Engendering Accountability: Gender Crimes Under International Criminal Law

This article examines the successes and shortcomings of the legal developments in the prosecution of gender crimes by the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR). The article emphasizes advances in both procedural and substantive law, including developments in the definition of rape and the prosecution of gender crimes as crimes against humanity, war crimes, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, and genocide. The authors also consider how these developments have been incorporated into the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court (ICC). The authors argue that the institutions responsible for developing international criminal law in this area must assess and increase the deterrent effect of prosecutions and find ways to change the attitudes that lead to gender violence in war.