Acts of Annihilation: The Role of Gender in the Commission of the Crime of Genocide

Analysis of the Islamic State’s attack on the Yazidis have largely focused on the sexual enslavement of women and girls, but the barbarous gender-based assaults on women as well as men are an integral part of the group’s campaign of genocide to eradicate a religious minority. This article explores the essential role that gender plays in the planning and commission of the crime of genocide. By examining the genocides that have been committed in the twentieth century – against the Armenians, the European Jewry, the Rwandan Tutsis, and the Bosnian Muslims, it seeks to illuminates the interplay between gender and genocide and how this affects how genocides are conceived and carried out for maximum destructive effect on the victim group.