Warning: This story contains details of sexual violence that may be upsetting to readers.

We’ve become all too familiar with wars and the misery they cause.

Yet, as Western law professor Valerie Oosterveld points out, the sexual and gender-based violence that occurs in all wars often goes under the radar.

“Unfortunately, rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence in war are incredibly common. Virtually every armed conflict in the world over millennia has had incidences of rape and other forms of this kind of violence.”

Valerie recounts a chilling example from the brutal armed conflict in the African country of Sierra Leone in the 1990s. Amidst the fighting, two of the warring factions would routinely capture girls and force them into life as “wives” for their fighters.

“The girls were expected to submit to rape on demand,” Valerie explains. “They were expected to cook and clean for those fighters. They were expected to essentially be slaves, including sexual slaves. Sometimes this would lead to pregnancies, and the girls were forced to bear and raise the children of those so-called unions.”

This injustice captured enough attention to lead to the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators by an international body called the Special Court for Sierra Leone. It was the first court in the world to convict individuals for forced marriage and sexual slavery in war. However, the Special Court was an ad hoc body, created in response to war crimes, much like previous courts established after World War II, and the genocides in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. What was needed was a permanent body. That vision was realized in 2002 with the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague, Netherlands.  

Valerie has dedicated 26 years as a legal scholar exploring how to investigate and prosecute sexual and gender-based crimes in war and other atrocities with sensitivity and care. Her work has influenced ICC policies on these crimes and she has also appeared before the ICC to provide expert testimony on the crime of forced marriage.  

“It's important to properly label crimes so victims can see justice for the specific suffering they endured. These groups use rape as a weapon of war. They target women, girls, men and boys to demoralize and control the civilian population. They even use this abuse as a reward for their troops.”  

In 2023, Valerie was appointed Special Advisor on Crimes Against Humanity to the ICC’s chief prosecutor. In this role, she provides advice on the development of strategies and policies concerning crimes against humanity, collaborates with other advisers and offers training to the prosecutor’s staff.

“My colleagues and I do this work because it can help open doors for victims, allowing them to share their experiences in a way that leads to accountability and reparations, and can help change victims’ lives. We can't change what happened in the past, but we can help to give them a voice.”