Survivor-Centered Approaches to Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law

Abstract

This article outlines the history of international humanitarian law vis-à-vis conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) from the promulgation of the Lieber Code in 1863 until the adoption in 2019 of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2467. This article considers how a survivorcentered approach to CRSV has emerged, particularly since 2008. The authors identify 3 significant clinical, ethical, and legal lessons: (1) international humanitarian law, as articulated in the Geneva Conventions and other legal instruments, requires clinicians to adopt a holistic approach to care; (2) during or after any conflict in which CRSV has allegedly been inflicted, a clinician may be required to provide evidence to an official investigatory body or court; and (3) infliction of rape in any conflict may equate to commission of torture and possibly genocide, a reality which obliges every clinician to appreciate that a patient may simultaneously be a victim of human rights violations and of crimes.The American Medical Association designates this journal-based CME activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ available through the AMA Ed Hub TM . Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Law Before 1948It was a sign of the far-sightedness of President Abraham Lincoln, a lawyer by profession, that on April 24, 1863, he issued what is commonly known as the Lieber Code. 1 This groundbreaking legal manual and by-product of the US Civil War is indelibly associated with the Berlin-born Francis Lieber, a naturalized US citizen and academic. 2,3 For all of its defects and deficiencies when viewed from the standpoint of the 21st century, Articles 44 and 47 of the Lieber Code were ahead of their time in that each was drafted in a way that embodied an express reference to rape. Under Article 44, "All wanton violence committed against persons in the invaded country" and inter alia "all rape" are "prohibited under the penalty of death, or such other severe punishment as may seem adequate for the gravity of the offense." 1 Under Article 47 of the Lieber Code, "Crimes punishable by all penal codes, such as arson, murder, maiming, assaults,