Heidi Matthews on Sexual Violence and International Criminal Law

In this episode, Heidi Matthews, Assistant Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, discusses her article "Redeeming Rape: Berlin 1945 and the Making of Modern International Criminal Law," which is a chapter in the book "The New Histories of International Criminal Law: Retrials," which was edited by Immi Tallgren and Thomas Skouderis, and is published by Oxford University Press. Matthews begins by describing the consensus feminist position on how international criminal law should conceptualize and punish sexual violence. She then contextualizes that position in relation to the jus in bello/jus ad bellum distinction, and explains why viewing wartime sexual violence as merely discrete wrongful acts is inadequate. She uses the sexual violence perpetrated against German women in the aftermath of WWII as a lens to conceptualize the relationship between wartime sexual violence and the prosecution of war. And she reflects on the ways in which jus in bello and jus ad bellum may inform one another. You can read her related article "As we remember VE Day, remember too the German women who were raped" here. Matthews is on Twitter at @Heidi_Matthews. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.