Towards accountability for conflict-related sexual violence

• Department of Law

This event is organised by the International Law Working Group and features a talk by Kirsten Campbell, EUI Fernand Braudel Fellow.

Abstract:

In 1996, Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni observed that "there are significant gaps in protection from sexual violence, in the normative scheme for its prohibition and in the punishment of offenders". Over twenty years later, significant ‘justice’ gaps in protection from sexual violence under international criminal law remain. These range from lacuna in the normative legal regime, as seen in the recent International Criminal Court call for for amicus curiae briefs on legal elements of sexual violence crimes, to the difficulty of punishing these crimes, evident in recent Ukrainian efforts to prosecute sexual violence as an international crime. The area of sexual violence offences in international criminal law is marked by unsettled substantive and evidential law, contentious legal debates, significant prosecution challenges, and divergent strategies addressing these problems.

This paper explores current legal issues in sexual violence offences under international criminal law, and examines current strategies seeking to address them. The paper first outlines key legal issues in this category of offences, which range from defining elements of offences to identifying appropriate evidential assessment. The paper argues that these issues reflect the problematic legal concept of sexual violence as a gender-based international crime. This problematic conceptualisation can be seen in key debates in this category of offences, including whether they should be classified as gender-based or gender-neutral, their categorisation as sexual or violent crimes, the link between sexual violence and unlawful international violence, the legal interests safeguarded through criminalisation, and competing perspectives on justice for sexual violence offences. The paper then examines current strategies for addressing these legal problems, which range from developing model international criminal codes to strengthening implementation of international norms. It sets out the limitations of these strategies and argues that new approaches are needed. Specifically, the document argues for the creation of an alternative legal framework and for its implementation through an international convention on sexual violence as an international crime.