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This article explores the feminist critique that progress in the classification of sexual violence crimes within international criminal law has not been matched by sufficient legal enforcement. It takes the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) as a case study, exploring the various myths, investigative failures and procedural developments that have hindered the ECCC's effective investigation of sexual violence. The article argues that while there is a need to adopt a nuanced perspective of the many gender inequalities facing women, it remains crucial that sexual violence is adequately investigated and prosecuted, due to the normative value of such prosecutions. It concludes with some suggestions as to how the ECCC can improve accountability for such crimes, but also highlights lessons that future courts can learn from the ECCC's failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]