Women without a Voice : Japan's Silencing of Its Comfort Women and the Redemptive Future the Tokyo Women's Tribunal Offers to the Gendered and Colonial History of International Law

For decades, international legal actors have failed to bring justice to the victims of the “comfort women” system implemented by Japan during the Second World War, highlighting the gendered discrimination of the international legal framework towards non-western women. The author recounts the history of conflict-based sexual violence in Japan and the inadequacy of international response. The attitude of Japan today proves to be problematic in its refusal to acknowledge the non-consensual nature of the sex camps and the enslaved women’s suffering. This article argues that the Tokyo Women’s Tribunal (TWT), despite being a people’s tribunal, is nonetheless effective in driving accountability and transparency by amplifying the voice of survivors and position of women in international law.