ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 analyses how the Women’s Caucus came to understand forced marriage in times of armed conflict as a form of sexual slavery. While an incorrect view of forced marriage as essentially a sexual crime could explain this, the Caucus’ comments and recommendations do not support this theory. However, while it was recognised that forced marriage consists of sexual and non-sexual aspects, an emphasis was placed on the former. This could explain why the Caucus understood forced marriage to be a form of sexual slavery. While accounts of the discussions in the ICC negotiations suggest that the Women’s Caucus followed the opinion of the international community, interpreting forced marriage as a form of sexual slavery, the group’s written recommendations and comments suggest it might have followed the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Systematic Rape, Sexual Slavery and Slavery-Like Practices during armed conflict and strategically framed forced marriage as a form of slavery to benefit from the connotations of the jus cogens nature of the norm.
