As defined by Amnesty International
From “The Quest for International Justice: Defining the Crimes and Defenses for the International Criminal Court” IOR 40/006/1997adopted 01/02/1997.

2.2.4 Rape, Enforced Prostitution and Other Sexual
Rape of detainees by government officials or by armed opposition groups on a systematic or large scale is a crime against humanity, which should be within the jurisdiction of the international criminal court. Rape in such circumstances is a form of torture, but because of its unique characteristics it also deserves being identified as a separate crime against humanity. Enforced prostitution on a systematic or large scale when government officials or armed opposition groups force detainees to carry out such conduct should also be considered as a crime against humanity which should be within the court's jurisdiction. Some forms of other sexual abuse of detainees by government officials or armed opposition groups committed on a systematic or large scale may amount to crimes against humanity. For the same reasons that they are prohibited in international and non-international armed conflict, they should be considered crimes against humanity.

Rape as defined by the Geneva Convention, adopted August 12, 1949 by the Diplomatic Conference for the Establishment of International Conventions for the Protection of Victims of War:

Article 27: Protected persons are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their persons, their honor, their family rights, their religious convictions and practices, and their manners and customs. They shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public curiosity. Women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honor, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault.


The NY Times (3/01/01) ran a front-page story on "Sexual Violence as a Tool of War, Pattern Emerging in East Timor." As East Timor recovers from the violence and destruction that followed its vote for independence from Indonesia in 1999, more and more stories are emerging that dozens, even hundreds of rapes, often involving torture and egregious humiliation have taken place in East Timor. Investigators say it has become clear that the crimes of the Indonesian military and the local militias it commanded — opponents of independence — include not only massacres, widespread destruction and mass deportations but also rape and sexual slavery on a wide and possibly systematic scale. Many of these sexual acts were planned, organized and sustained and it is reported that militia members and soldiers connived "to abduct women or share them like chattel, or in some cases forcibly taking women across the border into West Timor where the women were raped daily and made to perform household chores."