International Criminalization of Sexual Violence and Gender-Based War Crimes

Joseph T. Pidel graduated from Albany Law School with the class of 2021 and is currently working for Catania, Mahon & Rider, PLLC as an associate attorney.  When in law school, Joseph took a course focusing on international law of war and crime, where he wrote a paper titled, “International Criminalization of Sexual Violence and Gender-Based War Crimes.”  Recently, Joseph’s paper was published by International Law Studies. 

The background and purpose of the paper is as follows:

“For many years, gender-based violence was often considered an inevitable consequence of war.  However, the world has slowly begun to recognize gender-based violence as a war crime.  While steps have been taken to hold individuals accountable for gender-based violence, such acts are still not held to the same standard as other war crimes, such as murder.  

Many individuals are unaware of how sexual and gender-based violence is punished globally.  The goals of this paper are to assist individuals in generally understanding the issue of sexual and gender-based violence and to provide insight into how the international legal system can better protect victims of such violence and prevent such violence in the future.  By increasing public awareness of this issue, political leaders will be more inclined to advocate for policies that further this paper's overall goal of mitigating the occurrence of sexual and gender-based war crimes.

Pursuant to accomplishing these goals, this paper will discuss the definition of sexual and gender-based violence, the laws that govern sexual and gender-based violence, the historical treatment of sexual and gender-based violence, and the progress made in addressing sexual and gender-based crimes.”

_____________________

To read the paper, open HERE

Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest