Queering the Geneva Conventions of 1949: Uncovering the Cis-heteronormative Structure in International Humanitarian Law

Abstract

This article examines the Geneva Conventions of 1949 through the lens of queer legal theory to expose their cis-heteronormative assumptions and how they render LGBTQI+ persons invisible. The article employs queer analytical tools of biopolitics, gender performativity, the deconstruction of binaries, the identification of structural bias and the predication of values to analyse the conventions within the biopolitical legacy of Nazi war crimes against LGBTQI+ persons and the silences surrounding such victims in the Nuremberg trials. Moreover, the article argues that, despite the fact that the conventions are universally applicable, they uphold a cis-heteronormative bias that inhibits the protection of LGBTQI+ persons. The article demonstrates this through a close reading of the figures of the masculine soldier, women and children in the Geneva Conventions, which reveals gender essentialism that privileges the heterosexual cisgender male as a central legal subject. The conventions protect women and children through differentiated and hierarchical roles, while LGBTQI+ persons remain legally marginal, rendered invisible or protected only indirectly through expansive interpretation. It concludes that queer legal theory offers both an analytical framework for revealing these exclusions and a normative method for reinterpreting international humanitarian law in a manner consistent with its universalist claims.