Elusive gender: analysis of the cross-border humanitarian operation in northern Syria

This article analyzes the inclusion of the gender approach in the humanitarian operation carried out in response to the conflict in northern Syria that is coordinated from Turkey under the umbrella of the United Nations. The research is framed in the gender and humanitarian action studies and connected with the women's human rights claims initiated by the feminism. The text concludes that there is not a clear understanding of this concept among humanitarian personnel in addition to the fact that gender equality is absent in programming, despite the existence of a theoretical development on gender and humanitarian action. On the contrary, in this operation prevails the paradigm of humanitarian action as a tool for assistance to all victims according to their degree of vulnerability under the principle of neutrality, without seeking to transform gender relations. This article also exposes the practical difficulties to apply a gender-based approach devised as a standard tool that does not match with multiples realities faced by humanitarian workers in the field.