THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT’S EXPERIENCE IN PROSECUTING SEXUAL AND GENDER-BASED CRIMES COMMITTED DURING ARMED CONFLICTS
Many feminist activists and NGO’s who fought to have crimes relating to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) committed in armed conflict situations recognized in their own right, welcomed their inclusion in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Unfortunately, getting a conviction for these crimes came with their own difficulties, as illustrated by the first few cases tried before the ICC. In highlighting these difficulties two cases are considered – The Prosecutor v Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui’s where SGBV was evident but not successfully prosecuted and The Prosecutor v Jean-Pierre Bemba case, the landmark ruling where the ICC successfully prosecuted crimes of SGBV, which the Appeals Chamber overturned. This article concludes that these crimes are still one of the most difficult ones to obtain a conviction for.