New Perspectives for Mass Atrocities’ Prevention: Reducing Gender Equality as a Means to Reduce the Risk of Genocide. The Cases of Nigeria and Burundi.

Over the last decades, the United Nations produced a consistent number of policies aiming at reducing both the risk of mass atrocities and gender inequality. However, these issues have been the object of “separate” interventions and, until now, gender policies were directed to the female population with the primary goal of improving women’s condition worldwide. Conversely to this trend, and in line with a wide gender literature that proves the correlation between high gender inequality rates and high levels of violence (both interstate and intrastate), this work argues that reducing gender inequality might be one of the possible means to reduce both levels of violence and the risk of mass atrocities. The paper will analyze the UN policies on these topics, it will present the existent literature on gender inequality and violence and finally it will explore the correlation between gender inequality and the risk of mass atrocities, with a particular focus on genocide. This contribution suggests a new perspective for the prevention of mass atrocities: the elaboration of policies aiming at reducing gender inequality, not as a mere means to improve women’s condition, but also as a possible way to reduce both levels of violence (both intrastate and interstate) and the risk of mass atrocities.