jenna McLaughlin, 5/14/2015
The US military has a problem with sexual violence. That’s the conclusion of the Universal Periodic Review Panel, a UN panel that aims to address the human rights records of the 193 UN member states. This is the second time that the panel has scrutinized the United States; the first was in 2010, when the list of concerns included detention in Guantanamo Bay, torture, the death penalty, and access to health care. Its latest report came out Monday morning, and there was a surprising addition to the predictable laundry list of US human rights violations.
In one of 12 final recommendations, the UN Council urged the US military “to prevent sexual violence in the military and ensure effective prosecution of offenders and redress for victims.” Other recommendations included stopping the militarization of police forces, closing Guantanamo Bay, ending the death penalty, and stopping NSA surveillance of citizens.
For years US lawmakers and activists have complained about sexual assault in the military, but this is the first time the United Nations has addressed the issue.
Representatives from Denmark and Slovenia were especially outspoken in their criticism of the United States for not doing enough to prevent and prosecute alleged cases of sexual assault. Vojislav Šuc, Slovenia’s representative, encouraged the US to “redouble efforts to prevent sexual violence in the military and ensure protection of offenders and redress for victims.”
Stephanie Schroeder, a military sexual-assault survivor who traveled to Geneva for the hearing, said in a press release, “Today’s outcome shows that redress can be won before the UN—and hopefully lead to meaningful change back home.”
The UN panels likely decided to investigate US military sexual violence in response to a report last year from the Service Women’s Action Network and Cornell Law School’s Avon Global Center for Women and Justice and the Global Gender Justice Clinic. It analyzed statistics from the Department of Defense, survivors’ stories from federal cases, and interviews with survivors.
The report concluded, “In cases where an act of sexual assault has already been committed in the military, the U.S. oftentimes fails to promptly and impartially prosecute and effectively redress the assault and thereby violates servicemen and women’s rights under international law.”
The UN Human Rights Council evaluation targeted the military’s reporting process, in which the decision of whether to prosecute cases of alleged sexual assault or harassment is left to superiors in the chain of command rather than an outsider with experience in sexual assault. For years, activists and lawmakers in the United States have tried to change this protocol—but leaders in the military have balked at bringing civilians into bases and military academies to investigate alleged assaults. Advocates say that commanders should not be in charge of handling these cases, since they are not trained in legal or criminal matters and often directly supervise both the victim and the perpetrator. Victims often are afraid to report the assault, fearing retribution or inaction. In a 2014 RAND Corporation survey of service members who reported sexual assaults, 62 percent of those who responded claimed they experienced social or professional retaliation after reporting unwanted sexual harassment, including being fired.
Denmark’s representative to the UN Human Rights Council, Carsten Staur, recommended “removing from the chain of command the decision about whether to prosecute cases of alleged assault.” His comments marked the “first time that a human rights body has called upon the U.S. to remove key decision-making authority from the chain of command in cases alleging sexual violence,” noted Liz Brundige, the Avon Global Center’s director, in a press release.
The State Department, the Pentagon, and the US representative to the United Nations did not respond to requests for comment on the council report.
When the UN Human Rights Council last reviewed the United States in 2010, the US government promised to respond to all of the recommendations—including improvements to health care, criminal justice, and other areas of concern—with a written report of goals. This year, the UN Human Rights Council commended the US for six areas of “positive achievement,” including strengthening the social welfare system in the United States, creating a task force on 21st-century policing, taking some measures to address violence against women, upholding some of the rights of LGBT individuals, improving access to health care, and releasing details on CIA interrogation techniques. When the panel reviews the United States again, the US will have to update the United Nations on its progress on sexual assault in the military.
Of course, the problem of military sexual assault is not limited to the United States. Last year, Swedish UN official Anders Kompass leaked to French authorities an internal investigation detailing allegations that French soldiers on a peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic raped children and traded food for sex. Kompass said that he leaked the report because he was concerned that the United Nations would not disclose its findings or take action. Just last week, after the report was revealed by the Guardian, French prosecutors launched an investigation into the allegations. The whistleblower is now under internal investigation, according to the UN secretary general’s office, for a “serious breach in protocol” and risking victims’ privacy. French President Francois Hollande has declared he “will be merciless” if the allegations are proven true.
Sharp Decrease of Sexual Assault in Military, Study Finds
CNN; Steven A. Holmes, 5/1/2015
The percentage of military personnel who said they were victims of sexual assault dropped dramatically over the past two years, plunging by about 27%, the Pentagon said Friday.
But only roughly a third of those victims reported specific incidents to authorities, and officials concede that the percentage of victims who say they have experienced retaliation for reporting sex crimes has not significantly changed.
The study, which was conducted by the RAND corporation and sponsored by the Pentagon, indicated that an estimated 18,900 soldiers, sailors, Marines and Air Force personnel said they were victims of “unwanted sexual contact” in the 2014 fiscal year, compared to about 26,000 in 2012. In the surveys, the Pentagon uses the words “unwanted sexual contact” as an umbrella term covering any sexual offense, from inappropriate touching to rape.
Pentagon officials said that, even as the number of victims declined, more people were willing to report that they had been victimized. According to the report, the Pentagon received 6,131 reports of sexual assault in the 2014 fiscal year, an 11% increase from the year before and a 70% jump from the number of reports that were made in the 2012 fiscal year. Officials say the increase in reports of sexual abuse suggests rising confidence among personnel that their complaints would be taken seriously.
The decline in the number of people telling researchers that they had been sexually assaulted, which reverses years when they were rising steadily, is attributed to initiatives the military has undertaken prompted in large measure by congressional action.
“One reason the military is among the most highly respected institutions in the country is that we are a learning organization,” Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in releasing the latest report.
The Pentagon has been under intense pressure in recent years to curb what many say is an epidemic of sexual crimes in its ranks. New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has repeatedly pressed for legislation to remove responsibility for prosecuting sex crimes from the military chain of command and have them handled by an independent body. Military authorities objected to this proposal, asserting it would undermine their overall authority, and Gillibrand’s bill could not overcome a filibuster last year.
In a statement Friday, Gillibrand brushed aside any notion that the Pentagon had made significant progress in curbing sexual assaults.
“Contrary to mission accomplished, we are right back on 2010 levels for sexual assault,” she said. “This is a system where 19,000 men and women a year — an average of 52 new cases every day — face sexual assault or unwanted sexual contact. The military has pledged zero tolerance for over 20 years. There is no other mission in the world for our military where this much failure would be allowed.”
While Gillibrand’s measure has failed to gain traction, a compromise bill sponsored by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, did pass. It included ending the statute of limitations for rape cases in the military, banning commanders from reversing jury verdicts in sexual assault and rape cases, making it a crime to retaliate against personnel who report sex crimes, and permitting victims to have their cases handled by civilian authorities in certain circumstances.
“One assault is still too many, and there’s still more work to be done — especially when it comes to guarding against retaliation,” she said in a statement. “But today’s report shows we’re on the right track as our sweeping reforms continue to take root.”
The study highlighted several intriguing difference in how male and female victims experience and react to sexual assault. As was the case in previous studies of sexual assault in the military, men made up the overwhelming majority of victims, primarily because the vast bulk of military personnel are men. According to the report, 10,400 male service members said they were sexually assaulted, compared to 8,500 women.
Still, men were much less likely than women to think of their assault as a sexual act, and more likely to describe it as “hazing” or an “attempt to humiliate them.” Men, however, were more likely than women to experience multiple sexual incidents during the previous year, and said that alcohol was less likely to be involved. Also, men were less likely to tell anyone about their assault or file a report against their abuser.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/01/politics/military-sexual-assault-report/