Gender crimes and the international criminal court

Abstract

This work examined the development of gender crimes within the field of International Law from the 1800s and the Lieber Code, to more recent developments, such as the ad hoc tribunals in The Hague and Arusha, and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. A detailed analysis of the statutes, and the indictments and convictions of the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was carried out, to determine whether these reflected the incidence of widespread rape and sexual violence that occurred in both Rwanda and Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The judgements that are considered to be landmark cases in the area of gender crimes, such as Akayesu, Musema and Muhimana at the ICTR, and Celebici, Furundzija and Kunarac at the ICTY, were examined in further detail in order to analyse the development of the case law of the two tribunals. In terms of the International Criminal Court, the negotiations leading up to the ratification of the Rome Statute were analysed, in terms of the lobbying for an 'engendered' statue and the discussions leading up to a definition of 'gender'. Finally, specific articles within the ICC Statute, as well as, the indictments, practices, and on-going trials, were examined in detail to determine whether these reflect the development in the case law of both the ICTR and ICTY, or whether this has been a step backwards for the prosecution of gender crimes. This thesis concludes with a brief summary of the current status of gender crimes prosecution.