The 1990s proved a turning point for international law and international institutions. In Europe the dissolution of the Soviet Union brought on the one hand hope that freedom and democracy would be restored in many countries, but also led to the destabilization of countries in Central Europe with unexpectedly bloody consequences. On a more global level, the aftermath of decolonization, in conjunction with shifting power balances after the end of the Cold War, ushered in unprecedented episodes of mass killing and brutality. It seemed to take the international community by surprise. The killing of an estimated 800,000 citizens in Rwanda in 1994 and the killing of an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 during the Yugoslav conflict are but two examples of the tremendous human toll taken by these post-Cold War conflicts. Embedded in these numbers are the many untold acts of sexual violence, predominantly against women and children, yet increasingly sexual violence against men is coming to the foreground. Despite the surge of international and noninternational armed conflicts reflecting severe breakdowns of the rule of law, the 1990s will also be remembered as a decade which marks important and innovative steps towards advancing international justice through the development of new codes of law and legal institutions to uphold them.

Although crimes of sexual violence and efforts to punish them can be traced to ancient times, a focused international effort to end impunity for sexual violence and gender-based crime has been much longer in coming. Since the 1970s concerted efforts of the international women's movement to end the silencing and to politicize the problem of violence against women, eventually led to the recognition that sexual violence and rape are systematically used as weapons of war. This historical shift in perspective on violence against women translated into international legal recognition of the discriminatory nature of violence against women and as a violation of the fundamental human rights of women. Since the early 1990s this is firmly established in binding international human rights law.

It should furthermore be noted that the occurrence and severity of sexual violence in times of war and conflict cannot be isolated from wider cultural and social dynamics which to a large extent condone sexual violence against women as an unfortunate yet inevitable part of social life, particularly when the victim and perpetrators are intimate partners.