Illegality of Sexual Violence against Women during Armed Conflicts

Miebaka Nabiebu(1*),

(1) Faculty of Law, University of Calabar
(*) Corresponding Author




DOI: https://doi.org/10.26858/.v3i1.44117

Abstract


Abstract. Sexual violence against women during conflict situations has been a common phenomenon throughout history. It has been regarded as a strategy to terrorise and gain control over civilian society. The atrocities of the Bosnian War, the Sierra Leone Civil War, and the Rwandan Genocide are some events that attest to women's vulnerability in warfare. The Nuremberg Charters conceived and established the concept of international crimes and individual liability for violations of international law. Thus, the general acceptance of rape and sexual violence as “normal” or “trophies of war” is no longer tolerated with the growing consciousness of gender equality and human rights. Recently, International Humanitarian Law (IHL) has recognised the illegality of rape and sexual violence during armed conflict. Given the foregoing, the main goal of this study is to comprehend how IHL safeguards women during times of armed conflict. This work discussed the topics of sexual violence as a war crime and human rights. The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) were also covered in this piece. Finally, this investigation examined the institutional reactions to several case studies of sexual assault offenders. This work argues that the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) played a vital role in the prosecution of perpetrators of sexual violence. This work suggests that crimes of sexual violence should not be included in amnesty provisions.

                            

Keywords: Sexual violence, Women, Armed Conflicts, International Humanitarian Law


Full Text:

PDF

References


Askin, K. D. (1997). War crimes against women: Prosecution in international war crimes tribunals (Vol. 1). Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.

Askin, K. D. (2003). Prosecuting wartime rape and other gender-related crimes under international law: Extraordinary advances, enduring obstacles. Berkeley J. Int'l L., 21, 288.

Barrow, A. (2010). UN Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820: constructing gender in armed conflict and international humanitarian law. International Review of the Red Cross, 92(877), 221-234.

Bassiouni, M. C. (2011). Crimes against humanity: historical evolution and contemporary application. Cambridge University Press.

Bennoune, K. (2005). The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as a tool for combating discrimination against women: general observations and a case study on Algeria. International social science journal, 57(184), 351-369.

Boister, N., & Cryer, R. (Eds.). (2008). Documents on the Tokyo International Military Tribunal: Charter, Indictment, and Judgments (Vol. 1). Oxford University Press.

Brehm, H. (2017). Subnational determinants of killing in Rwanda. Criminology, 55(1), 5-31.

Donlon, F. (2013). The Transition of Responsibilities from the Special Court to the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone: challenges and lessons learned for other international tribunals. Journal of International Criminal Justice, 11(4), 857-874.

Frulli, M. (2000). The special court for Sierra Leone: some preliminary comments. European journal of international law, 11(4), 857-869.

Futamura, M., & Gow, J. (2013). The strategic purpose of the ICTY and international peace and security. In Prosecuting War Crimes (pp. 33-46). Routledge.

Gardam, J. (2018). The silences in the rules that regulate women during times of armed conflict. In The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Conflict (pp. 35-47). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gasser, H. P. (2002). International humanitarian law and human rights law in non-international armed conflict: joint venture or mutual exclusion. German YB Int'l L., 45, 149.

Greppi, E. (1999). The evolution of individual criminal responsibility under international law. International review of the Red Cross, 81(835), 531-553.

Grover, S. C. (2010). The International Ad Hoc Criminal Courts of Rwanda and the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia. In Prosecuting International Crimes and Human Rights Abuses Committed Against Children (pp. 55-68). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Hameed, N. T. (2011). The prosecution of the crime of genocide: a comparative analysis of approaches between International and National legal systems (Master's thesis, Kuala Lumpur: Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah of Laws, International Islamic University Malaysia, 2011).

Jalloh, C. C. (2011). Situation in the Republic of Kenya. American Journal of International Law, 105(3), 540-547.

Joachim, J. (1999). Shaping the human rights agenda: the case of violence against women. Gender politics in global governance, 4, 142-160.

Joachim, J. M. (2007). Agenda setting, the UN, and NGOs: Gender violence and reproductive rights. Georgetown University Press.

Keller, L. M. (2014). The Impact of States Parties' Reservation to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Mich. St. L. Rev., 309.

Kreft, A. K. (2017). The gender mainstreaming gap: Security Council resolution 1325 and UN peacekeeping mandates. International Peacekeeping, 24(1), 132-158.

Malone, R. D. M. (Eds.). (2004). The UN Security Council: from the Cold War to the 21st century. Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Manjoo, R., & McRaith, C. (2011). Gender-based violence and justice in conflict and post-conflict areas. Cornell Int'l LJ, 44, 11.

Mitchell, D. S. (2004). The prohibition of rape in international humanitarian law as a norm of jus cogens: Clarifying the doctrine. Duke J. Comp. & Int'l L., 15, 219.

Murphy, S. D. (2000). Arrest by US forces of Bosnian Serb indictee. The American Journal of International Law, 94(3), 537.

Nikolic-Ristanovic, V. (2010). Supporting victims of trafficking: Towards reconciling the security of victims and states. Security and Human Rights, 21(3), 189-202.

Oosterveld, V. (2011). The Gender Jurisprudence of the Special Court for Sierra Leone: Progress in the Revolutionary United Front Judgments. Cornell Int'l LJ, 44, 49.

Oosterveld, V. (2012). Gender and the Charles Taylor case at the special court for Sierra Leone. Wm. & Mary J. Women & L., 19, 7.

Pittman, T. W. (2011). The road to the establishment of the international residual mechanism for criminal tribunals: from completion to continuation. Journal of International Criminal Justice, 9(4), 797-817.

Quénivet, N. N. (2005). Sexual Offenses as Crimes against Humanity. In Sexual Offenses in Armed Conflict and International Law (pp. 113-139). Brill Nijhoff.

Sadat, L. N., & Cohen, B. (2015). Impunity Through Immunity: The Kenya Situation and the International Criminal Court. The International Criminal Court and Africa: One Decade On, Forthcoming, Washington University in St. Louis Legal Studies Research Paper, (15-12), 03.

Schweigman, D. (2001). The authority of the Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter: legal limits and the role of the International Court of Justice. BRILL.

Sloan, J. (2005). Prosecutor v. Dragan Nikolić (Decision of the Interlocutory Appeal Concerning Legality of Arrest), Case No. IT-94-2-AR73. The Law & Practice of International Courts and Tribunals, 4(3), 491-500.

Tileubergenov, E. M., Pelevin, S. I., Vasiliev, A. A., & Danilyanc, E. I. (2016). Political and legal defining the regulations of war in the hague convention of 1907. J. Advanced Res. L. & Econ., 7, 672.

Turns, D., Rojo, C., McCausland, J. S., & Bojovic, A. (2009). International Criminal Courts Round-Up. Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law, 12, 233-262.

Vagias, M. (2018). The prosecutor’s request concerning the Rohingya deportation to Bangladesh: Certain procedural questions. Leiden Journal of International Law, 31(4), 981-1002.


Article Metrics

Abstract view : 111 times | PDF view : 32 times

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.