The Legal Regime For The Prosecution Of Rape In Armed Conflict

The occurrence of rape in armed conflicts has evolved from being a by-product of war as evidenced in conflicts before the 19th Century to being a weapon of war as was seen in the conflicts in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The conventional position in international law is that crimes are committed by persons with flesh and blood and not by abstract entities and that it is only in punishing the individuals involved that justice can best be served. The role played by States are not questioned. This concept permeated international prosecution of crimes from the Nuremberg Tribunal to the International Criminal Court even in the face of compelling evidence that rapes committed during armed conflicts were increasingly being done in furtherance of States' agenda and prosecution of individuals alone had not served the needed deterrence to the commission of the offense. The work interrogates the existing legal regime for the prosecution of rape and postulates that States can be criminally liable alongside the individuals involved in the perpetration of rape in armed conflict.