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Women and war: the detention of women in wartime

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2010

Charlotte Lindsey
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Extract

The Women and War Project unit has been conducting a study of the impact of armed conflict on women and the normative and operational responses to their needs by the ICRC in carrying out its activities. This study will be published in 2001 and forms the basis for the implementation of a specific pledge on women and war made by the ICRC at the 27th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (Geneva, 1999) for four years from the year 2000. In that pledge, the ICRC undertook to increase its promotion both of the protection accorded to women by international humanitarian law and of the prohibition of sexual violence. It will also endeavour to ensure that all its protection, health and assistance activities appropriately meet the needs of women war victims in order to alleviate their plight.

Type
Croix-Rouge et Croissant-Rouge/Red Cross and Red Crescent
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 83 , Issue 842 , June 2001 , pp. 505 - 520
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2001

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References

l Lindsey, Charlotte, “Women and war”, IRRC, No. 839, September 2000, pp. 561–580.Google Scholar

2 Dr Jacques Moser, “Forgotten Prisoners: Women”, ICRC (not published).

3 See in general Krill, Françoise, “The protection of women in international humanitarian law”, IRRC, No. 249, November-December 1985, pp. 337–363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 (Third) Geneva Convention relative to theT reatment of Prisoners of War, Art. 25(4).

5 Ibid., Art. 29(2).

6 Ibid., Arts 97 and 108.

7 Ibid., Arts 97 and 108, Additional Protocol I, Art. 75(5).

8 (Fourth) Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Art. 42.

9 Ibid., Art. 85, regarding sleeping quarters and sanitary conveniences for interned women separate from those of men; Art. 89, on additional food provisions for expectant and nursing mothers; Art. 91, regarding adequate treatment for maternity cases; Art. 97, on searching of women detainees; Art. 124, regarding conditions of detention for interned women undergoing disciplinary punishment; and Art. 127, regarding the transfer of maternity cases. Protocol I, Art. 75(5), regarding separate accommodation from men and supervision by women, and Art. 76, regarding protection of women from violations such as rape, and priority consideration of the cases of, and avoidance of pronouncement of the death penalty on, pregnant women or women with small children.

10 Protocol I, Art. 76(2).

11 Fourth Convention, Art. 91(2).

12 Protocol II, Art. 5(2)(a).

13 See also Protocol II, Art. 4, on fundamental guarantees; Art. 5, in relation to persons whose liberty has been restricted and their conditions of and treatment in detention; and Art. 6, regarding penal prosecutions.

14 Fourth Convention, Art. 76, and Art. 124; Protocol I, Art. 75; Protocol II, Art. 5; and Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (1955), Rule 8(a).

15 The ICRC has asked detaining authorities to organize transfers of detained women from one detention place to another which is exclusively for female detainees. The following conditions must be met: consent of the detainee; transfer of the judicial case to a court in the vicinity of the new detention place; possibility of visits by members of the family; improvements in the conditions of detention; presence of female guards; no separation of children from their mother,

16 For example, children of one ethnic group should not be accommodated in a foster home of another ethnic group (unless their parents so request).

17 Fourth Convention, Arts 89, 91, 98 and 127; Protocol I, Art. 76; and Protocol II, Art. 6.

18 UN Standard Minimum Rules, Rule 23.1.

19 Ibid., Rules 46–54.

20 Daudin, P. and Reyes, H., How visits by the ICRC can help prisoners cope with the effects of traumatic stress, ICRC, Geneva, 1996Google Scholar.

21 UN Standard Minimum Rules, Rule 20.

22 Protocol I, Art. 77(5), and Protocol II, Art. 6(4).

23 Protocol I, Art. 76(3), and Protocol II, Art. 6(4).

24 Guarantees for the protection of the rights of persons punishable by the death penalty, Resolution 1984/50 of the UN Economic and Social Council.