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Sexual Violence as International Crime

Interdisciplinary Colloquia, The Hague
 

Sexual Violence as International Crime, Interdisciplinary Approaches to Evidence (Hague I), convened June 16-18, 2009 in The Hague, the Netherlands. The colloquium was co-sponsored by The Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden University, The Hague, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the International Victimology Institute, Tillburg University (INTERVICT). This first colloquium in the series of three addressed the problem of systemic rape in conflict zones as a tool in genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.

The colloquium focused on the innovations and challenges to empirical and other information gathering techniques in building evidence for the prosecution of sexual violence. Topics included  the development of evidence in relation to charges ranging from sexual slavery to crimes against humanity and genocide; evidentiary and  procedural differences involved in prosecuting sexual victimization in domestic versus international courts; and the development of new kinds of social scientific, archival and medical data collection techniques to assist in the prosecution of these crimes. With the intention of familiarizing participants from different fields with the overlapping possibilities and challenges confronting the prosecution of cases of systemic sexual violence, the conference featured both plenary panels and working group sessions that brought together international legal leaders, legal practitioners in the field from African nations and other continents, world health professionals, psychologists, journalists, activists, and social science researchers

As a follow-up to this colloquium, (Hague I) Sexual Violence as International Crime, Interdisciplinary Approaches to Evidence, the Center is thrilled to announce that (Hague II) Accountability under International Criminal Law for Systematic Sexual Violence in Domestic Political Repression is tentatively scheduled for Spring of 2011. We seek to build on the success and efficacy of the first colloquium with content focusing on the practice of rape and other forms of sexual violence as a tool in political repression of women and children by their own governments. To view more information on this conference please see our Upcoming Events page in addition to the Hague II Coloquium page within this section.