Priority Concerns of the 
Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice
Submitted to Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court

June 12-30, 2000

Elements Annex / Crimes of Sexual and Gender Violence:

~General Statement of Gender Integration: A general statement must be included in a chapeau to all the Elements of Crimes stating that sexual violence should be charged as other crimes where the acts meet the elements of those other crimes, e.g. torture and genocide.

~Gender crimes must not be held hostage: Agreement on the formulations of the gender-specific
crimes should not be predicated on the compromise regarding the chapeau to crimes against
humanity, as suggested in footnote 12. Gender issues should not be used as a pawn for agreement on other issues.

"Actively promote or encourage": The compromise language in the crimes against humanity chapeau which requires that the State or organization "actively promote or encourage" the criminal conduct in question would impermissibly limit the statutory jurisdiction of the Court and must be eliminated. Language of this sort would prevent many egregious crimes within the Court's jurisdiction from being prosecuted if committed on a widespread or systematic basis with the acquiescence or toleration of states or non-state entities.

~Enslavement and Sexual Slavery: The elements of both enslavement and sexual slavery in the rolling text which emphasizes "purchasing, selling, lending or bartering" and similar deprivations of liberty would exclude many situations of slavery. The elements must therefore be modified to de-emphasize the commercial exchange element. Further the acts of forced labor and forcing others into a servile status, dropped from the definition at the last prepcom, must be re-incorporated.

~Persecution: The proposal in footnote 21 that the fundamental rights be 'universally' recognized
diverges from the Rome language, further narrows the crime from current international law, and
should be rejected

~Genuine Consent: A footnote must be added to the term "genuine consent" in the crime of
enforced sterilization to ensure that it is understood to mean voluntary and informed consent as well as capacity to give consent.

Rules of Procedure and Evidence:

~US Proposal regarding Article 98/UN-ICC Agreement: The U.S. Proposed Rule under Article 98
and the Supplemental Document to the Rome Treaty would substantially alter the Rome Statute and must be rejected. The proposal re-introduces a more powerful role for the Security Council over cases that can be brought before the Court and the possibility of exemptions for peacekeepers.

~Definition of victim: The definition of victim should be based on the UN Declaration of Basic
Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power and should recognize victims who
have suffered environmental and cultural damage as well as survivors closely associated with victims who may not be formally recognized in domestic law.

~Victim participation and notification: The Rules should allow victim participation at all appropriate
stages of the proceedings.

~Disclosure: The Rules must ensure that evidence which may be confidential or private is not
disclosed without the knowledge of affected victims.

~Evidence in cases of sexual violence: The current statements of rules of evidence in cases of sexual violence, concerning victims' consent and sexual conduct, should be adopted without further dilution.

~Privileges: All communications between the witness and medical doctors, psychiatrists,
psychologists or therapeutic counselors, whether secular or religious, and including those in the
Victim Witness Unit, should be automatically privileged, and not subject to disclosure at trial, unless the client consents to such disclosure.