The Definition of "Gender" in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: A Step Forward or Back for International Criminal Justice?

This article discusses how the term "gender" came to be incorporated in the final text of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). "Gender" is identified as a troublesome term, subject to some of the most difficult and contentious negotiations at the Rome Conference. Discussion of the negotiation process - in which the author took an active role - forms the basis for Part I of this article. Part II looks to the various definitions of gender used by the United Nations in the areas of refugee law and human rights. Part III critically analyses the Rome Statute's definition of "gender" from the perspective of the "sex vs. gender" debate, the social construction of the term, the possibility that the Statute's definition could exclude sexual orientation from its ambit, and the decision to single out gender for definition in the context of crimes against humanity. The author concludes in Part IV by defending the definition of gender adopted in the text, arguing that this definition will ultimately help rather than hinder the work of the ICC in addition to advancing the understanding of gender more generally under international law. [Descriptors: Armed Conflict, International]