TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 1

Subsection 3

Victim profile

18 The three figures on the right show the age and sex profiles of the victims, for the three categories named killings, severe ill treatment and torture. Each figure has a bar representing the number of violations in each age group⁴, with female victims shown on the left and males on the right.

19 Overwhelmingly, it was men who were killed in the conflicts of the past, and the vast majority of those men were aged between 13 and 36. Many women died too, and again, the majority of women who died were aged between 13 and 36.

20 The pattern for torture is similar. Most victims of torture were young adults, mostly men.

21 A different picture emerges for severe ill treatment. Although men are still in the majority, the number of cases of severe ill treatment involving women is much greater than that of women being killed or tortured. The age pattern is different too. Of the men, it is still mostly younger men who suffered severe ill treatment, but of the women, it is older women, particularly those aged 37–48.