Brown Undergraduate Law Review -- Vol. 2, No. 1 (Fall 2020)

The Kosovo War: Wartime Sexual Violence Jurisprudence and State Action Toward Recovery
The following few years ushered in important precedents
for the global human rights regime. The Beijing Platform
for Action, born of the 1995 United Nations Conference on
Women, affirmed that ?women?s rights are human rights?
and issued a condemnation of all forms of violence against
up? and charged him with war crimes and crimes against
humanity perpetrated against Albanian Kosovars in
1999. 19 The ICTY also paved the way for the Rome Statute
of the International Criminal Court, which has been signed
by 123 states, to be adopted in 1998 and to enter into force
women, which included rape during war. 16 That same year, in 2002. This document ?enumerates sexual
the United Nations Human Rights Council created a
Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, marking
a significant step toward institutionalizing global responses
to gendered violence.
Against this backdrop of foundational human rights
jurisprudence, the ICTY made the hallmark declaration
that rape is a crime against humanity. With a mandate
lasting from 1993 to 2017, the ICTY was initially
established to investigate atrocities committed in Bosnia
and Croatia, and then expanded to include war crimes
committed later in Kosovo. Its goals, drawn from the
testimonies of 4,650 witnesses, were ?to bring to justice
violence? framed as including not only rape but also
?sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy,
enforced sterilization, or any other form?? as a crime
against humanity in Article 7 and as a war crime in Article
8." 20 This pivotal statute also created the International
Criminal Court, a key judicial body established to uphold
international justice in the 21st century. This court has
been instrumental in investigating and prosecuting war
criminals in countries including the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, Uganda, Sudan, Myanmar, and Afghanistan.
A later turning point arrived through Security Council
Resolution 1820, the 2008 international recognition of
persons responsible for violations of international
sexual violence as a weapon of war that importantly
humanitarian law; to contribute to the restoration of peace
by holding these persons to account; to bring justice to the
victims; [and] to deter further crimes.? 17
Significantly, in addition to several other high-profile
Serbian officials, the ICTY tried Milo?evi? as ?the first
sitting head of state to be indicted for war crimes by an
international tribunal.? 18 The court found that ?Slobodan
Milo?evi? was at the apex of a joint enterprise to commit
the crimes described in the indictment and to cover them
?carved out separate space for the consideration of sexual
violence as a tactic of war on the Security Council?s
agenda.? 21
This specific framing of sexual violence during conflict as
a weapon of war is critical to modern understandings of
war crimes, especially those committed during the Kosovo
War. Scholar Kerry F. Crawford discusses the ?weapon of
war? framework as a strategic political tool used by
advocates in order to push forward women?s rights under
16. ?Hillary Clinton Declares ?Women's Rights Are Human Rights,?? PBS, October 30, 2017,
www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/web-video/hillary-clinton-declares-womens-rights-are-human-rights.
17. ?Prosecution Case - Kosovo,? United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, accessed November 2019,
www.icty.org/en/content/prosecution-case-kosovo.
18. Ending Impunity In Kosovo: Closing The Accountability Gap For Crimes Committed During The Kosovo Conflict: Testimony before the U.S.
House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, 116th Cong. 6 (2019) (statement of Dr. Paul R. Williams, Rebecca I. Grazier Professor of
Law and International Relations at American University and President and Co-Founder of the Public International Law and Policy Group).
19. Ibid., 92.
20. Crawford, 46.
21. Crawford, 92.
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