Commanding Rape: Sexual Violence, Command Responsibility, and the Prosecution of Superiors by the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda

Abstract

SummaryEvidence indicates that individuals responsible for mass rapes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda were acting on orders from their superiors. The international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda have indicated their intention to prosecute individuals responsible for sexual violence and their superiors. The prosecution of superiors rests on the doctrine of command responsibility — a doctrine Well-established in international criminal law. This article presents the difficulties that arise in applying the doctrine of command responsibility to cases of wartime sexual assaults. Relying on a feminist analysis of international humanitarian law, the author identifies the imbalance that exists between the principle of military necessity and the principle of humanitarianism — an imbalance that makes rape the least condemned and punished of war crimes. In the absence of traditional military command structures, as was the case in Bosnia and Rwanda, a superior is well-placed to deny his authority over those who committed wartime rapes. Despite this challenge, the author asserts that the Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, in theCelebicicase, developed a realistic approach to the doctrine of command responsibility and reasonably concluded that a camp commander was criminally responsible for rapes committed by his subordinates.