"The sources of conflict and war are pervasive and deep. To reach them will require our utmost effort to enhance respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, to promote sustainable economic and social development for wider prosperity, to alleviate distress and to curtail the existence and use of massively destructive weapons."
United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, An Agenda for Peace, 1995.
Major strategic and technological innovations have changed the nature and scope of contemporary warfare that has dramatically changed the global security environment. This revolution has given way to ‘new wars’ or intra state conflict where the State is merely one of many other players alongside rebel armies, insurgents, ethnic and guerilla groups. This transformation has led to an indiscriminate and disproportionate attack on civilians who are now the majority of victims of such armed conflicts.
The one thing, which has sadly remained unchanged, has been the face of the victim during the course of such hostilities. States and armed groups while engaging themselves in armed conflict over contentious issues have very often overlooked their moral responsibility to address the basic needs of their own people who are the inevitable victims of war. Women and children have remained the largest and most unwilling and innocent victims of these armed conflicts, which are happening in the midst of human communities.
The radical shift from international to non-international armed conflict and the intra state nature of hostilities has made it extremely difficult and ambiguous to extend the mandate of the Geneva conventions and other protections guaranteed by international instruments. Although international humanitarian law has evolved in keeping with the changing nature of conflict by introducing newer norms to govern such transformations it still has a very long way to go.
Research and statistics disclose shocking findings and more chilling is the conclusion to be drawn from them that a large part of humanity is being dragged into a moral space devoid of the most basic human values, a space in which women and children are raped, butchered, orphaned and maimed and sometimes are forced to become perpetrators of violence themselves. This makes it crucial to address the question of gender in conflict situations and to imbibe the culture of feminism in such studies.
In a world where women are not considered equal to men, and armed conflict impacts men and women in a fundamentally different way, a general category of rules that is not inclusive of the reality of women cannot respond to their situation adequately. It is estimated that over 4/5th of all war-based refugees are women and young children who also experience additional and often sexualized violence during their flight. By the end of 1992 of the 46 million who lost their homes 36 million were women and girls. (Turpin 1998)
The participation of women in zones of conflict is itself a gendered process where women are stereotyped as mothers, as soldiers, as militants and as caretakers. Women are often forced to survive without the support of men during armed conflict that compels them to take on roles and responsibilities traditionally considered as male dominated.
International humanitarian law’s limited focus upon the “biological” difference of women and the treatment of sexual violence specifically in terms relating to chastity and modesty and sexual and reproductive aspects of their lives alone has obviously ignored the more complex socio-economic and political role of the feminine. Such gender-based discrimination continues despite several conscious efforts by the international community such as the Beijing +5 Platform for Action and UN resolution 1325/2000 to mainstream the efforts of women especially in stabilization, reconstruction, peace building and to be present at the peace-negotiating table.
The plight of women and children are inextricably linked to each other as the lives of children are jeopardized when the lives of women are not protected and where their efforts and contributions to peace building are under-reported, marginalized and undermined. The insufficient understanding of the impact of armed conflict on women and children prevents the policy makers and legislators from prioritizing and centralizing gender dimensions in their approaches and programmes.
Present day warfare and hostilities largely involve appalling levels of violence and brutality, employing all probable means ranging from systematic rape, to the destruction of resources and environment, to ethnic cleansing and sometimes even outright genocide. The sufferings of women and children who are not actively involved in the conflict are manifold. Some of the threats commonly associated with any armed conflict would include constantly fleeing from danger or threat to life, displacement from homeland, loss of community, separation and discord, destitution, loss of service access and social interaction, and the frightful presence of armed forces and rebel groups.
The destabilizing effect on children is tremendous and challenges their very foundations while destroying their homes, splintering their communities and breaking down their trust in adults. It is this vulnerable position that is exploited by the parties to the armed conflict, which result in sexual exploitation, abuse or eventually forced military recruitment as child soldiers. Apart from the obvious threats of combat such as the spread of HIV/AIDS and exposure to extreme violence, conflict zones often pose hidden danger in the form of anti personnel landmines which kill and maim innocent civilians predominantly women and children. The UNICEF report on the Impact of Landmines on children in East Asia and Pacific estimates that about 20,000 people are killed in the world every year with an additional being maimed and disabled and for instance in Afghanistan alone 30% of the mine survivors are children. Concerted efforts with the help of the State, international agencies and civil societies need to support the cause of total ban on anti-personnel landmines and mine risk education.
An enormous effort is required to address these psychological issues and constant psychosocial support is essential to ensure children's recovery, growth and development and to mitigate the adverse effects of armed conflict. The process of rescue, relief and reintegration has to be diligently followed up to ensure that children do not fall back into combat. Education, which is the first casualty of conflict followed by displacement, is a singular way of ensuring children’s coping mechanism and psycho-social well being. For instance many of the areas of South Asia that are conflict ridden have established systems of formal schooling comparatively recently and the conflict has had a seriously adverse effect on ensuring access to education for children.
Conflict prevention and management could be better achieved if the structural issues of a conflict are effectively addressed by focusing on the roots of conflict such as dysfunctional State system, underdevelopment, socio-political fragmentation and other factors like heightened nationalism and the economies of war which play a significant role in generating and sustaining conflicts around the world. Resolving or preventing war would thus require cutting off the means for waging it: limiting combatants’ access to resources and hence, arms, material, and profit, and targeting the international networks upon which they rely for these goods.
The international community must proclaim attacks on women and children as simply intolerable and unacceptable. It is vital to understand and meet the needs of female members of the population who are the most vulnerable victims of war. It is but relevant that theorists and practitioners, academics and operational personnel ought to work in close consonance with each other to find long term solutions. The tolerance for such armed violence must be immediately withdrawn and replaced with a culture of peace
Such conferences will provide the opportunity to examine the key programming strategies being implemented by governments and although purely academic in nature are to be undertaken with the practical aim of alleviating the plight of women and children in times of armed conflict through constant generation of academic perspectives, opinions and literature which highlights various issues. The need to integrate micro level studies into a broader perspective, by interrogating theoretical issues such as gendered nature of nationalism and peace making process as well as through comparative empirical analysis of women experiences in armed conflicts would make such efforts more holistic and meaningful.
In order to inculcate greater sensitivity to issues of gender, humane values and achieve a culture of peace we need to engage civil society, students, teachers, youth and media in integrating conflict studies and peace education into curricula, communities and daily life.
The proposed seminar would address the following issues:
To study the changing nature of armed conflict and its growing impact on civilian population.
The role of the State and the issues of responsibility and accountability.
To explore the areas of gender disparity in the realm of international humanitarian law.
To assess the impact of armed conflict on women.
To evaluate the role of women as not merely victims but as peace builders.
To assess the impact of armed conflict on children-especially the issue of child soldiers and land mines.
To analyze the adverse consequences of such armed conflicts and the response of international agencies and civil societies.
To increase gender sensitivity and feminist scholarship in this field.