Conflict-related male sexual violence and the international criminal jurisprudence

Abstract

This chapter provides a survey of the legally significant, yet insufficient and unevenly developed conflict-related male sexual violence (CRMSV) jurisprudence rendered by the modern international courts. It offers a brief historical overview of CRMSV adjudicated in the aftermath of World War II. The chapter explores the irregular and varying CRMSV jurisprudence handed down by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Special Court for Sierra Leone, Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), and the International Criminal Court. The attention to CRMSV builds on the pursuit of surfacing rapes and other CRFSV, which has established an extensive body of international criminal jurisprudence that condemns female rapes as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. CRMSV has confronted many biases and taboos since the modern re-emergence of the adjudication of sexual violence under international humanitarian and international criminal law. A principally feminist approach to CRFSV led to piecemeal international jurisprudence for CRMSV.