Reproductive Violence as a Category of Analysis: Disentangling the Relationship between ‘the Sexual’ and ‘the Reproductive’ in Transitional Justice

Abstract

There has been limited engagement with reproductive violence in the field of transitional justice. Highlighting how, where this has taken place, reproductive violence has tended to be approached through the lens of sexual violence, this article problematises the category of ‘the sexual’ in understanding conflict-related violence. Advancing an approach to reproductive violence that centralises the notions of reproductive autonomy and choice, along with recognition of the structural conditions within which they can be exercised, the article argues that placing acts of reproductive violence within a frame of ‘sexual violence’ obscures the complexities of harm inflicted on women and masks the distinct gendered structures that underpin different forms of violence. The article ultimately argues that conceptualising reproductive violence in this way can contribute to greater understanding within transitional justice of the diverse harms experienced by women and has the potential to challenge the gendered normalisation of control over their reproductive functions.∞