Women, human rights and international humanitarian law.

Abstract

This thesis examines the link that exists between two areas of international law - international human rights law and international humanitarian law - within the context of women's rights. It examines how for a long time women's rights, both in times of peace and in times of war, have been effectively ignored, even though human rights are by nature applicable to every human being. This is especially evident within the context of violence against women. Thus, the first part of the thesis examines the progress achieved in the field of human rights law in dealing with violence against women. Then, the second part analyses the extent to which such advances have had an impact on women's rights within international humanitarian law. We see that it was only in the second half of the twentieth century that women's rights obtained international recognition. However, the issue of violence against women remained a taboo in many societies, and did not become a priority to the international community until the 1990s. The growing awareness of the problem as a result of activism by women's groups, resulted in various international human rights instruments dealing with the issue. Contemporaneously, and as a result of such developments, important progress was also being made in international humanitarian law, with respect to violence against women. Previously, the traditional invisibility of crimes of violence against women found in peacetime was reflected also in times of war. This is because unless women were afforded some protections in times of peace, they would likewise not be given any significant protection in times of war. This reflects the link between international humanitarian law and human rights law, in that events in one area would necessarily influence the other. In fact, the catalyst which pushed the issue of violence against women on the international arena occurred during armed conflict, in the former Yugoslavia, further illustrating the link between the two areas of international law.