CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2010
| Author | Nikolova, Olga Kirilova |
|---|---|
| Title | Turning the Double Negative of Girl-soldiers' Human Rights into a Positive |
| Summary | This thesis is concerned with the state of human rights of girls in internal conflicts in African countries over the past 20 years (both past and present girl-soldiers). On the surface of human rights doctrine girl-soldiers in African countries are entitled to almost as many human rights as any average white male Western adult person for they are just as human as the latter and undoubtedly endowed with the same measure of human dignity. But in the field, this is by no means the case. The girls from the bush have no rights, they are invisible, non-existing, forgotten. Some of the questions fundamental for this research are how can the ‘double negative’ of girl-soldiers’ rights be turned into a ‘positive’ after the end of the conflict and how can the protection of human rights of girls victimised during conflict be strengthened. The method used is analysis of existing scholarly work and primary binding instruments as well as non-binding documents. Some seminal examples of case law are also included. The first chapter explores the contemporary feminist critiques of human rights law. The research places itself within the scholarly feminist debates. It identifies the weaknesses and gaps in the protection of women’s human rights and more specifically, emphasises on the problems of its implementation and enforcement in African countries. The second chapter embarks upon an assessment of consequences of child soldiering and its implications. It first familiarises the reader with the devastating impact of armed conflict on children. Secondly, it resolves some definitional problems and enumerates the major international law provisions relevant to the protection of children during armed conflict. Further, it gives ideas on how to use the existing jurisprudence to develop new mechanisms and to contribute to the evolution of international jurisprudence concerning the rights of child- and especially girl-soldiers. The third chapter manifests the intersection of the problem of women rights (the first human rights grey zone called “a negative”) and the problem of the rights of the child during armed conflict (the second human rights lacuna i.e. “negative”). It depicts the particularly vulnerable situation of the girl child and goes on to establish the characteristics of the “girl-soldier diagnosis”. Eventually, it quests for solutions to this intersectional discrimination issue by drawing upon examples from the field, examining the gender of conflict and ultimately, suggesting that the transgression of gender roles caused by the inevitable destruction of the social fabric during the conflict may the most opportune to initiate the “positive of girls’ human rights”. |
| Supervisor | Hammer, Leonard |
| Department | Legal Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2010/nikolova_olga.pdf |
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