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(WOMENSENEWS)--Near the border town of Zur in
Kosovo, a 30-year-old mother fleeing the violence of anti-Albanian
ethnic cleansing with her mother and children in June 1999 was
ordered by a Serbian paramilitary officer to get off the tractor on
which the family was traveling.
"His pants were already open . . . He tore off my
bra. I started screaming and crying," the woman told an investigator
from Human Rights Watch. Seeing that she was menstruating, "he
turned me around, trying me on the other side. I contracted myself
very tightly and he didn't succeed. He may have ejaculated. I don't
know."
Women across the globe facing similar
violent offenses in the future will have a place to seek justice:
the International Criminal Court. At a United Nations ceremony on
April 11, the court became a certainty. It will be the first fixed
international institution for securing justice on genocide, war
crimes and crimes against humanity, including sexual and
gender-based violence, such as state-sanctioned beatings of women
who fail to dress in a certain way.
Its jurisdiction applies to cases arising after
July 1.
For women, the court represents a major
breakthrough in the recognition of sexual crimes as severe human
rights abuses.
"This is a milestone for women because women and
children are victims of war," said Vahida Nainar, a board member of
the Women's Caucus for Gender Justice, a global coalition that
provides gender perspectives to international justice planning.
"Women are subject to all kinds of crimes," Nainar
said. "They can see the perpetrator walk down the street after
committing a heinous crime. This will add to the feeling of justice
being done. Women will have a place to go that will be sensitive to
the issue of gender violence."
Court Is a Breakthrough for
Women
The court will be able to prosecute cases of rape,
sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, sexual violence, enforced
prostitution and enforced sterilization, in the context of armed
conflict or as crimes against humanity. The definition and scope of
each of these terms will become clearer as the court issues
rulings.
The court will also approach trafficking of women
and gender-based persecution as crimes against humanity, defined as
acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against
civilians. The court only takes a case when national judicial
systems are unwilling or unable to prosecute the alleged
criminals.
Had such a court been in existence earlier, Afghan
women living under Taliban rule would have had a place to seek
justice. So would the so-called "comfort women" who were forced into
sexual slavery by the Japanese in World War II, Nainar said.
For the first time, women will have a chance "to
tell what was done to them, name the perpetrators and see them
punished," said Dr. Monika Hauser, founder of the German-based
Medica Mondiale, a support center for survivors of war-time sexual
violence.
Women's Caucus Role Was
Crucial
The breadth and specificity of gender crimes in the
court's enabling statutes are directly attributable to a global
caucus of women that formed in 1997 in the face of apathy and active
resistance to prosecuting gender-based crimes.
(...)
For more information:
Coalition for the International Criminal
Court: http://www.iccnow.org
Human Rights Watch, report on Kosovo:
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/kosovo
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