For Annaleise Walker, a third-year Bachelor of Social Work student and former volunteer with the Sexual Assault Centre in Edmonton, listening to and honouring people’s experiences of sexual violence is something that should happen every day. 

That’s not always the case. Sexual violence is severely underreported and the intricacies of memory have a role to play. “Law is rooted in patriarchal systems,” she explains. “Because of this, it demands facts in a chronological and consistent way. If you can’t do that, it says, you must be lying. But we know human memories don't work that way, and traumatic memories even less so.”

And this is no different for sexual violence during war – the topic of Walker’s paper that won her this year’s Ending Sexual Violence Forum award, presented by the Office of Sexual Violence Prevention, Education and Response and the Office of Research Services. 

Walker’s paper looks at how the law’s processes disproportionately disadvantage women who have experienced sexual violence in war.

“The law shapes collective memory not only in what it says but where it falls silent,” she says in her paper. “Law has the power to regulate what information is produced and accessed and how that information is presented or hidden. In order for collective memories to be formed and sustained throughout history, there must be a record of the events available.”

In most criminal war tribunals and in courts of law, “when the law determines someone is not guilty, what often is interpreted is that it didn’t happen,” she says.

Walker’s research into records of sexual violence during war left her so shocked that she found herself double-checking her sources.

In World War II, for example, 200,000 women and girls were kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery as “comfort women” for Japanese soldiers (some sources claim this number is much higher). And an estimated 2 million German women were raped by Russian soldiers in Berlin in 1945.

These are just a few of the many devastating statistics Walker encountered. Her motivation to bring these voices forward bolstered her through the process. “I really wanted to present a paper that accurately represented the situation, honoured the experiences of the women and girls and respected their voices.”

It’s something she plans to continue to do when she’s completed her degree. 

“I think we need to focus more on supporting and believing survivors,” she says. “Providing people with the resources they need and a place to be heard is something I hope I’ll be able to do as a social worker.”