Armed conflict and women victims

The history of war and conflict, as well as the history of mankind go side by side, and therefore, it is as old as the human civilization on the earth. The naturally present aggression in the human nature has been the driving force in the development of human species and its rapid rise on the earth. Even as we boast ourselves to have achieved very high levels of moral and ethical development, war is still a key point of human interface.

As a matter of fact wars have devastating consequences on the society, but the women and girls are particularly severely affected because of their status in society and their sex. Civilian causalities in war and conflict risen from 5 per cent at the turn of the century, to more than 90 per cent in the wars of the 1990s, and the majority among them is women and children, in comparison to the facts about a century ago when 90 per cent of those who lost their lives were military personnel.

In the war-torn societies women face specific and devastating forms of sexual violence, which may sometimes be used systematically to attain military or political objectives. The acute shortage of resources due to war and armed conflict is another cause of great concern for the womankind. Even after the conflict is over, the sufferings of women in the form of sexual violence persist; this includes unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and stigmatization. Modern warfare has had a devastating effect on the lives and dignity of women and girls, as well as on the health and educational services that are essential to family and community survival.

Girls, like boys, are recruited as child soldiers, although they are fewer in number and their responsibilities are usually gender specific. Girls may be "volunteers," because of family poverty and their families’ inability to sustain them. Women and girls are not merely victims of war. They can perpetrate violence and can support violence perpetrated by others. They become active members of conflict if they are committed to the political, religious or economic goals of those involved in violence.

The paper attempts to investigate the consequence and harm inflicted by the warfare and conflict on the women and girls, and suggest ways to minimize the same