Why were rape and other forms of sexual violence recognized as war crimes by the Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals?

The recognition of rape and sexual violence as war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was a pivotal development in international law.12

During the 1990s, these conflicts demonstrated that sexual violence was being used systematically as a deliberate weapon and strategy of war—specifically as an instrument of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and as a means of genocide in Rwanda. Because these acts were employed to terrorize populations and destroy communities, the international community moved to address them under existing legal frameworks.1

The tribunals were among the first international bodies to formally prosecute these acts, defining them as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and, in a landmark 1998 ruling by the Rwandan tribunal, as acts of genocide. This shift affirmed the fundamental ethical principle that sexual violence is not an inevitable byproduct of conflict, but a grave violation of human rights that demands accountability regardless of the perpetrator's official position.12