Too often, the concept of ‘gender crimes’ is understood as being synonymous with sexual crimes or crimes against women. This training session will address the relationship between sexual violence and gender-based violence, and will highlighted the gendered aspects of other international crimes such as genocide, enslavement, torture and persecution. In addition, it will examine how acts of sexual and gender-based violence against both men and women have been addressed by international criminal law, and will critically analyse the legal, institutional and evidentiary obstacles which have led to such crimes historically being minimized or overlooked.

From January to December 2017, Niamh Hayes was seconded by UN Women as an expert advisor on gender, working in the Investigative Analysis Section of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. She will shortly take up a position as a Legal Officer in the Gender and Children Unit of the Office of…