Gender, Genocide and the UN: Gendered Approaches to Srebrenica 1995-2017

Abstract

This thesis argues how a gendered approach can strengthen the response of the United Nations to genocide (and ethnic conflict), using the atrocities at Srebrenica in 1995 as a case study. This year, 2020, marks 25 years since the genocide of 8,000 Bosniak men and the rape of dozens of women at Srebrenica. However, the gender dynamics of genocide, encompassing both men and women as gendered subjects, remains an understudied aspect of the events that happened at Srebrenica. The thesis discusses how gender dynamics shaped the genocide at Srebrenica. Moreover, several UN resolutions, reports, and judgments from the international trials on Srebrenica will be analyzed to show to what extent a gendered approach to the atrocities was missing. Lastly, based on the answers to the previous questions, the thesis will discuss how a gendered approach can help the international community, and the UN specifically, improve their response to genocide and ethnic conflict.