The Fight Against Impunity: A Content Analysis of the Sexual Violence Cases of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

• In Event: Posters I

Abstract

Sexual violence in war is a pressing global issue that was traditionally treated by the international community as an unfortunate and inevitable part of war. Victims were silenced and ignored while their perpetrators enjoyed a culture of impunity. The conflicts in the former Yugoslavia during the early 1990s publicized the issue and the international community was urged to take action. This content analysis explores the judgement summaries of the 30 individuals convicted for crimes of sexual violence by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in order to generally understand why and how sexual violence was used during the conflicts. It was discovered that the bulk of sexual violence cases involved crimes committed during the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995. Furthermore, the majority of those convicted were high ranking military personnel of Serb origin who targeted Muslim and Croatian origin civilians, predominately women. Sexual violence took on various forms in the judgements as a war crime, a crime against humanity and rape as torture. The atrocities that were committed were linked to the genocidal campaign to ultimately destroy the Muslim and Croatian population in order to create a united Serb nation.

Author

• Sara Dejaeger, Simon Fraser University