International Criminal Court
,聽Postdoctoral Fellow - Sydney Law School and Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, believes that international criminal justice should be inclusive and gender-sensitive. Over the last ten years, she has focused her research around gender justice, especially the prosecution of sexual crimes in times of genocide and war.
Her work has taken her to many parts of the world, collaborating with international organisations, law enforcement, advocacy groups and leading researchers to achieve long-overdue reform.
Among the many challenges of prosecuting sexual violence as an international crime, one of the fundamental challenges is the difficulty in defining, 鈥渨hat makes violence 鈥榮exual鈥?鈥.
In December, Rosemary teamed up with Women鈥檚 Initiatives for Gender Justice to launch the start of a global grassroots campaign to answer that question. The launch featured an expert panel which spoke to delegates of International Criminal Court (ICC) member states and human rights defenders at the World Forum in The Hague.
The panellists included Patricia Sellers, the ICC Prosecutor鈥檚 Gender Advisor; Jihyun Park, a human rights activist and refugee from North Korea; and Rosemary. There were also remarks from supporting Ambassadors, including Australia鈥檚 Ambassador to the Netherlands, who sponsored Rosemary鈥檚 participation at the launch.
The discussion highlighted the need for a clear and culturally sensitive understanding of 鈥榮exual violence鈥 in international criminal law, and examined the barriers that ICC prosecutors had faced thus far in prosecuting this crime.
鈥淭he ICC is the first international tribunal whose statute recognizes a wide range of sexual and gender-based violence,鈥 explained Rosemary. 鈥淗owever, neither the Court鈥檚 statute nor its case-law explains what makes an act of violence 鈥榮exual鈥, and initial efforts to prosecute forced nudity and forced circumcision as 鈥榮exual violence鈥 in the ICC have failed.鈥
In response to these experiences, Women鈥檚 Initiatives for Gender Justice has initiated a campaign aimed at developing a working definition of 鈥榮exual violence鈥, with input from human rights organisations around the world.
Dubbed 鈥淐all it what it is鈥, the campaign seeks to 鈥渄evelop a civil society definition [with aid of an ], in the form of a non-exhaustive list of acts that could be considered an 鈥榓ct of a sexual nature鈥 to assist judges, investigators, lawyers, victims and perpetrators to better understand what crimes of sexual nature could entail.鈥
鈥淚mportantly, such a definition would consider acts that may be intended as sexual by perpetrators, and/or perceived as such by victims in specific cultural environments.鈥
Rosemary says the initial responses to the survey illustrate the range of thinking at play.
鈥淐rimes such as rape, forced abortion forced pregnancy and genital mutilation can cause lasting physical damage, can traumatize the victims for the rest of their lives, and socially stigmatize them within their communities," she explained.
鈥淏y listening to diverse interpretations of the concept of 鈥榮exual violence鈥, the ICC can better understand how this type of violence is experienced around the world.鈥
The campaign will run for a year, with the aim of presenting the proposed definition of 鈥榮exual violence鈥 at the next annual meeting of States Parties to the ICC.
Master of Criminology student, Charlotte Hanson and her team have been awarded 鈥榖est idea鈥 at the 2020 LawWithoutWalls (LWOW) initiative 鈥 a virtual experiential program designed to address real-life challenges聽faced by legal education and the profession.