UNSCR 1325

Citation:

Haastrup, Toni, Katharine A. M. Wright, and Roberta Guerrina. 2019. "Bringing Gender In? EU Foreign and Security Policy after Brexit." Politics and Governance 7 (3): 62-71.

Authors: Toni Haastrup, Katharine A. M. Wright, Roberta Guerrina

Abstract:

In this article, we identify Brexit as a critical process, wherein the EU has had the opportunity to reflect on and reinforce its identity, as a promoter of gender issues within the security domain. It draws on this identity from a foundational myth of the EU as gender equality polity, resulting in the creation of a socio-legal order and sustained discourse on gender inclusivity in all policy areas. Existing scholarship has drawn attention to the EU’s particular success in gender equality promotion in the areas of social inclusion at member state level, including in the UK. But, is the EU’s reach comprehensive beyond this policy sphere? We examine the ways in which gender is manifested in the area of foreign policy, an area where the UK has consistently shown some leadership on the integration of gender perspectives in its foreign policy through its international development programmes and the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. It is therefore timely to consider what impact Brexit has on EU policies, practices and the promotion of gender equality in this policy domain. Using a critical feminist lens, this article looks at the evolution of gender equality as a dimension of EU foreign and security policy in the context of EU–UK relations, and the divergences, opportunities and constraints that are crystallised by the Brexit process.

Keywords: Brexit, critical feminism, EU, foreign policy, Gender, gender equality, UK, women's agency

Topics: Feminisms, Feminist Foreign Policy, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325, UNSCR 1820 Regions: Europe, Northern Europe Countries: United Kingdom

Year: 2019

Citation:

Baiden, Regina Akosua Dede. 2019. "In the Aftermath of Reparations: The Experiences of Female Beneficiaries of Ghana's Reparations Programme." Journal of Peacebuilding & Development 14 (1): 22-35.

Author: Regina Akosua Dede Baiden

Abstract:

With increased attention to the needs of women in conflict and post-conflict situations, a multitude of resolutions on Women, Peace and Security have been adopted at the international level. Security Council Resolutions 1325, 1820, and 2122 all reflect an increased recognition of the need to engage, monitor, and increase women’s participation in post-conflict recovery process. Although scholars on reparations have focused on the benefits that a gendered perspective brings to reparations programmes, scare research exists on the experiences of women years after the acquisition of reparation. This article investigates the lived experiences of female beneficiaries of Ghana’s reparations programme 8 years after completion of the programme. It highlights the violence experienced by four female beneficiaries of the programme, showing the long-term impacts of violence on their lives. The article reveals the reparations programme’s inability to adequately address the effect of violence on the lives of female beneficiaries.

Keywords: gender-based violence, women's rights, reparations, transitional justice, economic violence, resilience

Topics: Gender, Women, Justice, Reparations, Post-Conflict, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325, UNSCR 1820, UNSCR 2122, Violence Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Ghana

Year: 2019

Citation:

Martín De La Rosa, Victoria, and Luis Miguel Lázaro. 2019. "How Women Are Imagined through Conceptual Metaphors in United Nations Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security." Journal of Gender Studies 28 (4): 373-86.

Authors: Victoria Martín de La Rosa, Luis Miguel Lázaro

Abstract:

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 is a landmark pronouncement on the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. Not only does this resolution highlight the important role of the involvement of women in peace processes, but it also stresses the importance of their equal participation in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace. Furthermore, it also triggers the approval of some other resolutions, which are all further elaborations on that first document. The aim of this paper is to analyse, from a cognitive linguistic perspective, the way in which women are actually narrated in these pronouncements by means of the two conceptual metaphors that are most often repeated: WOMEN ARE VICTIMS, typically found in earlier resolutions, and WOMEN ARE AGENTS OF CHANGE, as the metaphor that has gained more strength and visibility as new resolutions have continued to appear. As metaphors are the cognitive lenses we use to make sense of abstract concepts, it is important that we look closely at each of those metaphors to see how they shape the characterization of women in times of armed conflict and post-conflict and, in doing so, how they guide our understanding and behaviour towards them.

Keywords: UNSC resolutions, peacebuilding, gender equality, conceptual metaphors

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Peace and Security, Post-Conflict, Peace Processes, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325

Year: 2019

Citation:

Pruitt, Lesley J. 2018. "A Global South State’s Challenge to Gendered Global Cultures of Peacekeeping." In Revisiting Gendered States: Feminist Imaginings of the State in International Relations, edited by Swati Parashar, J. Ann Tickner, and Jacqui True, 122-137. New York: Oxford University Press.

Author: Lesley J. Pruitt

Abstract:

This chapter explores the first all-female formed police unit (FFPU) in UN peacekeeping, deployed from India to Liberia. The FFPU has fostered important outcomes supporting the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. However, global norms that presume efforts can only be “legitimate” when conducted in ways that align with particular, Global North approaches can hinder implementation of the WPS agenda. Such norms marginalize differences that intersect with gender and influence participation. Effective implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the WPS agenda will not occur under assumptions that only some states, or only certain kinds of states, can credibly contribute; instead, a plurality of approaches is needed.

Keywords: peacekeeping, United Nations, policing, women, India, Liberia, WPS

Topics: Gender, Women, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Africa, West Africa, Asia, South Asia Countries: India, Liberia

Year: 2018

Citation:

O'Sullivan, Mila. 2019. ""Being Strong Enough to Defend Yourself": Untangling the Women, Peace and Security Agenda amidst the Ukrainian Conflict." International Feminist Journal of Politics 21 (5): 746-67.

Author: Mila O'Sullivan

Abstract:

Following the outbreak of armed conflict in 2014, Ukraine adopted a National Action Plan within United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 for the period 2016–20, the first country in conflict to do so. Ukraine's case demonstrates that in a situation of active conflict, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda becomes strongly linked to military security. Drawing on interviews, documents, and narratives by feminist and public figures, I argue that the WPS agenda in Ukraine has taken a narrow militarized form as a result of a combination of three interrelated and mutually constitutive factors: the ongoing conflict, nationalistic feminism, and the role of international organizations. The open conflict has generated a militaristic and nationalistic discourse among mainstream Ukrainians with an emphasis on defending the country. This discourse has been translated by international organizations and national actors into the WPS agenda, which has prioritized security sector reforms. Implementation of the WPS agenda in Ukraine therefore seems to be at odds with this norm's feminist principles. It is not leading to peace but to militarization, neglecting broader insecurities, including socioeconomic inequalities that have, in turn, been exacerbated by the conflict and the state's institutional reforms.

Keywords: conflict, UNSCR 1325, women, peace and security, Ukraine, nationalism, international organizations

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Feminisms, International Organizations, Livelihoods, Nationalism, Peace Processes, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Europe, Eastern Europe Countries: Ukraine

Year: 2019

Citation:

Bell, Christine, and Kevin McNicholl. 2019. “Principled Pragmatism and the ‘Inclusion Project’: Implementing a Gender Perspective in Peace Agreements.” feminists@law 9 (1). 

Authors: Christine Bell, Kevin McNicholl

Abstract:

UN Security Council Resolution 1325 of 2000 provided that peace agreements should adopt a ‘gender perspective’. This commitment has been reiterated in women, peace and security resolutions since that time. This article uses a mixed qualitative and quantitative analysis to consider when and how peace agreements have adopted a gender perspective, using a new PA-X peace agreement database to analyse over 1500 peace and transition agreements from between 1990 and 2016.  It goes further to consider how inclusion of women is related to the other forms of political and group inclusion contemplated to form part of the new political settlement. The article begins by examining what might be meant by a ‘gender perspective in peace agreements’.  It maps out when and how peace agreements provide for women, girls and gender, but also for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans communities, and for ‘men and boys’ and ‘family’ at different stages of a peace process.  The article provides new data on the implementation of agreement commitments and specifically those issues singled out for attention by UNSC 1325. Finally, we consider the inclusion project on offer to women and its relationship to the conceptualisation of the conflict and its solution, by considering the relationship between gender, power-sharing and transitional justice. In summary, analysis of the dataset provides three main findings.  First provision for women is still largely limited to once-off provisions, or issues relating to the victimhood of women, with holistic attempts to adopt a ‘gender perspective’ relatively rare.  Second, the inclusion of women in peace agreement texts tends to be located in the more comprehensive stages of the agreement, with little consideration given to women and gender at either pre-negotiation stages of a peace process, or implementation stages. Third, surprisingly perhaps, political power-sharing is shown to be strongly correlated with several measures of gender inclusion rather than marking an exclusive focus on the inclusion of the groups at the heart of the conflict.  In conclusion we argue that peace agreements indicate the presence of ‘principled pragmatism’ whereby elite commitments to political equality are used by a range of groups to push for a more pluralist conception of the peace settlement as also concerned with the political equality of groups beyond the conflict actors.

Keywords: women and conflict, gender perspective, peace processes, power sharing, transitional justice, constitutions

Topics: Conflict, Gender, Justice, Transitional Justice, LGBTQ, Peace Processes, Sexuality, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325

Year: 2019

Citation:

Pierson, Claire. 2019. "Gendering Peace in Northern Ireland: The Role of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security." Capital & Class 43 (1): 57-71.

Author: Claire Pierson

Abstract:

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on ‘women, peace and security’ was passed in 2000 to recognise and enhance women’s participation in peace-building. The Resolution has growing global significance in conflicted societies yet there is limited analysis of its implementation in specific social contexts. Utilising feminist theory on gender in conflicted societies and original empirical evidence from key grassroots community activists in Northern Ireland, I will consider the potential of the 1325 framework as a tool for conceptualising and achieving gender security and equality. This article contributes to an understanding of the importance of deep contextual interpretation for implementation of the women, peace and security agenda and argues for a feminist intersectional interpretation of the Resolution to enable its transformative potential for both peace-building and gender equality.

Keywords: equality, Gender, Northern Ireland, peace, security, women

Topics: Civil Society, Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping, Peace and Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: United Kingdom

Year: 2019

Citation:

Nasser, Salma. 2018.  "Building Resilient Societies: The Relevance of UNSCR 1325 in Egypt's Political Transition." Journal of International Women's Studies 19 (6): 35-52.

Author: Salma Nasser

Abstract:

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and 1820 and the more recent 1888, 1889, 1960, 2106, 2122 and 2242 reflect a rights-based approach to human security with a focus on the prevention of violence against women and girls and fostering their active and meaningful participation in public life in conflict and post conflict contexts. This is a particularly important framework in the African context where, over the past 5 years alone, conflict has plagued over 18 countries and has had devastating socio-economic impacts on women and led to the weakening of justice systems and social norms, which at the best of times secure minimum protection for women. In 2011 the North of the continent boiled over with political unrest which culminated with civil war in some countries. A notable phenomenon is that even in countries that escaped the predicament of armed conflict, women were subject to many of the same threats. As such, while UNSCR 1325 addresses the protection of women in times of armed conflict and peace building, provisions are still relevant in cases of political transition such as that of Egypt where there have been serious challenges to security, justice and accountability. The institutional framework in place for protecting women in conflict calls for their integration into the ensuing decision making process and inclusive dialogue is the only way to develop resilient and effective institutions for societies in transition. This paper will present a case study of lessons that could be learnt from UNSCR 1325 in terms of protecting women and girls from violence; ensuring the mainstreaming of gender perspectives in national policies; and increasing the participation of women in decisionmaking and political transition processes.

Keywords: UNSCR 1325, women's rights, violence against women, political transition, Egypt, peace building

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Conflict, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Gender Mainstreaming, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, International Organizations, Justice, Peacebuilding, Political Participation, Post-Conflict, Rights, Security, Human Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325, UNSCR 1820, UNSCR 1888, UNSCR 1889, UNSCR 1960, UNSCR 2106, UNSCR 2122, UNSCR 2242 Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa, Asia, Middle East Countries: Egypt

Year: 2018

Citation:

Hardt, Heidi, and Stéfanie von Hlatky. 2020. “NATO’s About-Face: Adaptation to Gender Mainstreaming in an Alliance Setting.” Journal of Global Security Studies 5 (1): 136–59.

Authors: Heidi Hardt, Stéfanie von Hlatky

Abstract:

Scholars of adaptation in global security studies have only recently focused attention on international security organizations (ISOs). Since the United Nations Security Council’s issuance of Resolution 1325, some ISOs have enacted changes to implement gender mainstreaming. The concept involves incorporating gender-based analyses in policy and planning and increasing women’s representation. Drawing on interviews with 71 elites and a dataset of 97 NATO gender guidelines, this article introduces an original argument for why NATO adapted to gender mainstreaming. Such adaptation is surprising given the military’s historical resistance to gender considerations and that civilian bodies typically enact reforms. Findings indicate that other ISOs were substantially influential in the process and that institutional incentives built-in to NATO’s military bodies drove military officials to steer implementation. Additionally, military elites perceived a link between gender mainstreaming and operational effectiveness, which further consolidated organization-wide adaptation. This study challenges long-held assumptions about militaries’ resistance to gender-related changes. It also offers one of the first empirical assessments of gender mainstreaming in an ISO.

Keywords: Gender, NATO, adaptation, operations, military

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender Mainstreaming, International Organizations, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Security Sector Reform, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325

Year: 2020

Citation:

Shekhawat, Seema, ed. 2018. Gender, Conflict, Peace, and UNSC Resolution 1325. Lanham: Lexington Books.

Author: Seema Shekhawat

Annotation:

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict Prevention, Displacement & Migration, Feminisms, Gender, Peace and Security, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes, Religion, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Africa, MENA, West Africa, Americas, South America, Asia, Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, Southern Europe Countries: Colombia, Cyprus, India, Israel, Liberia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Syria

Year: 2018