The Role of Victim Attorneys in Prosecuting Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in National Courts

Although sexual and gender-based violence is a well-known and persistent feature of armed conflict, more than 70 years after the first war crimes trial at Nuremberg there are still enormous barriers to bringing perpetrators to justice, let alone giving voice and redress to the victims and survivors. In local, national court prosecutions, victim lawyers can play a particularly powerful and helpful role in overcoming such barriers. As recent developments in national courts illustrate, effective collaboration by prosecutors and victim lawyers to empower victims and survivors can be crucial for achieving the restorative goals of international criminal litigation, especially in the prosecution of conflict-related sexual and gender based violence. This piece draws on the author’s experience with conflict-related sexual violence in litigation, both through leading civil universal jurisdiction cases in the United States and supporting national prosecutions in Guatemala and Kosovo, to illustrate typical barriers to successful prosecution and to show how victim-aligned attorneys have succeeded in overcoming these barriers. Drawing on additional examples, the paper will argue that victim advocates and victim-led movements are particularly important for prosecuting conflict-related sexual violence in the countries where these crimes were committed, and for transforming the inequities that facilitated the original abuse.