International Law
Prosecution of rapists in war crime tribunals is a recent development. Generally, humanitarian law concerns the maltreatment of civilians and "any devastation not justified by military necessity". War rape has rarely been prosecuted as a war crime. After World War II the Nuremberg Tribunals failed to charge Nazi war criminals with rape, although witnesses testified on war rape. The War Crimes Tribunal in Tokyo did convict Japanese officers "of failing to prevent rape" in the Nanking massacre, which is known as the "Rape of Nanking". Justice Richard Goldstone, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, said that "Rape has never been the concern of the international community." The United Nations Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict, which went into effect in 1974, does not mention rape specifically.
Read more about this topic: War Rape
Famous quotes containing the word law:
“There is ... but one response possible from us: Force, Force to the uttermost, Force without stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant Force which shall make Right the law of the world and cast every selfish dominion down in the dust.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)