Sexual Violence
Explainer
Sexual violence refers to acts of a sexual nature committed through coercion, force, threat, or by exploiting conditions of coercion. It includes rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage, enforced sterilisation, forced pregnancy, forced nudity, grooming and various other acts.
At WIGJ, we understand sexual violence as both an individual and systemic harm, used to dominate, control, or punish on the basis of gender, sexuality, or identity. It affects women, men, and persons of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, often intersecting with race, ethnicity, class, age, disability, or displacement.
Under the Rome Statute, sexual violence may amount to a war crime, a crime against humanity, or an act of genocide. Yet justice has been uneven: jurisprudence remains inconsistent, and survivors’ participation and reparations remain underdeveloped.
WIGJ works to close these gaps by advancing survivor-informed, intersectional, and gender-sensitive approaches to justice, recognising survivors not only as witnesses, but as rights-holders, experts, and agents of change.
Why this matters
- Human impact: Survivors of sexual violence continue to face stigma, exclusion, and barriers to justice. Recognising their agency, ensuring safety, and providing comprehensive reparations are essential to healing and dignity.
- ICL relevance: The ICC’s recognition of sexual violence as a core international crime was groundbreaking, but application is lagging. Strengthening understanding, participation, and accountability ensures the Court delivers meaningful justice.
- Systemic change: Addressing sexual violence dismantles structural discrimination, advances gender equality, and builds more inclusive and legitimate justice systems.
What we do on Sexual Violence
Legal Research & Analysis
Developed and led by WIGJ through the Call It What It Is campaign, these principles provide a survivor-centred interpretive framework for understanding sexual violence under international law. They define core concepts such as coercion, consent, and contextual factors in line with survivors’ lived realities.
WIGJ continues to expand and apply this framework across jurisdictions through amicus briefs, legal analyses, and guides, including submissions to the ICC, UN mechanisms, and national courts.
Advocacy & Policy
Current objectives:
- Promote consistent application of The Hague Principles on Sexual Violence within the ICC and broader Rome Statute system.
- Strengthen survivor participation and protection in investigations, prosecutions, and reparations.
Recent/upcoming engagements:
- Submitted Rule 103(1) observations in the Al Hassan reparations proceedings, highlighting gendered, intersectional, and community-wide harm.
- Co-organised an Expert Roundtable on Using Technology to Improve Investigations of Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes.
Solidarity & Network-Building
We partner with feminist legal practitioners, survivor activists and organisations in contexts including Colombia, Ukraine, Mali, Afghanistan, and Palestine.
Our partnerships prioritise community and survivor expertise, which inform our advocacy messages, research, and legal submissions and reflect their visions of justice.
Impact highlights
- Facilitated the Call it what it is campaign which resulted in the development of The Hague Principles on Sexual Violence, now broadly recognised as leading interpretive framework for understanding the variety of sexual violence forms.
- Informed ICC jurisprudence through amicus briefs and submissions.
- Co-organised international convenings including the Gender and International Criminal Law Conference (2024 and 2025) and Reproductive Violence Conference (2024), advancing practitioner knowledge and survivor participation.
Subtopics
- The Hague Principles on Sexual Violence
- Call It What It Is campaign
- Conflict-related sexual violence under the Rome Statute
- Using technology to investigate sexual violence
