Quo Vadis Justice International Criminal Law: Protection of Women and Children Victims of War

Abstract

Armed conflicts increasingly impact civilians, transforming wars into humanitarian disasters where women and children suffer disproportionately as highly vulnerable subjects. This study evaluates international criminal law mechanisms safeguarding women and children in wartime and examines the urgency of strengthening these legal instruments to transition from a retributive framework toward transformative, substantive justice. Utilizing a juridical-normative research design, this study applies both a legislative and a conceptual approach to critically evaluate international humanitarian law (IHL) and human rights instruments. Although frameworks like the 1998 Rome Statute, the 1949 Geneva Conventions, CEDAW, and the CRC explicitly mandate protection, practical implementation fails during real-world crises—such as the Israeli Palestinian conflict. This systemic failure is driven by an ineffective International Criminal Court (ICC) paralyzed by structural, juridical, and geopolitical limitations, resulting in a persistent impunity gap. Existing legal structures are adequate in theory but collapse in practice due to a rigid, conventional descriptive-normative enforcement framework that ignores victimological jurisprudence. To bypass this institutional deadlock, this research advocates for a transformative, victim-centered justice model, providing the necessary conceptual foundation to integrate comprehensive recovery protocols, gender-based redress, and psychosocial rehabilitation into global legal practice