sexual violence and rape

Cornell International Law Journal Special Conference Issue. 44 CORNELL INT'L L.J. 1 (2011).

Report by UNIFEM, United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict, on best practices and emerging elements for a more effective response by peacekeepers to women's security concerns in conflict situations (2010).

This chart summarizes and analyzes gender-based violence cases before international war crimes tribunals and special courts.

In December 2012, the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice hosted its annual conference. The topic for 2012 was addressing sexual violence against girls in Southern Africa.

The armed forces of Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda engaged in systematic violence against the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (the DRC). As part of that violence, approximately 2,000 HIV-positive Rwandan and Ugandan soldiers raped Congolese women and young girls in order to spread AIDS to the Congolese population. The DRC brought the complaint asserting, among other things, that the mass rape and deliberate infection of women and girls with HIV constituted a violation of human rights under the African Charter.

By Rashida Manjoo and Calleigh McRaith. 44 CORNELL INT'L L.J. 1 (2011). Copyright 2011 by the Cornell International Law Journal.

The plaintiff Liu alleged that she had a illegitimate son with a Yang when she was working in Sichuan province. Soon after that, she was having another child with a Chen. Since Chen was not going to perform his duty as a father, Liu decided to give birth to the child and raise it herself. Several months later, Liu’s first son, Yang was introduced by a matchmaker to the respondent as an adopted son. Out of the strait situation Liu faces, she agreed.

This case concerns the Domestic Violence Act of 1995. Appellant sent emails, faxes, and oral communications to politicians and others, claiming that the respondent, her brother, raped her when she was 11. In Family Court, the judge concluded that the allegation of rape was unfounded and that appellant’s purpose for the communications was to shame the respondent and ruin his reputation, amounting to harassment or psychological abuse. The judge issued a protection order pursuant to the Domestic Violence Act of 1995, prohibiting appellant from further communications alleging the rape.

Salma Yusuf, a fourteen year old girl, alleged that the appellant police officer, Onesphory Materu, had raped her inside a police cell with a promise to release her (made in writing) after the fact. The trial court found the police officer guilty of rape and convicted him to a sentence of thirty years imprisonment, twenty four strokes of the cane and an order that he pays Shs.700,000 compensation to the complainant.