Gender Report Card on the International Criminal ... - YWCA Canada

OTP Situations and Cases
sovereignty and we will exercise them’. 972 Bani
also stated that the Libyan interim government
fears that Saif Al-Islam will spend the cash and
gold he is alleged to be carrying to fund passage
into exile in a nation that does not recognise
the jurisdiction of the ICC. 973 In his statement
to the Security Council on 2 November 2011,
the Prosecutor noted that, should the Libyan
authorities wish to prosecute Saif Al-Islam or
Al-Senussi for the same crimes as were being
investigated by the ICC, ‘they should submit an
admissibility challenge and it will be for the ICC
Judges to decide’. 974
Rape and other sexual violence allegations
In March 2011, doctors in Libya were reported to
have found Viagra tablets and condoms in the
pockets of soldiers of the Gaddafi Regime. 975 On
26 March 2011, Eman al-Obeidi, a 28-year-old
Libyan postgraduate law student, entered the
restaurant of the Rixos hotel in Tripoli and told
international journalists there that she had been
beaten and gang-raped by fifteen of Colonel
Gaddafi’s militiamen. 976 She was arrested in the
restaurant and detained by the Gaddafi Regime,
and after her release fled to Tunisia in early May
and then to Qatar. The Qatari Government then
deported her to Libya against her will, and in
violation of international law. 977 On 27 July 2011,
she arrived in the USA where she was granted
asylum. 978 Media reports since the incident have
also alleged that mass rape and other forms of
sexual violence have taken place in the context
of the violence in Libya. On 29 April 2011, Susan
Rice, US Ambassador to the UN, claimed at the
UN Security Council that Viagra-type drugs
may have been used for the purpose of mass
rape. 979 International organisations have also
noted unconfirmed reports of widespread
sexual violence. On 23 April 2011, Save the
Children stated that it had received accounts
of allegations of rape and sexual abuse from
200 children and 40 adults who had left areas
of conflict in Libya. The group also claimed that,
although the allegations were consistent in
four different camps, with persons displaying
signs of physical and emotional stress, it has
972 ‘Libya insists Saif al-Islam Gaddafi should be tried at
home’, The Guardian, 29 October 2011, available at
,
last visited on 30 October 2011.
973 ‘Libya insists Saif al-Islam Gaddafi should be tried at
home’, The Guardian, 29 October 2011, available at
,
last visited on 30 October 2011.
974 ‘Statement to the United Nations Security Council
on the Situation in Libya, Pursuant to UNSCR 1970
(2011)’, Prosecutor of the International Criminal
Court, 2 November 2011, paras 19-22, available at
, last visited on 3 November 2011.
975 ‘Gaddafi “supplies troops with Viagra to encourage
mass rape”, claims diplomat’, The Guardian, 29 April
2011, available at ,
last visited on 27 October 2011; ‘Rape used
“as a weapon” in Libya’, Al-Jazeera English, 28 March
2011, available at , last visited
on 27 October 2011.
976 ‘Libyan Woman Struggles to Tell Media of Her Rape’,
The New York Times, 26 March 2011, available at
, last visited on 27
October 2011.
977 ‘Qatar deportation of Eman al-Obeidi violates
international law’, Amnesty International, 3 June 2011,
available at ,
last visited on 27
October 2011.
978 ‘Alleged Libyan rape victim comes to U.S. to stay’, CNN,
29 July 2011, available at , last visited on 27
October 2011.
979 ‘Gaddafi “supplies troops with Viagra to encourage
mass rape”, claims diplomat’, The Guardian, 29 April
2011, available at ,
last visited on 27 October 2011; ‘Rape used
“as a weapon” in Libya’, Al-Jazeera English, 28 March
2011, available at , last visited
on 27 October 2011.
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