This also makes them all the more vulnerable when fighting breaks out because male breadwinners are often lost to families. The lack of education or training for women then makes it harder for them to support themselves and their families financially and food scarcity often means malnourishment for women. 2 Judith Gardam & Hilary Charlesworth, ‘Protection of Women in Armed Conflict’ (2000) 22 Hum Rts Q 148 The effects on women of conflict differ depending on their cultural and societal roles, however, it often exacerbates inequalities and injustices that were prevalent before the war. Women often bear the brunt of war in ways very differently to men. This scholarship aims to shed light on the various ways in which women and children are affected and what can be done to ameliorate the worst effects of conflict on these groups. The articles for this theme focus on the protection IHL affords to women and the ways in which it is insufficient, the issue of the recruitment of child soldiers, the need to rehabilitate child soldiers post-conflict, and the ways in which women are increasingly participating in hostilities in contemporary armed conflicts. This month at the Diplomacy, Law and Policy Forum we will be looking at women and children in conflicts. There is a need to pay special attention to these vulnerable groups and analyse the particular impact that war can have upon them. This is often exacerbated by the fact that conflict often displaces their families and disrupts their access to education.
This forced or voluntary conscription at an age when they are not fully psychologically developed can have long-term effects for their future.
Children meanwhile are vulnerable as they are often recruited to either the armed forces or to armed groups, sometimes forcibly. Women’s Rights in Armed Conflicts after the Second World War’ (2016) 2 ICJ 72 Women bear the burden of conflict and often as civilians have to endure the horrors of war whether in the form of sexual or other violence, the loss of male breadwinners, property, displacement, or the absence of reproductive or other health services. 1 Natalia Buchowska, ‘Violated or Protected. Women and children are often the most vulnerable in the event of an armed conflict and are subjected to outrages of the worst kind during and after war.
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