ABSTRACT
During practically every conflict in the world, from time immemorial, rape and other forms of sexual violence against women have taken place on a massive scale.1 Men too fall victim to sexual violence in conflict, although seemingly in smaller numbers than women.2 The consequences of sexual violence are severe and enduring: many survivors contract sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS, face unwanted pregnancies and health complications resulting from botched abortions and suffer from sexual mutilations and other injuries. In addition, they often face stigma, isolation and severe trauma. Typically, they are confronted by poverty and by having to take care of orphans as well as their own children. This chapter addresses the adequacy of the supranational criminal law system
(on both a substantive as well as a procedural level) of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY or Tribunal) and Rwanda (ICTR or Tribunal) and the International Criminal Court (ICC or Court) from the perspective of victims/survivors of sexual violence.3 In particular, the ICC’s Rome Statute, Rules of Procedure and Evidence (RPE), Elements of Crimes (EoC) and case law are examined and compared to the ICTY and ICTR Statutes, RPE and case law, in the necessary light of the reality of sexual violence taking place in conflict situations.4 Recommendations are offered in regard to how sexual violence can and should be prosecuted before the ICC, which is currently examining the situation of Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Darfur/Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR).
