International Criminal Law

Out of The Shadows? The Inclusion of Men and Boys in Conceptualisations of Wartime Sexual Violence

Citation:

Touquet, Heleen, and Ellen Gorris. 2016. "Out of The Shadows? The Inclusion of Men and Boys in Conceptualisations of Wartime Sexual Violence." Reproductive Health Matters 24 (47): 36-46. 

Authors: Heleen Touquet, Ellen Gorris

Abstract:

Researchers increasingly acknowledge that men and boys are frequent victims of sexual violence in conflict alongside women and girls, who remain the group that is disproportionately affected. This increasing awareness has contributed to significant efforts to include men and boys in conceptualisations of conflict related sexual violence in policy as well as in international criminal law. This article analyses the changes that have occurred in these two fields in recent years. We argue that while a major shift towards including male victims in international policy on wartime sexual violence took place in 2013-2014, this development has yet to be consolidated in salient policy guidelines and handbooks. While men and boys’ potential victimisation is frequently recognised, most policy documents do not treat the topic of male victimisation in depth. International criminal law on the other hand has pioneered gender-neutral and inclusive definitions. However, the interpretation and application of the gender-inclusive approach is often left to the discretion of judges and the prosecution who at times fail to take the experience of males fully into account, signalling the continuing influence of gender stereotypes and deeply held cultural myths. A renewed effort to fully integrate male victims into conceptualisations of conflict-related sexual violence in both policy and law is therefore advised.

Keywords: sexual violence, gender-based violence, male victims, conflict, 'gender'

Topics: Conflict, Gender, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Male Victims, Sexual Violence, SV against Men

Year: 2016

Mainstreaming Gender in European Union Transitional Justice Policy: Towards a Transformative Approach?

Citation:

de Almagro, Maria Martin. 2019. "Mainstreaming Gender in European Union Transitional Justice Policy: Towards a Transformative Approach?" In Gender Roles in Peace and Security, edited by Manuela Scheuermann and Anja Zurn, 149-64. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

Author: Maria Martin de Almagro

Abstract:

The European Parliament awarded its prestigious Sakharov Prize in October 2016 to two Iraqi Yazidi women who were held as sex slaves by Islamic State militias. Some months before, the ICC issued its landmark conviction of Jean Pierre Bemba for his responsibility as commander-in-chief for sexual and gender-based violence carried out by his troops in the Central African Republic in May 2016. Both events are evidence of the increasing awareness at the EU, and internationally, of the need to amplify women’s experiences of violence and their claims to justice. In Guatemala, for example, a court recently convicted two former military officers of crimes against humanity for having enslaved, raped and sexually abused 11 indigenous Q’eqchi’ women at the Sepur Zarco military base during the armed conflict in Guatemala.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender Mainstreaming, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, International Criminal Law, International Organizations, Justice, Crimes against Humanity, Transitional Justice, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militias, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Violence Regions: Africa, MENA, Central Africa, Americas, Central America, Asia, Middle East, Europe Countries: Central African Republic, Guatemala, Iraq

Year: 2019

Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by UN Peacekeepers: Towards a Hybrid Solution

Citation:

Mudgway, Cassandra. 2019. Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by UN Peacekeepers: Towards a Hybrid Solution. New York: Routledge.

Author: Cassandra Mudgway

Annotation:

Summary:
Sexual exploitation and abuse by United Nations (UN) peacekeepers is not an isolated or recent problem, but it has been present in almost every peacekeeping operation. A culture of sexual exploitation and abuse is contrary to the UN’s zero-tolerance policy and has been the target of institutional reforms since 2005. Despite this, allegations of sexual abuse continue to emerge, and the reforms have not solved the problem. This book is a response to the continued lack of accountability of UN peacekeepers for sexual exploitation and abuse. Focusing on military contingent members, this book aims to analyse ways in which the UN can fill the accountability gap while taking a feminist perspective and emphasising the needs of victims, their communities, and the host state.
 
This book directly challenges the status quo of relying on troop-contributing countries (TCCs) to hold their peacekeepers to account. It proposes first, the establishment of a series of hybrid courts, and second, a mechanism for dealing with victim rehabilitation and reparation. It addresses these topics by considering international and human rights law and will be of interest to researchers, academics, policymakers, and students with an interest in international criminal law, United Nations peacekeeping, and peace studies.

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, International Law, International Criminal Law, International Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law (IHL), International Organizations, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Peacekeeping, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Year: 2019

Reparations for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Lessons from the International Criminal Court

Citation:

Hodgson, Natalie. 2018. "Reparations for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Lessons from the International Criminal Court." Precedent, no. 144, 48-51. 

Author: Natalie Hodgson

Abstract:

Throughout the world, reparations have been used as a response to mass violence and serious violations of human rights in countries such as Cambodia, Mexico and South Africa. In Australia, reparations schemes to redress the harms of the Stolen Generations have been implemented in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia. Additionally, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse referred to reparations principles while formulating its recommendations for redress.1 As such, it is increasingly important for Australian lawyers to understand how reparations can be used to secure justice for victims of human rights violations.

Topics: Gender-Based Violence, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Reparations, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Violence Regions: Oceania Countries: Australia

Year: 2018

Forced Pregnancy versus Forcible Impregnation: A Critical Analysis of Genocidal Rape during War/Armed Conflict.

Citation:

Banwell, Stacy Louise. 2019. "Forced Pregnancy versus Forcible Impregnation: A Critical Analysis of Genocidal Rape during War/Armed Conflict." Paper presented at the 75th American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, San Francisco, November 13-16.

Author: Stacy Louise Banwell

Abstract:

Forced pregnancy and forcible impregnation are contested terms in relation to genocidal rape. The International Criminal Court (ICC), for example, defines forced pregnancy as ‘the unlawful confinement of a woman forcibly made pregnant, with the intent of affecting the ethnic composition of any population’ (Rome Statute of the ICC, 2011). Whereas, The Holy See suggests that the Statute need only criminalize the act of forcibly making a woman pregnant and not the subsequent act of forcibly keeping her pregnant. Thus, they suggest the term forcible impregnation rather than forced pregnancy (Grey, 2017). This paper unpacks the implications of the ICC’s definition of forced pregnancy in relation to the rape and sexual slavery of Yazidi women in Iraq and Syria. Evidence suggest that ISIS engaged in a genocidal campaign against the Yazidis. Many women and girls were forcibly impregnated, resulting in unwanted pregnancies (Genocide Network, 2017; Human Rights Council, 2016). However, forced impregnation (as defined by the ICC) cannot be applied to this case. Drawing on Grey’s (2017) notion of ‘reproductive violence’ - violence that violates reproductive autonomy - I review international criminal law and the reproductive justice available to women and girls raped and impregnated by ISIS.

Keywords: law, rape

Topics: Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Girls, Genocide, Health, Reproductive Health, International Law, International Criminal Law, Rights, Reproductive Rights, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Iraq, Syria

Year: 2019

Murad vs. ISIS: Rape as a Weapon of Genocide

Citation:

Cooke, Miriam. 2019. "Murad vs. ISIS: Rape as a Weapon of Genocide." Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 15 (3): 261-85.

Author: Miriam Cooke

Abstract:

This article analyzes recent Iraqi texts, some authorizing and others condemning rape as a weapon of war. The focus is on Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) perpetrators of sexual violence, their Yazidi victims, and two women’s demands for reparative, restorative justice. Held in sexual slavery between 2014 and 2015, Farida Khalaf and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad published testimonials that detail their experiences. Determined to bring ISIS rapists to justice, they narrate the formerly unspeakable crimes that ISIS militants committed against them. Adjudicated as a crime against humanity at the end of the twentieth century, rape as a weapon of war, and especially genocide, no longer slips under the radar of international attention. This study argues that the Yazidi women’s brave decision to speak out may help break the millennial silence of rape survivors.

Keywords: ISIS, Yazidis, rape as a weapon of war, fatwa, Crimes against Humanity

Topics: Genocide, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Crimes against Humanity, Reparations, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Non-State Armed Groups, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Iraq

Year: 2019

Simone Gbagbo: First Lady of Cote D'Ivoire, First Woman Indicted by the International Criminal Court, One among Many Female Perpetrators of Crimes Against Humanity

Citation:

Zaldivar-Giuffredi, Alessandra M. 2018. "Simone Gbagbo: First Lady of Cote D'Ivoire, First Woman Indicted by the International Criminal Court, One among Many Female Perpetrators of Crimes Against Humanity." ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law 25 (1): 1-31.

Author: Alessandra M. Zaldivar-Giuffredi

Annotation:

Summary: 
"Prosecutor v. Gbagbo presents us with a certain novelty: a female defendant indicted by the ICC.4 Her indictment may be emblematic of an important shift towards a post-gender model of international criminal justice, a recognition that both women and men are capable of committing atrocities and crimes against humanity—including the perpetration of rape and sexual violence.5 Nevertheless, the supposed “novelty” of this case is predicated on the problematic view of women as inherently peaceful and merely ‘victims’ of war, incapable of independent violent agency.6 Women have long been involved in the commission and perpetration of mass crime.7 An analysis of S. Gbagbo’s case, then, requires questioning her ‘uniqueness’ as a defendant and the role gender may or may not have played in her indictment by the ICC, and considering its implications for international criminal law. Looking past the problematic gender narratives relating to Prosecutor v. Gbagbo, an important issue of complementarity arises.8 In March 2017, S. Gbagbo was acquitted by Ivoirian courts; nevertheless, her indictment by the ICC persists, as the Pre-Trial Chamber found an absence of meaningful domestic proceedings against her.9 Furthermore, even after Cote d’Ivoire challenged this finding on appeal, the Appeals Chamber confirmed the Pre Trial Chamber’s finding on admissibility.10 Thus, we are left to reckon with the relationship between domestic and international investigations: What is the scope of the ICC’s role in ensuring justice, aiding victims, and furthering the internal unification of the affected States?" (Zaldivar-Giuffredi 2018, 1)

Topics: Gender, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Crimes against Humanity, Sexual Violence, Female Perpetrators, Rape, Violence Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Côte D'Ivoire

Year: 2018

Gender Justice in Post-Conflict Guatemala: The Sepur Zarco Sexual Violence and Sexual Slavery Trial

Citation:

Burt, Jo-Marie. 2019. "Gender Justice in Post-Conflict Guatemala: The Sepur Zarco Sexual Violence and Sexual Slavery Trial." Social Science Research Network. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3444514.

Author: Jo-Marie Burt

Abstract:

Guatemala is breaking new ground with a series of high-impact war crimes prosecutions. The 2016 Sepur Zarco trial was one such landmark case: it was the first time that Guatemala prosecuted wartime sexual violence, and the first time that a domestic court prosecuted sexual slavery as a crime against humanity. This case also set important precedents in legal and evidentiary practice. Based on my direct observation of the Sepur Zarco case, this paper examines the legal practices that placed the womensurvivors, not the defendants, at the forefront of the proceedings, and which proved that the state of Guatemala systematically used sexual violence as a weapon of war against women and as a strategy to control the civilian population. It also examines the evidentiary practices in this case, which allowed not only for a conviction more than 30 years after the crimes, but for a broader understanding of the historical context, including land conflict, that led to the atrocities in Sepur Zarco. By piercing the veil of impunity surrounding wartime atrocities and making visible the faces of the victims —indigenous men and women who have historically been relegated to the margins of Guatemalan society— the Sepur Zarco trial is challenging entrenched narratives of denial that have sustained the power of military officials whose influence continues to shape present-day politics in the Central American nation.

Keywords: sexual violence, sexual slavery, Guatemala, human rights, war crimes

Topics: Conflict, Resource Conflict, Gender, Indigenous, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Rights, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights, Sexual Violence, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women Regions: Americas, Central America Countries: Guatemala

Year: 2019

Prosecuting Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes at the International Criminal Court

Citation:

Grey, Rosemary. 2019. Prosecuting Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes at the International Criminal Court. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Author: Rosemary Grey

Annotation:

Summary: 
The 1998 Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC), includes a longer list of gender-based crimes than any previous instrument of international criminal law. The Statute's twentieth anniversary provides an opportunity to examine how successful the ICC has been in prosecuting those crimes, what challenges it has faced, and how its caselaw on these crimes might develop in future. Taking up that opportunity, this book analyses the ICC's practice in prosecuting gender-based crimes across all cases for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the ICC up until mid-2018. This analysis is based on a detailed examination of court records and original interviews with prosecutors and gender experts at the Court. This book covers topics of emerging interest to practitioners in this field, including wartime sexual violence against men and boys, persecution on the grounds of gender and sexual orientation, and sexual violence against 'child soldiers'. (Summary from Cambridge University Press)

 

Topics: Combatants, Child Soldiers, Feminisms, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Genocide, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, LGBTQ, Sexual Violence, SV against Men

Year: 2019

Female Crimes against Humanity

Citation:

DeCarlo, Josephine. 2019. "Female Crimes Against Humanity." In The Encyclopedia of Women and Crime, edited by Frances P. Bernat and Kelly Frailing. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Author: Josephine DeCarlo

Abstract:

Crimes against women have long been ignored or given diminished priority within justice systems whether those systems were local, national, or international. However, as the world strives for gender equality, the international justice system has begun to recognize the distinctive repercussions for female victims, and how women can be targeted as an identified people group. Through the help of advances within diverse fields (including psychology, sociology, applied criminology, etc.), we have also come to better analyze the motivation(s) behind gender crimes and the circumstances under which they are committed. Through closer analysis of the motivations and circumstances regarding crimes against women, we have further developed and expanded concepts such as crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. (While some notable trials are covered, for the sake of concision, not all are included.) Additionally, we have ascertained that one's sexuality can be utilized as a weapon or strategy of war.

Keywords: gender crimes, genocide, human rights, rape, sexual violence, torture, war crimes

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Genocide, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexuality, Torture

Year: 2019

Pages

© 2023 CONSORTIUM ON GENDER, SECURITY & HUMAN RIGHTSLEGAL STATEMENT All photographs used on this site, and any materials posted on it, are the property of their respective owners, and are used by permission. Photographs: The images used on the site may not be downloaded, used, or reproduced in any way without the permission of the owner of the image. Materials: Visitors to the site are welcome to peruse the materials posted for their own research or for educational purposes. These materials, whether the property of the Consortium or of another, may only be reproduced with the permission of the owner of the material. This website contains copyrighted materials. The Consortium believes that any use of copyrighted material on this site is both permissive and in accordance with the Fair Use doctrine of 17 U.S.C. § 107. If, however, you believe that your intellectual property rights have been violated, please contact the Consortium at info@genderandsecurity.org.

Subscribe to RSS - International Criminal Law