Security Council Resolution 1820: An Imperfect but Necessary Resolution to Protect Civilians from Rape in War Zones
![handle is hein.journals/cardw16 and id is 497 raw text is: SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION 1820: AN
IMPERFECT BUT NECESSARY RESOLUTION TO
PROTECT CIVILIANS FROM RAPE IN WAR ZONES
MELISSA GOLDENBERG GOLDSTOFF*
I. INTRODUCTION
Rape and war have been synonymous for thousands of years. The
traditionally held notion was that the captured territory, and all of its possessions,
belonged to the captors.1 Therefore, the women captured during wartime became
the property of the captors and were often subjects of horrific rape. As one author
reported:
[r]ape was a weapon of terror as the German Hun marched through
Belgium in World War I; gang rape was part of the orchestrated riots of
Kristallnacht which marked the beginning of Nazi campaigns against the
Jews. It was a weapon of revenge as the Russian Army marched to Berlin
in World War II, it was used when the Japanese raped Chinese women in
the city of Nanking, when the Pakistani Army battled Bangladesh, and
when the American G.I.s made rape in Vietnam a 'standard operating
procedure aimed at terrorizing the population into submission.'2
Fortunately, women's rights and protections during wartime have
significantly expanded over the last two decades, although wartime rape still occurs
frequently. Human rights groups have estimated that hundreds of thousands of
women have been raped in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since
fighting began in 1998.3 Many of the victims are left mutilated, infected with HIV,
* J.D. Candidate, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, 2010; B.A., Columbia College, 2007. This Note
is dedicated to my parents and grandparents, who have supported and encouraged me throughout all of
my endeavors, and to my husband Jason and son Samuel, whose patience, love and kindness inspire me
daily. I would also like to give a special thanks to Dr. Lucille Roussin for her feedback and
encouragement throughout the writing process.
I Francis Lieber, Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field, Art.
45, in THE LAWS OF ARMED CONFLICTS: A COLLECTION OF CONVENTIONS, RESOLUTIONS AND OTHER
DOCUMENTS 9 (Dietrich Schindler & Jiri Toman eds., 3d rev. ed. 2004) [hereinafter The Lieber Code].
2 Maria B. Olujic, Women, Rape, and War: The Continued Trauma of Refugees and Displaced
Persons in Croatia, 13 ANTHROPOLOGY E. EUR. REv. 1 (1995), available at
http://condor.depaul.edu/-rrotenbe/aeer/aeer13_1/Olujic.html.
3 Anna Husarska, Congo 's Sex Crimes Rage On, GUARDIAN WKLY., Mar. 27, 2008, available at
http://www.guardianweekl.co.uk/?pageeditorial&id=545&catlD=2.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/cardw16&div=23&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Security Council Resolution 1820: An Imperfect but Necessary Resolution to Protect Civilians from Rape in War Zones
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