ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the cases in the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) courts and interviews with court participants and witnesses themselves suggest a more complex picture: that protective measures are over-used in cases of rape and sexual violence. Survivors of rape and sexual violence are thus testifying most of the time under protective measures and often behind closed doors, reinforcing and rendering women in general as rapeable and vulnerable. An examination of the Gender Report Card developed by the Women's Initiative for Gender of the International Criminal Court does not give much cause for encouragement. Many prosecutors and judges assume that during testimony survivors of rape are more likely to disclose names of other survivors than are witnesses who have not endured sexual violence, hence the need, they argue, for closed sessions.
