SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN ARMED CONFLICTS: ADVANCES IN THE SEARCH FOR THE PROTECTION OF VICTIMS’ HUMAN RIGHTS

Authors

• Marli M. Moraes da Costa
• Julia Patricia Straub

Abstract

The practice of sexual violence against women in armed conflicts, despite not being recent, is a problem that has persisted throughout history, so that even today many women have their human rights violated in this context. It is possible to verify that sexual violence, which is already a serious problem in times of peace, is intensified within armed conflicts, to the extent that it is also used as a war strategy. Thus, considering the seriousness of the issue and the need to address it, the aim was to respond to the following research problem: what advances have been made regarding the protection of the human rights of women victims of sexual violence in armed conflicts that have occurred since the Statute came into force? from Rome? The deductive method was applied, as well as bibliographic and documentary research techniques. Furthermore, three objectives were specified for study in each of the development topics, namely: (i) contextualize sexual violence against women in armed conflicts; (ii) understand the classification of sexual crimes in armed conflicts by the Rome Statute and the creation of the International Criminal Court; (iii) analyze the performance of the International Criminal Court in combating sexual violence against women in armed conflicts. In view of this, in short, it was concluded that there were important advances in combating sexual violence in armed conflicts based on the Rome Statute and, consequently, in protecting the human rights of female victims. Advances are noticeable based on the typification of conduct in the Rome Statute, as well as the convictions of cases involving sexual violence in armed conflicts by the ICC. However, this is not a simple problem, and there is still a long way to go to ensure the protection of the human rights of victims of sexual violence in armed conflicts.