International Law Weekend, American Branch of the International Law Association Perspectives on Crimes of Sexual Violence in International Law

Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) during conflict and periods of repression has been a problem in every region of the globe

Victim Participation at the International Criminal Court and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: A Feminist Project

The question this Article poses is whether victim participation--one of the most recent developments in international criminal law--has increased the visibility of the actual lived experience of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in the context of war, mass violence, or repression. Under the Rome Statute, victims of the world\u27s most serious crimes were given unprecedented rights to participate in proceedings before the Court. Nearly a decade later, a similar scheme was established to allow victims to participate as civil parties in the proceedings before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC or Extraordinary Chambers), a court created with UN support to prosecute atrocities committed by leaders of the Khmer Rouge during the period of 1975 to 1979. Although there are some significant differences in how the schemes work at the ICC and ECCC, both courts allow victims to participate in criminal proceedings independent of their role as witnesses for either the prosecution or defense. In other words, both have victim participation schemes intended to give victims a voice in the proceedings. Significantly, women\u27s rights activists supported the creation of these victim participation schemes, particularly at the ICC, because, among other things, they thought that doing so might help address the under- or misrepresentation of women\u27s experiences in those situations covered by the Court\u27s jurisdiction. My aim is to explore whether these novel victim participation schemes, as implemented by the ICC and ECCC thus far, have actually allowed for greater recognition of victims\u27 voices and experiences than was possible in proceedings before their predecessor tribunals. Have these schemes actually allowed women to communicate a fuller and more nuanced picture of their experiences than they would have been able to as victim-witnesses before the Yugoslav and Rwanda tribunals? Have they contributed to a richer understanding of the different and complex ways in which sexual violence and inequality are experienced by women in the context of war, mass violence, or repression? In other words, can the victim participation schemes at the ICC and the Extraordinary Chambers answer the feminist call for increased visibility of the actual lived experience of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in the context of war, mass violence, or repression? Can they, in this sense, be considered feminist projects

The Importance of Effective Investigation of Sexual Violence and Gender-Based Crimes at the International Criminal Court

INTRODUCTION: Several provisions in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC or the Court) indicate that the statute\u27s drafters intended sexual violence and gender-based crimes to be given specific attention during the investigation of potential cases before the Court. For instance, Article 54(1)(b) requires that, in ensuring the effective investigation and prosecution of crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court, the Prosecutor take into account the nature of the crime, in particular where it involves sexual violence, gender violence or violence against children. \u27 The Rome Statute also provides that States Parties, which are responsible for nominating and electing the Court\u27s judges, must take into account the need to include judges with legal expertise on specific issues, including, but not limited to, violence against women or children. Similarly, the Prosecutor and the Registrar are to consider the importance of legal expertise on violence against women in hiring staff within their respective organs. At the same time, the Prosecutor must appoint advisers with legal expertise on specific issues, including.., sexual and gender violence, 4 while the Victims and Witnesses Unit must include staff with expertise in trauma related to crimes of sexual violence. Finally, in determining appropriate protective measures for victims and witnesses, the Court as a whole is required to take into account such factors as gender and the nature of the crime, in particular, but not limited to, where the crime involves sexual or gender violence or violence against children. , These provisions, along with the enumeration in the Rome Statute of a broad range of sexual violence and gender-based crimes as war crimes and crimes against humanity, have been described as a response to decades of inadequate investigation and prosecution of rape and other forms of sexual violence at the international level. With respect to the structural provisions cited above in particular, one account of the Rome Statute negotiations includes the following observation: The experience of the [International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda], as well as the post-Second World War prosecutions under control Council Law No. 10, suggested that [the effective investigation, prosecution, and trial by the Court of sexual and gender violence crimes] would not necessarily flow automatically from the inclusion of crimes of sexual and gender violence in the Statute. A number of delegations at the PrepCom [(Preparatory Commission)] and at the Diplomatic Conference therefore attached importance to the inclusion of such special structural mechanisms ...