The female body is no spoils of war: The revindications of women to make visible sexual violence before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia El cuerpo femenino no es botín de guerra: Las reivindicaciones de las mujeres para visibilizar la violencia sexual ante el Tribunal Penal Internacional para la Antigua Yugoslavia

Abstract

The following text aims to elucidate how discussions around sexual violence as an international crime first appeared in history during the construction and work of the Ad-Hoc International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The text defends the idea that sexual violence and the need to punish its perpetrators was firstly made visible by womens movements, who took over the spaces of discussion of the creation of this tribunal, and secondly, by the impact of the appointment of women judges in the resolution of legal problems that qualified these conducts as war crimes, which could be seen reflected in the sentences that marked a milestone and final outcome in this process.
Throughout these pages, I will analyse the contextual elements that allowed for the evolution of the concept of sexual violence in international criminal law during the decade in which the ICTY was trying the first perpetrators of the armed conflict. Taking into account the great contributions made by the ICTY in this area, a historical analysis of this concept allows us to understand
how it is made visible and what have been the most relevant debates on sexual violence in international law.