Date of Award
Spring 5-18-2019
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
Advisor(s)
Idalia Bastiaens
Abstract
The aim of this study is to investigate how sexual violence rises to the level of genocide. The thesis puts the ongoing conflict in Myanmar between the Rohingya and Buddhist majority into discussion with the Bosnian conflict between Serbs and Bosnian Muslims during the Yugoslav Wars. In discussing the nature of these two conflicts, this thesis will provide evidence that sexual violence can rise to the level of genocide when it is used to interfere with the free reproduction of a group. The thesis will demonstrate that sexual violence was perpetrated in these conflicts with overall intent to homogenize the region by carrying out two "sub-intention": by forcibly transferring children through forced impregnation and by placing limits on child birth through forced displacement and humiliation/victimization. These two "sub-intentions" demonstrate ways in which sexual violence can be found to have been perpetrated with the mens rea, intent to commit, and dolus specialis, special intent to commit harm, of genocide.
Recommended Citation
Zirpoli, Perry Joseph, "Establishing the Mens Rea of Genocide within "Sub-Intentions": A Study of Systematic Sexual Violence in Myanmar and Bosnia" (2019). Senior Theses. 23.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/international_senior/23
