28 No. 78 JUSTICE question of how to ascribe responsibility for crimes of conflict related sexual violence when these are perpetrated in a mass attack, preventing the ability to identify specific assailants and link them to specific victims or a specific assault. The fitting response on both levels lies in understanding the distinctive characteristics of CRSV and identifying the unique challenges inherent in CRSV. Outlining these elements clarifies why a different and distinct paradigm is required for CRSV, one capable of providing it with an appropriate legal response. As a direct consequence of the need to adhere to the stringent principles of criminal law, the distinctive paradigm must be based on the highest legal threshold and not seek to lower it or undermine the necessary substantive and evidentiary standards. Deviating from these principles or lowering the threshold would compromise the credibility and validity of the proposed legal roadmap. Having established these principles, I will now embark upon the complex and convoluted path towards achieving accountability for crimes of conflict related sexual violence. Characteristics of Conflict Related Sexual Violence Conflict related sexual violence is aimed at harming not only an individual's autonomy but also the community at large. A central objective of such attacks is to strike at the core of a community's existence, to destabilize it, and to instill terror and fear.4 The use of CRSV stems from both its availability and accessibility as a “weapon” of war, generally directed at defenseless populations such as women and children, and because sexual violence undermines the ethos of community procreation and continuity, its development, prosperity and capacity for reproduction. In doing so, it sends the community a profoundly destabilizing message. Unlike sexual violence directed at the individual, CRSV does not take place behind closed doors; it is often perpetrated in public to deepen and amplify the harm inflicted upon the community.5 The imposition of fear and terror is intensified when members of the community witness crimes of sexual violence firsthand.6 It can be assumed that rapidly developing technologies may lead to exploitation of social media platforms to magnify even further the dimensions of harm to the community.7 The fear of CRSV is harrowing. Survivors of the October 7 attack have not infrequently testified that they would have preferred to die rather than be subject to sexual violence.8 Recognition of the ramifications of this fear leads assailants who employ sexual violence as a weapon of war to continue to do so. Sexual violence is perpetrated in various forms, each of which undermines the community's vitality, continuity, and sexual identity. In practice, the amplitude of acts that constitute CRSV is broader than that recognized in law as sexual violence directed against the individual. At times, it also encompasses acts that would not “normally” be perceived as sexual crimes and, at times, do not even constitute an act prohibited under domestic penal law. Examples 4. Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, “Rethinking the Concept of Harm and Legal Categorizations of Sexual Violence During War,” 1 THEORETICAL INQ. L. 307 (2000). 5. UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), “Towards Meaningful Accountability for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Linked to Terrorism,” 11, 8–9 (2023), available at https://shorturl.at/kC53W [hereinafter CTED report]. 6. Supra note 4, at 335-336. 7. An example of the use of documentation of violence and cruelty to echo the acts (this case does not involve sexual violence crimes) can be found in the footage of a film that was broadcast live during the October 7 attack, documenting the holding of Zachi Idan's family by terrorists, after his daughter was murdered. See Maya Cohen, “His Daughter Was Murdered in Front of His Eye, His Family Was Documented in a Traumatic Video: the Story of Zachi Idan,” MAARIV (Feb. 27, 2025) available at https://l1nq.com/H7xam; in this context, it is noteworthy that alongside the concern regarding the publicization of the “products” of a violent attack, there may also be an opposite tendency, namely the avoidance of documenting sexual violence in order to conceal evidence of these crimes. 8. See e.g. the testimony of Nova survivor Tali Biner: Naama Kadosh, “A Testimony in the Committee for the Advancement of Women: ‘I Wanted To Die To Not Get Caught By The Terrorists,’” I24NEWS (Oct. 7, 2024), available at https:// sl1nk.com/KguoQ
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