Genocidal rape Genocidal rape is a term used to describe the actions of a group who have carried out acts of mass rape during wartime against their perceived enemy as part of a genocidal campaign . During the Yugoslav civil war and the Rwandan genocide the mass rapes that had been an integral part of those conflicts brought the concept of genocidal rape to international prominence . While war rape has been a recurrent feature in conflicts throughout history , it has usually been looked upon as a by - product of conflict , and not an integral part of military policy . Instances of mass rape during wartime which have been defined as genocidal rape were the mass rapes during the Bangladesh liberation war , the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia and during the Rwandan Genocide . Genocide debate . Scholars argue that the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide should state that mass rape is a genocidal crime . Other scholars argue that genocidal rape is already included in the definition under article two of the convention . Catherine MacKinnon argues that the victims of genocidal rape are used as a substitute for the entire ethnic group , that rape is used as a tool , with the target being the destruction of the entire ethnic group . Siobhan Fisher has argued that forced impregnation and not the rape itself constitutes genocide . She says , " Repeated rape alone is still ‘ just ’ rape , but rape with the intent to impregnate is something more . " Lisa Sharlach argues that this definition is too narrow because these mass rapes should not be defined as genocide based solely on those raped having being forcibly impregnated . Documented instances . In the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( DRC ) it is estimated that in 2011 alone there were 400 , 000 rapes . In the DRC the genocidal rape is focused on the destruction of family and communities . An interview with a survivor gave an account of gang rape , forced cannibalism of a fetus taken from an eviscerated woman and child murder . In the ongoing War in Darfur the Janjaweed militias have carried out actions described as genocidal rape , with not just women , but children also being raped , as well as babies being bludgeoned to death and the sexual mutilation of victims being commonplace . During the Second Sino - Japanese War the Imperial Japanese Army during the Battle of Nanking carried out a genocidal rape known as the Rape of Nanking , described by Adam Jones as " one of the most savage instances of genocidal rape " . The violence saw tens of thousands of women gang raped and killed . During the Rwandan genocide the violence took a gender specific form , with women and girls being targeted in a systematic campaign of sexual assault . It is estimated that between 250 , 000 and 500 , 000 were victims of rape . Those who survived the genocidal rape found themselves stigmatised , and for many they also discovered they were infected with HIV . This has resulted in these women being denied their rights to property and inheritance as well as their employment chances being restricted . The first person convicted for genocidal rape was Pauline Nyiramasuhuko . In 1996 Beverly Allen wrote " Rape Warfare : The Hidden Genocide in Bosnia - Herzegovina and Croatia " in which the term genocidal rape was first introduced , she used the term to describe the actions of the Serbian armed forces who had a policy of rape with the intention of genocide . In her book she compares genocidal rape to biological warfare . During the conflict in Bosnia Allen gave a definition of genocidal rape as " a military policy of rape for the purpose of genocide currently practiced in Bosnia - Herzegovina and Croatia by the Yugoslav army the Bosnian Serb forces and the irregular Serb forces known as Chetniks " Coverage of the mass rapes during the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Serbian forces in the 1990s began the analysis over the use of rape as being a part of genocide . Catherine MacKinnon argues that the mass rapes during the conflict " were a simultaneous expression of misogyny and genocide " , and argues that rape can be used as a form of extermination .