Amiel Gian Mario Zapanta has posted Sila(his): A Philippine Masculine-Queer Jurisprudential Analysis of Civilian Protection Against Sexual Violence in Non-International Armed Conflicts on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This study examines the textual, structural, and epistemic erasure of bisexual and masculine-queer survivors of sexual violence in non-international armed conflict (NIAC) within the Philippine legal context. It interrogates how interpretive approaches to Additional Protocol II, the Rome Statute, and Republic Act No. 9851 that rely on binary understandings of gender limit the recognition of male and queer civilian harm despite formally gender-neutral protection norms. Drawing on the Martens Clause, while respecting international obligations through pacta sunt servanda, it introduces silahis as a Philippine masculine-queer interpretive framework to clarify gaps in civilian protection and state accountability under international humanitarian law, contributing to doctrinal and jurisprudential analysis.
And from the conclusion:
Beyond the traditional jurisprudential inquiry into what the law is, this paper situates at its core an underexplored yet equally fundamental question: who is a man? Unlike the extensive feminist engagement with womanhood, global gender discourse has largely neglected the legal and philosophical construction of masculinity. The analytical framework developed here does not seek to reform positive law directly. Rather, it aims to supplement existing literature and jurisprudential analysis by offering a critical lens through which judicial interpretation and doctrinal development may more adequately reflect the gendered realities that contemporary international law increasingly confronts.
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