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Part IV The ICC and its Applicable Law, 32 La Lutte Continue: Investigating and Prosecuting Sexual Violence at the ICC

Niamh Hayes

From: The Law and Practice of the International Criminal Court

Edited By: Carsten Stahn

From: Oxford Public International Law (http://opil.ouplaw.com). (c) Oxford University Press, 2023. All Rights Reserved.date: 05 June 2023

Subject(s):
Rape and sexual violence — Prosecution — Armed conflict, international — Armed conflict, non-international — International criminal law, evidence

Sexual and gender-based violence is one of the intrinsic features of modern conflict. It has been part of mass atrocity crimes in several ICC situations, including the DRC, Uganda, the CAR, and Darfur. The ICC Statute contains the broadest range of sexual and gender-based crimes ever enumerated. It includes rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization, enforced prostitution, and other forms of sexual violence as both crimes against humanity and war crimes, in both international and non-international armed conflict. This chapter critically examines the practice of the OTP over its first decade. It argues that a strong charging record was undermined by deficient evidence and investigation strategies, and recurring difficulties with the mode of liability and conservative interpretations of crimes and legal characterizations by the Pre-Trial Chamber. It further discusses changes brought about by the 2014 OTP Policy Paper on Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes.

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