Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

International Criminal Law as a Site for Enhancing Women’s Rights? Challenges, Possibilities, Strategies

  • Published:
Feminist Legal Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Many scholars and activists have argued that the International Criminal Court (ICC) holds potential for advancing the rights of women and girls, leading to extensive feminist engagement with and investment in the Court. As the ICC enters its second decade of existence, this article offers a reflection on both the possibilities and the challenges facing feminists. Can the international criminal law really offer a site for enhancing the rights of women? And if so, how? To explore these questions I focus on the interaction between feminist activism and international criminal law institutions in relation to crimes of sexual and gender-based violence. I argue that some of the feminist strategies deployed to get sexual violence onto the international agenda have resulted in perverse outcomes. This should lead us to greater critical reflection regarding how international law conceives of sexual violence and direct our future engagements with international legal institutions. In particular feminist activists and scholars need to move away from focusing on the number of prosecutions towards challenging the international criminal law to characterise the nature of the harm in accordance with a recognition of sexual rights.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. In using the term ‘feminist’ I recognize that this is an umbrella, which covers a very diverse and sometimes conflicting range of social, ideological and political positions. In the context of this article I use the term to describe the various coalitions of activists and scholars who have identified as representing a ‘feminist’ position in relation to ICL. These include such groups as the Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice (now the Women’s Initiative), the Coalition for Women’s Human Rights in Conflict Situations, the Special Rapporteurs on Violence Against Women and Systematic Rape, Sexual Slavery and Slavery-like Practices, as well as individual feminist legal scholars, including myself.

  2. For a full discussion of the relevant jurisprudence see Grewal (2012a).

  3. For more detailed discussion of this issue see Grewal (2010, 2012a).

  4. For further development of this argument see Grewal (2010).

  5. While both Binaifer Nowrojee and Valerie Oosterveld express concern about the possible risks associated with reinforcing patriarchal gender stereotypes around marriage (Nowrojee 2005, 102; Oosterveld 2009, 87), they are nonetheless positive about the decision by the SCSL to continue with the prosecution.

  6. Prosecutor v Issa Hassan Sesay, Morris Kallon and Augustine Gbao, SCSL-04-15-T (the RUF case); Prosecutor v Alex Tamba Brima, Ibrahim Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu, SCSL 04-16-T (the AFRC case); Prosecutor v Charles Ghankay Taylor, SCSL 03-01-T (the Taylor case). Available at: http://www.scsldocs.org/documents. Accessed 1 June 2015.

  7. Her Honour is a member of the Commonwealth Reference Group for the Promotion of the Rights of Women and the Girl Child and has worked actively on promoting women’s rights in her judicial capacity in Papua New Guinea.

  8. AFRC case, SCSL-04-16-T, Partly Dissenting Opinion of Justice Doherty on Count 7 (Sexual Slavery) and Count 8 (Forced Marriage), 20 June 2007, para. 49. Available at: http://www.scsldocs.org/documents/view/5315-5315. Accessed 1 June 2015.

  9. For more on this see Grewal (2016).

  10. Prosecutor v Lubanga, ICC-01/04-01/06, judgment, 14 March 2012, para. 36. Available at: http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/doc/doc1379838.pdf. Accessed 1 June 2015.

  11. Prosecutor v Lubanga, ICC-01/04-01/06, Separate and dissenting opinion of Judge Odio Benito, 14 March 2012, para. 21. Available at: http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/doc/doc1379838.pdf. Accessed 1 June 2015.

  12. Prosecutor v Muthaura, Kenyatta and Hussein Ali, ICC-01/09-02/11, Decision on the Confirmation of Charges, Pre-Trial Chamber II, 23 January 2012, para. 266. Available at: http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/doc/doc1314543.pdf. Accessed 1 June 2015.

  13. Para. 265.

  14. I acknowledge that this is but one strategy amongst a vast array of activities engaged in by the Women’s Caucus/Initiative. It is beyond the scope of this article to conduct a thorough analysis of the other activities of the organization and I limit my critique accordingly.

  15. For example Kiggundu (2007) describes the ways in which women’s rights activists in Uganda have been using the ICC prosecutions as a means of introducing debate regarding the inadequacies of domestic responses to sexual violence. A similar process was initiated in Sierra Leone, which led to the passing of what are now known as the ‘Gender Acts’: The Domestic Violence Act, The Devolution of Estates Act and The Registration of Customary Marriage and Divorce Act in 2007 and The Sexual Offences Act in 2012.

  16. Apart from the now well-known Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000), there have been a suite of Resolutions focused on women, girls and sexual violence in armed conflict: Security Council Resolution 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009) and 1960 (2010).

  17. Prosecutor v Kunarac, IT-96-23-T and IT-96-23/1-T, Feb. 22, 2001. Available at: http://www.icty.org/case/kunarac/4. Accessed 1 June 2015.

  18. And indeed this is the position Amnesty International (2011) has taken in a recent report.

References

  • Amnesty International. 2005. Stop violence against women: How to use international criminal law to campaign for gender-sensitive law reform. AI index: IOR 40/007/2005, London, UK: Amnesty International and publication.

  • Amnesty International. 2011. Rape and sexual violence: Human rights law and standards in the International Criminal Court. AI index: IOR 53/001/2011, London, UK: Amnesty International and publication.

  • Askin, Kelly Dawn. 2003. Prosecuting wartime rape and other gender-related crimes under international law: Extraordinary advances, enduring obstacles. Berkeley Journal of International Law 21(2): 288–349.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bélair, Karine. 2006. Unearthing the customary law foundations of ‘forced marriages’ during Sierra Leone’s civil war: The possible impact of international criminal law on customary marriage and women’s rights in post-conflict Sierra Leone. Columbia Journal of Gender and Law 15(3): 551–607.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buss, Doris. 2009. Rethinking ‘rape as a weapon of war’. Feminist Legal Studies 17: 145–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chappell, Louise. 2014. Conflict institutions and the search for gender justice at the International Criminal Court. Political Research Quarterly 67(1): 183–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cole, Alison. 2008. Prosecutor v Gacumbitsi: The new definition for prosecuting rape under international law. International Criminal Law Review 8: 55–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coomaraswamy, Radhika. 1996. Report of the special rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, submitted in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 1995/85. UN document E/CN.4/1996/53, 5.

  • Copelon, Rhonda. 2000. Gender crimes as war crimes: Integrating crimes against women into international criminal law. McGill Law Journal 46: 217–240.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coulter, Chris. 2009. Bush wives and girl soldiers: Women’s lives through war and peace in Sierra Leone. New York: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eaton, Shana. 2004. Sierra Leone: The proving ground for prosecuting rape as a war crime. Georgetown Journal of International Law 35(4): 873–919.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engle, Karen. 2005. Feminism and its (dis)contents: Criminalizing wartime rape in Bosnia and Herzegovina. American Journal of International Law 99: 778–816.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Engle, Karen, and Annelies Lottmann. 2010. The force of shame. In Rethinking rape law: International and comparative perspectives, ed. Clare McGlynn and Vanessa Munro, 76–91. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frulli, Micaela. 2008. Advancing international criminal law: The special court for Sierra leone recognizes forced marriage as a ‘new’ crime against humanity. Journal of International Criminal Justice 6: 1033–1042.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grewal, Kiran. 2010. Rape in conflict, rape in peace: Questioning the revolutionary potential of international criminal justice for women’s human rights. The Australian Feminist Law Journal 33: 57–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grewal, Kiran. 2012a. The protection of sexual autonomy under international criminal law: The International Criminal Court and the challenge of defining rape. Journal of International Criminal Justice 10(2): 373–396.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grewal, Kiran. 2012b. International criminal justice: Advancing the cause of women’s rights? The example of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. In Conflict-related sexual violence: International law, local responses, ed. Tonia St. Germain and Susan Dewey, 71–87. Sterling, VA: Kumarian Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grewal, Kiran. Forthcoming 2016. The socio-political practice of human rights. Surrey: Ashgate.

  • Halley, Janet. 2008. Rape at Rome: Feminist interventions in the criminalization of sex-related violence in positive international criminal law. Michigan Journal of International Law 30(1): 1–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapur, Ratna. 2005. Erotic justice: Law and the new politics of postcolonialism. London and Portland, OR: Glass House Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kapur, Ratna. 2006. Normalizing violence: Transitional justice and the Gujarat riots. Columbia Journal of Gender and Law 15(3): 885–927.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kendall, Sara, and Michelle Staggs. 2005. Silencing sexual violence: Recent developments in the CDF case at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Berkeley, California: UC Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center. http://wcsc.berkeley.edu/sierra-leone/thematic-reports/. Accessed 1 March 2013.

  • Kiggundu, Jacqueline. 2007. How can the International Criminal Court influence national discourse on sexual violence? Early Intimations from Uganda. Eyes on the ICC 4: 45–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kinsella, Helen. 2006. Gendering grotius: Sex and sex difference in the laws of war. Political Theory 34(2): 161–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kouvo, Sari, and Zoe Pearson (eds.). 2011. Feminist perspectives on contemporary international law: Between resistance and compliance? Oxford and Portland, OR: Hart.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuo, Peggy. 2002. Prosecuting crimes of sexual violence in an international tribunal. Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 34(3): 305–322.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald, Alice. 2008. ‘New wars: Forgotten warriors’: Why have girl fighters been excluded from western representations of conflict in Sierra Leone? Africa Development XXXIII(3): 135–145.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacKinnon, Catharine A. 1987. Feminism unmodified: Discourses on life and law. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacKinnon, Catharine A. 2006. Are women human? And other international dialogues. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manjoo, Rashida. 2011. Report of the special rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences. UN document A/66/215.

  • Marcus, Sharon. 1992. Fighting bodies, fighting words: A theory and politics of rape prevention. In Feminists theorize the political, ed. Joan Scott and Judith Butler, 166–185. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKay, Susan. 2004. Reconstructing fragile lives: Girls’ social reintegration in northern Uganda and Sierra Leone. Gender and Development 12(3): 19–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mibenge, Chiseche. 2010. Investigating outcomes of a limited gender analysis of enslavement in post-conflict justice processes. Journal of Peacebuilding and Development 5(3): 34–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mohanty, Chandra. 1988. Under western eyes: Feminist scholarship and colonial discourses. Feminist Review 30(Autumn): 61–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nesiah, Vasuki. 2011. Missionary zeal for secular mission: Bringing gender to transitional justice and redemption to feminism. In Feminist perspectives on contemporary international law: Between resistance and compliance?, ed. Sari Kouvo and Zoe Pearson, 137–157. Oxford and Portland, OR: Hart.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowrojee, Binaifer. 2005. Making the invisible war crime visible: Post-conflict justice for Sierra Leone’s rape victims. Harvard Human Rights Journal 18(1): 85–105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oosterveld, Valerie. 2009. The Special Court for Sierra Leone’s consideration of gender-based violence: Contributing to transitional justice? Human Rights Review 10(1): 73–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Otto, Dianne. 1999. Sexualities and solidarities: Some thoughts on coalitional strategies in the context of international law. Australasian Gay and Lesbian Law Journal 8: 27–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petchesky, Rosalind P. 2000. Sexual rights: Inventing a concept, mapping an international practice. In Framing the sexual subject: The politics of gender, sexuality and power, ed. Richard Guy Parker, Regina Maria Barbosa and Peter Aggleton, 81–103. Berkeley, LA and London: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petchesky, Rosalind P. 2005. Rights of the body and perversions of war: Sexual rights and wrongs ten years past Beijing. International Social Science Journal 57(184): 301–318.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peters, Jane, and Andrea Wolper (eds.). 1995. Women’s rights, human rights: International feminist perspectives. New York, London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rajagopal, Balakrishnan. 2002. International law and social movements: Challenges of theorizing resistance. Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 41: 397–433.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scharf, Michael and Suzanne Mattler. 2005. Forced marriage: Exploring the viability of the Special Court for Sierra Leone’s new crime against humanity. In African perspectives on international criminal justice, ed. Evelyn Ankumah, Edward Kwakwa and Africa Legal Aid, 77–102. The Hague, Accra, Pretoria: Africa Legal Aid Special Book Series.

  • Shepherd, Laura. 2006. Veiled references: Constructions of gender in the Bush administration discourse on the attacks on Afghanistan post 9/11. International Journal of Feminist Politics 8(1): 19–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shepherd, Laura. 2008. Gender, violence and security. London, New York: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharratt, Sara. 2011. Gender, shame and sexual violence: The voices of witnesses and court members at war crimes tribunals. Farnham Surrey, Burlington, VT: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vance, Carole (ed.). 1984. Pleasure and danger: Exploring female sexuality, 1st ed. Boston and London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

  • William, Schomburg, and Ines Peterson. 2007. Genuine consent to sexual violence under international criminal law. American Journal of International Law 101(1): 121–140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice. 1999. Recommendations and commentary for the elements annex: Submitted to the July 26–August 13 1999 Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court. http://www.iccwomen.org/wigjdraft1/Archives/oldWCGJ/icc/iccpc/071999pc/elements.htm. Accessed 25 February 2013.

  • Young, Iris Marion. 2003. The logic of masculinist protection: Reflections on the current security state. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 29(1): 1–25.

  • Yuval-Davis, Nira. 1997. Gender & nation. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Social Justice, Australian Catholic University, Tenison Woods House, 8-20 Napier Street, North Sydney, NSW, 2060, Australia

    Kiran Kaur Grewal

Authors
  1. Kiran Kaur Grewal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kiran Kaur Grewal.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Grewal, K.K. International Criminal Law as a Site for Enhancing Women’s Rights? Challenges, Possibilities, Strategies. Fem Leg Stud 23, 149–165 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-015-9286-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-015-9286-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation