Combatants

Citation:

Gordon, Eleanor. 2019. "Gender and Defence Sector Reform: Problematising the Place of Women in Conflict-Affected Environments." Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 13 (1): 75-94.

Author: Eleanor Gordon

Abstract:

While gender-responsive Security Sector Reform (SSR) is increasingly recognised as being key to successful SSR programmes, women continue to be marginalised in post-conflict SSR programmes, particularly defence sector reform. By focussing on developments in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kosovo and Colombia, this article explores the paradox of women’s marginalisation in defence sector reform and post-reform defence structures in places where women were active combatants during the preceding conflict. This article refers to examples of women’s engagement in combat to challenge some of the reasons given for women’s marginalisation, including reference to women’s skillset, aptitude and interests. The article adopts a feminist institutionalist approach to show how SSR helps security sector institutions construct and reconstruct gender power relations, reinforce gendered dynamics of exclusion, and determine gendered outcomes. It concludes by drawing attention to the transformational potential of SSR to alter gender power relations, and thereby enhance the security of women and the sustainability of peacebuilding efforts.

Keywords: defence sector reform, security sector reform, female combatants, Gender, peacebuilding

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Peacebuilding, Security, Security Sector Reform Regions: Americas, South America, Asia, South Asia, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Colombia, Kosovo, Nepal, Sri Lanka

Year: 2019

Citation:

Grey, Rosemary. 2019. Prosecuting Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes at the International Criminal Court. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Author: Rosemary Grey

Annotation:

Summary: 
The 1998 Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC), includes a longer list of gender-based crimes than any previous instrument of international criminal law. The Statute's twentieth anniversary provides an opportunity to examine how successful the ICC has been in prosecuting those crimes, what challenges it has faced, and how its caselaw on these crimes might develop in future. Taking up that opportunity, this book analyses the ICC's practice in prosecuting gender-based crimes across all cases for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the ICC up until mid-2018. This analysis is based on a detailed examination of court records and original interviews with prosecutors and gender experts at the Court. This book covers topics of emerging interest to practitioners in this field, including wartime sexual violence against men and boys, persecution on the grounds of gender and sexual orientation, and sexual violence against 'child soldiers'. (Summary from Cambridge University Press)

Topics: Combatants, Child Soldiers, Feminisms, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Genocide, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, LGBTQ, Sexual Violence, SV against Men

Year: 2019

Citation:

Gordon, Eleanor. 2019. "Gender and Defence Sector Reform: Problematising the Place of Women in Conflict-Affected Environments." Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 13 (1): 75-94.

Author: Eleanor Goldon

Abstract:

While gender-responsive Security Sector Reform (SSR) is increasingly recognised as being key to successful SSR programmes, women continue to be marginalised in post-conflict SSR programmes, particularly defence sector reform. By focussing on developments in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kosovo and Colombia, this article explores the paradox of women’s marginalisation in defence sector reform and post-reform defence structures in places where women were active combatants during the preceding conflict. This article refers to examples of women’s engagement in combat to challenge some of the reasons given for women’s marginalisation, including reference to women’s skillset, aptitude and interests. The article adopts a feminist institutionalist approach to show how SSR helps security sector institutions construct and reconstruct gender power relations, reinforce gendered dynamics of exclusion, and determine gendered outcomes. It concludes by drawing attention to the transformational potential of SSR to alter gender power relations, and thereby enhance the security of women and the sustainability of peacebuilding efforts.

Keywords: security sector reform (SSR), female combatants, Gender, peacebuilding, defence sector reform

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Security, Security Sector Reform Regions: Americas, South America, Asia, South Asia, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Colombia, Kosovo, Nepal, Sri Lanka

Year: 2019

Citation:

Bunting, Annie. 2018. "Gender Politics and Geopolitics of International Criminal Law in Uganda." Global Discourse 8 (3): 422-37.

Author: Annie Bunting

Abstract:

This paper explores the views of victim survivors – both men and women – on the current prosecution of Dominic Ongwen at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, including the crime of forced marriage. This case will be used as the central story around which the potential and limitations of international criminal law for gender justice will be explored. The Ongwen case has blurred the lines between victims and perpetrators of child soldiering and has generated much debate within and outside the continent. It has resuscitated the contestation and controversies surrounding the ICC regime in Uganda and Africa more broadly. The reflections I share in this paper come out of a collaborative research project I direct called ‘Conjugal Slavery in War: Partnerships for the study of enslavement, marriage and masculinities’ (CSiW 2015-2020). While Uganda and the Ongwen case will be central to this paper, our research project includes partners working with survivors of conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and northern Nigeria. We collected well over 250 interviews with women who were abducted for forced marriage. Using interview data from Uganda, as well as court records, this paper explores in-depth the geopolitics and gender politics of prosecuting conjugal slavery as an international crime.

Keywords: ICC, gender violence, Crimes against Humanity, transitional justice

Topics: Combatants, Child Soldiers, Gender, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Crimes against Humanity, Transitional Justice, Sexual Violence, Sexual Slavery Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Uganda

Year: 2018

Citation:

Upreti, Bishnu, Sharmila Shivakoti, and Kohinoor Bharati. 2018. "Frustrated and Confused: Mapping the Socio-political Struggles of Female Ex-combatants in Nepal." Journal of International Women's Studies 19 (4): 32-52.

Authors: Bishnu Upreti, Sharmila Shivakoti, Kohinoor Bharati

Abstract:

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) declared an armed insurrection against the State in February 1996; they began to attack police posts and gradually the insurrection was sparked all over the country, lasting for ten years. Consequently, it caused 17,886 deaths, 79,571 displacements, 1,530 disappearance, 3,142 abductions, 8,935 disabilities, and left 620 children orphaned (MoPR 2016). In the armed conflict 20 percent of Maoist combatants were women. After several rounds of negotiations, the armed conflict ended in November 2006, with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Government of Nepal and the then Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) that demanded disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of the Maoist ex-combatants. Among the ex-combatants the DDR process for reintegrating female ex-combatants was more complicated. This paper examines the DDR process with a specific focus on ex-combatants. Focus group interviews, key informant interviews, roundtable discussions, and direct interviews with the female- ex-combatants were the methods used in collecting data, in addition to secondary sources. This paper argues that the DDR was not only contested, but also procedurally flawed, and therefore not able to produce the desired result. Because the DDR was a complex, socio-psychol ogi cal and politico-economic process and required sensitive handling, key Nepali actors and international supporters failed to properly deal with the DDR. The DDR process was largely gender-blind and therefore, the female ex-combatants suffered more in terms of their social relations, specific needs and achieving livelihood security. The approach of United Mission to Nepal (UNMIN) was one of the reasons; consequently, its engagement was terminated without completing the DDR process mainly because it failed to internalize gender sensitivity and local complexity.

Keywords: armed-conflict, disarmament, demobilization, ex-combatants, Maoist, peace, reintegration, Nepal armed conflict

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Female Combatants, DDR, Gender, Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Security Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Nepal

Year: 2018

Citation:

Annan, Jeannie, Christopher Blattman, Dyan Mazurana, and Khristopher Carlson. 2011. "Civil War, Reintegration, and Gender in Northern Uganda." Journal of Conflict Resolution 55 (6): 877–908.

Authors: Jeannie Annan, Christopher Blattman, Dyan Mazurana, Khristopher Carlson

Abstract:

What are the impacts of war on the participants, and do they vary by gender? Are ex-combatants damaged pariahs who threaten social stability, as some fear? Existing theory and evidence are both inconclusive and focused on males. New data and a tragic natural quasi-experiment in Uganda allow us to estimate the impacts of war on both genders, and assess how war experiences affect reintegration success. As expected, violence drives social and psychological problems, especially among females. Unexpectedly, however, most women returning from armed groups reintegrate socially and are resilient. Partly for this reason, postconflict hostility is low. Theories that war conditions youth into violence find little support. Finally, the findings confirm a human capital view of recruitment: economic gaps are driven by time away from civilian education and labor markets. Unlike males, however, females have few civilian opportunities and so they see little adverse economic impact of recruitment.

Keywords: civil war, Gender, reintegration, Uganda, Lord's resistance army

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Conflict, Economies, Education, Gender, Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Post-Conflict, Violence Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Uganda

Year: 2011

Citation:

Rosamond, Annika Bergman, and Annica Kronsell. 2018. "Cosmopolitan Militaries and Dialogic Peacekeeping: Danish and Swedish Women Soldiers in Afghanistan." International Feminist Journal of Politics 20 (2): 172-87.

Authors: Annika Bergman Rosamond, Annica Kronsell

Abstract:

Feminist security studies (FSS) scholarship advocates the analysis of women's war experiences and narratives to understand conflict and military intervention. Here we add a non-great power focus to FSS debates on the gendered discourses of military interventionism. We zoom in on Danish and Swedish women soldiers' reflections on their involvement in the ISAF operation in Afghanistan. Their stories are deconstructed against the backdrop of their states' adoption of a cosmopolitan-minded ethic on military obligation. Both states employed women soldiers in dialogic peacekeeping in Afghanistan to establish links with local women and to gather intelligence, tasks that we less frequently afforded to male soldiers. However, feminist FSS scholarship locates military intelligence gathering within racial, gendered and imperialist power relations that assign victimhood to local women. This feminist critique is pertinent, but the gendered and racial logics governing international operations vary across national contexts. While such gender binaries were present in Danish and Swedish military practice in Afghanistan, our article shows that dialogic peacekeeping offered an alternative to stereotypical constructions of women as victims and men as protectors. Dialogic peacekeeping helped to disrupt such gendering processes, giving women soldiers an opportunity to rethink their gender identities while instilling dialogical relations with local women. 

Keywords: feminist security studies, cosmopolitanism, dialogic peacekeeping, women soldiers, non-great powers, Narratives

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Discourses, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Peacekeeping, Security Regions: Asia, South Asia, Europe, Nordic states, Northern Europe Countries: Afghanistan, Denmark, Sweden

Year: 2018

Citation:

Alchin, Angela, Amanda Gouws, and Lindy Heinecken. 2018. "Making a Difference in Peacekeeping Operations: Voices of South African Women Peacekeepers." African Security Review 27 (1): 1-19.

Authors: Angela Alchin, Amanda Gouws, Lindy Heinecken

Abstract:

Recruiting more women into peacekeeping operations due to the perceived unique contributions they are said to make missions has been widely advocated by the United Nations (UN) and other agencies as a means to overcome the unintended consequents of deployments - mainly the ongoing reports of sexual abuse of locals by male soldiers. However, taking into account the broader gender debates surrounding women's contributions to peacekeeping, and by considering the experiences of women in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), the study reveals the challenges women face in realising these widely advocated contributions. These challenges include the current recruiting processes, the self-perception of female soldiers, the deeply patriarchal ideologies within South African society, and the hyper-masculine culture which overwhelms the military. The study concludes that, for women to be properly utilised, a reassment of recruitment processes in the SANDF is necessary, gender training should be prioritised, and an androgynous soldier identity should be advocated. 

Keywords: feminism, peacekeepers, peacekeeping, female peacekeepers, security studies, SANDF, South African peacekeepers, UN peacekeeping

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, International Organizations, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Peacekeeping, Peace and Security Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2018

Citation:

Dijkman, Nathalie E. J., Catrien Bijleveld, and Philip Verwimp. 2014. “Sexual Violence in Burundi: Victims, Perpetrators, and the Role of Conflict.” HiCN Working Paper 172, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton.

Authors: Nathalie Dijkman, Catrien Bijleveld, Philip Verwimp

Abstract:

In this paper we shed light on sexual violence in Burundi in the aftermath of its civil war. By presenting the results of a mixed-method research we discuss five topics: prevalence of sexual violence, a profile of victims, a profile of perpetrators, sexual violence’s relation to civil war and its current legal reactions and challenges. By means of multivariate regression analyses we predict women’s vulnerability to sexual- and gender based violence (GBV) in the context of war compared to everyday life. We find that age, schooling, living in an IDP camp and household wealth before the civil war have significantly different effects on GBV in both contexts. Many uniformed and armed men committed sexual violence during the war, and it appears that today ex-combatants and military continue to do so. From qualitative interviews we find several factors that connect Burundi’s past conflict to today’s violence, among which a weakened solidarity in communities and a problematic integration of excombatants in society. Impunity marks life in today’s Burundi, in particular in relation to persisting sexual violence. A thorough reconciliation or adjudication process since the civil war, as well as today’s difficulties to prosecute and pursue perpetrators, are among the main challenges for countering sexual violence in Burundi.

Topics: Age, Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Class, Combatants, Male Combatants, Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Education, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Justice, Impunity, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, SV against Women Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Burundi

Year: 2014

Citation:

Heinecken, Lindy. 2019. "Three Waves of Gender Integration: The Causes, Consequences, and Implications for the South African Armed Forces." In Women and Gender Perspectives in the Military: An International Comparison, edited by Robert Egnell and Mayesha Alam, 207-24. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

Author: Lindy Heinecken

Annotation:

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Women, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Intersectionality, Race, Security Sector Reform Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2019