What Role for the Security Sector? An SSR Approach to Implementing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda
Citation:
Holvikivi, Aiko. 2015. "What Role for the Security Sector? An SSR Approach to Implementing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda." Connections 14 (3): 31-44.
Author: Aiko Holvikivi
Annotation:
Summary:
"The United Nations Security Council resolutions on “Women, Peace and Security” identify security sector reform (SSR) as a tool for their implementation. Nonetheless, the resolutions are often seen as the purview of women’s organizations and the responsibility of ministries of foreign affairs, leaving the role of security sector institutions and their obligations for reform murky. On the other hand, a body of literature oriented toward practitioners and policymakers charts out the rationale and practical tools for ensuring SSR interventions are gender responsive. This literature tends to view the women, peace and security resolutions as a tool for integrating gender perspectives in SSR interventions. However, this literature’s ultimate goal remains the good governance of the security sector.
"In this article, I seek to bridge this gap through an examination of the roles and responsibilities of the security sector in implementing the women, peace and security agenda. More precisely, I examine the processes and principles associated with security sector reform, and argue that its technical components and ultimate objectives are key to the implementation of the women, peace and security agenda. In other words, I ask what SSR can bring to the women, peace and security agenda, rather than how the integration of gender furthers SSR.
"As other contributions in this volume have already introduced the women, peace and security agenda, the following section focuses on the concept and key tenets of SSR and engages in a brief discussion on mainstreaming gender into SSR interventions. The analysis that follows is structured around the four pillars of the women, peace and security agenda, and examines what reform and good governance of the security sector can contribute to the realization of these goals. In other words, it identifies roles and responsibilities for the security sector in implementing this agenda. The final section summarizes how SSR is key to the implementation of the women, peace and security agenda, and how SSR approaches can complement its further development" (Holvikivi 2015, p. 31-2).
Topics: Gender, Women, Gender Mainstreaming, Peace and Security, Peacebuilding, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, Security Sector Reform
Year: 2015
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