Application

Kelly Askin

J. Skelly Wright Fellow, Visiting Lecturer, School of Law

Yale University, United States

Research: Empowering women Through International Law and Process

Senior Legal Advisor, International Justice, Open Society Justice Initiative; J. Skelly Wright Fellow and Visiting Lecturer, Yale Law School. Former Director, International Criminal Justice Institute and Acting Executive Director, War Crimes Research Office, American University. Dr. Askin has served as a legal advisor/consultant to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the Appeals Chamber for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and other international institutions. She has also served as a Visiting Scholar or Fellow at Harvard University, Notre Dame Law School, and Washington College of Law. She has published extensively, including the highly acclaimed books: War Crimes Against Women: Prosecution in International War Crimes Tribunals (Kluwer Law International, 1997) and the 4-volume treatise Women and International Human Rights Law (co-editor, Transnational Publishers, vol I, 1999; vol II, 2000; vol III, 2002; vol IV, forthcoming). She has been interviewed extensively, including by the New York Times, CNN, and NPR.

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Empowering Women In and Through International Law and Process

International law and international/ized courts have provided women and girls with powerful tools to redress discrimination and violence. International criminal law and international humanitarian law prohibits gender based violence, particularly sexual violence. In the past ten years, the international community has condemned sexual violence as amongst the most serious international crimes committable and instituted measures to redress these and other serious crimes.

The International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and for Rwanda (ICTR), established by the United Nations in 1993 and 1994 respectively, have successfully prosecuted various forms of sexual violence. These tribunals have recognized rape as an instrument of genocide, a crime against humanity, a war crime, a form of torture, a means of persecution, and indicia of enslavement. The International Criminal Court (ICC), began investigating its first cases this year, and is authorized to prosecute rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, and other forms of sexual violence, including trafficking. Internationalized (hybrid) courts set up to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity in places like Sierra Leone, East Timor, Kosovo, and Cambodia, also have authority to prosecute gender related crimes.

This research will focus on: 1) how these international courts have investigated, indicted, and prosecuted gender crimes, 2) why sexual violence is finally being prosecuted in international war crimes tribunals, 3) the impact that international prosecutions have domestically and regionally, 4) how the jurisprudence of these international/ized tribunals can be used to prevent and punish gender crimes worldwide, 5) how the presence of women in positions of authority in international institutions and courts has helped shape the law and improve the progress, 6) how providing redress for sex crimes empowers women, and 7) how to keep the momentum going and continue improving accountability for gender crimes

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