This article raises urgent questions concerning the relationship between states and women’s civil society organisations (CSOs). It pays attention to how normative frameworks like the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda and Responsibility to Protect (R2P) have understood the role of women’s CSOs in relation to preventing mass atrocity crimes, like genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Gendered images of refugees contribute to how we understand who is deserving of protection and who is not.