Crimes against humanity

This study seeks to examine the influence of patriarchal forces, at both the local and global level, that have historically resulted in the lack of recognition of gender-specific crimes committed during and after armed conflict. By incorporating the testimonies of Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian women, this study attempts to understand sexual violence from the standpoint of women who experienced these crimes during the War in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina (1991--1995). Theories of Third World feminisms, in addition to feminist critiques concerning rape and international law, will inform this analysis of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). I intend to show that despite greater recognition of sexual violence during armed conflict in IHL, patriarchal forces continue to obfuscate the gender-specificity of these crimes.

This thesis provides a rhetorical analysis of the Western representation of the Kosovo conflict and its resolution in the year 1999. By reviewing political, scholarly and media rhetoric, the thesis examines how the dominant narrative of "genocide in Kosovo" was created in Western discourse, arguing that it gained its persuasive force from the legacy of the collective memory of the Holocaust. Using the framework of Kenneth Burke's theory of Dramatism and Walter Fisher's theory of the narrative paradigm, this thesis aims to understand how language, analogy and collective memory function in rhetoric to shape audience perceptions and guide political and military action. The study illustrates the mechanics of the operating rhetoric by analyzing two primary sources, the rhetoric of U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.