11. The ICC’s Role in Countering Patriarchal Claims in Reproductive Justice

This chapter discusses the impact of the Ongwen case in changing the patriarchal fear of criminalising forced pregnancy as a means of achieving reproductive autonomy. On 4 February 2021, the ICC’s Trial Chamber IX pioneered international criminal jurisprudence by convicting a defendant, for the first time with charges of forced marriage as an inhumane act and forced pregnancy. Although the crime of forced pregnancy is explicitly listed in the ICC Statute, its narrow definition is the reflection of the patriarchal fear of its criminalization as a means of interfering with national laws on abortion. The chapter analyses the negotiations of the Elements of Crimes, the ICC Statute provisions and other related discussions on the gendered nature of this crime, and the intersecting grounds that motivate its commission. The author argues that the ICC has a prominent role in addressing states’ attempts to limit the right to reproductive autonomy as explicitly depicted in its drafting history. In doing so, the chapter introduces the feminist strategy of norm transfer in order to explore how legal standards created at the level of international criminal law make their way into domestic contexts. Finally, the chapter evaluates the effect that the Ongwen judgement can have on domestic reproductive justice.