The Law of War and Peace: a gender analysis

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Gina Heathcote discusses the relationship between law, armed conflict, gender and peace.

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Gina Heathcote discusses the relationship between law, armed conflict, gender and peace.

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This video discusses a co-authored book titled "The Law of War and Peace: A Gender Analysis," written by the authors Sarah Ti, Emily Jones, and Sherry Lebinski. The book addresses gaps in the existing literature on gender and conflict, particularly the legal aspects regulating armed conflict. It aims to serve as both a teaching tool and a research agenda, focusing on how gender as a concept can be understood as a power relation rather than merely as an identity marker.

The authors argue that all laws governing war and peace are inherently gendered and explore how gender influences legal frameworks, particularly in relation to collective security, international humanitarian law, and counter-terrorism. They emphasize using gender as an analytical tool to scrutinize these laws, rather than just focusing on how they affect women.

The book critiques existing Security Council resolutions on women, peace, and security, arguing that they often frame women's roles and experiences too narrowly and may not be the best avenue for feminist legal reforms. The authors advocate for a broader understanding of gender dynamics, including intersectional and decolonial perspectives, and aim to inspire scholars to analyze the laws of war and conflict through a gendered lens.

Additionally, the authors express a commitment to highlighting peace studies and the importance of constructing a narrative around peace, rather than solely focusing on conflict and violence. They suggest that feminist and queer approaches can enrich the discourse on these topics, and they are currently working on a second book that will expand on these themes, particularly in relation to peace and decolonial perspectives.

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The Law of War and Peace, the gender analysis Volume one.

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Uh, it's a co-authored book, so I should say that.

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So speaking on behalf of my, three co-authors,

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Sarah Ti, Emily Jones and Sherry Lebinski,

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and all of us had a co-taught on a module called

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Gender Law and War.

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And it was in teaching the module, well, part of the idea

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of putting the idea the module together was to address

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what we saw as a shortfall in the broader, discipline

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of gender and conflict, where there was often an limited

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analysis of the legal regime,

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that regulated armed conflict.

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So we wanted to create a book

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that was in part a teaching tool,

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but also one that had a research agenda that spoke

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to the legal aspect of gender law and more.

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This is quite a lot of, literature on the gender

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and armed conflict element,

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but less so on the larger laws of war and peace.

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So we wanted to not just look at those that directly spoke

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to women,

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or gendered aspects of armed conflict, conflict,

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but subject all laws on war and peace.

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Well, that's probably all law,

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but mostly those that are dealing with armed situations

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of harm conflict or the piece bit would be

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post-conflict scenarios.

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I guess it depends a little bit

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on your definition of gender.

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So in this book, we use gender as an analytical tool

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as opposed to thinking about gender as an identity marker.

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So rather than thinking which law, well,

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even if you took gender as an identity marker,

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all humans are gendered,

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or have some experience of being gendered,

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so you wouldn't have any laws

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or laws of war that don't have an impact on gendered humans.

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Uh, however, our definition of gender extends

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beyond the effects on specific gendered bodies

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or gendered experiences of armed conflict.

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To think about gender as a power relation

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and thinking about gender as a power relation,

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we're drawing on feminist work

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that thinks about intersectionality.

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Many people would be familiar with the work

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of Kimberly Crenshaw in this area.

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So intersectionality helps us think of gender

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as interlocking with other types of power relations

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and privileges in society, whether race, sexuality,

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ableism class, socioeconomic, structures as well.

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And so we think about gender as a power relation.

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That reinforces other power relations in society as well.

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Uh, we also think about, explore

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and use gender as an analytical tool, to examine gender

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as a, in its structural dimensions.

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So how gender is an organizing force,

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and particular in legal relations and legal institutions.

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What we also regard gender as a symbolic structure.

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So one that helps us read

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and understands concepts and the world.

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So it's a tool that we can use to read the laws of war,

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which is the specific focus of this book.

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So for our perspective, there is nothing

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that's not gendered,

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and in particular all of the laws,

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of on war and armed conflicts.

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We look particularly at collective security,

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international law, and the use

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of force international humanitarian laws of war.

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So they're the laws that govern what you can

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and can't do in an armed conflict as well

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as international criminal law.

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And we also have a chapter on countering terrorism,

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thinking about and analyzing the laws on counter-terrorism.

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So it's not so much about the effect they have on gendered

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bodies, but asking what kind of, analysis

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and conclusions we come up to up with when we apply gender

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as an analytical tool to these, kind

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of often more general areas, of international law.

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Some of those, are about just what, what kind

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of results from this very close reading of law

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with attention to gendered concepts,

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and the issues that emerge from that.

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I guess drawing on feminist analysis is the relationship

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between everyday sites of violence

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and international sites of violence

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and gender is a useful tool for examining that continuum

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because, particularly when we look at law,

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we see a repetition of legal forms in terms of how,

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laws are used to authorize

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or justify some forms of violence,

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and then used to, apprehend

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or, criminalize other sites of violence.

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Um, but we also draw on a news explore, as I said

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before, intersectional feminisms,

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but also decolonial research in the book.

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And this allows us to ask question about,

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questions about voice and expertise both in the mainstream

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and within feminist spaces about who gets to be expert

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and who's constructed as a victim of armed conflict.

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And we'll see, of course, that there gender dynamics,

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but also racialized dynamics around expertise

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and victim status, in, the laws

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and in terms of international institutions.

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Uh, we look at the issues that stem from the creation of 10

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Security council resolutions on women peace and security.

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Uh, and these tend to define the issues as either

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around protection and particular,

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particularly gendered protection for women,

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that are subject to conflict related sexual violence,

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as well as other forms of protection

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for gender-based violence

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and also promoting women's participation in armed conflict.

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So we look at those laws

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and the institutional frames that construct those laws.

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And perhaps, we also, one of the issues that we have is

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that that's a, a limited frame to come at the laws of war

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and understand the laws of war

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because of the kind of reduction of women to

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specific identities in those law.

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In in, in those resolutions. Well, there's 10 of them.

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So being hard, it's hard to pick out one.

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Uh, and they're quite, kind of,

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they extend across 20 years of security council work,

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although that work seems to have slowed now.

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Um, well, it's not so much that we would regard,

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that they should be revised

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or updated,

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rather than raise questions about whether the security

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council is really the appropriate vehicle

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for feminist legal reforms

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and questioning the turn to the security Council as a kind

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of protector of women or a promotion of, gendered

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and feminist ideas,

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because of the problems,

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structural dimensions of the council.

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But of course, the council's purpose is to govern,

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authorize, armed conflict.

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Um, so there's that question.

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And then at the same time in the book,

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we question the work that the Women Peace

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and Security Council resolutions do as resolutions issued

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by the security council.

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So although they're often created with good intention

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and with quite a lot of consultation with feminist networks,

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around the security council,

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at the same time they do do some work in terms

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of legitimating the work of the council itself, as well

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as constructing a very narrow kind of vision

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of women's lives in armed conflict properly.

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First of all, that law is not neutral,

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and I think that's a really important claim

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because sometimes when we think about feminist law reform,

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the assumption is that if we create a law, then

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that would be a good outcome for us.

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Uh, but of course,

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when we look at something like women peace

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and security, we can see that in fact,

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that's not a neutral project, that it sits

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inside an institution which will be structurally gendered

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and will kind of interlock with other power structures.

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Uh, at the same time, we hope that the book

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inspires, colleagues

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and scholars to look beyond laws that directly speak

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to gender, to think about areas such as the laws on the use

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of force, the laws on collective security laws on military

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technologies, counter-terrorism,

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and the regulation of what you can

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and can't do in armed conflict,

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which is international humanitarian law of armed conflict,

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international criminal law.

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I mean, there is a lot of feminist writing on international

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criminal law, but it tends to be about gendered crimes.

08:14.585 --> 08:17.685
So one of the things we hope readers take from this book is

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the analytical skill of thinking about gender as a tool

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to analyze any law as opposed to, creating

08:26.565 --> 08:29.685
gendered laws around specifically women's experience.

08:29.705 --> 08:32.045
And I guess another element of that is identifying

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and acknowledging, the role of military masculinities

08:36.425 --> 08:37.445
as part of the nature

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and structure of international laws on, on war and peace.

08:42.285 --> 08:46.845
A third, takeaway, would be a commitment to feminist

08:46.845 --> 08:49.365
and queer and also queer,

08:49.365 --> 08:53.205
post-colonial feminist approaches as kind of diversifying

08:53.385 --> 08:54.845
and expanding the way we

08:54.845 --> 08:57.405
Think about gender as an analytical tool.

08:57.705 --> 08:59.085
Uh, it's a big part of this book,

08:59.105 --> 09:01.005
but we are actually authoring,

09:01.095 --> 09:03.045
co-writing the second book at the moment.

09:03.465 --> 09:06.165
And thinking about queer feminist approaches

09:06.165 --> 09:09.965
to peace will be big part of the second book, as will the

09:10.475 --> 09:12.485
continued attention to,

09:12.555 --> 09:16.285
decoloniality in feminist approaches,

09:17.065 --> 09:21.045
and then all also using those theories as a tool

09:21.505 --> 09:22.725
to theorize peace.

09:23.065 --> 09:25.165
And I think one of our commitments

09:25.165 --> 09:28.725
as authors has always been to use the law of armed conflict

09:28.725 --> 09:32.645
or the laws of war more broadly, not just to fetishize

09:32.705 --> 09:34.565
and think about and talk about violence,

09:34.785 --> 09:37.685
but to pay attention to how we construct

09:37.685 --> 09:38.965
and think about peace.

09:39.425 --> 09:43.405
And all of us have a commitment to dislodging

09:44.065 --> 09:48.325
the over, attention to, conflict and violence,

09:48.625 --> 09:51.965
and often the failure of attention to peace.

09:51.985 --> 09:56.765
And we start the book by looking at actually the disparity

09:56.765 --> 09:58.525
between say, war studies

09:58.625 --> 10:02.485
and peace studies in academia where one, it's a kind of rich

10:03.055 --> 10:06.525
field with rich in the sense of like economically rich.

10:06.805 --> 10:09.405
I think peace studies a very rich field in and of itself,

10:09.505 --> 10:12.925
but you don't get the same attention as you do,

10:12.925 --> 10:14.245
to the study of on conflict.

10:14.385 --> 10:17.645
So we see feminist approaches as a tool to kind of

10:18.555 --> 10:21.645
reasserting attention to peace is absolutely integral

10:21.985 --> 10:24.805
to our discussions about, the laws of war.

"Exploring Gender Dynamics in the Laws of War and Peace: A Feminist Perspective"

00:00:00 - The Law of War and Peace, the gender analysis Volume one. it's a co-authored book, so I should say that. So speaking on behalf of my, three co-authors, Sarah Ti, Emily Jones and Sherry Lebinski, and all of us had a co-taught on a module called Gender Law and War. And it was in teaching the module, well, part of the idea of putting the idea the module together was to address what we saw as a shortfall in the broader, discipline of gender and conflict, where there was often an limited analysis of the legal regime, that regulated armed conflict.
00:00:42 - that was in part a teaching tool, but also one that had a research agenda that spoke to the legal aspect of gender law and more. This is quite a lot of, literature on the gender and armed conflict element, but less so on the larger laws of war and peace. So we wanted to not just look at those that directly spoke to women, or gendered aspects of armed conflict, conflict, but subject all laws on war and peace. Well, that's probably all law, but mostly those that are dealing with armed situations of harm conflict or the piece bit would be post-conflict scenarios. I guess it depends a little bit on your definition of gender.
00:01:25 - as opposed to thinking about gender as an identity marker. So rather than thinking which law, well, even if you took gender as an identity marker, all humans are gendered, or have some experience of being gendered, so you wouldn't have any laws or laws of war that don't have an impact on gendered humans. however, our definition of gender extends beyond the effects on specific gendered bodies or gendered experiences of armed conflict. To think about gender as a power relation and thinking about gender as a power relation, we're drawing on feminist work
00:02:05 - Many people would be familiar with the work of Kimberly Crenshaw in this area. So intersectionality helps us think of gender as interlocking with other types of power relations and privileges in society, whether race, sexuality, ableism class, socioeconomic, structures as well. And so we think about gender as a power relation. That reinforces other power relations in society as well. we also think about, explore and use gender as an analytical tool, to examine gender as a, in its structural dimensions. So how gender is an organizing force,
00:02:47 - What we also regard gender as a symbolic structure. So one that helps us read and understands concepts and the world. So it's a tool that we can use to read the laws of war, which is the specific focus of this book. So for our perspective, there is nothing that's not gendered, and in particular all of the laws, of on war and armed conflicts. We look particularly at collective security, international law, and the use of force international humanitarian laws of war. So they're the laws that govern what you can and can't do in an armed conflict as well as international criminal law. And we also have a chapter on countering terrorism,
00:03:27 - So it's not so much about the effect they have on gendered bodies, but asking what kind of, analysis and conclusions we come up to up with when we apply gender as an analytical tool to these, kind of often more general areas, of international law. Some of those, are about just what, what kind of results from this very close reading of law with attention to gendered concepts, and the issues that emerge from that. I guess drawing on feminist analysis is the relationship between everyday sites of violence and international sites of violence and gender is a useful tool for examining that continuum

"Challenging Gendered Narratives in International Law: An Intersectional and Decolonial Critique"

00:04:07 - we see a repetition of legal forms in terms of how, laws are used to authorize or justify some forms of violence, and then used to, apprehend or, criminalize other sites of violence. but we also draw on a news explore, as I said before, intersectional feminisms, but also decolonial research in the book. And this allows us to ask question about, questions about voice and expertise both in the mainstream and within feminist spaces about who gets to be expert and who's constructed as a victim of armed conflict.
00:04:50 - but also racialized dynamics around expertise and victim status, in, the laws and in terms of international institutions. we look at the issues that stem from the creation of 10 Security council resolutions on women peace and security. and these tend to define the issues as either around protection and particular, particularly gendered protection for women, that are subject to conflict related sexual violence, as well as other forms of protection for gender-based violence and also promoting women's participation in armed conflict.
00:05:29 - and the institutional frames that construct those laws. And perhaps, we also, one of the issues that we have is that that's a, a limited frame to come at the laws of war and understand the laws of war because of the kind of reduction of women to specific identities in those law. In in, in those resolutions. Well, there's 10 of them. So being hard, it's hard to pick out one. and they're quite, kind of, they extend across 20 years of security council work, although that work seems to have slowed now. well, it's not so much that we would regard, that they should be revised or updated, rather than raise questions about whether the security council is really the appropriate vehicle
00:06:13 - and questioning the turn to the security Council as a kind of protector of women or a promotion of, gendered and feminist ideas, because of the problems, structural dimensions of the council. But of course, the council's purpose is to govern, authorize, armed conflict. so there's that question. And then at the same time in the book, we question the work that the Women Peace and Security Council resolutions do as resolutions issued by the security council. So although they're often created with good intention and with quite a lot of consultation with feminist networks,
00:06:53 - at the same time they do do some work in terms of legitimating the work of the council itself, as well as constructing a very narrow kind of vision of women's lives in armed conflict properly. First of all, that law is not neutral, and I think that's a really important claim because sometimes when we think about feminist law reform, the assumption is that if we create a law, then that would be a good outcome for us. but of course, when we look at something like women peace and security, we can see that in fact, that's not a neutral project, that it sits inside an institution which will be structurally gendered
00:07:38 - at the same time, we hope that the book inspires, colleagues and scholars to look beyond laws that directly speak to gender, to think about areas such as the laws on the use of force, the laws on collective security laws on military technologies, counter-terrorism, and the regulation of what you can and can't do in armed conflict, which is international humanitarian law of armed conflict, international criminal law. I mean, there is a lot of feminist writing on international criminal law, but it tends to be about gendered crimes.

"Expanding Perspectives: Gender, Law, and the Quest for Peace in Armed Conflict Studies"

00:08:18 - the analytical skill of thinking about gender as a tool to analyze any law as opposed to, creating gendered laws around specifically women's experience. And I guess another element of that is identifying and acknowledging, the role of military masculinities as part of the nature and structure of international laws on, on war and peace. A third, takeaway, would be a commitment to feminist and queer and also queer, post-colonial feminist approaches as kind of diversifying and expanding the way we
00:08:57 - it's a big part of this book, but we are actually authoring, co-writing the second book at the moment. And thinking about queer feminist approaches to peace will be big part of the second book, as will the continued attention to, decoloniality in feminist approaches, and then all also using those theories as a tool to theorize peace. And I think one of our commitments as authors has always been to use the law of armed conflict or the laws of war more broadly, not just to fetishize and think about and talk about violence, but to pay attention to how we construct
00:09:39 - And all of us have a commitment to dislodging the over, attention to, conflict and violence, and often the failure of attention to peace. And we start the book by looking at actually the disparity between say, war studies and peace studies in academia where one, it's a kind of rich field with rich in the sense of like economically rich. I think peace studies a very rich field in and of itself, but you don't get the same attention as you do, to the study of on conflict. So we see feminist approaches as a tool to kind of
00:10:21 - to our discussions about, the laws of war.

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