Does international criminal justice provide sufficient protection to girls recruited for sexual purposes by armed forces and groups in the light of international humanitarian law and international human rights law?

Abstract

Among the children involved in armed conflicts, many of them are girls who have to fulfil multifarious roles. This thesis examines if international criminal justice provides sufficient protection to girls recruited for sexual purposes by armed forces or groups within the framework of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. After comparing the main protections accorded to these girls by the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court, the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions and the Convention on the Right of the Child and its Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, the main advantages and drawbacks of the current legal landscape are analysed. It is concluded that the text of the Rome Statute could be usefully improved by these instruments. The Optional Protocol could provide a basis of reflexion to raise the age-limit mentioned in the Rome Statute from fifteen to eighteen years. As for the Additional Protocol II and the Optional Protocol, by prohibiting indirect participation, they could provide the ground for considering a more gender-inclusive interpretation of the active participation in hostilities. This would address the issue of girls subject to sexual violence more effectively, reduce the existing legal loophole and allow for more adapted measures to be worked out.