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Sexual Violence in War-Torn Ukraine: A Challenge for International Criminal Justice

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The Use of Force against Ukraine and International Law

Abstract

Sexual violence constitutes a set of offences established by international law, particularly after the establishment of the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals and the permanent International Criminal Court. This chapter presents an overview of the situation regarding gender-based violence in the recent and ongoing Russian-Ukrainian dispute over Crimea. Especially in the regions of Eastern Ukraine, many cases of human rights violations, including evidence of sexual violence in the areas affected by military operations, are recorded in the reports of various international bodies. Meanwhile, Ukrainian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working for gender equality have presented findings highlighting incidents of sexual violence that are punishable under the International Criminal Court’s statute, including threats of rape and other forms of sexual violence, as well as methods of ill-treatment and torture in the context of sexual abuse, primarily against women and men. Considering that the Russian-Ukrainian war is still under preliminary examination by the International Criminal Court, the breakdown in the rule of law in conflict-affected areas in Ukraine has increased the vulnerability towards sexual and gender-based violence, including both crimes related to the jurisdiction of the Court, and also domestic sexual violence. The related reports have shown that there is not much information on the armed conflict situation in Ukraine in which sexual violence has been widely or systematically employed against civilians in general. As documented, most incidents of sexual violence have taken place under a regime of the illegal detention of women, often followed by various forms of sexual violence against them by members of illegal armed forces. The International Criminal Court is conducting an in-depth analysis of received information related to this conflict in order to establish a reasonable connection between the alleged crimes and the jurisdiction of the court. The main question in the case of the Russian-Ukrainian war is whether the International Criminal Court, as a permanent and established holdover of international criminal justice will continue to face, in addition to its statutory provision, crimes against sexual violence to the extent they deserve, given their heinous nature and the particular and growing needs of the victims.

Ioannis P. Tzivaras, LLM., Dr. Jur., Faculty of Law, Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, Greece, e-mail: jtzivaras@gmail.com; Department of Economics and Administration, Open University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Republic of Cyprus, email: ioannis.tzivaras@ouc.ac.cy; Department of Social Sciences, Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece, email: tzivaras.ioannis@ac.eap.gr; Deputy Director of Hellenic Institute for United Nations Affairs, Thessaloniki, Greece, email: tzivaras@hapsc.org.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Leatherman 2011, p. 2, pp. 13–4.

  2. 2.

    OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, 2015, Resolution on the Continuation of Clear, Gross and Uncorrected Violations of OSCE Commitments and International Norms by the Russian Federation. https://www.oscepa.org/meetings/annual-sessions/2015-annual-session-helsinki/2015-helsinki-final-declaration/2282-07. Accessed 17 March 2017. See Tsybulenko and Pakhomenko 2016, pp. 167–8; Grant 2015, pp. 43–5.

  3. 3.

    Segal 2008, pp. 21–35.

  4. 4.

    Ukrainian Centre for Social Reforms 2015, p. 8.

  5. 5.

    Volosevych et al. 2014, pp. 17–47.

  6. 6.

    Onuch and Martsenyuk 2014, pp. 110–1.

  7. 7.

    Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women 2013.

  8. 8.

    CSO’s Shadow Report 2016 on Ukraine 2016, Implementation of the Recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women No. 30 on Women in Conflict Prevention, Conflict and Post-conflict Situations and UN Resolution 1325 Women, Peace and Security of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, pp. 5–8. http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/UKR/INT_CEDAW_NGO_UKR_24435_E.pdf. Accessed 11 March 2017.

  9. 9.

    Maiorova 2017, pp. 50–2.

  10. 10.

    OSCE, Chief Monitor Apakan condemns sexual harassment of special monitoring mission to Ukraine patrol member in Donetsk Region’. http://www.osce.org/special-monitoring-mission-to-ukraine/315891. Accessed 28 May 2017. As stated: “This latest incident, in which a man, armed with an assault rifle, intimidated an unarmed civilian female member of an SMM patrol by making comments of a sexual nature, demands a swift and unequivocal response by the so-called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’. This must include identification of the individual responsible, and full application of appropriate measures to ensure that such incidents are not repeated.”

  11. 11.

    OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine 2012, Thematic Report: Internal Displacement in Ukraine. SEC.FR/473/14/Corr.1. http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/122620?download=true. Accessed 2 February 2017.

  12. 12.

    Justice for Peace in Donbass 2016, Report on the Issue of Sexual Violence in the Conflict Zone in Donbas to Be Presented at the 66th CEDAW Session. https://jfp.org.ua/coalition/novyny-koalicii/articles/submission-cedaw?locale=en. Accessed 12 January 2017.

  13. 13.

    Bielousov et al. 2015, pp. 32, 57.

  14. 14.

    Protection Cluster Ukraine 2016, Ukraine: Protection Cluster Strategy, p. 4. http://www.globalprotectioncluster.org/_assets/files/field_protection_clusters/Ukraine/2016_protection_cluster_strategy.pdf. Accessed 13 January 2017.

  15. 15.

    Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 2016.

  16. 16.

    UN High Commissioner for Refugees 2015.

  17. 17.

    UN General Assembly 2014.

  18. 18.

    UN Security Council 2015.

  19. 19.

    UN General Assembly 2016.

  20. 20.

    Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly 2014, Resolution 1990 (2014) Reconsideration on Substantive Grounds of the Previously Ratified Credentials of the Russian Delegation. http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=20882&lang=en. Accessed 13 January 2017.

  21. 21.

    Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly 2016, Resolution 2112 (2016) The Humanitarian Concerns with Regard to People Captured during the War in Ukraine. http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=22750&lang=en. Accessed 19 January 2017.

  22. 22.

    Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly 2016, Resolution 2132 (2016) Political Consequences of the Russian Aggression in Ukraine. http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=23166&lang=en. Accessed 17 January 2017.

  23. 23.

    Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly 2016, Resolution 2133 (2016) Legal Remedies for Human Rights Violations on the Ukrainian Territories Outside the Control of the Ukrainian Authorities. http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=23167&lang=en. Accessed 12 January 2017.

  24. 24.

    Carden and Sadat 2000, pp. 434–6; Beresford 2001, pp. 33–50; Boas 2000, pp. 268–72.

  25. 25.

    McDonald 2000, pp. 2–16.

  26. 26.

    Dieng 2002, pp. 688–707; Bedont and Hall-Martinez 1999, pp. 65–85; Oosterveld 2013, pp. 66–70.

  27. 27.

    Hagay-Frey 2011, p. 104.

  28. 28.

    De Brouwer 2005, pp. 19–22.

  29. 29.

    International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Prosecutor v. Jean-Paul Akayesu, Judgment, 02 September 1998, ICTR-96-4-T, Para 688, International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, Prosecutor v. Miroslav Kvocka, Milojica Kos, Mlado Radic, Zoran Zigic and Dragoljub Prcac, Judgment, 02 November 2001, IT-98-30/1-T, Paras 180, 559.

  30. 30.

    De Ruiter 2011, p. 7.

  31. 31.

    Boon 2001, pp. 625–6.

  32. 32.

    Kvocka, Kos, Radic, Zigic and Prcac 2001 (see fn. 202), Paras 180–1.

  33. 33.

    Akayesu 1998 (see fn. 28), Para 688; International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, Prosecutor v. Zejnil Delalic, Zdravko Mucic, Hazim Delic and Esad Landzo, Judgment, 16 November 1998, IT-96-21-T, Paras 1040–1, 1066, Prosecutor v. Dragoljub Kunarac, Radomir Kovac and Zoran Vukovic, Judgment, 22 February 2001, IT-96-23 and IT-96-23/1, Paras 773–774.

  34. 34.

    Delalic, Mucic, Delic and Landzo 1998 (see fn. 32), Paras 1040, 1066.

  35. 35.

    Kvocka, Kos, Radic, Zigic and Prcac (see fn. 28), Paras 208–9, Akayesu 1998 (see fn. 28), Para 688. See Askin 2003, pp. 288–9.

  36. 36.

    International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, Prosecutor v. Vidoje Blagojevic and Dragan Jokic, Transcripts, 22 July 2003, IT-02-60, Para 646.

  37. 37.

    International Criminal Court, Office of the Prosecutor 2016, Report on Preliminary Examination Activities 2016, pp. 36–41. https://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/otp/161114-otp-rep-pe_eng.pdf. Accessed 19 January 2017.

  38. 38.

    Wagner 2003, pp. 409–512.

  39. 39.

    West 1987, pp. 3–5; Katz and Mazur 1979, pp. 11–3; Van Boven 1999, pp. 77–89.

  40. 40.

    Flores-Acuna 2006, pp. 39–51; Pillay 2003, pp. 685–92.

  41. 41.

    Garkawe 2003, pp. 345–67.

  42. 42.

    Roben 2003, pp. 513–52.

  43. 43.

    Ingadottir et al. Ingadottir T 2003, pp. 2–45; Jones 2002, pp. 1355–70.

  44. 44.

    Garkawe 2001, pp. 269–89.

  45. 45.

    Donat-Cattin 1999, pp. 869–88.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, Greece

    Ioannis P. Tzivaras (Dr. Jur)

  2. Department of Economics and Administration, Open University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Republic of Cyprus

    Ioannis P. Tzivaras (Dr. Jur)

  3. Department of Social Sciences, Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece

    Ioannis P. Tzivaras (Dr. Jur)

  4. Deputy Director of Hellenic Institute for United Nations Affairs, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Ioannis P. Tzivaras (Dr. Jur)

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  1. School of Law, KIMEP University, Almaty, Kazakhstan

    Sergey Sayapin

  2. Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn Law School, Tallinn, Estonia

    Evhen Tsybulenko

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Tzivaras, I.P. (2018). Sexual Violence in War-Torn Ukraine: A Challenge for International Criminal Justice. In: Sayapin, S., Tsybulenko, E. (eds) The Use of Force against Ukraine and International Law. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-222-4_19

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