Adjudicating Gender-Based Persecution at the ICC and Beyond: A Monumental Step and the Challenges that Lie Ahead

Jul 22, 2021 - Jul 23, 2021 | Northumbria University
Online
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Historically speaking, gender has not been viewed as a relevant category of persecution in international criminal law, whereas victimisation on the basis of race, religion, politics, nationality and ethnicity has long been considered relevant. This was also the case with persecution, a fundamental crime against humanity. In the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), however, ‘gender’ was included among the list of relevant grounds. This was a monumental step forward for the recognition of the plethora of ways in which women and men are targeted in the context of widespread or systematic attacks against civilian populations.

Despite this, until late 2019, no suspect had been charged for persecution based on gender but rather on other grounds only. What are the main causes of this significant lacuna and how are we to overcome challenges in the future to ensure adequate recognition of these crimes, their successful prosecution and a victim-sensitive approach to the collection of evidence?

Taking ground-breaking steps forward, the ICC Prosecutor, Ms Fatou Bensouda, has begun to break with the neglect of gender-based persecution (GBP) at the Court, in her recent investigations into the situation in Afghanistan (murder of female politicians and intimidation of female students GBP), the preliminary examination in Nigeria (abduction of female schoolgirls and use of female suicide bombers as GBP), and the charges against Al Hassan (sexual and non-sexual oppression of females as GBP).

The Al Hassan trial is the first time charges have been confirmed by the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber for GBP on the grounds that women and girls were targeted for sexist reasons and subjected to the ideological, religious and discriminatory views of women by the members of Ansar Dine and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which reduced them to objects in the society of which they were a part.

It is important to note, however, that in the context of conflict, gender-based victimization is not limited to women. The targeting of men and boys is not uncommon and both genders can be targeted for their perceived social roles in different ways.

Who: Northumbria University 

Where: Online

When: 22-23 July 2021