When Adding Women Matters:

Although reports of wartime atrocities in the former Yugoslavia began circulating at the onset of the conflict in 1991, it was not until news stories began featuring evidence of widespread rape and sexual violence that the general public began pressuring their leaders to effectively respond. Women’s groups around the world were particularly vocal in demanding that the international community take action to stop the rapes and to hold accountable those responsible. 2 On December 18, 1992, the U.N. Security Council (Security Council) issued a declaration condemning wartime rape, describing the rapes taking place in the former Yugoslavia as “massive, organized and systematic,” and implicitly threatening military intervention should the violations continue. The “horrific methods of ‘ethnic cleansing’” continued, and no state or international body proved willing to “stop th[e] carnage.” Unwilling to take military action it-