The Genocide Convention, created in the post-Holocaust world, was designed to protect against future acts of genocide and to punish perpetrators. History shows that, along with the sociological theory of genocide which underpins it, the Genocide Convention was drafted predominantly by men. Through a feminist-inspired analytical lens, we can ask: what does this mean for the norms and standards reflected in the document, and the acts of genocide it outlaws?

By drawing on archival materials and contemporaneous trial transcripts, this talk will explore whether original genocide theory and law coherently reflect the gendered harms experienced women during genocides, and the approach of the drafters to these harms. It will ask how men understood the vulnerabilities of women to acts of genocide, whether this is influenced by the position of women in the post-World War Two society, and whether this continues to influence current conceptualisations of gender and genocide.