IRIN Web Special on Civilian Protection in Armed Conflict

Women and Children

Appalling evidence exists of the casual and/or systematic abuse of women in war settings and in areas where civilian populations have fled – internally or internationally – from violent conflict.

The impact of modern warfare, especially between state and non-state actors, is even greater on civilians, Carol Bellamy, the executive director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), told IRIN.

This was "especially true of women and children , because they are killed, displaced from their homes and also displaced from their livelihoods", she said. "Basic services fall apart. They have no basic health care. They suffer daily instability as a result of conflict."

In this context, it is important to remember that in the majority of refugee flights, over half the adult population is comprised of women – many of whom are single heads of household caring for dependent children and/or elderly family members.

In refugee situations, or where internal displacement occurs, women are routinely exposed to physical and sexual violence, as well as all manner of exploitation, according to the UN.

It is clear that the desperate survival condition of some war-affected women and children has facilitated their exploitation by those with power and resources. A first step is to ensure adequate provision of basic needs, especially food rations, for affected populations, according to aid workers.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed concern at the UN Security Council in November about the "serious challenge" of an increased focus on gender-based violence in conflict situations (and humanitarian crises). [see separate section in IRIN web special]

A special Task Force on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Humanitarian Crises, co-chaired by UNICEF and OCHA, but also including the Red Cross movement and NGOs, is now looking at gaps or weaknesses in procedures and standards with a view to proposing specific measures to tackle them.

There has already been work done on the adoption of core principles and minimum standards of conduct for UN staff in order to ensure that they themselves do not exploit vulnerable persons in situations of conflict, but rather create an environment that enhances care and protection.

"The threat of sexual violence against women and girls in countries in conflict is very real," Bellamy told IRIN. "It took until much too late for the international community to define rape as a war crime."

"In Africa," she added, "the face of HIV/AIDS is a female face. This is particularly because of the daily violence perpetrated against women. In conflict situations, where rape has become a weapon, the threat of HIV/AIDS has become even greater."

The protection of children and family life is given a great deal of importance in humanitarian law – including provision for children’s education and physical care; of the separation of children from adults; and special provision for children who are orphaned or separated from the families.

But the situation in circumstances of armed conflict is frequently very different, and children suffer in almost every way imaginable - from being killed, abducted, tortured or used as child soldiers, to having their family life devastated or taken from them entirely, to having their development torn apart by displacement, trauma, disrupted schooling or inadequate nutrition and health care.

Because of the changing nature of war, small arms are becoming more accessible to non-state actors and civilians, including children, more than ever, according to Bellamy.

People use numbers for children affected that are not accurate any more, she told IRIN. The figures talk about 300,000 child combatants - but the impact of small arms and conflict is far more than child soldiers.

"Small arms kill thousands of women and children each year," she said. "Millions more are injured, disabled and displaced. Their education is disrupted. Many die from malnutrition and preventable diseases due to the insecurity."

UN Under-Secretary-General Olara Otunnu, the secretary-general's special representative for children and armed conflict, has outlined an "agenda for action", which outlines a range of measures to protect children from the impact of war.

• Conflict prevention
• Ratification of key international instruments for the protection of war-affected children
• Training and guidance on child protection for humanitarian workers in the field
• Specific inclusion of child protection in peacekeeping and peacemaking mandates
• Development and strengthening of civil networks for child protection and advocacy
• Establishment of child-soldier-free zones
• Strengthening of traditional norms and values for the protection of mothers and children in wartime

"There should be no impunity for crimes against children," insists Otunnu, who was appointed in August 1997 to improve the UN system’s ability to protect children in situations of war.

Missing persons

The International Committee of the Red cross (ICRC) has a new campaign focusing particularly on missing persons: those unaccounted for as a result of armed conflict or internal violence and whose location is often hidden by military and/or political parties to a conflict.

On 19 and 21 February the ICRC held an international conference [see http://www.icrc.org/eng] to address the issue, which is not only distressing for those directly concerned but may also hamper reconciliation and peace efforts by contributing to further outbreaks of violence.

Current methods of dealing with the issue of missing people and the treatment of their families and friends are far from ideal, and ICRC has now launched a major initiative to get action to address the problem.

Its aim is to heighten awareness among governments, the military, international and national organisations and the general public of the tragedy of people missing as a result of armed conflicts and the anguish of their families.

The scourge of small arms

A relatively new but increasing and terrible danger to civilians in war, according to the ICRC, is that a vast number of actors have "easy access to highly lethal weaponry, facilitated by the opening of borders, arms surpluses from the Cold War and the rapid expansion of free trade".

Such weapons are increasingly falling into the hands of all types of fighters, including children, who are not members of regular armies and many of whom show scant regard for international humanitarian law. Assault rifles are often the most commonly available weapons in situations of armed conflict, and the weapons are believed to be the principal cause of civilian deaths and injury.

Basic rules of international humanitarian law provide for the protection of noncombatants and prohibit the indiscriminate use of any weapon. International weapons transfers, particularly of small arms, has made respect for IHL "vastly more difficult", according to the ICRC.

"The proliferation of weapons in the hands of new and often undisciplined actors has outpaced efforts to ensure compliance with basic rules of warfare," it says. "The result is appalling levels of wanton violence, human suffering, [and of] social and economic disruption."

Unregulated availability of small arms can increase tension, lead to their indiscriminate use and a rise in civilian casualties, according to the Red Cross. Among humanitarian workers, there certainly seems to be a belief that there is a clear link between weapons availability, the dangers to civilians during and after conflict, and violations of international humanitarian law.

According to the ICRC, fundamental humanitarian principles require that weapons proliferation be addressed, because "it can needlessly increase the number of victims in war situations, and their suffering".

Small arms and light weapons pose a particular problem because of their simplicity of use and durability; portability and ease of concealment; low cost and wide availability; and their lethal force, through which even small armed groups can pose terrible threats to armed forces, civilians and society at large.

Whether or not the proportion of civilians to overall numbers killed runs as high as 80 percent, as some sources suggest, levels of civilian deaths and injury are certainly high – and rising – despite the protection to which they are entitled under international humanitarian law.

For that reason, ICRC says, the deliberate injection of arms into situations where serious violations of international humanitarian law occur, or are likely to occur, should be considered a matter of grave concern.

While primary responsibility for assuring civilian protection falls on the user of a weapon, arms-producing and -exporting states "bear some responsibility to the international community for the use made of their weapons", says the ICRC

States should – as a matter of utmost urgency – elaborate rules, based on IHL and similar criteria, governing the transfer and spread of arms and ammunition

• Extending the scope of the UN Register of Conventional Arms Transfers to include small arms and light weapons, especially assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, which have been used to inflict high levels of civilian deaths and injury
• Enhanced surveillance and enforcement mechanisms for UN and regional arms embargoes
• Establishment of an international system for marking manufacturing information on small arms, light weapons and the ammunition for these, to ensure greater accountability and responsibility among arms suppliers.

Addressing impunity

Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham stated in Ottawa in early February that the credibility of the international community in addressing human rights and humanitarian law meant overcoming "no-action" motions at international fora "that block progress on contentious issues".

"Bringing perpetrators to justice is an essential part of any comprehensive effort to protect victims and to deter crimes,” he said. "In this context, the establishment of the International Criminal Court is fundamental to the elimination of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. We are seeing a decisive global movement to end impunity for serious international crimes."

Protection experts place a high priority on the full establishment of the ICC, moving away from ad hoc tribunals – such as the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda – and bolstering the integrity and effectiveness of national justice systems.

As important as the ICC and other international criminal courts will be, advocates for international humanitarian law emphasise that "national courts will continue to have an important role in the prosecution of war crimes" – both the courts of states in which armed conflict is taking place, and threatening civilians, and those of third-party states which are keen to see impunity for violence against civilians addressed.

Effective deterrence is a primary objective of those working to establish the ICC, according to the UN: "Once it is clear that the international community will no longer tolerate heinous breaches of international humanitarian law without assigning responsibility and meting out appropriate punishment - to heads of state and commanding officers, as well as to the lowliest soldiers in the field, or militia recruits - it is hoped that those who would incite a genocide; embark on a campaign of ethnic cleansing; murder, rape and brutalise civilians caught in an armed conflict; or use children for barbarous medical experiments will no longer find willing helpers.”
[www.un.org/law/icc/general/overview.htm]

Despite the challenges of a violent and changing world, advocates of international humanitarian law insist that we should not underestimate the potential to protect civilians using the instruments available to us – if only the political will could be found to match.

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