International approaches to human rights have, until recently, largely overlooked the experiences of women in conflict, displacement and crisis. Although women's human rights are progressing on paper, rape and sexual violence continues at mass levels in conflict and civil unrest with few consequences for perpetrators and very little emphasis on preventions. Sociology has itself been slow to engage in discourses around human rights, and even slower progress has been made in developing sociological understandings of gender and human rights. This contribution argues that overlooking gendered inequalities leaves the violation of women at the bottom of a priority list regarding international humanitarian law, and that sociological approaches highlighting and challenging women's subordination may support prevention and conviction at localised and international levels.