Browsing by Author "Andrew, Adetokunbo Borokini."

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    International humanitarian law and sexual violence in armed conflicts
    (Department International Law, Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 2024) Andrew, Adetokunbo Borokini.
    This study discussed the origin and evolution of International Humanitarian Law from historical perspective and the phenomenon of sexual violence during armed conflicts. It examined the impact of International Humanitarian Law on sexual violence in armed conflicts; and identified and discussed the challenges of International Humanitarian Law in checking sexual violence in armed conflicts. These were with a view to facilitating a more robust understanding of the phenomenon of sexual violence and highlighting the challenges of International Humanitarian Law in curbing sexual violence in armed conflicts, and proffer solutions. The study relied on both primary and secondary sources of information. The primary source included the United Nations Charter 1945, Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, Geneva Convention 1949, Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergences and Armed Conflicts 1974 and Judgements of International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, International Criminal Court and other regional and global Conventions and Declarations such as the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women 1993, Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa 2003 and European Convention on Violence Against Women 2011. The secondary source comprised books, journal articles, newspaper publications, conference proceedings and the materials source from the Internet. The data collected was subjected to content analysis. Results showed that International Humanitarian Law was an offshoot of International Law that came to prominence after the Second World War and over the years its principles have been recognized and applied to armed conflicts globally. Furthermore, the results showed that sexual violence has been associated with armed conflicts right from time immemorial and despite the modern approach of giving warfare a human face, sexual violence persists in armed conflicts. Also, since its emergence and evolution as a body of substantive law, International and Humanitarian Law principles have been recognized and utilized as instruments for combating sexual violence in armed conflict situations. However, result revealed that the utilisation of International Humanitarian Law principles in this respect had proved ineffective in many cases due to a number of factors. Prominent among these were: inadequate enforcement mechanisms, global politics, proliferation of non-state actors, sovereignty of states, lack of enforcement mechanism of international tribunals, etc. The study concluded that International Humanitarian Law was not adequate in combating sexual violence in armed conflict situations.