Book Review: Women and War; better understanding needs of women affected by armed conflicts.
Regional, Culture, 11/30/2002

In her study launched in Arabic under the title "women and war," in Amman on November 25 in a ceremony attended by the Jordanian Queen Rania al-Abdullah, Mrs. Charlotte Lindsey focuses on such issues as physical safety, sexual violence, displacement, access to health care and hygiene, food and shelter, as well as the problem of missing relatives and its impact on survivors, access to personal documentation, and access to sources of livelihood, as well as the situations of detention and the internet.

She added that the book analyzes the extent to which the international humanitarian law, human rights and refugee law meet the needs of women in order to assess the degree to which they provide protection for women and assesses ICRC activities for women to draw up an overall picture of the ICRC's operational response to the needs of women affected by armed conflict.

In her study, Lindsey draws the attention to the fact that women take part in armed conflicts as members of the regular armed forces or armed groups and in their support services. She added that women are also politicians, leaders of non- governmental organizations, social and political groups, and active participants in peace campaigns. As members of the civilian population, women have important and often crucial social and household economic roles and skills which enable them to deal with the increased stresses and burdens placed on them in wartime.

The author indicates that her study aims to demonstrate that women experience armed conflicts in a multitude of ways -- from taking an active part as combatants, to being targeted as members of the civilian population. She explained that women's experience of war is multifaceted; it means separation, the loss of family members and livelihood, an increased risk of sexual violence, wounding deprivation and death. War forces women into unfamiliar roles and necessitates the strengthening of existing coping skills and the development of new ones.

The author also indicates the role of the International Humanitarian Law IHL and the human rights and refugee laws in affording protection in line to the needs of women in situations of armed conflicts. She outlined that the IHL, principally the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, is the body of law which protects those not or no longer taking an active part in hostilities and regulates the means and methods of warfare. IHL affords women general and specific protection. Women are entitled to the same protection as men, being combatants or as civilians. The review of international law carried out in Lindsey's study shows that on the whole the law does adequately cover the needs of women in situations of armed conflict if one considers all the applicable bodies of law simultaneously.

She said that according to IHL, sexual violence is expressly prohibited, and recommended that rape and other forms of sexual violence must be included in national laws and in the military codes and training manuals of arms bearers.

The study calls for increasing efforts to put an end to violations of international law, and to have a strengthened capacity for monitoring violations against women, such as sexual violence. She added that victims of sexual violence need rapid access to appropriate and adequate medical and health care. Their situation needs to be handled confidentially and sensitively, taking into account their cultural background, and preferably by trained female staff ( for women and girls.) In the area of dissemination of IHL, the study also recommended that efforts should be made to improve and increase dissemination of the rules concerning the protection of women among parties to an armed conflict and peacekeeping forces, and the prohibition of sexual violence at all times against men, women, girls and boys.

On the importance of involving women in programming of activities, the study said that women should be involved in the planning, implementation and evaluation of assistance programs carried out in their favor in order to increase knowledge of their specific problems and needs and to implement controls to ensure that women are not being exploited or abused.

The study indicates that in times of war, women face terrible hardships and they have their own specific needs and vulnerabilities, but it must be recognized that the fate of women can be improved if humanitarian law is fully implemented and respected with regard to both combatants and non- combatants, be they male or female.

Lindsey indicated the need of having access to victims and conflict affected areas as an absolutely essential measure. She explained that the ICRC's experience of working in situations of armed conflict was vital in carrying out this study, not only in understanding the impact that war has on women, but in relations to the operational responses that have an impact to bring assistance and protection to those affected by war.

She indicated that countries have the responsibility to care for their citizens. As their needs are often not met, civilian population in situations of armed conflict need to be able to reach and be reached by international humanitarian organizations like the ICRC.

However, in her speech at the study's launching ceremony, Mrs. Francoise Krill, deputy director of operations ICRC headquarters, Geneva said that the event envisages the long standing cooperation the ICRC has been having with Jordan since over 3 decades. She detailed that the ICRC has opened delegations in the Middle East countries on the eve of the 1967 conflict.

She said that the ICRC has been carrying in support for thousands of civilians affected by war consequences in the region, recalling the support and cooperation of Jordan during the period, 1967 till 1994 where hundreds of humanitarian cases were solved, many families separated by war reunited.

Mrs. Krill also commended Jordan's commitment to honor its obligations as a signatory state of the Four Geneva Conventions and their two Additional Protocols. She added that in this respect, Jordan has been the first Arab state to create a national commission for the implementation of IHL, to ratify the International Criminal Court treaty, and it was among the first Arab states to sign the Ottawa Treaty banning the use of anti personnel landmines. She continued that Jordan has also been the first Arab state to allow ICRC visits to security prisoners.

She said that the ICRC delegation in Amman has been collaborating with the Jordanian armed forces to widen the spread of knowledge of the law of armed conflicts in the various military schools and colleges. She hinted that a main limestone in their cooperation with Jordan is the program carried out in cooperation with the ministry of education in Jordan and the Red Crescent to spread the knowledge of Red Cross and Red Crescent principles and the values of IHL among 1.5 million Jordanian students.

Previous Stories:
  Queen Rania launches Arabic version of the ICRC 'Women and War' study   (11/29/2002)
  Calls for a strategy to protect Arab woman, child   (11/6/2002)
  Amman Summit: Rise in Women in Parliament, a Moroccan Experience that must be feneralized in Arab states   (11/5/2002)

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