WUNRN
WOMEN CIVILIAN VICTIMS IN ARMED
CONFLICTS - INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW BUT PAINFUL PERSONAL
REALITIES
Many parts of this complex world are
experiencing armed conflict, war, combat. International Human Rights Law and
related high level documents are important, as are efforts for humanitarian
aid, emergency care, evacuations, services for refugees and displaced. But for
WOMEN, rebounding off war and armed conflict initiated by men, the conflict
crisis experience is very personal, exceedingly traumatic, often life
threatening.
WUNRN words to echo the voices and
emotions of women civilian victims of armed conflict, now and always, women
wanting PEACE: "What does it feel like to experience your home, your
dreams, even your family, evaporate in war, and for which you are innocent,
helpless? What does it feel like to believe in social justice, human rights,
dignity of woman and man and child, and yet starve, be displaced constantly,
have no real citizenship or identity during conflict, lose all your possessions
and yet protect the family as best you can.....to try to be strong outside, but
inside feel pain, anguish, despair, tears.....tears!"
WOMEN IN THE CROSSFIRE OF CONFLICT - Menahem Kahana/Agence
France-Presse — Getty Images
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UNHCR - UN Refugee Agency -
Resources on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict
Updated 24 April, 2014
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2013 Report of the UN
Secretary-General to the Security Council on the Protection of Civilians in
Armed Conflict
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ICRC - International Committee of
the Red Cross
PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS IN ARMED
CONFLICTS - WOMEN
International humanitarian law aims to prevent and alleviate human suffering in war without discrimination based on sex. But it does recognize that women face specific problems in armed conflict, such as sexual violence and risks to their health.
War is not just a man’s business. In today’s conflicts, the impact of fighting on women can be severe. Humanitarian law recognizes this in the general protection it affords to both women and men, as well as in some specific provisions providing additional protection to women.
In International humanitarian law, women must be “especially protected” from sexual violence. This includes rape, forced prostitution and any other form of indecent assault, all of which constitute war crimes. The threat of sexual violence against women is also prohibited. Women prisoners must be housed separately from men in particular to avoid sexual abuse.
IHL further requires that expectant mothers and mothers of young children, in particular nursing mothers, be treated with particular care. This applies, for example, with regard to the provision of food, clothing, medical assistance, evacuation and transportation.
Women are particularly vulnerable to the separation of family members and the suffering caused by the unknown fate of a missing relative, both during and after an armed conflict. Humanitarian law provides families with the right to know the fate of their missing relatives and obliges parties to armed conflicts to take all feasible measures to account for persons reported missing.
Women in the civilian population also take on major responsibility for coping with other consequences of armed conflict. War disrupts food supplies and production. Health facilities, so essential to mothers and children, are destroyed. Transport, water and fuel may be affected.
Parties to a conflict are required under humanitarian law to protect the health, economic and physical security of the civilian population. When they fail, it is often women that have to deal with the consequences. In the absence of the man who is often the breadwinner women have to ensure the family's day-to-day survival. They often have to travel long distances to find water, food, firewood, medicines and other basic necessities, thereby exposing themselves to risks to their physical safety. In addition, they often care for sick family and community members.
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According to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977, civilians and all persons not taking part in combat may under no circumstances be the object of attack and must be spared and protected. In fact, however, this principle has been undermined, because the civilian population, particularly since the Second World War, has suffered most of the consequences of armed violence.
In contemporary conflicts, the losses sustained by civilians are generally higher than those seen among weapon bearers. To make matters worse, control over the population is often one of the major issues at stake in confrontations. The development of this situation can be attributed to the rise of religious and ethnic hatreds, the collapse of State structures, the battle for control of natural resources, the vast availability of weapons, the proliferation of acts of terrorism, and the spread of so-called asymmetric conflicts.
The lack of protection of the population in armed conflicts and other situations of violence today is not due to the inadequacy of the legal framework laid down by international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL). The main cause, unfortunately, resides in the lack of respect shown by weapon bearers and their political operatives for these fundamental rules.......
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WUNRN
GENEVA CONVENTIONS & PROTOCOLS -
INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW - PROTECTION OF WOMEN & CHILDREN - CIVILIANS
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Direct Link to Full Geneva
Conventions of 1949 on International Humanitarian Law:
Additional Translations: http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/publication/p0173.htm
The four Geneva Conventions of 12
August 1949 are international treaties, ratified or acceded to by virtually all
States.
The Geneva Conventions
comprise four treaties,
and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international
law for the humanitarian treatment of war. The singular term Geneva
Convention denotes the agreements of 1949, negotiated in the aftermath of
the Second
World War (1939–45), which updated the terms of the first three treaties
(1864, 1906, 1929), and added a fourth treaty. The articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949)
extensively defined the basic, wartime rights of prisoners (civil and
military); established protections for the wounded; and established protections
for the civilians in and around a war zone. The treaties of 1949 were ratified,
in whole or with reservations, by 194 countries.[1]
Moreover, the Geneva Convention also defines the rights and protections
afforded to non-combatants, yet, because the Geneva Conventions are about
people in war, the articles do not address warfare proper —
the use of weapons
of war — which is the subject of the Hague Conventions (First Hague
Conference, 1899; Second Hague Conference 1907), and the bio–chemical
warfare Geneva Protocol (Protocol for the Prohibition of
the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of
Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, 1929). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions
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"The Geneva Conventions and
their Additional Protocols are at the core of international humanitarian law,
the body of international law that regulates the conduct of armed conflict and
seeks to limit its effects. They specifically protect people who are not
taking part in the hostilities (civilians, health workers and aid workers) and
those who are no longer participating in the hostilities, such as wounded, sick
and shipwrecked soldiers and prisoners of war."
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Bringing the Commentaries
on the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols to the 21st Century
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