Askin, Kelly D. --- "Crimes against women under international criminal alw" [2011] ELECD 97; in Brown, S. Bartram (ed), "Research Handbook on International Criminal Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Research Handbook on International Criminal Law

Editor(s): Brown, S. Bartram

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847202789

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: Crimes against women under international criminal alw

Author(s): Askin, Kelly D.

Number of pages: 52

Extract:

5 Crimes against women under international criminal
law
Kelly D. Askin



Since time immemorial, women have endured a number of abuses, particularly ones of a
sexual nature, committed exclusively or disproportionately against them because of their
gender. Over the centuries, women and girls have been treated as subservient to men, for it
was they who ruled the world. Women's primary purposes were to serve man, bring him plea-
sure, bear him children, and take care of his children and household. That custom and attitude
remains in some parts of the world, but in the twenty-first century, much of the globe now
recognizes, at least in law, equality between men and women, notwithstanding some physi-
cal and anatomical differences between these two sexes.
As women have struggled for equality and autonomy domestically, they have also strug-
gled internationally. Ironically, it has been in international courts where women have made
the greatest progress in both clarifying international laws and in redressing international
crimes.
The past 16 years in particular have witnessed unprecedented advancement in ending
impunity for some of the most serious international crimes, such as war crimes, crimes
against humanity and genocide. This improvement has been achieved through criminal trials
of individuals by international or hybrid (mixed international and domestic) courts seated in
Europe, Africa and Asia. In these courts, enormous ­ yet nonetheless grossly insufficient ­
progress has been made in holding some political and military leaders and others accountable
for sex crimes. The prosecution of gender-related crimes (crimes ...