International Criminal Court and appropriate Law-Making Policy of Islamic Republic of Iran for Criminalizing Sexual Violence

Established mechanisms of International Criminal Court may put the non-member states in unwanted position of applying court’s jurisdiction on crimes committed by the nationals of that state or crimes committed in the territory of that state. These crimes include various forms of sexual violence which are enumerated in articles 7 and 8 of Statute under the heading of crimes against humanity and war crimes. The sole solution would be using potentials of national law to prosecute and punish perpetrators of international crimes including sexual violence against women as a substitute for proceedings of International Criminal Court. This means the necessity of criminalizing sexual violence in national legal systems, addressing current challenges and going beyond them. This issue is addressed in this paper in a descriptive-analytical method.