ABSTRACT
The spate of mass rapes that have occurred throughout the history of warfare have, by and large, been crimes that have shaped history. The establishment of international war crimes courts, from the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals to the international criminal tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, as well as the International Criminal Court and other contemporary courts, is deeply embedded within a collective consciousness about the past, present and future. The ICTY is, or perhaps in time will be, remembered for its long overdue attention to rape crimes. International courts fixate on prosecuting defendants, but their stories, as well as those of witnesses, are not fully told through law, and witnesses and defendants play a relatively passive role in the prosecution of serious international crimes. The limitations of international war crimes courts contribute to and thwart both the deliverance of justice and the preservation of collective memory.
