Taking the next steps on sexual and gender-based violence in international humanitarian law: embracing complementarity and mainstreaming gender

Abstract

This chapter's primary purpose is to make links. In its first half, it sets out how different provisions of international humanitarian law (IHL) govern the prevention of and response to sexual violence in armed conflict, and how these rules of IHL are complemented by other international legal frameworks including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Security Council's women, peace and security agenda. In its second half, the article then addresses how analyses of sexual violence must form a part but not the whole of gender-related interpretations of IHL. It does this by identifying broader types of gender-based violence in IHL, as well as gendered impacts of armed conflict and corresponding implications for the application of certain IHL obligations.