SUFFOLK TRANSNATIONAL LAW REVIEW VOL. 33:1                  I. INTRODUCTION "I deplore the fact that sexual and gender’based violence continues to be used as a weapon of war in African conflicts . . . Every effort must be made to halt this odious practice, and bring the perpetrators to justice." 2 Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary’General, 7 July 2004 Much attention has been paid to violence against women and female children during times of turmoil. 3 After conducting interviews in the conflict’ridden Darfur region of Sudan, Doctors Without Borders reported that 28 percent of women interviewed identified themselves as victims of gang rape. 4 During the unrest in Uganda, The Lord’s Resistance Army rebels have consistently used sexual assault on the female civilian population as a method of intimidation and control. 5 Sexual violence also affected a large majority of Liberia’s female population during the country’s recent 1. Senior Fellow, Institute for International Law and Security at Georgetown University, Adjunct Lecturer, Master of Arts Program in Conflict Resolution and Department of Government at Georgetown University; J.D., The Georgetown University Law School; B.S., The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. 2. Press Release, Kofi Annan, Former United Nations Secretary’General, Africa Cannot Develop Unless Women Exercise Real Power, Says Secretary General in Message to Addis Ababa Session, U.N. Doc. SG/SM/9408, AFR/991 (July 7, 2004). 3. This piece will focus on conflict in Africa, but of course, violence against women is present in conflicts around the globe. 4. GENOCIDE INTERVENTION FUND, DARFUR: GENDERED VIOLENCE AND RAPE AS A WEAPON OF GENOCIDE 1 (2005), http://www.ncdsv.org/images/DarfurGenderedViolenceRapeWeapon.pdf. 5         , Hum. Rts. Watch 12(A) July 2003, at 28’29,   http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/uganda0703/uganda0703.pdf;         ! "# $ %$" &’( &)*&+ ’&,,-( available at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/uganda0703/uganda0703.pdf.