Copelon, Rhonda

The author argues that wartime sexual violence is now more visible as it is within the ambit of international criminal law under the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR). The author also discusses how Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has also had a significant impact on the treatment of sexual violence under international law by codifying sexual and gender crimes and bringing them within the jurisdiction of the ICC, along with procedural safeguards to ensure that female victims and witnesses are adequately protected.

This article highlights the increasing importance of women's concerns in the international human rights field and briefly discusses the advances and limitations of the Beijing Platform for Action (PFA). The author argues for the need to ensure domestic implementation of the PFA through activism and through the development of scholarship on women's international human rights. [Descriptors: Applying Human Rights Law - International, World Conferences, International]

This article is a proposal submitted to the judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for the purpose of influencing the rules adopted by the Tribunal for the prosecution of rape and other sex crimes. The proposal advocates rules to enhance the chances that the first international prosecution of rape under the jurisdiction of the ICTY will be effective, tolerable, and just for survivors without sacrificing the legitimate rights of the accused.

This article addresses the battering and sexual abuse of women by their partners. The author argues that such violence must be understood as torture, giving rise to obligatory international and national responsibilities. She notes two major obstacles to the recognition of intimate violence against women as a human rights violation: the public/private dichotomy in international law and the persistent trivialization of violence against women.

This article examines the evolving legal status of rape and other forms of sexual violence such as forced prostitution and forced pregnancy in war. Part I addresses whether these gender crimes are fully recognized as war crimes under the Geneva Conventions, the cornerstone of what is called "humanitarian law" or the law governing the laws of war. This process requires an examination of whether rape is viewed as a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and, whether within that framework, it is treated as a form of torture.