Women and War: The Perspective of the International Committee of the Red Cross

June 1, 2000

Speaker: Charlotte Lindsey directs the ICRC project on women affected by armed conflict. Her responsibilities include carrying out an ICRC study on women and war, implementing the organization’s commitment to formulate guidelines for the protection of women and girls in armed conflict, and working with the US government to implement its pledge for programs on this subject. Ms. Lindsey has been with ICRC since 1993 and has extensive experience in conflict situations, including work in Bosnia, the Great Lakes region, Rwanda and Sri Lanka.

Moderator: Kathleen Newland, senior associate and co-director of the International Migration Policy Program moderated the discussion.

Kathleen Newland opened the discussion by introducing Ms. Lindsey and the women and war project at ICRC. Lindsey presented the ICRC project as a reaction to traditional research that has been conducted on women’s experiences with conflict which focuses exclusively on rape and international humanitarian law. Lindsey said that ICRC was interested in looking beyond these two factors to expose the myriad of other ways that women are affected by war. The study compiled reports from ICRC delegations around the world. Lindsey looked at current ICRC programs that target women as well as the needs expressed by women. Lindsey stressed that the results of this study will be used as background to formulate protection guidelines for women and girls during conflict. ICRC is also committed, as part of this project, to examining existing international humanitarian law to measure the protection it affords women. Some of ICRC’s existing programs focus on educating parties in conflict about international law and specifically the prohibitions against sexual violence.

Ms. Lindsey presented the US premier of the film, "At the End of a Gun: Women and War," which is an ICRC/ BBC production, and will be shown at the "Beijing +5" international conference in New York next week. The film is new and was filmed only six weeks ago in Sri Lanka. The film looks at a variety of women in different situations to try to cover the range of impacts that war can have on women. Lindsey pointed out that the film makes an effort to broadcast women’s views on their own situations. The Sri Lankan case, Lindsey noted, offers a glimpse of issues that are relevant for women in conflict areas around the world. The film touches briefly on a great number of situations: women who have recently become widows, women who have lost children, women whose relatives are missing, women who have chosen to take up arms (estimates are that 20% of Tamil Tiger fighters are women), displaced women, women who are their family’s sole bread winner, disruptions in health care and how it affects women, and young women forced into sexual servitude by military forces, sometimes with the acquiescence of their own communities. The film stressed that conflict breaks up families and communities, and that this lack of support especially hurts women and children. Women are presented in the film as agents of change, rather than solely victims. The film concludes with the acknowledgement that the Geneva Conventions provide rules of conflict that protect women, but better enforcement is needed.

Following the film there was a discussion session with questions.

Paula Lynch, US State Dept: expressed the US government’s interest in this project and its support for ICRC’s efforts demonstrated in a pledge for four million dollars over four years. Lynch went on to ask Lindsey to talk more about why the project was undertaken and to specifically highlight some of ICRC’s efforts in Sri Lanka.

Charlotte Lindsey: replied that ICRC was eager to undertake the project to get a fuller understanding of the issues women face during conflict. She noted that until recently only rape was identified as a threat to women stemming from war. Lindsey expressed that many women resist being labeled as rape victims and were therefore reluctant to come forward during conflict and receive aid for any of their problems. Lindsey noted that ICRC was interested in hearing directly from women what their issues were and how they could best be served.

In Sri Lanka, ICRC operates a boat to transport mail and wounded from areas that are otherwise inaccessible due to fighting. ICRC also visits women and men in detention, and delivers assistance to people living in conflict areas. ICRC teaches the law of war to both parties in the Sri Lankan war.

Chantal de Jonge Oudraat, Carnegie Endowment: mentioned that Lindsey had stressed delving beyond sexual violence as the only manifestation of the special plight of women during war. Ms. de Jonge Oudraat asked if ICRC had had any direct success with changing societies’ view of women and empowering them during conflict.

Charlotte Lindsey: stressed that this study was mainly an attempt to hear from women caught in conflict and to devise ways to better address their needs.

Kathleen Newland: drew the audience’s attention to other programs that examine similar issues. Newland highlighted the Kennedy School’s "Women Waging Peace" study as well as the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children’s peace task force. Newland noted that within the Women’s Commission, of which she is chair, it was refugees themselves who demanded the group look at women who were working for solutions to conflict.

Anna Mary Portz, Office of Refugee Resettlement: remarked on a scene in the film where a husband assisted his wife with laundry. Portz wondered if this scene was representative of changing gender relations that dislocated women experience.

Charlotte Lindsey: replied that the scene was not scripted. Lindsey stressed that empowerment was not a primary goal of her project, rather the focus was on identifying protection needs and evaluating whether or not they were being met. As a side note, Lindsey mentioned that in her experience with women during war, women often became the most active and outspoken on the issue of missing or detained relatives.

Lina Calderon, Embassy of El Salvador: added that in her experience in her home country, women can be powerful agents of change during conflict. She noted that in El Salvador, women became actors in the peace process and, subsequently, politicians.

Peter Trooboff, Covington & Burling: directed his comments to the legal principles raised by the film. Trooboff noted that it appeared to him that three areas were lacking in adequate protection mechanisms: 1) Information about missing relatives struck him as potentially helpful and needed to be released. 2)Women in detention presented special challenges and he felt there could be a case for prioritizing their release due to family responsibilities. 3) Command responsibility for the crime of rape struck him as a good way to enforce accountability.

Kathleen Newland: Asked Lindsey, when responding to Trooboff’s, concerns to phrase her reply more broadly to address potential protection guidelines.

Charlotte Lindsey: remarked that ICRC considers international law sufficient to protect women in times of war. She pointed out that the Geneva Conventions address the issue of a timely release of information regarding missing people. There are also provisions which address women’s detention, giving pregnant women priority in case review. Lindsey also drew the audience’s attention to recent cases at the Rwandan and Yugoslav tribunals in the Hague where commanders have been held accountable for rape. Lindsey felt that emphasis needed to be on enforcement if the many comprehensive international guidelines that already exist.

Patricia Fagen, Institute for the Study of International Migration: offered the observation that after conflicts end, women are often returned to equally dangerous situations. She wondered if ICRC had any programs aimed at this difficult transition.

Charlotte Lindsey: responded that ICRC decided to focus on conflict situations because they are the least studied and known. Included in this study, however, are situations of frozen conflicts and post-conflict transitions because ICRC is still carrying out a lot of activities in these places. Most of these programs, Lindsey noted, revolved around persons detained and those missing.

Kathleen Newland: referred to the statistic that 20% of Tamil Tiger fighters are women, and noted that women are soldiers in other areas of the world, like Eritrea. Newland asked if ICRC had seen any difference in the actions of these female combatants towards civilians, specifically if women in the ranks restrained any of the violence targeted towards women.

Charlotte Lindsey: replied that ICRC would be unqualified to make a judgement about this because most of the time they aren’t present when the violence is occurring. She did note that certain cases, like Rwanda, seem to suggest that women can be equally as aggressive and dangerous as men.

Chantal de Jonge Oudraat, Carnegie Endowment: asked if ICRC had identified any specific needs of women during conflict that were not being addressed.

Charlotte Lindsey: replied that it was too early to speak about any conclusions of ICRC’s study. In general, Lindsey reported, ICRC believes that the Geneva Conventions cover issues specific to women during war. She did note that there are, however, some exceptions, like the forced termination of pregnancy.

James Bishop, InterAction: mentioned the Sphere Project, which is a humanitarian charter which sets forth minimum standards in disaster response. Bishop noted that Sphere addresses gender issues and supports incorporating women in the design and implementation of relief activities.

Anna Mary Portz: asked if all of the information for the study was taken from ICRC reports from the field. She followed by inquiring about the gender make-up of ICRC staff.

Charlotte Lindsey: noted that ICRC has good gender balance in most of its field offices. Lindsey added that ICRC had solicited reports from other aid agencies in the field to supplement their own internal findings.