Dear Congolese rebels, please stop using boys as child soldiers. But feel free to continue raping little girls. Sincerely, the International Criminal Court.

So the ICC handed down it's first verdict a few days ago; Thomas Lubanga, Congolese warlord, was found guilty.

Excellent! The man ruined lives for years, committed egregious acts of violence, and he deserves to be locked away for the rest of his piteous life.

He abducted children from homes and playgrounds, and recruited the boys as child soldiers, and turned the girls into sex slaves.

Yet was he found guilty of, in the ICC?

Recruiting and using child soldiers.

That's all.

Despite the fact that there was testimony and evidence proving that he did indeed recruit and use girls as sex slaves and used sexual violence against them. But he was not found guilty of this.

Why?

The prosecution did not bother to include those particular charges when it initially filed its case.

I am absolutely disgusted. What conceivable reason is there to include charges of using child soldiers, but NOT include charges of widespread sexual violence?

The boys have got their justice this week. What about the girls? What about the of girls who were brutally raped, gang-raped, mutilated, forced to deliver babies, and who died in childbirth? 

What about them? They are simply ignored by the international justice system?

If the liberal international courts won't fight for the rights of abused and enslaved women, who will?

What message does this verdict send to rebels and militias in the region, and around the world?

"Don't ever, EVER force boys to be soldiers for your armies, or the weight of the international justice system will come down upon you. But by all means, feel free to do as you like with the girls. We ignore that sort of thing".

It's high time that rape started being treated as the unforgivable atrocity it is, rather than just a symptom of war.

The ICC has failed to carry out justice, the prosecutors should be fucking ashamed of themselves.