PANEL 4 The relationships between narratives around sexual and gender-based violence and accountability processes This session expanded on the power behind narratives around sexual and gender-based violence and the ways in which narratives and patriarchal discourses have the power to include and exclude narratives that do not conform to dominant perspectives. Often, this paints narrow pictures of conflict, which can be detrimental to achieving accountability for those who have been left out of dominant narratives. Panellists in this session thus cautioned the over-simplification of conflict and sexual and genderbased violence, and considered theoretical and empirical arguments about gender, institutional cultures of patriarchy, violence, and conflict. 4 CHRISTI KRUGER Researcher, Centre for Sexualities, AIDS and Gender, University of Pretoria Sociological perspectives on gender-based violence Kruger’s presentation addressed the sociological aspects of gender-based violence, stemming from two issues: the anatomy of violence after war, and how cultural relativity and universalism can be applied to specific contexts. Kruger noted that the anatomy of violence after war speaks to the assumption that violence ends when conflict ends. She highlighted the many forms of violence that continue on many different levels, the narratives of which are often left behind. The norms of society during war are usually suspended when atrocities happen. These knowledges, cultures and norms are reproduced over time, which, if not addressed, often lead to reproduction of violence and the warping of identity, including masculinity and what it means to be a man in society. For Kruger, a way in which these identities might be challenged is through reforming the ways in 14\ Accountability for conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence: Successes, challenges, narratives, and omissions