Women and Armed Conflict

(This paper was presented in LL.M. Class, Nepal Law Campus @ 2011 )

War and conflict affect people and the whole community including women and girls at the time of war and conflict and aftermath as well whether be it in Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Timor, Afghanistan or Nepal. However, it is obvious that women and girls are particularly affected because of their status in society and their sex. In many cases, rape is used as a tactic of war. Likewise, murder, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy and forced sterilization are some other forms of violence that are used against women and girls during the armed conflicts. It is estimated that close to 90 per cent of current war casualties are civilians, the majority of whom are women and children, compared to a century ago when 90 per cent of those who lost their lives were military personnel.
In this light, the following facts show the grave reality of war and armed conflict in the world:
1. During the conflict, sexual violence against women is employed as a tactic of war. For example, up to 500,000 women were raped, many at gunpoint, in Rwanda in 1994.
2. Women are often raped to humiliate the men to whom they are related (the men are often forced to witness the assault).
3. In societies where ethnicity is inherited through the male line, “enemy” women are raped and forced to bear children.
4. Women are kidnapped and used as sexual slaves to service troops, as well as to cook for them and carry their loads from camp to camp. They are purposely infected with HIV.
On the other hand, women should not be viewed only as victims of war because their role is diverse during armed conflict such as women warriors, breadwinners, peace negotiators and community leaders. Therefore, the degree of affect of and involvement in the arm conflict is different to different categories of women and girls.
WOMEN AND ARMED CONFLICT: INVOLVEMENT AND CONSEQUENCES
During armed conflict, women can be members of the civilian populations and women can be members of warring parties as women combatants, organizers, planner, leaders and managers of the armed conflicts. Similarly, they can act as peace negotiators in the grass root level.
a) Civilians and Victims: As members of the civilian populations, women and girls- like men and boys - are subjected to innumerable acts of violence during situations of armed conflict. They suffer both direct and indirect effects of armed conflicts. They bear great responsibility of being breadwinner and head of family as during armed conflict, the men members of family join or flee the fighting or die or go missing. Likewise, they are all too often harassed, intimidated and attacked in their homes, while moving around their village and its environs and when passing checkpoints. This category of women later becomes widows, refugees and internally displaced persons in many instances.
b) Women Warriors/Combatants: In armed conflict, it seems that women are joining the armed forces, voluntarily and involuntarily, performing both support and combatant roles including "suicide bombers". For instance, in the United States military, "overall, 14 percent of active duty personnel are women" and of the US forces who served in the 1990-1991 Gulf War, 40,000 were women; up to a third of the fighting forces of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) involved in the civil war in Sri Lanka are women. At the same time, many women are supporting the hostilities through providing their men folk moral support needed to wage war.
c) Peace negotiators: During armed conflict and post armed conflict situation, women play a role of peace negotiators and help in peace building processes. They perform a constructive role in handling war widows, victims and families gravely affected. In many cases, emergence of leadership is also seen. However, they are always made a target by either of warring parties on the charge of being spy and informant to the adverse party.
LEGAL FRAMEWORK ON WOMEN AND ARMED CONFLICT:
Regarding Women and Armed Conflict, Geneva Conventions, Security Council Resolutions and Beijing Platform for Action 1995 are crucial. Generally, humanitarian laws treaties recognize the need to give women special protection according to their specific needs. The Conventions and Protocols protect women (and men) as members of the civilian populations not taking part in the armed conflict and women (and men) as members of members of the armed forces are also protected when captured by the enemy.
In case of women not taking part into the hostilities and are qualified as civilians, they are protected by Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions. Particularly, the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 1949, and the Additional Protocols of 1977 provide that women shall especially be protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against humiliating and degrading treatment, rape, enforced prostitution or any form of indecent assault. Likewise, Additional Protocol II relative to the Protection of Victims on Non International Armed Conflicts stipulates in general terms that "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, rape, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault" are forbidden. In pursuant to Protocol II, in case women are arrested, detained or interned in relation to the hostilities, "except when men and women of a family are accommodated together, women shall be held in quarters separated from those of men and shall be under the immediate supervision of women". Moreover, at any case, women as civilian population shall not be the object of attack.
For women as taking part in hostilities, the Third Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War that is applicable to the international armed conflicts stipulates that prisoners of war shall be treated humanely at all times. Beside this general protection, in accordance to Article 14, paragraph 2, women are also afforded special protection that "women shall be treated with all the regard due to their sex." However, women (and men) who take an active part in the hostilities in a non international armed conflict do not have prisoner of war status when they fall into enemy hands but they should be treated as per provisions of Additional Protocol II. Women have a right to special treatment there under such as separate dormitories for men and women and for separate sanitary conveniences.
In 1995, Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action forwarded 12 points programmes and in March 2010, the Commission on the Status of Women will undertake a fifteen-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly. Among those 12 points, women and armed conflict is also one thrust area whereas other areas included are: Women and Poverty, Education and Training for Women, Women and Health, Violence against Women, Women and Economy, Women in Power and Decision making, Institutional Mechanisms for Advancement of Women, Human Rights of Women, Women and Media, Women and Environment and The Girl Child.
In October 2000, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, which urges for women’s genuine and equitable participation in peace negotiations in war zones and the aftermath and recently in 2008, resolution 1820 was adopted in order to halt acts of sexual violence against civilians in conflict zones.
The core of Resolution 1325 lies on ensure increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict by member states along with having drawn the attention of all actors involved, when negotiating and implementing peace agreements, to adopt a gender perspective, including, inter alia:
(a) The special needs of women and girls during repatriation and resettlement and for rehabilitation, reintegration and post-conflict reconstruction;
(b) Measures that support local women’s peace initiatives and indigenous processes for conflict resolution, and that involve women in all of the implementation mechanisms of the peace agreements;
(c) Measures that ensure the protection of and respect for human rights of women and girls, particularly as they relate to the constitution, the electoral system, the police and the judiciary.
Another focus of it includes call for all parties to armed conflict to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse, and all other forms of violence in situations of armed conflict.
Similarly, Resolution 1820 demands the immediate and complete cessation by all parties to armed conflict of all acts of sexual violence against civilians with immediate effect and focuses on the note that rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, or a constitutive act with respect to genocide along with giving strong stress on the need for the exclusion of sexual violence crimes from amnesty provisions in the context of conflict resolution processes, and placing the responsibility to Member States to comply with their obligations for prosecuting persons responsible for such acts, to ensure that all victims of sexual violence, particularly women and girls, have equal protection under the law and equal access to justice, in order to end impunity for such acts as part of a comprehensive approach to seeking sustainable peace, justice, truth, and national reconciliation. Likewise, resolutions 1882 (children and armed conflict), 1888 and 1889 (women, peace and security) should be given serious consideration in this regard.
WOMEN, ARMED CONFLICT AND PEACE PROCESS: NEPALESE SCENARIO
The Arm conflict wagged by the CPN Maoist took place 1996 and 2006 and Maoist proclaimed it as people's war and fight against feudalism, exclusion, structural inequality, discrimination (caste, class, gender, geographical), abuse of state power, poverty, unemployment and failure of governance in Nepal. The conflict formally came to end with the Comprehensive Peace Accord that was signed by political partied in November 2006.
Point 7.6.1 of Peace Accord reads: "Both sides fully agree to provide special protection to the rights of women and children, to immediately prohibit all types of violence against women and children, including child labour, as well as sexual exploitation and harassment, and not to include or use children who are eighteen years or below. . ."
On the other hand, the question is women who have taken part in the hostilities; can they go back to traditional roles easily? If the answer is big 'No', the reintegration of women back to the society seems to be more problematic. In addition to it, handling war widows, victims and families gravely affected thereby require more serious concerns for institutionalizing durable peace in the society. However, in Nepal, it is expedient to search a common ground for institutionalization of durable Peace, meaningful Involvement of women in all pertinent national issues, women involvement in assisting War Widows, involvement of women in Reintegration of conflict victims and implementation & monitoring of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and other related resolutions.
CONCLUSION:
In relation to women and armed conflict, the crucial issue is violence against women. Like most violence that occurs in the course of armed conflict, violence against women is a weapon of war, a tool used to achieve military objectives such as ethnic cleansing, spreading political terror, breaking the resistance of a community, rewarding soldiers, intimidation, or to extract information. However, as per international humanitarian law, state and parties to armed conflict must do their utmost to uphold respect for the safety and dignity of women in wartime. It is expedient that the responsibility of improving the plight of women, specially women as civilian population and also not forgetting women as combatants when falls in the enemy hand in times of war must be shared by everyone.
REFERENCES:
1. Charlotte Lindsey, "Women and War- An Overview", (International Humanitarian Law: A Reader for South Asia, L. Maybee and B. Chakka(eds.)), ICRC, New Delhi, 2007, pp. 258-273
2. 'Women and Peace: Socio-legal Perspectives in Nepalese Context', a seminar paper by Rukamanee Maharjan, 26 December 2009, Kathmandu.
3. Women and Conflict, Tool Kit, USAID, 2007
4. Four Geneva Conventions and Optional Protocol II
5. UN Security Council passed Resolution 1325 and 1820

(P.S. The paper was furnished with citations wherever cited and due to technical reason citations are missing in the post. My humble apology in this regard- I m not a plugiarist)