Page 34 - CoESPU Magazine 2017-3

it has been stood out a rising influence and integration of the International Human Rights principles on
IHL. The IIHL with its initiative highlighted that Gender Violence, whilst still prevalent in many armed
conflicts, does not appear to be widely addressed in traditional IHL training packages for the armed
forces. The issue assumes also more and more relevance if we consider the growing number of women
involved in the battlefield, either in regular and non-state armed forces.
The subject itself covers a wide a range of behaviors not all of which amount to breaches of IHL, but
ranging from individual criminal conduct by, for instance, peacekeepers, to its systematic employment
as a means and method of warfare.
The UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which acknowledged that men and women are affected by
armed conflict and destabilization in a very different way, was issued in 2000 and since then the
international community has pledged to prevent and protect women and support them to play an active
role in the post-conflict reconstruction processes. At the same time, unfortunately, comparable
improvements haven't been implemented with regard to the real conflict situations, where the latest
normative provisions recognizing some form of "special protection" for these primarily affected
categories goes back to the 1977 Additional Protocols.
The spirit of the
interventions by
speakers and
participants has been,
however,
encouraging, and
there is hope that the
IHL provisions will
be, in the near future,
further reformed and
the SGBV in conflict
will be recognized as
relevant as other key
pillars such as
distinction and
precaution are today.

From left to right: B.G. Giovanni Pietro Barbano, CoESPU Director and

Ambassador Elisabetta Belloni Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Written by:
Major Marco SUTTO
CoESPU Human Rights &International Humanitarian Law Chair

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