What Male Victims? : An Analysis of Male Sexual Violence and the United Nations’ work in the DR

The Democratic Republic of Congo has been tormented with a rape epidemic ever since the beginning of the war in the mid-1990s. Sexual violence is frequently used as a “weapon of war” to humiliate and dehumanize the victims as well as destroy communities. This paper aims to investigate the gender-specific needs and concerns of male victims of conflict-related sexual violence in the DRC. In combination with this, McMullen’s theory on why male victims tend to not be taken into consideration as potential victims of conflict-related sexual violence will be integrated. Further, the findings will be used to critically analyze to what extent the needs of male victims have been taken into account in the UN Plan of Action. With the help of academic literature as well as news articles the two following research questions are attempted to be answered: 1) What are the gender-specific concerns of male victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and how are they related to McMullen's theory on the neglect of men as potential rape victims? 2) Based on the findings on the gender-specific needs of male victims of conflict-related sexual violence, to what extent does the UN apply a gender-inclusive perspective in the Plan of Action? The conclusion of the study is that McMullen’s theory is closely related to the gender-specific concerns of male victims of sexual violence in the DRC. In addition, the analysis shows that there is a biased perspective in the UN report where women are mainly mentioned as victims and men as perpetrators which further results in the needs of male victims being neglected.