Journal Citation:
89 GEORGETOWN LAW JOURNAL, 2557-2592, (2001).
This article provides a comprehensive overview of how the legal treatment of sexual violence has evolved. In spite of the broad range of gender-based war crimes and their pervasiveness during armed conflict, the author argues that these crimes have not received the legal attention they rightfully deserve in the latter half of the 20th century. The author argues that the failure to prosecute is irreprehensible because this failure not only adversely affects the individual woman, but also because the harm affects the society as a whole. Part I discusses the response of the WWII war crimes tribunals to sexual assault, with Part II exploring the post-WWII developments in addressing the needs of women. Part III turns to the treatment of sexual violence by the ad hoc criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR) and Part IV looks at how gender crimes are treated under the Statute of the newly established International Criminal Court (ICC). The article concludes that the foundations laid over the past fifty years provide hope that women's human rights may soon be protected and enjoyed, but only if the importance of treating sexual violence as a crime under international law is fully recognized. [Descriptors: Armed Conflict, International]