Innocent Women And Children ─ Gender, Norms And the Protection of Civilians

Examining the influence of gender constructs on the international regime protecting war-affected civilians, R. Charli Carpenter examines how in practice belligerents, advocates and humanitarian players interpret civilian immunity so as to leave adult civilian men and older boys at grave risk in conflict zones. Providing a wealth of ground-breaking case studies, the author argues that in order to understand the way in which laws of war are implemented and promoted in international society we must understand how gender ideas affect the principle of civilian immunity. Each case study demonstrates the importance of assumptions about gender relations in shaping international politics, and in developing a framework for incorporating an attention to gender into the often gender-blind scholarship on international norms. As such, this book will be of interest to international relations theorists and to human rights scholars, students and activists alike.

R. Charli Carpenter is Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and a faculty affiliate of the University of Pittsburgh's Ford Institute of Human Security, both in the USA. She has published extensively on gender, children's rights, and humanitarian action, and is the recipient of awards from the National Science Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Professor Carpenter teaches courses on human rights and humanitarian law and is currently directing a research initiative on children and armed conflict.