Intersectional v. Narrow Approaches to Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes: Contrasting Outcomes and Gleaning Useful Techniques

What is it about?

Intersectionality is an approach that explains the compounded nature and effects of discrimination (e.g., on gender and other grounds). International Criminal Law (ICL), especially international prosecutors, are showing increasing interest in intersectionality to understand sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), due to its gendered nature that requires being understood as a social construction. This Article considers the interpretation of various SGBV crimes in international jurisdictions through an intersectional perspective, namely: rape as torture at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, SGBV as an act of genocide at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and SGBV as an act of terrorism at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Through an empirical analysis of the jurisprudence, the Article demonstrates the capacity of an intersectional analysis to explain complex discrimination on gender and other grounds underpinning SGBV and its multi-faceted gendered harms, traditionally obscured when ICL overlooks a gender analysis. Further, the analysis demonstrates that, by linking gender discrimination to the broader context of violence, intersectionality is fit to reveal both the individual and group harms of SGBV, thus, conciliating a feminist debate regarding the representation of SGBV harms in ICL.

Featured Image