Re-shaping our words, re-shaping our world: crimes against humanity and other signs of the times

This article employs the methods of discourse analysis (speech act theory (SAT), semiotics) to analyze the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia's (ICTY) precedent-setting ruling which classified rape and sexual enslavement as crimes against humanity. Through the Tribunal's speech acts of rendering a judgment and of finding defendants guilty, the Tribunal declared that rape is no longer considered an intrinsic part of war. Despite this advancement in International Humanitarian Law, a discourse analysis of the Tribunal's speech acts reveals a fault line in human rights discourse concerning the historical dual categorization of women: as "women" and as "human." This fault line is evidenced by a series of fissures which expose the instability of this categorization. The presence of these fissures challenges the world community, through entities such as the Tribunal, to continue to struggle with this categorization and thus continue to re-shape the realm of human rights. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Inc.