Abstract:
This paper examines the treatment of wartime rape and sexual violence in international
criminal law. Historically, sexual violence was seen as an unfortunate, but inevitable,
by-product of armed conflict. Indeed, despite its prevalence, sexual violence was almost
completely ignored in the first major international criminal trials held at Nuremberg and
Tokyo following World War II. Since then, international criminal law has evolved and
made a number of strong statements condemning such violence, nevertheless a number of
issues remain unresolved. Wartime sexual violence remains alarmingly prevalent in
modern armed conflict, and a culture of shame and silence still exists towards these
crimes in many countries. The development of the International Criminal Court provides
an opportunity for international criminal law to play an important normative and
symbolic role by breaking the silence on the issue, and indicting and prosecuting the most
serious sexual violence offences.
