Prosecuting Wartime Rape and other Gender-Related Crimes under International Law: Extraordinary Advances, Enduring Obstacles

This article formed part of the 2002 Stefan A. Riesenfeld Symposium on Crimes against Women under International Law. The article provides an overview of the development of the pursuit of accountability for gender-based crimes. First, the article shows how international law has largely failed to take account of crimes perpetrated against women and girls (Part I). Part II discusses recent efforts to prosecute gender-related crimes before international criminal tribunals, and Part III turns to an assessment of five of the key gender cases prosecuted at the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda (ICTY and ICTR). Finally, in Part IV the author discusses how the explosive development of gender-related crimes in international law and their successful prosecution speaks to the emerging recognition of sexual violence as a jus cogens norm. [Descriptors: Armed Conflict, International]