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while, after <strong>the</strong> horrors of <strong>the</strong> 1990s in Europe and Africa, <strong>the</strong>re was hope that ending impunity for <strong>the</strong><br />

worst offenders might curb <strong>the</strong> worst excesses in conflicts. Yet here <strong>the</strong> prospects seem again to be<br />

turning bleak.<br />

Take <strong>the</strong> issue of rape and o<strong>the</strong>r sexual violence in wartime. Although implicitly covered by earlier<br />

prohibitions on inhumane treatment, <strong>the</strong> 1977 Geneva protocols explicitly outlawed rape as a weapon of<br />

war. Building on all this, <strong>the</strong> international tribunal for Rwanda, set up to bring <strong>the</strong> perpetrators of genocide<br />

to justice, was <strong>the</strong> first to prosecute wide-scale sexual violence as attempted genocide. A UN-backed<br />

tribunal for former Yugoslavia took harrowing testimony from Bosnia’s many victims and convicted some<br />

of <strong>the</strong>ir tormentors. The court for Sierra Leone extended <strong>the</strong> arm of law to cover forced marriage, a<br />

feature of o<strong>the</strong>r conflicts too, whereby young women are given as “wives” to rebel fighters. Likewise <strong>the</strong><br />

International Criminal Court (ICC), <strong>the</strong> world’s first permanent war-crimes court, established at The Hague<br />

in 2002, included sexual violence in its early indictments.<br />

Yet <strong>the</strong> prospect of being held to account has so far proved less of a deterrent than was hoped. If<br />

anything <strong>the</strong> use of rape as a weapon of war is on <strong>the</strong> increase.<br />

Although Islam condemns rape, it has been used by Arab janjaweed<br />

militias against black fellow Muslims in Sudan’s Darfur region on a scale<br />

that has been likened to genocide. The UN secretary-general, Ban Kimoon,<br />

recently said he was “haunted” by <strong>the</strong> scale and depravity of<br />

sexual violence in places like Congo, committed by both rebel and<br />

government forces. Some 16,000 new cases of sexual violence, 65% of<br />

<strong>the</strong>m involving children, were registered in Congo in 2008, said Susan<br />

Rice, America’s UN ambassador, quoting figures from <strong>the</strong> UN Population<br />

Fund in a recent Security Council debate. Experience in <strong>the</strong> field<br />

suggests that, as a rule of thumb in <strong>the</strong>se conflict zones, <strong>the</strong> number of<br />

actual cases is probably ten to 20 times greater than <strong>the</strong> number<br />

reported.<br />

AP<br />

In a report to <strong>the</strong> council this month, Mr Ban’s list of conflicts where<br />

rape has been widespread ran from Chad and <strong>the</strong> Central African<br />

Republic to Afghanistan under <strong>the</strong> Taliban, Myanmar and Nepal. But it is<br />

not just <strong>the</strong> numbers that are depressing.<br />

Some of <strong>the</strong> countries that signed up to <strong>the</strong> ICC appear to be<br />

Bosnia, where treaties didn’t help<br />

experiencing buyers’ remorse. The African Union (AU) was <strong>the</strong> first<br />

regional organisation to talk of moving from non-interference (<strong>the</strong> claim that governments can do what<br />

<strong>the</strong>y like within <strong>the</strong>ir own borders) to non-indifference to such crimes. African governments make up<br />

about a third of those that have ratified <strong>the</strong> ICC’s Rome statutes, which oblige <strong>the</strong>m to help <strong>the</strong> court<br />

track down those it has charged. Yet a recent AU summit voted to end co-operation with <strong>the</strong> court over its<br />

indictment of Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur (a<br />

charge of genocide was dropped until ICC pre-trial judges can be sure <strong>the</strong> evidence warrants it).<br />

The AU vote has been deplored by a number of African governments and by a long list of African humanrights<br />

groups. Critics of <strong>the</strong> court argue it is biased: all four cases it has taken on so far are from Africa.<br />

But of <strong>the</strong> four, three were referred by <strong>the</strong> governments <strong>the</strong>mselves (Uganda, Chad and <strong>the</strong> Central<br />

African Republic), and <strong>the</strong> fourth, Sudan, was referred by <strong>the</strong> Security Council.<br />

The backlash against <strong>the</strong> court is unlikely to help <strong>the</strong> battle to end impunity. Nor will <strong>the</strong> antics of <strong>the</strong> 47-<br />

member UN Human Rights Council (an inter-governmental body also based in Geneva that is none<strong>the</strong>less<br />

separate from <strong>the</strong> office headed by <strong>the</strong> UN’s commissioner for human rights). Earlier this year a majority<br />

on <strong>the</strong> council gave Sri Lanka a pat on <strong>the</strong> back despite appalling loss of life among civilians caught up in<br />

<strong>the</strong> defeat of <strong>the</strong> Tamil Tigers. Not long before, it had lambasted Israel for its war in Gaza, mandating a<br />

fact-finding commission to look into what it said were Israel’s “war crimes”, while saying nothing at all<br />

about <strong>the</strong> actions of Hamas. The mission, led by Richard Goldstone, a prominent international lawyer, who<br />

reportedly sees his mandate in a less one-sided fashion, is due to report in September.<br />

Meanwhile asking <strong>the</strong> ICC to take on o<strong>the</strong>r international crimes, such as terrorism and piracy, looks a nonstarter.<br />

There is no agreed definition of terrorism beyond <strong>the</strong> “we know it when we see it” rule that lets<br />

one man’s terrorist off <strong>the</strong> hook as ano<strong>the</strong>r’s freedom-fighter. In any case, <strong>the</strong> ICC has yet to pin down<br />

<strong>the</strong> fourth crime mentioned in its statute alongside war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide:<br />

<strong>the</strong> crime of “aggression”.<br />

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