The 1999 DRC Cease-fire Agreement and the 1994 Lusaka Protocol from a Gender Perspective (continued)

This Article fails to recognise that gender plays an important part in conflict-related population movements. It assumes that refugees and other displaced persons are gender-neutral, despite the fact that the vast majority of the world's refugees are women and children.

On the other hand, the Cease-fire Agreement does acknowledge, albeit indirectly, the gender-specific problems faced by women during conflict situations, particularly in relation to sexual violence. The Preamble to the Cease-fire Agreement contains the following clause:

Determined to ensure the respect, by all Parties signatory to this Agreement, for the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Additional Protocols of 1977, and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948, as reiterated at the Entebbe Regional Summit of 25 March, 1998 (United States Institute of Peace 1999).

The 1949 Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols form part of the law of armed conflict and contain certain provisions that apply specifically to women. According to Article 27 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War: "Women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution or any form of indecent assault." Article 76(1) of Additional Protocol I states: "Women shall be the object of special respect and shall be protected in particular against rape, forced prostitution and any other form of indecent assault." Article 4(2)(e) of Additional Protocol II prohibits: "Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, rape, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault". A major problem with the provisions of the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols is that they characterise rape and other forms of sexual violence as attacks against women's "honour", thereby trivialising such offences (United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women 1998).

However, in a landmark judgement that is likely to have far-reaching implications for war crimes tribunals around the world, including the tribunal envisaged for Sierra Leone, whose 10-year civil war was noted for its horrific treatment of civilians (McGreal 2002), the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), based in the Hague, elevated mass rape from being a mere violation of the law of armed conflict to one of the most heinous war crimes of all - a crime against humanity. The ICTY ruled that three Bosnian Serbs were guilty of the systematic and brutal rape, torture and enslavement of Muslim women in the town of Foca in southeastern Bosnia in 1992 and sentenced them to a combined term of 60 years in jail (Osborn 2001).

Article 1(3)(c) of the Cease-fire Agreement, which deals specifically with the Cease-fire, goes a lot further than the Preamble in categorising sexual violence as a violent crime that violates women's bodily integrity:

The Cease-fire shall entail the cessation of all acts of violence against the civilian population by respecting and protecting human rights. The acts of violence include summary executions, torture, harassment, detention and execution of civilians based on their ethnic origin; propaganda inciting ethnic and tribal hatred; arming civilians; recruitment and use of child soldiers; sexual violence; training and use of terrorists; massacres; downing of civilian aircraft; and bombing the civilian population (United States Institute of Peace 1999).

References

MCGREAL, C 2002, "Unique Court to Try Killers of Sierra Leone", IN Guardian Unlimited, 17 January 2002, [www] http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4336907-103681,00.html [opens new window].

UNITED NATIONS DIVISION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN 1998, "Sexual Violence and Armed Conflict: United Nations Response", IN Women 2000 [www] http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/public/cover.htm [opens new window].

UNITED STATES INSTITUTE OF PEACE 1999, "Cease-fire Agreement" (10 July 1999 - 31 August 1999), IN Library Peace Agreements Digital Collection, Democratic Republic of Congo, 1999, [www] http://www.usip.org/library/pa/index/pa_drc.html [opens new window] & http://www.usip.org/library/pa/drc/drc_07101999.html.

OSBORN, A 2001, "Mass Rape Ruled a War Crime", IN Guardian Unlimited, 23 February 2001 [www] http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4140914,00.html [opens new window].