Rape as Genocide and Some Questions Arising

In the constant chronicle of evil during armed conflicts, over-saturated with incidents of sexual violence, genocides account for a significant proportion of these crimes against women. In Chapter 1, we saw how rape was a chosen policy instrument of ‘ethnic cleansing’ employed by Serbian forces during the Bosnian war. In the reportShattered Lives: Sexual Violence during the Rwandan Genocide and its Aftermath,¹ Binaifer Nowrojee painted a convincing portrait of the prevalence of rapes during the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. While the legal response to sexual violence committed amidst genocide is by no means perfect, it is possible to recognise