scholarly journals Towards an Intersectional Understanding of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: Gender, Sexuality, and Ethnicity at the ICTY

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 853-882
Author(s):  
Maike Isaac ◽  
Olga Jurasz
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Male Victims ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
The Past ◽  
Yugoslav Wars ◽  
Gender Based

In the past 25 years, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has contributed significantly to a more sophisticated understanding of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in international criminal law. The ICTY’s jurisprudence has broken new ground in relation to the prosecution of CRSV, but also has brought to light the multifaceted challenges associated with the prosecution of such crimes at an international level. Whilst cases heard by the ICTY have addressed both CRSV committed against women and men, there exist significant differences in the ways in which the ICTY has approached the experiences of male victims of sexual violence during the Yugoslav Wars. We therefore analyse the extent to and ways in which the ICTY has fostered the understanding of CRSV as gender-based violence that is embedded into the socio-cultural dynamics of the community within which the violence occurs.

scholarly journals Globalizing Justice, Homogenizing Sexual Violence: The Legacy of the ICTY and ICTR in terms of Sexual Violence

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 214-219
Author(s):  
Kelly-Jo Bluen
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The One

In their contribution to the AJIL Symposium, Robinson and MacNeil remark that a prolific legacy of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is that “it is now commonsense that rape is and must be a war crime.” This line distills the complexity of the legacies of the tribunals regarding sexual and gender-based violence. On the one hand, it articulates the critical role of the tribunals in cementing the idea that sexual violence, hitherto largely relegated to indifference in international criminal law and policy frameworks, is worthy of international attention. Simultaneously, it encapsulates the ways in which the tribunals’ jurisprudence has been received globally to narrate a narrow conception of conflict-related sexual violence as a “weapon of war” or committed as part of “strategic” conflict-related goals. In fact, there is little that constitutes common sense about sexual violence in conflict, nor is it always, or even most predominantly, committed as a war crime, crime against humanity,or in pursuit of genocide as envisaged by international criminal law. Various studies suggest that sexual violence in war takes many forms and causalities with differentiation across and within conflict contexts.

Accountability for Sexual and Gender-based Violence During Mass Repression and in Conflict

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-324
Author(s):  
Daniela Kravetz
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
National Courts ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Domestic Level

Abstract This article examines how national courts in Argentina and Guatemala are applying the international criminal law framework to address sexual violence perpetrated during mass repression and in conflict. It focuses on the emerging domestic jurisprudence in both countries and explores the challenges to prosecuting sexual and gender-based violence at the domestic level and the lessons learned from these experiences.

Advancing Justice and Making Amends Through Reparations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Kalla
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Structural Injustice ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

This chapter describes the development of reparations in international humanitarian and international criminal law. It then highlights the tension between judicial reparations and the harms that victims experience in conflict, particularly gendered harms such as sexual violence and discrimination against women. It demonstrates the importance of incorporating gender analyses into reparations programs and practice to fully redress victims’ needs and rights. It argues that reparations programs should acknowledge the challenges that victims of sexual and gender-based violence face, which may impact their participation in reparation proceedings. It also argues that reparations programs should focus on rectifying structural injustice to ensure gender atrocities are not repeated.

Sexual and Gender-based Violence in International Criminal Law: A Feminist Assessment of the Bemba Case

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 208-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Alice D’Aoust
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Guilty Verdict ◽  
Military Commander ◽  
Gender Based

In March 2016, the International Criminal Court (icc) rendered a guilty verdict against Jean-Pierre Bemba, ex-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, for his involvement in operations in the Central African Republic from 2002 to 2004. He was found guilty in his capacity as military commander of crimes against humanity and war crimes. The decision is the first by the icc to address sexual violence as a weapon of war and in the context of command responsibility. This article assesses the Bemba decision from a feminist perspective. Key normative developments have occurred in the substantive international criminal law surrounding sexual violence, and the guilty verdict against Jean-Pierre Bemba represents an effective implementation of international criminal law. However, in light of major feminist concerns that arise in international law on sexual violence, the encouraging developments in the judgement occur mostly at the implementation level, leaving much to be done in terms of gender conceptualization and norm-setting.

The Crimes of Sexual Violence in the Jurisprudence of International Criminal Tribunals

2019 ◽  
pp. 19-56
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Considerable Contribution ◽  
Critical Step ◽  
Long Period ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
Current Shift

This chapter concerns itself with strides made in defining and conceptualising sexual violence as crimes in international criminal law. The analysis presented in this chapter demonstrates that, after a long period of neglect of these crimes, wartime sexual violence appears to have gained recognition and firmly established as crimes in international criminal law. The author evidences the considerable contribution of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to the current shift in thinking of international law regarding conflict-related sexual violence. Significantly, the author argues that the explicit criminalisation of different forms of sexual violence by the Rome Statute is a critical step forward in this regard. However, the analysis finally highlights continuing challenges in the prosecution of these crimes before international criminal tribunals.

The Contribution of Women Judges and Prosecutors to the Development of International Criminal Law

2020 ◽  
pp. 355-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Doherty
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Courts ◽  
Women Judges ◽  
Broad Interpretation ◽  
Active Contribution

Few female judges were appointed to the benches of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and Special Court for Sierra Leone. Nevertheless, those appointments resulted in an active contribution of these women judges to the development of international criminal law, as is shown in the jurisprudence. Judges give judgement on the evidence, facts, and law before them, but women judges have been noted for advancing the existing law through broad interpretation. With the appointment of women investigators and prosecutors, more prosecutions for crimes of sexual violence followed. This is important as it progressively developed a field of law that had until then not, or only in a more limited manner, been adjudicated upon before international courts.

Feminism and Its (DIS)contents: Criminalizing Wartime Rape in Bosnia and Herzegovina

2005 ◽  
Vol 99 (4) ◽  
pp. 778-816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Engle
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Legal Argumentation ◽  
Concerted Effort

Today many feminists seem relatively content with the treatment of rape and other sexual violence against women under international criminal law. In the context of the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990s, feminist activists made a concerted effort to affect the statute establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the rules of evidence under which rape and other crimes of sexual violence would be prosecuted, the form the indictments of crimes of sexual violence would take, and the strategies and legal argumentation made at both the trial and the appellate levels. For the most part, much to the surprise of many feminists themselves, they have been successful. As Joanne Barkan comments: “From the start, most observers considered the [ICTY] a sop to human rights and feminist activists who wanted intervention.... Almost no one expected it to succeed. And yet to some extent, at least for women, it did.”

scholarly journals International Criminal Law as a Spotlight and Black Holes as Constituents of Legacy

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 209-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larissa van den Herik
Keyword(s):  
Black Holes ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
One Step ◽  
Overall Performance ◽  
Fair Balance

This contribution engages with Sara Kendall’s and Sarah Nouwen’s article on the legacy of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and their call for an ethos of institutional modesty. I much support the nuanced approach that underlies their call and I see it as a prerequisite to properly and adequately appreciate the ICTR’s past existence and operation. I would even be open to moving one step further in the direction of an ethos of sobriety. Rather than seizing the momentum to celebrate accomplishments and highlight milestones, legacy-talk and legacy-construction of international criminal tribunals should entail a form of reckoning. Indeed, as suggested by Kendall and Nouwen, the “justices not done” and the “justices pending” must be part and parcel of the ICTR’s legacy-constructions so as to offer a fair balance and to capture the ICTR’s overall performance, explicitly accounting for results as well as omissions.

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