Studies of sexual harassment and violence in Africa and other parts of the world tend to focus solely on women. Yet it seems a significant proportion of victims are men, also within the context of conflict. The problem is rarely discussed, not only by victims but also by aid organisations. But most of all, it’s a taboo on a very large scale.

According to an American study on male rape and human rights under the leadership of Lara Stemple, the fact is that women are more likely to be victims of rape than men. The study says that ‘one analysis of 120 prevalence studies concluded that 3% of men worldwide have been raped in their lifetime (as children or adults), in contrast to 13% of women’.The percentage of men is much lower, but not insignificant.

Little bits of information
Instances of male rape are detected all over the world, yet very few cases are documented. A well known example of a country where sexual assault is used as a weapon of war is in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although there is an absence of clear data, a survey carried out in Eastern Congo, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed alarming rates of rape. Of the female respondents surveyed, 39.7% admitted to being victims of sexual violence. The percentage of men affected by rape was equally shocking at 23.6%.

Man cannot be vulnerable
A reporter from The Guardian in the UK spoke to male rape victims and people from the Refugee Law Project in Uganda. The article clearly highlights the taboo nature of the subject. According to an RLP employee: “In Africa no man is allowed to be vulnerable.” Furthermore, in a country where homosexuality is severely punished, the situation could aggravate for the victim by seeking help.

Stemple argues in her study of male rape that civil society fails to acknowledge male victims of sexual violence. Based on figures from another study, Stemple found that among the 4067 NGO’s dealing with rape only 3% of them referred to men as victims. Is this because of a lack of knowledge? Is there too little known about male victims? Or is it a deliberate decision by the NGOs to focus on women?

Critical remarks on Dutch Oxfam
British RLP director tells the Guardian that Dutch Oxfam (Oxfam Novib), one of RLP financers, “refused to provide any more funding unless he'd promise that 70% of his client base was female." According to Oxfam the comment is pulled out of context. In a written statement Oxfam Novib say they indeed financed RLP, but for a project for combating poverty in refugee camps in northern Uganda. Their rates of 70% and 30% were based on their global rates of the United Nations: 70% of poor people in the world are female. But why set a quota for a local project based on global statistics?

“It’s true we referred to global rates. That’s because these are also applicable to Ugandan rates. In Uganda more than 70% of the poor are female. It is our policy within Oxfam to target 70% of our funding towards women. This is a target that can be agreed upon, but if our partner is unable to reach that goal that doesn’t mean we pull out of the project.”

What about another large player on the Dutch NGO scene? The Dutch Médecins Sans Frontières deal regularly with issues of sexual violence and the provision of medical and psychological care to victims. A theme page on their website features women alongside slogans such as: ‘Millions of women are humiliated, beaten, broken. Do not leave them to their fate!' But there is no trace of male victims.

“That's probably because there are more women than men who come to us for help.” Explains Mireille Koeleman, spokesperson for DWB. “We make no distinction in gender when it comes to providing help. Though indeed, in our communications we focus mainly on women. Perhaps we should pay more attention to male victims in the future.”

More attention?
Yes, maybe we should all pay more attention to male rape victims. The first step probably lies within the aid organisations, who could attempt to address the problem on a global scale. In the meantime the issue will remain one of the world’s hidden taboos that surfaces every now and then, then slips away again.