Patricia Viseur Sellers began working at the ICTY in July 1994, serving as the Special Advisor for Gender in the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), a role she also held for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) until February 2007.

In August 1994, ICTY Chief Prosecutor Richard Goldstone and Deputy Prosecutor Graham Blewitt asked Sellers to develop the OTP’s legal and investigative strategies for sexual violence, to address the reportedly incessant occurrence of rapes during the armed conflict in the former Yugoslavia. In this capacity, she helped develop the legal interpretation of sexual violence as a war crime, a crime against humanity, and a means to commit genocide, torture and enslavement.

„My message to the victims of sexual violence in Bosnia is “thank you for surviving, for your courage even on the lonely days, but most importantly thank you for your service to the international community, for testifying and for witnessing humanity’s perseverance.”

„As is evident, a major legal strategy of the OTP was to examine crimes of sexual violence, and not limit them to the explicit sexual provisions of the Statute, such as rape under crimes against humanity. It was incumbent on the OTP to also understand that the sexually illicit conduct could also incur guilt for the accused under the provisions of genocide, or the provisions of war crimes or crimes against humanity, which implicitly address sexually violent conduct, such as torture or cruel treatment.“

„I would also add that the Srebrenica cases had a distinct gender dimension that examined how harm was inflicted on the male and female members of the community. This is very discernable in the consistent recognition that the reproductive capacity of the Srebrenica Muslim community after the genocide was affected. The Trial Chambers from Krstić to Karadzić reiterated that: The Trial Chamber was [also] entitled to consider the long-term impact that elimination of seven to eight thousand men would have on the survival of that community. […] the destruction of such a sizable number of men would “inevitably result in the physical disappearance of the Bosnian Muslim population in Srebrenica.” […] With the majority of the men killed or officially listed as missing, their spouses are unable to remarry and consequently to have children. The physical destruction of the men therefore had severe procreative implications for the Srebrenica community, potentially consigning the community to extinction. This is an extremely significant legal holding about the crime of genocide.“

„I would suggest that most of those charged with sexual violence were convicted. However, to equate this with how much sexual violence resulted in convictions is not as straightforward to calculate. There might be one charge, such as persecution as a crime against humanity, whereby one accused, such as Mr. Karadžić, is charged with multiple instances of rape and other forms of sexual violence. In another case, a guilty plea, such as that of Dragan Nikolić or Biljana Plavšić, acknowledges being responsible for multiple acts of sexual violence. It is not an easy computation to make.„

„The jurisprudence of sexual violence that emanates from the jurisprudence of the ICTY has positively affected the subsequent construction of international and national courts and tribunals, such as the International Criminal Court, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and the Special Criminal Court in Central Africa. Additionally, several courts in national jurisdictions, such in Colombia, Guatemala, or Germany as well as the regional human rights systems in Latin America and Europe have used the precedents handed down by the ICTY’s sexual violence jurisprudence. It certainly goes without saying, the national and cantonal courts in the former Yugoslavia, especially Bosnia, have continued to use and develop the jurisprudence on sexual violence first established by the ICTY.„

„In terms of the challenges on the ground, the identification of potential witnesses who had been subjected to sexual violence was enabled by the courage of survivors/victims, and civil society groups such as Medica Zenica, who gave invaluable assistance to OTP lawyers and investigators. The location of potential witnesses who might have been in refugee camps, or expatriated to other countries, or displaced within the former Yugoslavia, posed constant difficulties. Once located, the investigators and lawyers had to conduct thorough interviews in a gender-competent manner. Each victim/survivor of sexual violence was also a survivor of many other crimes, such as detention or deportation, or was an eyewitness to pillage and murder, often of family members. Furthermore, there was a significant number of male survivors/victims who were interviewed and who eventually testified at the Tribunal. To secure their interviews and present their testimony required a combined human and professional touch.“

„The victims’ role is paramount—the bringing forth of evidence in their testimony before the Tribunal and the establishment of the historical (legal) account of international crimes. This is a service to the international community that is too often underestimated. Neither the ICTY nor the ICTR had offices for direct victim representation by counsel. However, the ICC’s recognition of victims as a party to the trials and as the due recipient of reparations is a legacy of the important contribution that ICTY victims have made to the field of international criminal law. Without the victims/survivors, there simply are no cases, no jurisprudence, and no justice.“

„My message to young professionals of international criminal law—please join us in seeking justice by developing the international and national justice mechanisms that address atrocity crimes. You are so very needed.“