International System of Justice for Women Perpetrators of International Crimes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15290/eejtr.2025.09.01.01Keywords:
women-perpetrators, genocide, crimes against humanity, international criminal tribunals, international responsibility of individualsAbstract
Women participate in crimes. The majority of perpetrators of the most serious international crimes are men, the largest group of victims are women, children, and other persons belonging to vulnerable groups. However, in contemporary armed conflicts and situations involving mass human rights violations, these roles are often reversed. Not only are many men and boys among the victims of gender-based and sexual crimes, but it is also not uncommon for women to commit such crimes. Examples include events related to conflicts at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century and cases pending before international criminal tribunals, as mentioned in the following text. The aim of this study is not only to highlight female perpetrators of international crimes and proceedings before international courts, but also to attempt to answer why, despite the unfortunate visibility of women's participation in crimes, proceedings before international courts are rare. The following research methods were used in this text: historical-legal, theoretical-legal, and, to a lesser extent, comparative. To summarize the problem presented, it should be stated that women are less visible because they do not hold high office, do not make key decisions, and are less likely to give orders. And given that international tribunals primarily prosecute those most responsible, women are not among them. It does not mean, however, that they do not commit crimes. Nor does it mean that they do not favor perpetrators, that they do not support and help them, that they just stand by.
Downloads
References
Abrasowicz, G., & Koch. M. (2018). Ofiary-wyobcowane-sprawczynie. Kobiecy punkt widzenia na przemoc i wojnę we współczesnym dramacie i teatrze (post)jugosłowiańskim. Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis 13(4), 237-255. https://doi.org/10.4467/20843933ST.18.021.9474.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, IT-00-39&40/1 - Biljana Plavšić; Case Information Sheet.
Brown, S.E. (2020). 'They Forgot Their Role': Women Perpetrators of the Holocaust and the Genocide Against Tutsi in Rwanda. Journal of Perpetrator Research 3(1), 156-185. https://doi.org/10.21039/jpr.3.1.34.
Case No. 002/19-09-2007/ECCC/TC, Closing Order, D427.
Case No. 002/19-09-2007/ECCC/TC, Judgment, E313.
Case No. 002/19-09-2007/ECCC/TC, Judgment, E465.
Case No. 002/19-09-2007/ECCC/TC, Termination of the Proceedings Against the Accused Ieng Thirith, 27.08.2015.
Four Geneva Conventions on the Protection of Victims of War of 12.08.1949: I – for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field, II – for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea, III – Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, IV – Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
Hogg N. (2010). Women's Participation in the Rwandan Genocide: Mothers or Monsters? International Review of the Red Cross 92(877), 69-102. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1816383110000019.
Jessee, E. (2015). Rwandan Women No More: Female Génocidaires in the Aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide Conflict and Society 1(1), 60-80. https://doi.org/10.3167/arcs.2015.010106.
Jones, A. (2015, February 26-27). Sexual Violence Against Males in War and Genocide: Advances, Obstacles, Challenges. [The Workshop Presentation] Sexual Violence Against Men during Conflicts: Bringing the Gap between Theory and Practice. The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID): Geneva, Switzerland.
Law on the Establishment of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea, with inclusion of amendments as promulgated on 27 October 2004 (NS/RKM/1004/006).
Marochkin, S.Y., & Nelaeva, G.A., (2014). Rape and Sexual Violence as Torture and Genocide in the Decisions of International Tribunals: Transjudicial Networks and the Development of International Criminal Law. Human Rights Review (15), 473-488. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-014-0322-6.
Nowakowska-Małusecka, J. (2000). Odpowiedzialność karna jednostek za zbrodnie popełnione w byłej Jugosławii i w Rwandzie. Wyd. UŚ: Katowice.
Nowakowska-Małusecka, J. (2012). Sytuacja dziecka w konflikcie zbrojnym. Studium prawnomiędzynarodowe. Wyd. BRANTA: Bydgoszcz-Katowice.
Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), 8.06.1977.
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court of 17.07.1998. UN TS 1998, No. 2187.
Sjoberg, L, & Gentry, C. E. (2007). Mothers, Monsters, Whores. Women's Violence in Global Politics. London and New York: Zed Books.
Smeulers, A. (2015). Female Perpetrators: Ordinary or Extraordinary Women? International Criminal Law Review 15(2), 207-253. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718123-01502001.
Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Annex to the SC Resolution S/Res/955 (1994), 8.11.1994 with further amendments.
Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. UN Doc. S/25704, 3.05.1993 and SC Res. S/Res/827 (1993), 25.05.1993 with further amendments.
The Prosecutor v. Biljana Plavčić, Case No. IT-00-39&40/1, Sentencing Judgement, 27.02.2003.
The Prosecutor v. Jean-Paul Akayesu, Case No. ICTR-96-4-T, Judgement, 2.09.1998
The Prosecutor v. Momčilo Krajišnikiem and Biljana Plavčić, IT-00-39&40, Amended Consolidated Indictment, 7.03.2002.
The Prosecutor v. Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, Arsene Shalom Ntahobali, Sylvain Nsabimana, Alphonse Nteziryayo, Joseph Kanyabashi, Elie Ndayambaje, Case No. ICTR-98-42-T, Summary of Judgement and Sentence, 24.06.2011.
The Prosecutor v. Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, Arsene Shalom Ntahobali, Sylvain Nsabimana, Alphonse Nteziryayo, Joseph Kanyabashi, Elie Ndayambaje, Case No. ICTR-98-42-A, Judgement, Vol. II, 14.12.2015.
UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 9.12.1948, UN TS 1951, No. 1021.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
1. The Author declares that he or she has created the written work and holds exclusive and unlimited copyright /both moral and property rights/ and guarantees that no third parties have rights to the work.
2. In the view of the Copyright and Related Rights Act, a work must fulfill the following criterion:
a) be a manifestation of creative work,
b) have an individual character („author’s personal stamp”),
c) have a set form.
3. The Author declares that the text has not been previously published (under the same or different title, or as a part of another publication).
4. The Author allows (grants a non-exclusive license) the publishing house of University of Białystok to use the scholarly text to:
- preserve and multiply by means of any technique; save in a digital form with no limitations as to the manner and form of digital preservation;
- upload online with no limitations as to the place and time of access.
5. The Author grants consent for editorial changes made in the work.
6. The Author grants the University of Białystok rights free of charge for the duration of property copyright with no territory limits. The University has the right to grant sublicenses in the acquired rights.
7. Granting a non-exclusive license allows the Author to preserve their rights and allows other parties to make use of the work according to sublicensing agreement with provisions identical as those of Attribution 4.0 Internacional License (CC BY 4.0), available online at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
8. The Agreement has been concluded for an indefinite period of time.
9. Because of costs born in preparation of the work for publishing, the Parties oblige themselves to act in good faith and refrain from declining to grant licenses.
10. To all matters not settled herein, provisions of the Civil Code and Copyright and Related Rights Act of 1994, February 4 shall apply.
11. All disputes shall be resolved by a court of local jurisdiction for the place of seat of University of Białystok.
