Sri Lanka

Gender and Transformative Justice in Sri Lanka

Citation:

Fonseka, Bhavani, and Ellen Schulz. 2018. "Gender and Transformative Justice in Sri Lanka." Women, Peace and Security Working Paper Series 18, London School of Economics and Political Science, London.

Authors: Bhavani Fonseka, Ellen Schulz

Abstract:

The idea of ‘transformative justice’ has emerged from criticisms that conventional transitional justice mechanisms have led to static institutions and the prioritisation of elite interests instead of tangible remedies for the people who are most in need – including women. This working paper focuses on Sri Lanka’s reconciliation and reform processes, and the crucial task of bringing genuine transformation to the women affected by the country’s near three decade war and recurring conflicts. The authors urge decision-makers to ensure full inclusion of women and include gendered experiences in planned reform processes, aiming at genuine transformation of societal circumstances so that conflictaffected women can achieve empowerment, dignity and equality.

Topics: Conflict, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Justice, Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Sri Lanka

Year: 2018

The Gender Dimensions of Post-Conflict Reconstruction: The World Bank Track Record

Citation:

Zuckerman, Elaine, Suzanna Dennis, and Marcia E. Greenberg. 2007. The Gender Dimensions of Post-Conflict Reconstruction: The World Bank Track Record. Washington, D.C.: Gender Action. 

Authors: Elaine Zuckerman, Suzanna Dennis, Marcia E. Greenberg

Annotation:

Summary: 
This paper is the latest in a Gender Action series underlining the continuing disconnect between World Bank rhetoric on the need for gender equality to reduce poverty, and scarce gender considerations in large Bank investments. Through evaluating World Bank investments in Post-Conflict Reconstruction (PCR) situations including a sample of its large PCR development loans and its small Post-Conflict Fund (PCF) grants, we demonstrate the limited extent to which the world’s largest public development institution meets its own promised objective to “mainstream gender” into all its investments.

This paper belongs to Gender Action’s tradition of holding the World Bank accountable on its unmet gender equality and broader social commitments. Gender Action’s analysis of gender issues in World Bank PCR programs reinforces the findings of our other work demonstrating that Bank loans exacerbate gender discrimination through poverty reduction strategies, policy reforms also known as Structural Adjustment Programs, environment and infrastructure investments. If this pattern does not end, not only will poverty expand but it will continue to feminize in a world where many claim that women already constitute over 70 percent of the poor.

Our paper is structured as follows: Section 2 outlines a conceptual framework to analyze and evaluate the gender dimensions of post conflict work. It suggests three interrelated dimensions for addressing gender within post-conflict reconstruction: (1) women-focused activities; (2) gender aware programming; and (3) social transformation through the promotion of gender equality. Section 3 is the centerpiece of this paper through which we apply the conceptual framework to the Bank’s investments and interventions. It first explains our methodology, and then raises examples. Section 4 reviews the extent to which the World Bank has integrated women-focused activities, gender aware programming and social transformation into important elements of post-conflict reconstruction. Throughout the paper, we recommend genderfocused approaches for building peaceful and equitable post-conflict societies based on examples of World Bank and other donor projects. In Section 5 we conclude with practical recommendations for World Bank PCR to improve its track record on gender both for women and for the families, communities and nations of which they are such an integral part.

Topics: Development, Economies, Poverty, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Africa, MENA, Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, Americas, South America, Asia, Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Angola, Cambodia, Colombia, Iraq, Rwanda, Sri Lanka

Year: 2007

Gender and Defence Sector Reform: Problematising the Place of Women in Conflict-Affected Environments

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 Sector Reform Regions: Americas, South America, Asia, South Asia, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Colombia, Kosovo, Nepal, Sri Lanka

Year: 2019

Gender and Defence Sector Reform: Problematising the Place of Women in Conflict-Affected Environments

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

Gender and Defence Sector Reform: Problematising the Place of Women in Conflict-Affected Environments

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

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

Impediments to Women in Post-Civil War Economic Growth in Sri Lanka

Citation:

Sarvananthan, Muttukrishna. 2015. “Impediments to Women in Post-Civil War Economic Growth in Sri Lanka.” South Asian Journal of Human Resources Management 2 (1): 12–36.

Author: Muttukrishna Sarvananthan

Abstract:

This policy-oriented article is an ethnographic study of the impact of the economic growth on women in the Eastern and Northern Provinces of Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the civil war. Preliminary indications are that the resurgent economic growth in the former conflict-affected regions have had very limited positive impact on women in terms of livelihood opportunities and economic empowerment. The impediments to realizing the opportunities by women are identified through ethnographic investigation and a consultative process with key stakeholders. Programmes and projects could and should be developed to address the profound difficulties faced by women in taking advantage of the opportunities spurred by the resurgent regional economies of Sri Lanka during the post-civil war era.

Keywords: Gender, post-civil war, regional economic growth, Sri Lanka, women

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Economies, Gender, Women, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Sri Lanka

Year: 2015

Ecofeminism and Natural Disasters: Sri Lankan Women Post-Tsunami

Citation:

Banford, Alyssa, and Cameron Kiely Froude. 2015. “Ecofeminism and Natural Disasters: Sri Lankan Women Post-Tsunami.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 16 (2): 170–87.

Authors: Alyssa Banford, Cameron Kiely Froude

Abstract:

Women experience a host of negative consequences during and after a natural disaster. A variety of feminist theories have been used to explore this phenomenon. The aim of this paper is to posit the need for an ecofeminist perspective on analyzing women’s vulnerabilities post- natural disaster. The authors will discuss the history and branches of ecofeminism, highlighting their utility in exploring the intersection of race, class, and gender in the aftermath of disaster. An ecofeminist analysis of Sri Lankan women’s vulnerability in the wake of the 2004 tsunami will be used to illustrate the utility of the theory. Implications of using ecofeminism in natural disaster research will be discussed.

Keywords: ecofeminism, natural disaster, tsunami, Sri Lanka

Topics: Class, Environment, Environmental Disasters, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, Women, Race Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Sri Lanka

Year: 2015

Militarism and Women in South Asia

Citation:

Chenoy, Anuradha M. 2002. Militarism and Women in South Asia. New Delhi: Kali for Women.

Author: Anuradha M. Chenoy

Annotation:

Summary:
This book traces the course of militarism in several South Asian states, with a more detailed account of women's experiences of it in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This closely argued, detailed analysis of the growing militarism in South Asia presents not just the phenomenon, but all its ramifications, examining its manifestations across the region from a feminist perspective for the first time. (Summary from Google Books)
 
Table of Contents:
1. Understanding Militarism
 
2. National Security Doctrines and Feminist Critiques
 
3. Bangladesh: Poverty and Militarism
 
4. Militarism in Pakistan
 
5. Sri Lanka: Militarization of State and Society
 
6. Militarizing India

Topics: Economies, Poverty, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Security Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

Year: 2002

Sustainable Development, Water Resources Management and Women's Empowerment: The Wanaraniya Water Project in Sri Lanka

Citation:

Aladuwaka, Seela, and Janet Momsen. 2010. “Sustainable Development, Water Resources Management and Women’s Empowerment: The Wanaraniya Water Project in Sri Lanka.” Gender & Development 18 (1): 43–58.

Authors: Seela Aladuwaka, Janet Momsen

Abstract:

Water is one of the most important natural resources, and its effective management is essential given its scarcity. In rural Sri Lanka, the management of available water resources needs special attention because investment for water resource improvement is hard to obtain, and water itself is relatively scarce in the drier areas of the country. The Wanaraniya Water Project pipes water 6.5km from its source to individual houses in the village, saving women daily time and effort. The project is founded on commitments to community participation and the adoption of local knowledge. It was initiated by women, and has been operated and managed by them for the last six years. This study argues that the project can serve as a model for better planning of water management, and focuses on the unique strategies and innovative methods that have been used. In particular, it shows the impact of involvement in the project on women's empowerment. The implementation of the project has helped women to improve their leadership qualities, confidence, self-reliance, and gain more power in the community through their successful establishment of a village water supply. (Abstract from original source)

Keywords: Sri Lanka, water, community, participatory development, women's empowerment

Topics: Gender, Women, Governance, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Sri Lanka

Year: 2010

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