A Different Kind of Campaign to Reduce War Rape

Mission: to erode the current culture of impunity by instilling fear in the military and civilian leaders who order or condone rape in conflict zones. http://campaigntoreducewarrape.tumblr.com/

Working with attorney Inder Comar, Schaffer&Combs has founded a two-pronged campaign to reduce rape in conflict zones–defined as regions of armed conflict, natural disaster, and displaced persons emergencies.

Legal: the leaders who order or condone rape in conflict zones are difficult to prosecute in local criminal courts, and even under international law. They do, however, have a glaring vulnerability: their money. Money is the locus of their power, of all they care for. And they have to export it to international banks where it is vulnerable to civil judgements. In 2013 we plan to sue in civil court on behalf of carefully chosen plaintiffs. We expect this to be the work of decades. The core idea is to instill fear in the perpetrators and facilitators.

Marketing and Public Relations: dozens of legal organizations are achieving significant results in this field, but few people outside the profession are hearing about it. Campaign to Reduce War Rape is building a marketing program to publicize these efforts to the greatest degree possible–again with the focused goal of concentrating the minds of facilitators of rape that they may be making a very expensive mistake.