...and motherhood are not the only or ultimate experiences of women in armed conflict. The inclusion of this obligation is meant to highlight its possible relevance to certain groups of women, such as mothers of children born of rape, rather than to prioritise women over other categories of victim/survivor. III.8 Special protection against CRSV is owed to children🔗 This obligation is general in nature: IHL does not expressly list what steps States must take to...

...the upbringing of their child; Provide mothers and children born of rape who wish to seek redress through justice mechanisms with free legal aid; Recognise and treat children born of rape ‘as victims of conflict’, and include them ‘in all considerations regarding humanitarian aid, justice initiatives and diplomatic relations’; Register children born of rape and ensure their right to a nationality. States should provide abandoned children with access to care services, birth certificates and the......born of rape. States have specific obligations as concerns mothers (whether women or girls) and children born of rape. To prevent the (re)occurrence of human rights violations, States should: In the distribution of relief aid, prioritise ‘expectant mothers, maternity cases and nursing mothers in the context of conflict’; Abolish the death penalty for pregnant women or mothers of dependent or young children; Integrate child protection systems in the justice system to support mothers with subsidies for......right to acquire a nationality. States should implement Identification programmes in a non-arbitrary and non-discriminatory manner ‘within a reasonable time-frame’; Keep children born of conflict-related rape and their mothers informed and consulted on any decisions affecting them. States should involve them in conflict prevention, peace building and post-conflict reconstruction; Provide children born of rape with ‘equal access to vocational training, life skills and socioeconomic support, sports and leisure activities, religion and cultural activities by means......of an individualized plan that is adapted to the child’s needs’, and ‘psychosocial support and counselling, including to families’; Develop and implement strategies ‘to identify young women and girls who are or have been used as soldiers and their children to provide them with effective reintegration assistance’. States should ensure that these strategies do not increase the stigma and exclusion faced by former girl soldiers; Combat stigmatisation and social isolation of children born of rape......for public office or women exercising their right to vote.147 Participation in security sector reform and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration. Post-conflict, women, especially female ex-combatants and women and girls associated with armed groups, face particular challenges. Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programmes often do not respond to their distinct needs. Many female ex-combatants have suffered gender-based violence, in particular sexual violence, ‘resulting in children born of rape, high levels of sexually transmitted diseases, rejection’ or stigmatisation by...