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5 Hastings Women's L.J. 143 (1994)
The Civil Lawsuit as a Remedy for International Human Right Violations against Women

handle is hein.journals/haswo5 and id is 151 raw text is: The Civil Lawsuit as a Remedy for International Human Rights Violations Against Women Beth Stephens* * In the late 1970s, three young Ethiopian women were brutally tortured by Kelbessa Negewo, an Ethiopian security official. One of them later recognized Negewo working at the hotel where she was employed in Atlanta, Georgia. * In 1989, Sister Dianna Ortiz, a U.S. nun, was kidnapped, raped and otherwise tortured by security forces in Guatemala under the command of General Hector Gramajo. Gramajo then left Guatema- la to study at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. * Thousands of women in Bosnia-Herzegovina have been raped and subjected to other forms of sexual assault by Bosnian Serb forces. The self-proclaimed head of the Bosnian Serbs came to New York in early 1993, buying time for his troops while he attended meetings at the United Nations. INTRODUCTION Despite these gross human rights abuses, none of the men responsible for these or for countless similar crimes against women around the world has been brought to justice in his home country. The perpetrators have been protected by governments which instigate and condone such abuses and by the all-too-common acceptance of male violence against women. If a government actually seeks to hold human rights abusers accountable, those responsible frequently seek refuge in another country-often, the United States. When the abuses take place during a war, as in Bosnia- * B.A. 1976, Harvard University; J.D. 1980, University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall). Ms. Stephens, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, is counsel in Doe v. Karadii6, No. 93-0878 (S.D.N.Y. filed Feb. 11, 1993) and several of the related international human rights lawsuits currently pending in U.S. federal courts and cited herein. The author wishes to thank Jennifer Green as well as the many other colleagues who offered their comments on this and related projects. HASTINGS WOMEN'S LAW JOURNAL