400 Revista del Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos Núm. 2 / 2013 Explicit reference is made to women and children in the provisions on general protection and in the provisions on specially protected persons9. In general terms, attention is focused on pregnant women and mothers of children who have not yet attained the age of seven years10. The term “childhood” is applied to persons who have not yet attained the age of fifteen years, despite the fact that Art. 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child sets the age at eighteen. Part Three of the IV Geneva Convention is dedicated to the status and treatment of protected persons, and states that “Women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault” (art 27). Physical and moral coercion is expressly prohibited, as is “any measure … as to cause the physical suffering or extermination of protected persons …”11.When talking about the treatment of detainees or of persons undergoing disciplinary punishment, it is stated that women shall be confined in separate quarters and shall be under the immediate supervision of women (articles 76 and 124). In the section dedicated to places of internment, it is stated that expectant and nursing mothers and children who have not yet attained the age of fifteen years shall be given additional food in proportion to their physiological needs (article 89). Preferential treatment is provided for in the cases of children, pregnant women and mothers with infants and young children in the processes of evacuation, repatriation, release, and hospitalisation in a neutral country during the course of hostilities (articles 17 and 132). In occupied territories, the Occupying Power is made responsible for children and shall adopt a series of measures to guarantee their food, education and care, as well as their identification and registration of their parentage12. respect to the above-mentioned persons: violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment, torture and torment, taking of hostages, outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, as well as the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples. 9 The Convention provides for the possibility of designating hospital and safety zones and localities so organized as to protect from the effects of war, wounded, sick and aged persons, children under fifteen, expectant mothers and mothers of children under seven (art. 4) 10 Vid., BARROW, A.: “Resolutions 1325 and 1820 of the Security Council: promoting gender issues in armed conflicts and in International Humanitarian Law”, International Review of the Red Cross, no. 877, 2010. 11 The prohibition on causing physical suffering does not only apply to murder, torture, corporal punishment, mutiliation, and medical or scientific experiments not required for the medical treatment of a protected person, but also to any type of mistreatment by civilian or military agents. 12 Articles 24 and 50 establish special measures in favour of children, such as those to ensure that children under fifteen, who are orphaned or are separated from their families as a result of the war, are not left to their own resources, and that their maintenance, the exercise of their religion and their education are facilitated in all circumstances. Their education shall, as far as possible, be entrusted to
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