Seeking Justice for War Crimes Against Women: Potential and Limits of International Solidarity Movements

The contribution aims at analysing the role of international solidarity movements in seeking justice for international war crimes against women. Through the example of the ‘comfort women’ case, the article examines the ways in which these international solidarity movements have used international law instruments and institutions to promote the idea of an individual right to reparation as a means by which victims can obtain justice. Two specific legal features of this case show the international solidarity movements’ engagement with international law over the last decades: first, the establishment of the Women’s Tokyo Tribunal, and, second, the judicial mobilisation of international civil society actors before national courts. It is argued that the international solidarity movements have informed the legal concepts, paradigms, and language used to legally analyse the ‘comfort women’ case, and, to a certain extent, they have influenced some recent jurisprudential developments, especially in the legal arguments invoked by the national courts that have decided on the claims of ‘comfort women’. Ultimately, the ‘comfort women’ case demonstrates how the solidarity of international civil society actors towards a specific group of victims can be essential in order, first, to achieve post-conflict justice and, second, to progressively develop international law towards the advancement of legal standards of protection for individuals.