• WHO Ethical and safety recommendations for researching, documenting and monitoring sexual violence in emergencies
  2007



• Nairobi Declaration on Women's and Girls' Right to a Remedy and Reparation
  March 2007
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• Joint Letter on scope of charges against Mr. Thomas Lubanga (the first indictee at the Court, from DRC)
  August 2006



• Women, Peace and Security - Study submitted by the Secretary-General pursuant to Security Council resolution 1325 (2000)
  2002

The assumptions of male and female roles are of particular concern in the context of mass crimes and our responses to such crimes. The experience of women and girls in times of conflict is inextricably tied to pre-existing societal inequities; their positioning in society means that conflict and crimes will have a differentiated impact on their lives and on the process of recovery.

Woman and girls continue to face unimaginable brutality in conflict situations, which is often gender-based. Systematic rape, sexual slavery and the mutilation of reproductive organs are commonly used as weapons of war.

While women and girls face devastating crimes of sexual violence during conflict, such crimes have not been prosecuted as vigorously as gender-neutral crimes in international criminal bodies. There are numerous causes for the unequal attention given to crimes of sexual violence, which mirror the unequal treatment of sexual violence cases at a domestic level more generally. The causes include:

· lack of specialised investigative and prosecutorial staff;

· perceived difficulties in proving links between sexual violence and command responsibility;

· legitimate fears of testimony on behalf of witnesses for psychosocial or security reasons;

· social stigma making victims of sexual violence less visible (to investigators / human rights reporters). E.g. attention is given to the recruitment and use of child soldiers without specifically addressing the harm suffered by girls associated with armed conflict.

In order to surmount these difficulties and bring sensitive prosecutions for widespread and systematic rape, sexual slavery, mutilations and other forms of sexual violence, the Prosecutor will have to pro-actively recruit specialized staff, put in place effective protective mechanisms for witnesses, and ensure concerted efforts to pursue crimes of sexual violence.

The Court’s treatment of victims of sexual violence

Experience from the ad hoc Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, as well as the Special Court for Sierra Leone indicate that in addition to special attention needed to ensure prosecutions, special attention is also required to protect the physical and psychological wellbeing of victims. The Prosecutor will need to ensure that vulnerable witnesses are adequately prepared for the adversarial process, and the Trial Chambers will need to review rules and procedures during Trial to ensure that unnecessary and harmful lines of questioning are avoided. Questions of medical assistance to witnesses will also need to be addressed as rape victims may have HIV/AIDS or other critical conditions. If the accused is provided with excellent health care in the custody of the Court, rape victims will not understand why they, as the victim, should not be receiving equal treatment.

Resources:

Womens Initiative for Gender Justice:

Gender and the Rome Statute
Gender Justice for Women in Conflicts (pdf)
What happened to the Women? Gender and Reparations for Human Rights Violations, Edited by Ruth Rubio-Marín. December 2006
Coalition for Women’s Human Rights in Conflict Situations
Silencing Sexual Violence: Recent Developments in the CDF Case at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, December 2005