Sierra Leone

Transitional Justice, Gender-Based Violence, and Women’s Rights

Citation:

Fanneron, Evelyn, Eunice N. Sahle, and Kari Dahlgren. 2019. "Transitional Justice, Gender-Based Violence, and Women’s Rights." In Human Rights in Africa: Contemporary Debates and Struggles, edited by Eunice N. Sahle, 89-144. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: Evelyn Fanneron, Eunice N. Sahle, Kari Dahlgren

Abstract:

In this chapter, Evelyn Fanneron, Eunice N. Sahle, and Kari Dahlgren examine sources of gender-based violence in the context of conflict. Further, they explore the gendered underpinnings of transitional justice drawing on transitional justice mechanisms (TJMs in Rwanda and Sierra Leone). The chapter pays particular attention to these TJMs’ approach to wartime sexual violence in order to assess the ways in which they have begun to account for gendered harms and the ways in which they have not yet achieved gendered justice. To achieve its aims, the chapter draws insights from feminist concerns regarding human rights discourse and TJMs’ approaches to gender-based violence and wartime sexual violence.

Topics: Conflict, Feminisms, Gender-Based Violence, Justice, Transitional Justice, Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, West Africa Countries: Rwanda, Sierra Leone

Year: 2019

Women's Voices, Work and Bodily Integrity in Pre‐Conflict, Conflict and Post‐Conflict Reconstruction Processes in Sierra Leone

Citation:

Abdullah, Hussainatu J., Aisha F. Ibrahim, and Jamesina King. 2010. "Women's Voices, Work and Bodily Integrity in Pre‐Conflict, Conflict and Post‐Conflict Reconstruction Processes in Sierra Leone." IDS Bulletin 41 (2): 37-45.

Authors: Hussainatu J. Abdullah, Aisha F. Ibrahim, Jamesina King

Abstract:

This article focuses on the historical trajectories of women's empowerment in Sierra Leone, taking three entry‐points as a means of exploring the dynamics of change over the pre‐conflict, conflict and post‐conflict periods: voice and political participation; work and economic participation; and bodily integrity. Looking at pathways of empowerment in pre‐conflict Sierra Leone, at experiences of women during the time of conflict over the course of a long and brutal civil war from 1991–2002, and at post‐conflict possibilities, the article highlights some of the changes that have taken place in women's lives and the avenues that are opening up in Sierra Leone in a time of peace. It suggests that understanding women's pathways of empowerment in Sierra Leone calls for closer attention to be paid to the dynamics of conflict and post‐conflict reconstruction, and to the significance of context in shaping constraints and opportunities.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Conflict, Economies, Gender, Women, Political Participation, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2010

Gender and War: International and Transitional Justice Perspectives

Citation:

Jurasz, Olga, and Solange Mouthaan. 2019. Gender and War: International and Transitional Justice Perspectives. Cambridge: Intersentia.

Authors: Solange Mouthaan, Olga Jurasz

Keywords: Gender, war, transitional justice, international law, conflict

Annotation:

Summary: 
This book explores and challenges common assumptions about gender, conflict, and post-conflict situations. It critically examines the gendered aspects of international and transitional justice processes by subverting traditional understandings of how wars are waged, the power dynamics involved, and the experiences of victims.The book also highlights the gendered stereotypes that underpin the (mis)perceptions about gender and war in order to reveal the multi-dimensional nature of modern conflicts and their aftermaths.
 
Featuring contributions from academics in law, criminology, international relations, politics and psychology, as well as legal practitioners in the field, Gender and War offers a unique and multi-disciplinary insight into contemporary understandings of conflict and explores the potential for international and transitional justice processes to evolve in order to better acknowledge diverse and gendered experiences of modern conflicts.
 
This book provides the reader with international and interdisciplinary perspectives on issues of international law, conflict, gender and transitional justice. (Summary from Intersentia)
 
Introduction (p.1)
 
Part I. Women's Involvement in Armed Conflict
              How and Why Women Participate in Armed Conflict (p.9)
​              Female Perpetrators in the Fromer Yugoslav Republic and Rwanda (p. 41)
​              Female War Crime Perpetrators in Bosnia and Herzegovina (p. 65)
 
Part II. Men and Children's Experiences of Armed Conflict
​              Towards a Gender Analysis of Sexual Violence Against Men and Boys in Conflict (p. 93)
​              Children and Armed Conflict (p. 119)
 
Part III. Gendered Expereiences of International Criminal Justice
​              Gender, Enslavement and War Economies in Sierra Leone (p. 145)
​              Male Victims and Female Perpetrators of Sexual Violence in Conflict (p. 169)
​              Prosecuting Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes in the International Criminal Court (p. 209)
​              Reparations for Gendered Harms at the International Criminal Court (p. 235)
 
Part IV. Gendered Experiences of Transitional Justice
​              Children in Transitional Justice Processes (p. 259)
​              Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Kosovo (p. 285)
​              Staying the Course (p. 311)
 
Part V. Conclusions
​              Conclusions (p. 353)
 

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Economies, War Economies, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, Justice, Transitional Justice, War Crimes, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Female Perpetrators, SV against Men Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2019

Human Rights Frameworks and Women's Rights in Post-Transitional Justice Sierra Leone

Citation:

Lahai, John Idriss, and Nenneh Lahai. 2018. "Human Rights Frameworks and Women's Rights in Post-Transitional Justice Sierra Leone." In Gender in Human Rights and Transitional Justice, edited by John Idriss Lahai and Khanyisela Moyo, 143-74. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: John Idriss Lahai, Nenneh Lahai

Abstract:

The end of transitional justice in Sierra Leone coincided with an increase in women’s human rights activism. Reasons for this included an increase in the level of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), and the ineffectiveness and insensitivity of the human rights laws of the country. To the women’s rights activists, SGBV and its associated inequalities before the law, irrespective of the context, were incompatible with the universal tenets of human rights. Within the purview of feminist legal theory, women’s rights were understood to be not just about the codification of rights and responsibilities (see Bunch, 1995; Manjoo, 2012; Quraishi, 2011), but also about recognizing the familial, social, cultural, political, and economic ramifications of gender inequality on the incidence of violence and discrimination experienced by women who seek redress from, or are in conflict with, the law (Banda & Joffe, 2016; Lockwood, 2006; Reilly, 2009). This theory also understands, in context-neutral terms, women’s rights to be about the reconfiguration of the institutions and policies created to protect the inalienable rights and agency of women.

Keywords: human rights, transitional justice, violence against women (VAW), Sierra Leone Police, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV)

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Justice, Transitional Justice, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence, Violence Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2018

Transitional Justice, Gender-Based Violence, and Women's Rights

Citation:

Fanneron, Evelyn, Eunice N. Sahle, and Kari Dahlgren. 2019. "Transitional Justice, Gender-Based Violence, and Women's Rights." In Human Rights in Africa, edited by Evelyn Fanneron, 89-144. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: Evelyn Fanneron, Eunice N. Sahle, Kari Dahlgren

Abstract:

In this chapter, Evelyn Fanneron, Eunice N. Sahle, and Kari Dahlgren examine sources of gender-based violence in the context of conflict. Further, they explore the gendered underpinnings of transitional justice drawing on transitional justice mechanisms (TJMs in Rwanda and Sierra Leone). The chapter pays particular attention to these TJMs’ approach to wartime sexual violence in order to assess the ways in which they have begun to account for gendered harms and the ways in which they have not yet achieved gendered justice. To achieve its aims, the chapter draws insights from feminist concerns regarding human rights discourse and TJMs’ approaches to gender-based violence and wartime sexual violence.

Topics: Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Justice, Transitional Justice, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, West Africa Countries: Rwanda, Sierra Leone

Year: 2019

Whose Seat Will Become Reserved?: The 30% Quota Campaign in Sierra Leone

Citation:

Ibrahim, Aisha F. 2015. “Whose Seat Will Become Reserved?: The 30% Quota Campaign in Sierra Leone.” African and Asian Studies 14 (1-2): 61-84.

Author: Aisha Fofana Ibrahim

Abstract:

Post-war reconstruction efforts in Sierra Leone combined with global discourses around issues of democracy and participation have, to some extent, created a space for political engagement of traditionally marginalized groups, including women. Women’s political engagement has, in recent times, centered around a campaign for a 30% constitutionally mandated gender quota system which, it is believed, will be the most effective way to get more female representation in legislatures as well as close the wide gap that exists numerically between both genders in the public sphere. This paper seeks to examine women’s engagement with political processes in Sierra Leone, their long and unsuccessful struggle for a quota system and how all of this fits into a wider struggle for gender justice in Sierra Leone. The main argument raised in this paper is that the gender quota campaign is fraught with challenges because women in the struggle, especially female parliamentarians, have found it difficult to go beyond the borders of their political parties’ ideological stance, and organizational boundaries to collectively and successfully advance the campaign. In addition, the campaign seems to be more centralized in the capital with little or no engagement at the com munity level. Moreover, because of the widening political divide, meaningfully engaging an elite male cadre that has variedly resisted women’s full and equal participation in the public sphere remains a challenge.

Keywords: Sierra Leone, Women's political leadership, quotas, women's activism, gender equality, women legislators

Topics: Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Women, Gender Mainstreaming, Governance, Quotas, Post-Conflict, Political Participation Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2015

Rethinking Transitional Gender Justice: Transformative Approaches in Post-Conflict Settings

Citation:

Shackel, Rita, and Lucy Fiske, eds. 2019. Rethinking Transitional Gender Justice: Transformative Approaches in Post-Conflict Settings. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: Rita Shackel, Lucy Fiske

Annotation:

Summary:
This book draws together established and emerging scholars from sociology, law, history, political science and education to examine the global and local issues in the pursuit of gender justice in post-conflict settings. This examination is especially important given the disappointing progress made to date in spite of concerted efforts over the last two decades. With contributions from both academics and practitioners working at national and international levels, this work integrates theory and practice, examining both global problems and highly contextual case studies including Kenya, Somalia, Peru, Afghanistan and DRC. The contributors aim to provide a comprehensive and compelling argument for the need to fundamentally rethink global approaches to gender justice. Rita Shackel is Associate Professor of Law at The University of Sydney Law School, Australia. Her research program is broadly focused on evaluation and reform of legal and social justice processes, with a specific focus on sexual and gender based violence and the needs of victims and survivors especially women and children. Lucy Fiske is Senior Lecturer in Social and Political Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Her research focuses on forced migration, human rights and gender justice. (Summary from Palgrave Macmillan) 
 
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction: Rethinking Institutions
Lucy Fiske and Rita Shackel
 
Part I: Rethinking Institutions
2. The Rise (and Fall?) of Transitional Gender Justice: A Survey of the Field
Lucy Fiske
 
3. Ebola and Post Conflict Gender Justice: Lessons from Liberia
Pamela Scully
 
4. Making Clients Out of Citizens: Deconstructing Women’s Economic Empowerment and Humanitarianism in Post Conflict Interventions
Rita Shackel and Lucy Fiske
 
5. Using War to Shift Peacetime Norms: The Example of Forced Marriage in Sierra Leone
Kiran Grewal
 
6. More Than a Victim: Thinking through Foreign Correspondents’ Representations of Women in Conflict
Chrisanthi Giotis 
 
Part II: Rethinking Interventions
7. WPS, Gender and Foreign Military Interveners: Experience from Iraq and Afghanistan
Angeline Lewis
 
8. Addressing Masculinities in Peace Negotiations: An Opportunity for Gender Justice
Philipp Kastner and Elisabeth Roy-Trudel
 
9. Recalling Violence: Gender and Memory Work in Contemporary Post-conflict Peru
Jelke Boesten
 
10. ICC Prosecutions of Sexual and Gender Based Violence: Challenges and successes
Rita Shackel
 
Part III: Learning from the Field
11. Speaking from the Ground: Transitional Gender Justice in Nepal
Punam Yadav
 
12: Quechua Women: Agency in the Testimonies of the CVR - Peru Public Hearings
Sofia Macher
 
13. The Effects of Indigenous Patriarchal Systems on Women's Participation in Public Decision Making in Conflict Settings: The Case of Somalia
Fowsia Abdulkadir and Rahma Abdulkadir
 
14. ‘Women Are Not Ready to [Vote for] Their Own’: Remaking Democracy, Making Citizens after the 2007 Post-election Violence in Kenya
Christina Kenny
 
15. ‘An education without Any fear?’: Higher education and Gender Justice in Afghanistan
Anne Maree Payne, Nina Burridge and Nasima Rahmani
 
16. Transitioning with Disability: Justice for Women with Disabilities in Post-war Sri Lanka
Dinesha Samararatne and Karen Soldatic
 
17. Conclusion
Rita Shackel and Lucky Fiske

 

Topics: Conflict, Democracy / Democratization, Education, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Indigenous, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Transitional Justice, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence Regions: Africa, MENA, Central Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Americas, South America, Asia, Middle East, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Kenya, Liberia, Nepal, Peru, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka

Year: 2019

Gender in Human Rights and Transitional Justice

Citation:

Lahai, John Idris, and Khanyisela Moyo, ed. 2018. Gender in Human Rights and Transitional Justice. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: John Idriss Lahai, Khanyisela Moyo

Annotation:

Summary:
This volume counters one-sided dominant discursive representations of gender in human rights and transitional justice, and women’s place in the transformations of neoliberal human rights, and contributes a more balanced examination of how transitional justice and human rights institutions, and political institutions impact the lives and experiences of women. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the contributors to this volume theorize and historicize the place of women’s rights (and gender), situating it within contemporary country-specific political, legal, socio-cultural and global contexts. Chapters examine the progress and challenges facing women (and women’s groups) in transitioning countries: from Peru to Argentina, from Kenya to Sierra Leone, and from Bosnia to Sri Lanka, in a variety of contexts, attending especially to the relationships between local and global forces. (Summary from Palgrave Macmillan)
 
Table of Contents:
1. Gender in Human Rights and Transitional Justice
 
2. Feminism during Social and Political Repression in Egypt: Making or Breaking Resistance Through Legal Activism
 
3. Power, Prejudice and Transitional Constitution-Making In Kenya: The Gender of Law and Religious Politics in Reproductive Choice
 
4. Civil Society and the Regulation of Laws Against Gender Violence in Timor-Leste
 
5. Addressing Violence Against Women Through Legislative Reform In States Transitioning From The Arab Spring
 
6. Human Rights Frameworks and Women’s Rights In Post-Transitional Justice Sierra Leone
 
7. Engendering Justice: The Promotion of Women in Post-Conflict and Post-Transitional Criminal Justice Institutions
 
8. Justice and Reparations Policies in Peru and Argentine: Towards The De-legitimization of Sexual Violence
 
9. Women Between War Scylla and Nationalist Charybdis: Legal Interpretations of Sexual Violence in Countries of Former Yugoslavia

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Discourses, Gender-Based Violence, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Justice, Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict, Rights, Reproductive Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence Regions: Africa, MENA, East Africa, North Africa, West Africa, Americas, South America, Asia, Middle East, Europe, Balkans, Oceania Countries: Argentina, Egypt, Kenya, Peru, Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2018

Are Health Systems Interventions Gender Blind? Examining Health System Reconstruction in Conflict Affected States

Citation:

Percival, Valerie, Esther Dusabe-Richards, Haja Wurie, Justine Namakula, Sarah Ssali, and Sally Theobald. 2018. "Are Health Systems Interventions Gender Blind? Examining Health System Reconstruction in Conflict Affected States." Globalization and Health 14: 1-23.

Authors: Valerie Percival, Esther Dusabe-Richards, Haja Wurie, Justine Namakula, Sarah Ssali, Sally Theobald

Abstract:

Background: Global health policy prioritizes improving the health of women and girls, as evident in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), multiple women’s health initiatives, and the billions of dollars spent by international donors and national governments to improve health service delivery in low-income countries. Countries recovering from fragility and conflict often engage in wide-ranging institutional reforms, including within the health system, to address inequities. Research and policy do not sufficiently explore how health system interventions contribute to the broader goal of gender equity.

Methods: This paper utilizes a framework synthesis approach to examine if and how rebuilding health systems affected gender equity in the post-conflict contexts of Mozambique, Timor Leste, Sierra Leone, and Northern Uganda. To undertake this analysis, we utilized the WHO health systems building blocks to establish benchmarks of gender equity. We then identified and evaluated a broad range of available evidence on these building blocks within these four contexts. We reviewed the evidence to assess if and how health interventions during the post-conflict reconstruction period met these gender equity benchmarks.

Findings: Our analysis shows that the four countries did not meet gender equitable benchmarks in their health systems. Across all four contexts, health interventions did not adequately reflect on how gender norms are replicated by the health system, and conversely, how the health system can transform these gender norms and promote gender equity. Gender inequity undermined the ability of health systems to effectively improve health outcomes for women and girls. From our findings, we suggest the key attributes of gender equitable health systems to guide further research and policy.

Conclusion: The use of gender equitable benchmarks provides important insights into how health system interventions in the post-conflict period neglected the role of the health system in addressing or perpetuating gender inequities. Given the frequent contact made by individuals with health services, and the important role of the health system within societies, this gender blind nature of health system engagement missed an important opportunity to contribute to more equitable and peaceful societies. 

Keywords: gender and health, health systems, post-conflict, gender and development

Topics: Development, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Health, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa, Oceania Countries: Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste, Uganda

Year: 2018

The Unrealised Potential for Transformative Reparations for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Sierra Leone

Citation:

Williams, Sarah, and Jasmine Opdam. 2017. “The Unrealised Potential for Transformative Reparations for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Sierra Leone.” The International Journal of Human Rights 21 (9): 1281–301.

Authors: Sarah Williams, Jasmine Opdam

Abstract:

The conflict in Sierra Leone was known for the scope and severity of atrocities targeted at civilians, including sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) mainly perpetrated against women and girls. Post-conflict initiatives included the establishment of a hybrid criminal tribunal, the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), and a truth and reconciliation commission (TRC). However, neither possessed a mandate for reparations to victims, yet both have made some contribution to tranformation. The judgments and processes of the SCSL have provided a measure of recognition to victims of SGBV. The TRC was required to to pay special attention to the experiences of women and girls in respect of sexual violence and structural inequality. It also interpreted its mandate broadly, in particular to making general recommendations as to the position of women and girls, as well as more specific recommendations as to reparations projects. These recommendations addressed three aspects of gender justice based on Fraser (recognition, representation and redistribution) and offered considerable scope for transformative reparations for victims of SGBV, including through structural, legal and social changes intended to guarantee the non-repetition of sexual violence. However, this article argues that although several of the TRC’s recommendations had transformative potential, much of this potential has not been realised due to the failure of the government to implement those recommendations.

Keywords: Sierra Leone, reparations, truth commission, sexual and gender-based violence

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Girls, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Justice, Reparations, TRCs, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Sexual Violence, SV against Women, Violence Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2017

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