Women Accused of International Crimes: A Trans-Disciplinary Inquiry and Methodology

Abstract

This paper tackles one of the gender silences in situations of atrocity: women accused of international crimes (‘WAIC’). It is part of a larger body of work that is ongoing. Debate and discussion that shine light into this murky area is essential, for with hundreds of women tried after World War II, some 96,000 females processed in Rwanda through gacaca alone, some 30–40% of the combatants in the Liberian civil war being females and over 25% of reported gang rapes in Sierra Leone alleged to involve female perpetrators, it is hardly an insignificant challenge to peace and security. The hypothesis motivating the author’s study, at this stage, is a methodological one. It is that an open-minded and non-ideological study of WAIC can be developed as a field in its own right. In seeking to tackle the ‘elephant in the room’ and understand WAIC, the author has engaged in a prospecting methodology that begins with global contextualisation, engages with work done across relevant disciplines (the transdisciplinary approach) leading to identification of rich seams of future research. Within the trans-disciplinary approach, work done to understand instances of serious female criminality is of particular value. These ‘hard’ cases, involving female serial killers and sexual offenders, females engaged in torture and female terrorists, suicide bombers and others within extremist ideological or religious movements are particularly close to the criminality that lawyers label as ‘international’. Much work has been done on these situations across disciplines, and this paper draws from that to identify meaningful lines of inquiry into WAIC. The author’s approach has been pluralistic, drawing in diverse perspectives and interpretations within and from different disciplines. This, it is argued, is the best – if not the only way – to gain a genuine and meaningful understanding of female participation in atrocity. This paper therefore presents that prospecting exercise, and opens doors to new ways of thinking about WAIC. By its nature, the work raises more questions than answers. Future publications will address discrete themes, where possible presenting a new paradigm or hypothesis.