Women in Armed Conflicts: Susceptible or Prey?

Abstract

Women, who become the severe victims of war whether they participate in conflicts or not. International humanitarian law (IHL) is a set of rules that pursue to limit the effects of armed conflicts. It aims at protection of those persons who are not, or are no longer participating in the conflicts, without discrimination based on sex. These persons can be men, women, or children. But since the time immemorial, it can be seen that during or after the armed conflicts, the effects of conflicts were severe to women in the form of sexual violence causing risks to their health but their partaking in armed conflicts involves much more than fortification from sexual violence. IHL provides the general as well as specific protection to women from sexual slavery, abusive arrests, forced transfers, torture and many other forms of sexual violence, discounting if they are civilians or combatants. IHL has number of provisions providing special protection to women who are the part of civilian population. The purpose of the paper is discussing these provisions of International Humanitarian Law and also weighing importance to some more norms of safety that ought to be approved during these armed conflicts taking into account the special needs of women. The paper will also throw the light on how women can possibly be categorized as susceptible or prey and if being a woman is a greater threat than being a soldier?

Keywords: International Humanitarian Law (IHL), armed conflicts, Sexual violence, Article 3 of ‘the fourth Geneva Conventions, special protection, etc.

JEL Classification: K33