Rape and Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict: Ending the Impunity for Perpetrators at International Law

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.