Hidden Constructs of Sexual Victimization of Men and Boys in Armed Conflict: Prosecutorial and Jurisdictional Trajectories of the International Criminal Courts and Tribunals

Abstract

During armed conflict, sexual violence against women regularly takes on different forms than against the male gender. Frequently, men and boys are attacked either by coercion to witness sexual violence committed against their family and community members, or to rape and sexually assault others. The shared feature of both forms of such victimization is that they rarely constitute an attack on the individual alone. Instead, they are utilized by perpetrators as a war tactic to debase entire communities. Protection for male victims of these forms of sexual violence is limited due to a disconnect between formal statutory provisions under International Criminal Law (ICL) criminalizing sexual violence and the jurisprudential interpretation thereof. The jurisprudence of the international criminal courts and tribunals has been widely criticized in academic literature for misclassifying sexual harm against men and accommodating it incoherently under various provisions other than the explicit sexual violence norms. The prosecutorial and jurisprudential dichotomy partly originates in the lack of clarity surrounding these selected forms of sexual violence. In light of their devastating impact on men and boys, this article aims to map the inconsistencies within and between selected international criminal courts and tribunals and prompts to rethink current international criminal jurisprudence to coherently address and condemn such forms of sexual violence.