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Forced Prostitution and Sexual Slavery in War

Forced prostitution and sexual slavery are distinct as forms of war rape, as they entail more than the opportunistic rape by soldiers of women captives. Instead, women and girls are forced into sexual slavery, in some cases for prolonged periods. This is defined by the UN as “the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised, including sexual access through rape or other forms of sexual violence”. War time forced prostitution takes several forms ranging from individual trafficking by armed forces to the institutionalization of the act of rape by military or civil authorities. The term ‘forced prostitution’ is often used in the press to refer to men and women displaced by war who are forced to engage in prostitution to survive. However, this is not the sense in which it is in this article.

Germany

It is estimated that at least 50,000 women were forced into sexual slavery by German forces during World War II. Official brothels of local women were established for occupying troops in Poland, France, Scandinavia, the Balkans, and Russia, and for front line troops in Africa and the Middle East. These brothels were staffed by local women, many of whom were either held against their will as sex slaves, or given the ‘choice’ between internment and prostitution. Furthermore, a brothel system was established in German concentration camps, both for the use of camp personnel, and to reward good behaviour on the part of other inmates. Women were shipped from the Ravensbrück concentration camp to others to serve as prostitutes, with the exception of Auschwitz, which operated an internal brothel.

See also: German military brothels in World War II and German camp brothels in World War II

Japan

An estimated 200,000 women and girls, mostly Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese and Filipino, were forced to work as prostitutes in Japanese military brothels, known euphemistically as 'comfort stations' during World War II. Some were forcibly abducted from their homes by Japanese troops, whilst other responded to false adverts for work in factories or as nurses, and were then coerced by military authorities work as sexual slaves for Japanese occupying troops. Such comfort stations existed in Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, then Malaya, Thailand, Burma, New Guinea, Hong Kong, Macau, and French Indochina .

See also: Comfort Women

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Sexual slavery a prominent form of war rape during the wars in the former Yugoslavia, in the early 1990s. It is estimated that approximately 20,000 Bosnian girls and women suffered rape in 1992 in Bosnia-Herzegovina alone, many of them while held by Serb forces in detention facilities of various types. Some of these facilities were established for the explicit purpose of rape and sexual assault, both to provide sex for Serb soldiers, and for the purposes 'ethnic cleansing' through forced impregnation.

Sierra Leone

The Sierra Leonean civil war, which lasted from 1991 to 2002, saw many cases of brutal war rape including forced prostitution and sexual slavery. Women and girls were detained for extended periods of time, and were forced to provide sexual services to a particular rebel camp or to an individual rebel. In some cases these women underwent forced marriage, and became so called ‘bush wives’ who lived with their forced partner. These ‘wives’ were regularly interchanged when the soldier became bored, or if the woman became ill.