Enforced Sterilization and Other Forms of Reproductive Violence as Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes

This chapter addresses the potentials of the ICC Statute to respond to negative forms of reproductive violence under the umbrella of crimes against humanity and war crimes. It first examines the crime of enforced sterilization, which has played no role in the practice of any modern international criminal court thus far. There appears to be a reluctance on the part of prosecutors to charge acts causing permanent loss of reproductive capacity explicitly as enforced sterilization. This is problematic because it erases the unique harm suffered by the victims from the narrative of international trials. The second part of the chapter addresses other forms of reproductive violence not explicitly criminalized. It is argued that the ICC Statute offers a broad array of more general crimes which can and should be used to prosecute acts such as forced abortion and forced contraception. The analysis also highlights that the lack of distinction between the concepts of sexual and reproductive violence in the ICC Statute is problematic and proposes amendments in this regard.