Building National and Regional Accountability for Conflict Related Sexual Violence: From Prosecutions in the Former Yugoslavia to the African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights

The jurisdiction of the African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights (acjhpr) will include international crimes of conflict-related sexual violence (crsv). This article explores the challenges the Court is likely to face in building regional and national accountability for crsv, by considering the lessons that might be learnt from the experiences of the former Yugoslavia in prosecuting these crimes. The article focuses on the two key challenges of developing ‘best practice’ within regional and national courts, and of linking these prosecutions to peace processes and post-conflict reconstruction. To address these challenges, the article argues for a ‘gender justice framework’ of guiding principles to ensure effective and equitable crsv prosecutions.