Humanitarian Protection of Women in Armed Conflicts

Authors

  • Iman Zhianpour
  • Alireza Arashpour
  • Mohsen Shekarchizadeh

Abstract

Throughout history, women have suffered most from armed conflicts in different forms. Thus, humanitarian law observes protective mechanisms for civilians specially women during armed conflicts. Despite protections and actions of international and non-international organizations, there are not enough guarantees to enforce protection of women in armed conflicts. In this regard, this study, entitled Humanitarian protection of women in armed conflicts, made an attempt to explore the related international documents. To do so, the conceptual framework of the study was first set up, defining concepts of war, the law of war, humanitarian law, civilian and protection of civilians. Then, kinds of protections, especially protection against sexual acts of violence, were explored under the title of women in armed conflicts. Finally, the question of whether the current support mechanisms are capable enough to protect women at the time of armed conflicts was discussed. As a conclusion, it can be said that the quality of providing or not providing humanitarian protection of women depends on controlling abundant variables including cultural factors (beliefs, principles, and national norms), psychological factors (policy-makers’ tendencies and spirits), international factors (location and regional and international ties), social factors (national manner, ethnic structure, social history, minorities’ situation, gender relations), political factors (government’s structure and history, state/nation relations) and the relation between these factors as well.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n3s2p40

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Published

2015-05-04

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Humanitarian Protection of Women in Armed Conflicts. (2015). Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6(3 S2), 40. https://www.richtmann.org/journal/index.php/mjss/article/view/6459