Justice for All: Wartime Rape and Women's Human Rights

Citation:

Tétreault, Mary Ann. 1997. “Justice for All: Wartime Rape and Women’s Human Rights.” Global Governance 3 (2): 197–212.

Author: Mary Ann Tétreault

Abstract:

Among the issues to be resolved after an armed conflict are how to reconcile war victims to crimes committed against them, and whether sexual assaults should be incorporated formally among injuries to be redressed. The omission of rape as a war crime is attributed to the gender-differentiated development of human rights norms in the western tradition and in international law. The patterns of redress followed after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the recent civil war in Bosnia are compared. While each incorporates significant advantages to victims of wartime rape, the more cumbersome procedure requiring that criminals be tried before an international tribunal is more likely ultimately to assuage the pain of victims individually and promote reconciliation among groups formerly at war.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Gender, International Law, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, War Crimes, Post-Conflict, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, SV against Women Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kuwait

Year: 1997