Chapter 4, “Sex at War,” describes how violence, sex, and war were linked in numerous and sometimes contradictory ways. The production and circulation of sexual knowledge, as well as of modern ideas about sexual desire and its management, became intimately intertwined with not just nation-building but also overseas expansion – a process that further consolidated nation-building at home. The Japanese imperialist project spurred the production of new models of citizenship grounded in new sexual regimes often imposed by violence, be it the organized mass rape of women behind the frontlines or the disorganized sexual violence committed by troops. Yet the Asia-Pacific War also constituted an unprecedented vast web of sexual incitement, suppression, and violence – much of which was organized and systematic and most of which victimized women. Given that acknowledgment, commemoration, and reparation for these atrocities remain contested today, the issue of the wartime sexual-slavery system has both “gone overseas” and become a core bargaining chip in the revisionist movement.

Contemporary abolitionists frequently turn to anti-slavery abolitionism for inspiration. This chapter argues that they should look to the more ambivalent legacy of anti-prostitution abolitionism in order to learn from earlier mistakes. It examines the League of Nation’s investigations into global sex trafficking in the interwar period to explore what the study of anti-trafficking abolitionism can reveal to contemporary activists and policymakers. It suggests that anti-prostitution abolitionist campaigns of the 1920s and 1930s warn of the oversized influence of philanthropists on the construction of global agendas; the dangers of the Global North shaping the terms of international knowledge production that become implicated with racialized understandings of trafficking; the (un)intended outcomes of stricter border control and empowered carceral systems that target women assumed to be migratory prostitutes.

The human trafficking of civilian populations often arises as a consequence of armed conflict. It is during conflict when vulnerable populations are at risk of exploitation by traffickers, no more so than women and girls sold into sexual servitude. Trafficking not only occurs as a means for perpetrators to profit from war, but as an instrument to wage war. This chapter first provides a survey of existing sources of international humanitarian law (IHL) and international criminal law (ICL) to identify correlates between these norms and the internationally accepted definition of trafficking in persons. It then considers the scope to prosecute trafficking in persons as a crime against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC). A focus on this provision is warranted given that it is the first in the history of ICL/IHL to explicitly acknowledge that ‘trafficking in persons’ can give rise to international responsibility. Finally, the chapter considers some of the common obstacles to securing prosecutions that arise both domestically and internationally, with particular reference to the ICC.

This chapter examines the Special Court for Sierra Leone’s legal legacy through the novel prosecution of forced marriage as a crime against humanity. In the various SCSL trials, the Prosecutor had invoked “other inhumane acts” to argue that forcing kidnapped women and girls to marry militants during the civil war constituted a crime against humanity. As the Court would ultimately only hold that the AFRC and the RUF cases met the elements of the crime against humanity of forced marriage, the chapter examines the diverging rulings of two separate trial chambers on the new crime. The chapter then analyzes the Appeals Chamber’s ruling and interpretation of the precedents from the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in progressing the recognition of gender-based crimes. The chapter goes on to assess whether the Appeals Chamber judgment was based on existing law or whether the Court had sought to progressively develop the law to recognize forced marriage as a crime against humanity. Finally, it addresses the fair trial concerns raised by the addition of new crimes during an ongoing criminal proceeding. The author concludes that the Special Court rulings in this area constitute landmark contributions to international law.