The United Nations Responses to the Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Women and Girls by Peacekeepers during Peacekeeping Missions
![handle is hein.journals/berkjintlw27 and id is 129 raw text is:
The United Nations Responses To The
Sexual Abuse And Exploitation Of Women
And Girls By Peacekeepers During
Peacekeeping Missions
Muna Ndulo *
International law concerning sexual violence has developed dramatically
during the past 50 years. Within the field of international criminal law, there has
been a transformation from the Nuremberg Tribunal's failure to acknowledge
crimes of a sexual nature to the specific definitions of sexual crimes in the text
of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC)1 and in the juris-
prudence of both the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY)2 and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).3 Carla
Del Ponte, prosecutor of the Yugoslav tribunal, observed that when the [Yugo-
slav] tribunal closes its doors, part of its legacy will be the condemnation of
sexual violence against women during times of conflict.4 Set against the his-
torical silence surrounding war-time sexual violence, the progress achieved over
* LL.B. (University of Zambia), LL.M. (Harvard Law School), D. Phil. (Trinity College,
Oxford University), Professor of Law, Cornell University Law School, and Director, Cornell Uni-
versity's Institute for African Development.
I. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, art. 7(l)(g), July 17, 1998, 2187
U.N.T.S. 3. Article 7 provides the following elements for crime against humanity of sexual violence:
(1) the perpetrator committed an act of a sexual nature against one or more persons or caused such
person or persons to engage in an act of a sexual nature by force, or by threat of force or coercion,
such as that caused by fear of violence, duress, detention, psychological oppression or abuse of
power, against such person or persons or another person, or by taking advantage of a coercive envi-
ronment or such person's or persons' incapacity to give genuine consent; (2) such conduct was of a
gravity comparable to other offences in art. 7(l)(g); (3) the perpetrator was aware of the factual cir-
cumstances that established the gravity of the conduct; (4) the conduct was committed as part of a
widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population; and (5) the perpetrator knew
that the conduct was part of or intended the conduct to be part of a widespread or systematic attack
directed against a civilian population. Id. at art. 7.
2. Prosecutor v. Tadic, Case No. IT-94-1-T, Sentencing Judgment (July 14, 1997).
3. Prosecutor v. Akayesu, Case No. ICTR-96-4-T, Judgment, (Sept. 2, 1998).
4. Press Release, U.N., Violence Against Women Deserves Deadly Serious Consideration,
Secretary-General Says at Special Event to Observe International Women's Day, U.N. Doc.
OBV/609-WOM/1619 (Mar. 8, 2007).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/berkjintlw27&div=8&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most