Chapter

Sub silentio : the sexual assault of women in international law

Sarah Gendron

War, peace and international order ? : the legacies of the Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907

London ; New York : Routledge, 2017

p. 103-120

English

In this chapter Sarah Gendron focuses on the silencing of women as subjects of The Hague's war rules, and argues that sexual violence against women in time of war has existed as a sub-stratum of the law, largely silenced (sub silentio) for too long. The lack of clarity presented by Article 46 of the Hague conventions influenced not only the conduct of warfare after 1899 but also allowed for the transgression of the prohibition of rape in both war and in war crime tribunals. Gendron highlights how it took more than a century of sexual assaults for international law to catch up and lift the veil of silence. Yet Gendron also acknowledges the importance of the Hague rules in marking a shift to the recognition of women as legitimate subjects of international humanitarian law.

• War, peace and international order ? : the legacies of the Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907 / ed. by Maartje Abbenhuis, Christopher Ernest Barber and Annalise R. Higgins