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 Wars 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. Although
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.