The Protection of Sexual Autonomy under International Criminal Law: The International Criminal Court and the Challenge of Defining Rape

The express inclusion of various crimes of gender-based and sexual violence in the Rome Statute is closely connected with the increased international attention given to these crimes in recent years, most particularly in the form of prosecutions by the ad hoc tribunals. However, while these first prosecutions were celebrated as revolutionary, a conflict has emerged between the consent-based and the broader coercive circumstance approaches to rape. Not only do the International Criminal Court (ICC) instruments as they stand do little to clarify the issue but, bearing in mind the operation of Article 21, there are likely to be various competing pressures on the ICC in defining and prosecuting rape. This article argues that the ICC can address this challenge by providing a clear statement in its first judgments on point that the central principle underlying the definition of rape under international law is the protection of sexual autonomy.