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14 Melb. J. Int'l L. 317 (2013)
Gender, Sovereignty and the Rise of Sexual Security Regime in International Law and Postcolonial India

handle is hein.journals/meljil14 and id is 327 raw text is: GENDER, SOVEREIGNTY AND THE RISE OF A SEXUAL SECURITY REGIME IN INTERNATIONAL LAW AND POSTCOLONIAL INDIA RATNA KAPuR* In this paper, I use the recent 'Delhi rape' case that received global attention in 2012 to trace how an appalling episode of violence against a woman is articulated within stable categories of gender and invites state intervention in the form of criminal justice, stringent sentencing and a strengthened sexual security regime. I argue that the stability of gender and gender categories based on the binary of male and female has been an integral feature of international law and has been maintained partly through an overwhelming focus on sexual violence against women by states as well as non-state actors. This focus relies on a statist approach to sovereignty, where advocacy is directed at the state for redress and protection, primarily in the form of carceral measures, which in turn translate into a tightening of the sexual security regime. By continuing to appeal to the state as a central custodian of women's rights, feminist and human rights advocacy has failed to address the ways in which power is dispersed and does not operate in a top-down manner. It also operates in terms of domination, subjugation and subject constitution. I examine how a security discourse operates to regulate, discipline and manage gender in the context of three areas of international law: anti-trafficking interventions in international human rights law; wartime rape in international criminal law; and the 'taming of gender' in the context of the Security Council resolutions 1325 and 1820 on gender, peace and security. CONTENTS I In tro d u c tio n .......................................................................................................... 3 17 II U nm aking Sovereignty ......................................................................................... 32 1 III U npacking G ender in International Law ............................................................. 325 IV Security Discourse and the Regulation, Discipline and Management of G ender in International L aw ................................................................................ 332 A Sex Trafficking in International Human Rights Law .............................. 332 B Gender, Wartime Rape and the International Criminal Court .................. 336 C Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820 in International H u m an itarian L aw ................................................................................... 33 8 V C o n c lu sio n ............................................................................................................ 3 4 2 I INTRODUCTION In December 2012, a young 23-year-old woman and her male companion were returning home at 9:30pm having watched a screening of the Life ofPi1 at a well-known multiplex cinema in New Delhi. They waited for one of Delhi's Global Professor of Law, Jindal Global Law School, India and Faculty, Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings, Washington DC, 18 April 2013; the seminar on Gender and International Law, Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Geneva, 13 May 2013; and the Oxford Human Rights Summer Programme, 24 July 2013. I am grateful to all those who provided input and comments on the draft paper. I also thank the anonymous referees for their comments on the draft. My thanks to Adil Khan and Surabhi Shukla for their invaluable research assistance. 1 Life of Pi (Directed by Ang Lee, 20th Century Fox, 2012).