The Tribunal found that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to establish that the soldiers who were directly responsible for the commission of crimes were the defendant’s subordinates. It did not therefore find him criminally responsible as a superior officer, but it did find that he had reason to know that murders and acts of sexual violence were being committed and that he aided and abetted in their commission by allowing them to take place on or near the premises of the Bureau Communal. By virtue of his position of authority, his encouragement sent a clear signal of official tolerance for sexual violence, without which these acts could not have taken place.

Rape and Sexual Violence as Genocide

Rape and Sexual Violence as Torture and as a Crime against Humanity

The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment does not catalogue specific acts in its definition of torture, focusing rather on the conceptual frame work of state sanctioned violence. (...) Like torture, rape is used for such purposes as intimidation, degradation, humiliation, discrimination, punishment, control or destruction of a person. Like torture, rape is a violation of personal dignity, and rape in fact constitutes torture when inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.” The Chamber went on to indicate that sexual violence “is not limited to physical invasion of the human body and may include acts which do not involve penetration or even physical contact.” The Tribunal clarified that “coercive circumstances need not be evidenced by a show of physical force. 

Threats, intimidation, extortion and other forms of duress which prey on fear or desperation may constitute coercion, and coercion may be inherent in certain circumstances, such as armed conflict.” Furthermore, rape and sexual violence constitute crimes against humanity when they are committed as part of a systematic and widespread attack on a civilian population carried out on discriminatory grounds such as nationality, ethnic group, race, religion, or political ideas. Finally, the judgment indicated that sexual violence falls within the categories of “other inhumane acts,” “outrages upon personal dignity,” and “serious physical or mental suffering.”