7 Contextualizing Sexual Violence and Linking it to Senior Officials: Modes of Liability

Subject(s):

Right to fair trial — Rape and sexual violence

This chapter continues to explore strategies for contextualizing sexual violence by focusing on choices regarding the mode of liability used to charge sexual violence crimes. In particular, it examines how modes of liability can be used to reflect both connections between sexual violence and the broader context as well as to link sexual violence to senior officials. Additionally, this chapter notes that, given the difficulties associated with prosecuting sexual violence as an international crime, particularly in leadership cases, it is important to plead alternative forms of liability. The practice of alternative and/or cumulative charging is both warranted in law and advisable from a practical perspective.