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Human Rights Through The Rule of Law

Legal Definitions

Crimes Against Humanity
Crimes against humanity are acts of violence committed on a widespread or systematic basis against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack. According to the ICTY, crimes against humanity, which can occur in war or peace time, are "serious acts of violence which harm human beings by striking what is most essential to them: their life, liberty, physical welfare, health and/or dignity. They are inhumane acts that by their extent and gravity go beyond the limits tolerable to the international community, which must perforce demand their punishment." Rape is explicitly listed among the crimes against humanity within the jurisdictions of both ad hoc tribunals (ICTY/ICTR).

Akayesu case: ICTR convicted the defendant of crimes against humanity based on the evidence that he had witnessed and encouraged rapes of Tutsi women while he was a communal leader. (Assessment Report; HRW)
Source: http://www.womenwarpeace.org/issues/justice/justice.htm

Customary International Law

Unlike treaty law, international customary law is not adopted formally by governments. It is created by the common practice of States developed over a period of time and the belief of States that they are legally bound to follow that practice. That belief can be evidenced in a variety of ways, including on the basis of resolutions and declarations-on women's rights, for example-adopted by the United Nations and other intergovernmental bodies, as well as from patterns of national practice, including legislation and national court decisions. International customary law is binding on all States once the norms have been accepted or acquiesced to by the international community as a whole. The Statute of the ICC illustrates this process. According to Justice Theodor Meron of the ICTY, the crimes recognized by the ICC Statute, including the gender-specific offences, may well, "take on a life of their own as an authoritative and largely customary statement of international humanitarian and criminal law, and ... become a model for national laws to be enforced under the principle of universality of jurisdiction." Universal Jurisdiction covers grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, certain very serious human rights violations (like torture) and genocide. All States have a duty to prosecute the perpetrators, regardless of their nationality, the nationality of the victims or where the crimes took place. (Assessment Report)
Source: http://www.womenwarpeace.org/issues/justice/justice.htm

Dualism

The view that a country's domestic legal obligations are above their international legal obligations. These countries also require international obligations to be implemented into domestic law before they take effect.

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Genocide

Under certain conditions, sexual violence can also be one of the means of committing the international crime of genocide. Genocide was first defined in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948, which has since passed into customary international law. Acts of genocide are committed with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, by killing or causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to bring about destruction of the group in whole or in part, imposing measures intended to prevent births or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Thus, rape, sexual enslavement, forced prostitution, forced sterilization, forced abortion and forced pregnancy- impregnation with the intent of forcing a woman to give birth to the rapist's child- can all be means of conducting acts of genocide.

Akayesu case: the ICTR found the defendant guilty of genocide, based in part on evidence that he had witnessed and encouraged rapes and forced nudity of women during the genocidal campaign. (Assessment Report; HRW)
Source: http://www.womenwarpeace.org/issues/justice/justice.htm

Jus Cogens

See "Peremptory Norm"

Monism

The view that a country's international legal obligations are above their domestic legal obligations. These countries may or may not require international obligations to be implemented into domestic law before they take effect.

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Nonderogable

An international norm which can never be set aside, no matter what the circumstances. For example, in the United States, in war-time situations, certain freedom of speech guarantees can be relaxed. Thus, a country can derogate from its freedom of speech laws. On the other hand, certain crimes, such as genocide and slavery can never be derogated from, no matter what the social or political situation. Thus, these are nonderogable norms.

Party (to a convention)

A state (country) which has signed and ratified a treaty, and is therefore bound to its terms by international law.

Peremptory Norm

A legal norm becomes a peremtory norm, or jus cogens, as states recognize the norm as quintessential to a notion of a just society. These norms are so widely accepted as wrong that there can never be a situation in which they are justified (i.e. non-derogable). For example, there would never be a situation in which slavery or genocide would be accepted by society; however, given certain wartime situations, one could imagine an abridging of our freedom of speech.

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Ratification

The process by which a country becomes a party to a convention. A country must first sign the treaty, then depending on the country's domestic law, the country's government must affirm that signature. For example, in the United States, if the President signs a treaty, the Senate ratifies the treaty through a 2/3rd vote.

Reservations

Aspects of a treaty which a state says it will not adhere to when it ratifies; those aspects do not bind that state. Reservations may not be made after ratification.

Sexual Violence

The founding statutes of the ICC and other international courts include crimes of sexual violence -rape, sexual slavery, enforced sterilization, forced pregnancy, enforced prostitution, and other forms of grave sexual violence- as crimes against humanity and/or war crimes. Rape has been defined by many national jurisdictions as non-consensual intercourse, and variations of this act can involve the insertion of objects and/or use of bodily orifices not considered to be intrinsically sexual. However, growing international jurisprudence indicates that rape cannot be captured in a mechanical description of objects and body parts. Rape is a physical invasion of sexual nature, committed on a person under coercive circumstances, but crimes of sexual violence do not require physical contact: the incident in which a victim was ordered to undress and do gymnastics naked in front of a crowd in the public courtyard, was considered sexual violence by the ICTR.
Source: http://www.womenwarpeace.org/issues/justice/justice.htm

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Shadow Report

A report submitted to a treaty body filed as a commentary upon a specific country report. Typically shadow reports highlight issues that a country glosses over or does not address in their country report. Submitting a shadow report can be an effective tool to put pressure upon governments in front of the international community.

Signatory

A state which has signed onto a convention, but is not yet bound.

States Parties

The group of countries that have signed and ratified a specific treaty.

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Torture

The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment defines torture as any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for purposes such as intimidation, coercion, punishment, or eliciting information or confessions or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind. Rape or other sexual assaults constitute torture and as such, can be prosecuted under international and national law. The Convention requires ratifying states to ensure torture is a criminal offense under domestic law and to prosecute or extradite alleged perpetrators. (HRW; AI)

Celebici case: ICTY characterized the rape and sexual assaults committed against Bosnian Serb prisoners at the Celebici prison camp as acts of torture-as both a violation of Common Article 3 and a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions. In July 2003, Zdravko Mucic, the former commander of the camp was granted an early release after serving two-thirds of his nine-year sentence. (HRW)
Source: http://www.womenwarpeace.org/issues/justice/justice.htm

Treaty Body

The body which overseas each signatory country's compliance with a treaty. If a treaty calls for regular country reports outlining the country's compliance, these reports are submitted to the treaty body for that treaty. Accordingly, organizations writing shadow reports (see CEDAW Legal Tools Page) would submit these to a treaty body. Also, some treaty bodies hear claims of treaty violations brought by states or individuals.

War Crimes

War crimes are serious violations of humanitarian law, whether customary or conventional, and include grave breaches and violations of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits "violence to life and person," "cruel treatment," "torture" or "other outrages upon personal dignity." The Conventions explicitly require nations to prosecute persons of any nationality who commit acts such as "torture or inhuman treatment" and "wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health" against any person. Further, Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that women should be protected against "rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault" in times of war. Protocol II Additional to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, governing the protection of civilians in internal armed conflicts, explicitly outlaws "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, rape, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault" at Article 4(2)(e). A single act of such violation can constitute a war crime.

Furundzija case: At ICTY, a paramilitary leader was convicted of outrages upon personal dignity and torture by means of rape (a violation of Common Article 3 to the Geneva Conventions) for verbally interrogating a woman in front of laughing soldiers while his colleague physically raped her. (Assessment Report; HRW)
Source: http://www.womenwarpeace.org/issues/justice/justice.htm

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