Abstract
Gender perspective is currently being mainstreamed in the context of security, disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control. Since gender is not just about women and girls but also relates to men and boys, gender perspective must be balanced and take into account the broad socio-cultural context as a whole. The adverse effects of nuclear detonations may impinge on the right to life and encroach upon a number of other civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights among which the right to family life, health, education, property and housing. It has become apparent that the use and testing of nuclear weapons affect differently men and boys, women and girls, both physically and in the context of society, hindering their ability to fully exercise their basic human rights. Gender-aware assistance is needed to contribute reducing the adverse consequences of nuclear detonations for the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. Gender perspective may help redirect debates concerning nuclear weapons towards a greater consideration of human factors, and ultimately reshape the strategies for security, disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control. Women’s engagement in the struggle for peace and disarmament is extremely relevant and should gain more influence, while involving more women in nuclear issues, at both national and international level, could enhance the non-proliferation and disarmament agenda. However, only if women and men are able to work together within governments, international organisations and civil society with full awareness of, and respect for, their respective roles, diversities and needs, effective and sustainable solutions on issues of nuclear disarmament can be achieved.
Professor Emerita, University of Milan, Italy, Member of the ILA Committee on Nuclear Weapons, Non-Proliferation and Contemporary International Law.
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Notes
- 1.
The entire range of topics and issues related to gender in the fields of human rights is covered by the 71 chapters of the seminal collection by Otto (ed) 2013, Vol. 1–3. See also Anker 2002; and International Law Association 2010. The gender dimension of international humanitarian law is explored among others by Barrow 2010; Durham and O’Byrne 2010. See also International Humanitarian Law and Gender 2007. As regards peacekeeping, peace-building and conflict resolution see Heathcote and Otto (eds) 2014. Ewelukwa 2002 provides an exhaustive (at the time) bibliography on the role of gender in the functioning of international economic organizations. The proceedings of an international conference on gender and the law of the sea have been recently published by Papanicolopulu (ed) 2018.
- 2.
See UNODA 2001a.
- 3.
Charlesworth and Chinkin 2000, pp. 3–4.
- 4.
UN Women, Concepts and Definitions, http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/conceptsandefinitions.htm (last accessed 26 March 2018). The UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) was established in 2010 by merging four previously distinct parts of the UN system which focused on gender equality and women's empowerment: the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW, established in 1946), the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW, established in 1976); the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI, established in 1997) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM, established in 1976). See A/RES/64/289, 21 July 2010, paras 49–80.
- 5.
- 6.
Grounds for concern relating to the conflation of gender and sex in the Rome Statute are aptly discussed by Oosterveld 2005, pp. 71–81.
- 7.
- 8.
See Flood and Howson (eds) 2015, especially Part I.
- 9.
- 10.
In her 1989 seminal work on demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex, Kimberlé Crenshaw captured the shortcomings of rigid categorizations of vulnerabilities (Crenshaw 1989, pp. 160–165).
- 11.
Kochhar et al. 2017, pp. 3–10.
- 12.
See data provided by OECD Family database (OECD-Social Policy Division-Directorate of Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, Updated: 26-10-17), http://www.oecd.org/els/family/database.htm (last accessed 15 June 2018). See also Haas and Russell 2015.
- 13.
With regard to UN gender mainstreaming generally see Kouvo 2005 and the Report of the Secretary-General E/2017/57 of 6 April 2017.
- 14.
The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, China—September 1995, Action for Equality, Development and Peace, Platform for Action, Women in Power and Decision-making, para 189, http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/decision.htm.
- 15.
UN General Assembly, Fifty-second Session, Report of the Economic and Social Council for 1997, A/52/3 of 18 September 1997, p. 27.
- 16.
- 17.
Supra n 2.
- 18.
Underground testing causes varying amounts of radioactive gases to vent into the atmosphere and radioactive isotopes to leach into underground water supplies and the surrounding soil. See Unal et al. 2017, pp. 8–9.
- 19.
A complete list of nuclear testing worldwide is provided by the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO Preparatory Commission), https://www.ctbto.org/nuclear-testing/history-of-nuclear-testing/nuclear-testing-1945-today/.
- 20.
United Nations conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination, Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, UN Doc. A/CONF.229/2017/8 of 7 July 2017. See Chap. 18 in this volume.
- 21.
Borrie et al. 2016, p. 12.
- 22.
de Vathaire et al. 2010, p. 1116.
- 23.
- 24.
Dimmen 2014, p. 3.
- 25.
Borrie et al. 2016, pp. 13–15.
- 26.
Treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water, 480 UNTS 43, 2 ILM 889 (1963); Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, 729 UNTS 161, 7 ILM 8809 (1968); Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction, 1015 UNTS 163, 11 ILM 309 (1972).
- 27.
Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction, 1974 UNTS 45, 32 ILM 800 (1993); Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty, 35 ILM 1439 (1996); Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, 2056 UNTS 241 36 ILM 1507 (1997).
- 28.
See Convention on Cluster Munitions, CCM/77, 3rd preambular paragraph; Arms Trade Treaty, UNODA, https://www.un.org/disarmament/publications/library/att/, 10th preambular paragraph.
- 29.
ATT Article 7.4. See Acheson 2015.
- 30.
TPNW, fourth preambular paragraph.
- 31.
See ICRC 2006, p. 4.
- 32.
TPNW, Article 6(1).
- 33.
The concept of ‘age-and gender-sensitive assistance’ was first mentioned in Article 5(1) of the CCM (supra n 9).
- 34.
See Article 12 of the First and Second Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 (https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/ihl/full/GCI-commentary; https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/ihl/full/GCII-commentary).
- 35.
See Article 70 of Additional Protocol I of 8 June 1977 (https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/).
- 36.
See IAEA 2017; see also http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/a_e/rempan/en/.
- 37.
See IFRC 2015.
- 38.
- 39.
Adopted by the International Law Commission at its sixty-eighth session, in 2016, and submitted to the General Assembly as a part of the Commission’s report covering the work of that session (A/71/10), para 48). See http://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/draft_articles/6_3_2016.pdf.
- 40.
See Borrie 2014, arguing that at a practical level the UN system has not adequately planned how it would respond to assist the victims of nuclear weapons and that the current humanitarian system is largely unprepared for the difficult challenges of such an event.
- 41.
United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, Statement on gender mainstreaming in disarmament to the Group of Experts for the United Nations study on disarmament and non-proliferation education, 18 April, 2001, http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/gmstatemdisar.htm.
- 42.
Supra n 2.
- 43.
- 44.
- 45.
- 46.
- 47.
Cohn and Ruddick 2004, pp. 410 and 418.
- 48.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was launched in 2007 as a coalition of non-governmental organizations promoting public support for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Since 2010 it has been working alongside the Humanitarian Initiative that resulted in the conclusion of the TPNW in 2017. The complete list of partner organizations is available at http://www.icanw.org/campaign/campaign-overview/.
- 49.
Cohn and Ruddick 2004, pp. 405–406.
- 50.
See Heathcote 2015, pp. 116–117 further arguing that the separation of the authorization of force from attention to women’s security has perpetuated negative gender relations creating risks to women within communities (pp. 119 and 128).
- 51.
- 52.
See Lewis et al. 2017, p. 15.
- 53.
- 54.
TPNW, twenty-second preambular paragraph: ‘…the equal, full and effective participation of both women and men is an essential factor for the promotion and attainment of sustainable peace and security…’.
- 55.
See Mullally 2006, pp. 2–12.
- 56.
The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, supra n 14, para 181.
- 57.
Biswas 2016 mentions the hard-line foreign policy postures of Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi and Hillary Clinton (pp. 2 and n 4). Benazir Bhutto radically changed her position on Pakistan’s nuclear program after ascending to power: see https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/21/world/bhutto-stands-by-nuclear-program.html.
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Venturini, G. (2019). Gender Perspective on Nuclear Weapons and Human Rights. In: Black-Branch, J., Fleck, D. (eds) Nuclear Non-Proliferation in International Law - Volume IV. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-267-5_5
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