Sexual Violence in War-Torn Ukraine: A Challenge for International Criminal Justice

Sexual violence constitutes a set of offences established by international law, particularly after the establishment of the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals and the permanent International Criminal Court. This chapter presents an overview of the situation regarding gender-based violence in the recent and ongoing Russian-Ukrainian dispute over Crimea. Especially in the regions of Eastern Ukraine, many cases of human rights violations, including evidence of sexual violence in the areas affected by military operations, are recorded in the reports of various international bodies. Meanwhile, Ukrainian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working for gender equality have presented findings highlighting incidents of sexual violence that are punishable under the International Criminal Court’s statute, including threats of rape and other forms of sexual violence, as well as methods of ill-treatment and torture in the context of sexual abuse, primarily against women and men.