| Sexual violence has come to be viewed as an expected by-product of war. The increasing usage of sexual violence as a weapon, particularly against women, should be explored and understood in order to address this outrage. This thesis explores how sexual violence was used as a weapon during the genocides in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Rwanda, arguing that women suffered from a double dehumanization process in their gendered roles and as members of a targeted ethnic group. This thesis highlights the important contributions made by the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda to bringing war criminals to justice and for landmark decisions of International Humanitarian Law. Specifically, as the result of what has become known as the Foca case, where rape became a "Crime Against Humanity". While this thesis praises the courts, the thesis critically analyzes the failure of the international community to intervene effectively to end these two genocides. In addition to addressing the long-term psychological trauma and health care issues, such as HIV infection, the thesis establishes the extent to which the survivors suffer from what Claudia Card has identified as "social death," having been violently uprooted from the social and cultural symbolic order of their former lives. The thesis concludes by offering recommendations for the international community on ways in which we can support the survivors of the genocide. |
