Witness to Rape
The Limits and Potential of International War Crimes Trials for Victims of Wartime Sexual Violence
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12915486 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nicola Henry (0000-0002-5462-341X, La Trobe University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 114-134 |
| Publication date | 2008-09-26 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Transitional Justice (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1752-7716 • E-ISSN: 1752-7724 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/ijtj/ijn036 |
| OpenAlex | W1992512939 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 39 |
1 Despite the proliferation of trauma and memory research in recent years, we know very little about the contribution of transitional justice mechanisms to psychological healing and societal reconciliation in the aftermath of genocide, armed conflict and politicized violence. Many scholars in this area have argued that the disclosure of traumatic experiences is beneficial to the psychological recovery process for survivors of gross human rights violations. This article critically examines this therapeutic assumption within a transitional justice paradigm. The article explores the potentials and limitations of international war crimes trials for victims of wartime sexual violence, focusing specifically on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The article provides a theoretical framework for analyzing the significance of testimony at international war crimes trials and raises some critical questions related to the psychological impact of trials. It is argued that due to the sheer diversity and heterogeneity of wartime rape victims, the experience of giving testimony is likely to be mixed: while some victims may suffer under the constraints of legal process, under the right circumstances, war crimes trials may help others to make sense of their suffering
Criminology · Economic Justice · Fair trial · Genocide · Human rights · International law · Political science · Sexual violence · Sociology · Transitional justice · Tribunal · War crime · Witness · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · International Law and Human Rights · Psychology · Law
Women and Transitional Justice in Africa and Latin America
Women and Transitional Justice in Africa and Latin America
This Patriarchal, Machista and Unequal Culture of Ours”
Whose Testimony? Thinking about Other-Than-Human Witnesses in Transitional Justice
The Witness Experience
Children born of wartime rape
Transitional Justice and Inclusiveness
Towards Inclusive Gender in Transitional Justice
Trial by media
Do Trials as Part of Transitional Justice Challenge the Stigma Related to Being Targeted by Serious Human Rights Violations
There is violence across, in all arenas’
Viral justice? Online justice-seeking, intimate partner violence and affective contagion
The Right (Way) to Represent
The Impossibility of Bearing Witness
Storytelling and Listening in Transitional Justice Processes
The Fixation on Wartime Rape
Examining Male Wartime Rape Survivors’ Perspectives on Justice in Northern Uganda
Making meaning of women's persistence and protagonism in the wake of genocidal violence
Genocidal Intent and Transitional Justice in Bosnia
Feminist scholarship in transitional justice
Accountability for atrocity crimes in Ukraine
Justice for victims’ in trials of mass crimes
Gender-based violence policy reform
Self-Reported Psychosocial Consequences of Testifying in a War Crimes Tribunal in Sierra Leone
Queering temporalities of international criminal justice
I have never worked with victims so victimized
Embodied reconciliation
The transnational movement for Truth, Justice and Reconciliation as an emotional (rule) regime
A psychological jurisprudence model of public opinion and international prosecution
In the Land of Celebrity Humanitarianism
I Wanted Them to Be Punished or at Least Ask Us for Forgiveness”
Testimony Under Threat
Engendering Transitional Justice
The Burden of Bearing Witness
Working with survivors of war rape and sexual violence
Theorizing Wartime Rape
Masculinity and male survivors of wartime sexual violence
Les femmes et le droit (pénal) international
Audio-Visibility in a Guinean Trial
| Unique citing works | 39 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,44 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2025 (16) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 39 |