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Centring War’s “Side Effects”: The Institutionalisation of Conflict-Related Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in International Law and Its Translation into National Action Plans

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Gender Roles in Peace and Security

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Abstract

Popovic and Antonakis outline the political and legal approaches to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence in context. The two authors guide the reader through existing human rights law and humanitarian and international criminal law but also national implementation strategies. Based on a comparative analysis of existing national action plans on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, this chapter highlights entry points as well as good practices and lessons learned on how to address CRSV more effectively at the national and international level drawing from feminist scholarship in international relations and the concept of militarised masculinities. Therewith, Antonakis and Popovic combine feminist academic legal, social and political research with practical implementation efforts, looking back at the development and implementation of the women, peace and security agenda in the past two decades.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The women, peace and security agenda consists of the provisions outlined in the women, peace and security resolutions: UNSCRs 1325 (2000), 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013), 2242 (2015).

  2. 2.

    More debate on SGBV committed by peacekeepers also re-centres the idea of militarised masculinities, as well as global power imbalances between the Western saviours and the Southern beneficiaries that are incorporated in all camps involved in conflict, including those that supposedly “bring peace”.

  3. 3.

    Public–private dichotomy as described in Thornton (1991). Feminist scholars have been critically reviewing the dichotomy of private and public spheres (Pratt 2016; Abu-Lughod 1998: vii; Fraser 1992: 73).

  4. 4.

    For example Art.15 (b) Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in the Times of War, Aug. 12, 1949, Art. 27, 6 U.S.T 3516, 75 U.N.T.S 287 (IV Geneva Convention).

  5. 5.

    Geneva Convention I Art. 50, Geneva Convention II Art 51, Geneva Convention III Art 130, Geneva Convention IV Art. 14, Additional Protocol I Article 11—Protection of persons and Article 85—Repression of breaches of this Protocol.

  6. 6.

    Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the protection of the Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts, Dec. 12, 1977, 1125 UNTS 609 (Additional Protocol I) article 76 “Women shall be the object of special respect and shall be protected in particular against rape, forced prostitution and any other form of indecent assault.” And article 4 (2) of Protocol II.

  7. 7.

    Furundzjua judgement and Delacic judgement cited in Dörmann (2002: 333).

  8. 8.

    See Prosecutor v. Dusco Tadic, Jurisdiction, Case No. IT-94-1-AR72, 10 August 1995; Prosecutor versus Dusco Tadic; Appeal on Jurisdiction, Case No. IT-94-1-AR 72, 2 October 1995.

  9. 9.

    AKAYESU, ICTR-96-4-T, para 732: “Sexual violence was a step in the process of destruction of the tutsi group—destruction of the spirit, of the will to live, and of life itself.”

  10. 10.

    PCNICC/2000/INF/3/Add.2: “The requirement of “unlawfulness” found in the Statute or in other parts of international law, in particular international humanitarian law, is generally not specified in the elements of crimes.”

  11. 11.

    See Article 7 (1) (g); 8 (2) (xxii); 8 (2) (vi) Rome Statute.

  12. 12.

    See Arts. 7(1) (g)-1, 8(2)(b)(xxii)-1. Elements of Crimes of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, ICC-ASP /1/3.

  13. 13.

    See public letter from WPP (2017).

  14. 14.

    For current number and references for NAPs on UNSCR 1325, please see: http://www.peacewomen.org

  15. 15.

    According to a quantitative study conducted by Nicola Popovic, 46% of the NAPs have an internal focus, 22% an external focus and 32% include goals related to domestic and foreign policies alike. See Antonakis and Popovic (2018) and Popovic et al. (2010: 33).

  16. 16.

    However, the importance of community-based approaches especially for women’s empowerment works has been stressed since more than a decade.

  17. 17.

    The Handbook for Coordinating Gender-based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Settings that distinguished between GBV coordination structures and functions and details out implementation mechanisms and practical coordination skills. For a more detailed overview, see therefore: UNICEF (2010).

  18. 18.

    The Liberian NAP also refers to strengthening capacities of HIV/AIDS-positive individuals as health educators, selected from the community in order to assure a grounded education on HIV and Aids (25).

  19. 19.

    http://www.justicerapidresponse.org/. Accessed 28 December 2018.

  20. 20.

    The government’s proposal to discontinue MA degree gender studies education in Hungary in summer 2018 was met by international criticism. See the statement of the Central European University in Budapest here: https://gender.ceu.edu/. Accessed 28 December 2018.

  21. 21.

    See Chap. 2 of the Civil Society Alternative Report (2016).

  22. 22.

    For an introduction of the concept by Black US feminist into the academic context, see Crenshaw (1989) or Hull et al. (1982).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Berlin, Germany

    Nicola Popovic & Anna Antonakis

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  1. Nicola Popovic
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  2. Anna Antonakis
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Correspondence to Nicola Popovic .

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  1. Institute of Political Science and Sociology, Jean Monnet Chair for European Studies and International Relations, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Manuela Scheuermann  & Anja Zürn  & 

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Popovic, N., Antonakis, A. (2020). Centring War’s “Side Effects”: The Institutionalisation of Conflict-Related Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in International Law and Its Translation into National Action Plans. In: Scheuermann, M., Zürn, A. (eds) Gender Roles in Peace and Security. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21890-4_6

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