Rape as a war crime

A critical perspective on international responses after the war in Yugoslavia and Rwanda

Abstract

This term paper seeks to analyse the use of rape as a war crime and its status in international law today almost ten years after the wars in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. It also looks at the role of the United Nations(UN) and the special responsibility of peace workers. The paper tries to sort out which challenges the international community still has to cope with. My thesis is that with the policy of the International Criminal Tribunals ICTY and ICTR2 and the new Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) important improvements concerning the real acknowledgement of rape as a war crime have evolved. But on the other side, I also want to argue, that to identify the strategic or systematic use of rape for political reasons as the sole or even major cause for the abuse of women during wartime is simplistic and risks to suppress that women during wartime very often are raped or sexually abused not only by “their ethnic, national or religious enemies”, but also by men of their “own side” or even by UN soldiers or aid workers whose original task is to help and protect them.