Rape is one of the most severe human rights violations. This crime has devastating consequences for its victims; in fact, it causes long-term, often life-long psychological suffering and distress to those who suffer it. Unfortunately, reality shows how this horrendous act is often used as a weapon of war.
Today’s conflicts, in fact, most often target civilians, causing them the most severe physical and psychological suffering. Rape is used systematically and strategically by armed actors involved in war. This despicable act is used with the intent to humiliate and dominate the enemy population, instilling fear and causing further damage and inconvenience in addition to those already caused by the war itself. In many armed conflicts, both non-international and international, rape is precisely used by belligerents as a means of warfare in a systematic and deliberate manner. Clearly, any act of deliberate violence during an armed conflict and, therefore, also rape and sexual violence more generally, is a direct and significant violation of international humanitarian law; in particular, it is ascribable as a crime against humanity as well as a war crime. In addition to the psychological consequences, there are also the physical and social ones: the former may result in forced pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases that, as one can imagine, are closely connected with the latter; as a matter of facts, social consequences often result in marginalization from society and stigma.
It is clear that the codifications of International Law that strictly prohibit these practices, especially the Conventions of International Humanitarian Law, are not sufficient to prevent the perpetrators of such atrocities from carrying them out. Not only are such crimes still committed, but the perpetrators, precisely in order to not incur sanctioning and stinging consequences (such as the intervention of a court, hopefully the International Criminal Court), are inclined to cover up their misdeeds.
It is therefore appropriate and necessary for the international community to work towards the adoption of more imperative punitive norms of such acts, which would actually be able to exert a deterrent effect against the perpetration of rape and other sexual violence.
As a matter of facts, rape and other sexual violence-related crimes are not inevitable. This affirmation seems somehow unrealistic; however, there are actions that must be implemented in order to let perpetrators be aware of how devastating the consequences of such brutal acts are on their victims.
First and foremost, it is mandatory to end the culture of impunity, allowing legislation to be drafted and pressure to be levied on commanders to control their troops. Moreover, in order to intervene in convincing effectively armed actors to not perform brutal acts as sexual violence, it is necessary to understand the inside dynamics of armed groups. As with any sexualized form of violence, it is crucial not simply to focus solely on the survivor’s perspective, but also to direct the focus on the perpetrators’ perspective. This is of particular importance when discussing rape, where the use of the passive voice is often used as “a woman was raped”, rather than “he raped her”. Moreover, it is mandatory to convince victims that any sexual abuse must be reported to competent authorities as this is the only manner to prosecute those responsible. However, most importantly, it is the justice system that needs to be changed in that sex-related crimes often remain unpunished. If it is classified as an international crime, it has to be prosecuted at that level of justice.
The problem, however, is that the institution competent to judge such crimes, namely the aforementioned International Criminal Court, is often prevented from fulfilling its mandate, which is to judge the perpetrators of the most brutal crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and acts of aggression and, thus, do justice for the victims. This is because the rare times the Court manages to intervene, such intervention against the perpetrators of rape and other sexual violence encounters significant obstacles. As a matter of facts, wrongdoers are often difficult to capture given the often-occurring non-cooperation of the State in which such brutalities take place. Hence, in order to make this mechanism more effective, in addition to internal reforms that are necessary to implement within the Court, action should be taken not only with more efficient tools aimed at capturing the perpetrators of the mentioned atrocities, but above all with early-warning mechanisms, who could prove masterful in averting sexual exploitation crimes or at least mitigate their recurrence with a deterrent effect. This mechanism must also serve to tranquilize victims that no more harm will be done to them if they choose to report to competent authorities the violence they have suffered.
It appears unrealistic to hope that preventing rape as a weapon of war will be possible; however, with adequate and constant commitment, especially concerning judicial reforms and related frame of intervention, at least justice to the victims can be delivered properly.
By The European Institute for International Law and International Relations.
