RESTORATIVE JUSTICE SOLUTIONS TO GENOCIDAL RAPE IN MYANMAR

Abstract

Although international organizations have attempted to address the complex needs of women who have suffered sexual violence in the aftermath of a conflict, their efforts have historically fallen short. Criminal tribunals, while an important tool of the international justice system, don’t always have the resources or bandwidth to adequately draw attention to the perpetration of violence against women. Women have even expressed that they felt revictimized by the justice process at the hands of outside international actors who have no connection to their history or their culture. The present analysis explores these apparent shortcomings of a retributive criminal justice framework and it establishes the importance of community-based justice mechanisms, ones which place the peace process in the hands of those who have been directly affected by the conflict. The following study utilizes the case of the Rohingya women in the ongoing conflict in Myanmar to illustrate the importance and effectiveness of this approach.