'Innocent Women and Children' : Gender, Norms and the Protection of Civilians

This ground-breaking study examines the influence of gender constructs on the international regime protecting war-affected civilians. R. Charli Carpenter argues that to understand the way in which laws of war are implemented and promoted in international society we must first understand how gender ideas affect and ultimately undermine the principle of civilian immunity.

Examining the influence of gender constructs on the international regime protecting war-affected civilians, R. Charli Carpenter examines how in practice belligerents, advocates and humanitarian players interpret civilian immunity so as to leave adult civilian men and older boys at grave risk in conflict zones. Providing a wealth of ground-breaking case studies, the author argues that in order to understand the way in which laws of war are implemented and promoted in international society we must understand how gender ideas affect the principle of civilian immunity. Each case study demonstrates the importance of assumptions about gender relations in shaping international politics, and in developing a framework for incorporating an attention to gender into the often gender-blind scholarship on international norms. As such, this book will be of interest to international relations theorists and to human rights scholars, students and activists alike.