DDR

Citation:

McMullin, Jaremy. 2011. “Reintegrating Young Combatants: Do Child-Centred Approaches Leave Children—and Adults—behind?” Third World Quarterly 32 (4): 743–64.

Author: Jaremy McMullin

Abstract:

This article uses recent experience in Angola to demonstrate that young fighters were not adequately or effectively assisted after war ended in 2002. The government's framework excluded children from accessing formal disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programmes, and its subsequent attempts to target children have largely failed. More critically the case of Angola calls into question the broader effectiveness and appropriateness of child-centred DDR. First, such targeting is inappropriate to distinct postconflict contexts and constructs a 'template child' asserted to be more vulnerable and deserving than adult ex-combatants, which does little to further the reintegration of either group, or the rights of the child in a conflict context. Second, child-centred reintegration efforts tend to deny children agency as actors in their own reintegration. Third, such efforts contribute to the normalisation of a much larger ideational and structural flaw of post-conflict peace building, wherein 'success' is construed as the reintegration of large numbers of beneficiaries back into the poverty and marginalisation that contributed to conflict in the first place.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Child Soldiers, DDR, Gender, Girls, Boys, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Angola

Year: 2011

Citation:

Cahn, Naomi, and Fionnuala Ni Aolain. 2009. “Gender, Masculinities, and Transition in Conflicted Societies.” New England Law Review 44: 101-22.

Authors: Naomi Cahn, Fionnuala Ni Aolain

Abstract:

This article uses a gender lens to explore how conflict affects men and women differently. It examines issues related to the emergence of certain kinds of “hyper” masculinity in situations of conflict and how such masculinities continue to function in subsequent peace-building attempts. The article argues that a failure to account for and be cognizant of these specific masculinities has a significant effect for women in particular, and, more generally, on the success of the conflict transition process. Finally, we show how using a gender lens could make a difference by considering the specific example of the impact of violent masculinities on disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programs.

Topics: Armed Conflict, DDR, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Justice, Transitional Justice, Peacebuilding

Year: 2009

Citation:

Coulter, Chris, Mariam Persson, and Mats Utas. 2008. Young Female Fighters in African Wars. Uppsala, Sweden: Nordic Africa Institute.

Authors: Chris Coulter, Mariam Persson, Mats Utas

Abstract:

In the numerous armed conflicts that are tearing the African continent apart, young women are participants and carry guns alongside their male comrades-in-arms. Challenging the stereotype of women in African wars as victims only, this book shows how in modern African wars women have often been as active as men. Female fighters are victimized, yet they are not mere victims. Girls and young women who volunteer to fight often possess quite considerable strength and independence. Programs for disarming, demobilizing, and reintegrating former fighters must be based on better understanding of the range of women’s roles and experiences in war and post-war settings in order to act in a gender-sensitive way and to empower this group of women in the aftermath of war. (Amazon)

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Child Soldiers, DDR, Gender, Girls, Boys, Post-Conflict Regions: Africa

Year: 2008

Citation:

Theidon, Kimberly. 2009. "Reconstructing Masculinities: The Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration of Former Combatants in Colombia." Human Rights Quarterly 31 (1): 1-34.

Author: Kimberly Theidon

Abstract:

A key component of peace processes and post-conflict reconstruction is the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) of ex-combatants. I argue that DDR programs imply multiple transitions: from the combatants who lay down their weapons, to the governments that seek an end to armed conflict, to the communities that receive—or reject—these demobilized fighters. At each level, these transitions imply a complex equation between the demands of peace and the clamor for justice. However, traditional approaches to DDR have focused on military and security objectives, which have resulted in these programs being developed in relative isolation from the field of transitional justice and its concerns with historical clarification, justice, reparations, and reconciliation. Drawing upon my research with former combatants in Colombia, I argue that successful reintegration not only requires fusing the processes and goals of DDR programs with transitional justice measures, but that both DDR and transitional justice require a gendered analysis that includes an examination of the salient links between weapons, masculinities, and violence. Constructing certain forms of masculinity is not incidental to militarism: rather, it is essential to its maintenance. What might it mean to “add gender” to DDR and transitional justice processes if one defined gender to include men and masculinities, thus making these forms of identity visible and a focus of research and intervention? I explore how one might “add gender” to the DDR program in Colombia as one step toward successful reintegration, peace-building, and sustainable social change.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, DDR, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Justice, Transitional Justice, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Peacebuilding, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Security, Violence, Weapons /Arms Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2009

Citation:

Ní Aoláin, Fionnuala. 2009. "Women, Security, and the Patriarchy of Internationalized Transitional Justice." Human Rights Quarterly 31 (4): 1055-85.

Author: Fionnuala Ní Aoláin

Abstract:

In the contemporary global context, transitions from conflict to peace and from authoritarian to democratic governance are a critical preoccupation of many states. In these contexts, accountability for the abuses committed by prior regimes has been a priority for international institutions, states, and new governments. Nonetheless, transitional justice goals have expanded to include a broad range of structural reforms in multiple spheres. Whether an expanded or contracted transitional justice paradigm is used to define the perimeters of change, gender concerns have been markedly absent across jurisdictions experiencing transformation. This article examines the conceptualization of and legal provision for gender security and its subsequent effects upon accountability in times of transition, with particular reference to post-conflict societies. The article closely assesses a range of contemporary issues implicated for women including an examination of post-conflict security from a gender perspective, gender and disarmament, and the centrality and effect of security sector reform for women. The article pays particular attention to the under-theorized and under-researched role of international masculinities, and the patriarchy that is imported with international oversight of transitional societies.

Topics: DDR, Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Women, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Justice, Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Security, Security Sector Reform

Year: 2009

Citation:

Seckinelgin, Hakan, Joseph Bigirumwami, and Jill Morris. 2011. “Conflict and Gender: The Implications of the Burundian Conflict on HIV/AIDS Risks.” Conflict, Security & Development 11 (1): 55–77.

Authors: Hakan Seckinelgin, Joseph Bigirumwami, Jill Morris

Abstract:

Sexual and gender-based violence in many conflict and post-conflict contexts are creating vulnerabilities to HIV. The paper is based on research conducted in Burundi in 2007-08. The country was in a long-term civil war from the early 1990s until recently and has been the locus of post-conflict disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes, providing a coherent and focused study. The research finds that the relationship between conflict and HIV/AIDS is a function of pre-existing gender relations that also regulate sexual life and determine critical female vulnerabilities. When put under stress by armed conflict, these vulnerabilities become amplified, creating conditions for increased spread of HIV. Analysis of how gender relations and vulnerabilities change according to the specific social and economic circumstances generated by military mobilization, organization and deployment, in relation to civilian displacement and insecurity, in a range of distinct circumstances, provides a framework for understanding HIV vulnerabilities during and after the conflict.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, DDR, Displacement & Migration, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Health, HIV/AIDS, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa Countries: Burundi

Year: 2011

Citation:

Barnes, Karen. 2011. “Assessing the Integration of Gender Issues into Security Reforms in Sierra Leone (2002-2007).” Paper presented at International Studies Association Annual Conference, Montreal, Quebec, March 16-19.

Author: Karen Barnes

Abstract:

The reform of security institutions has gathered momentum within peacebuilding processes over the past decade, and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) and justice and security sector reform (JSSR) are increasingly seen as means of ensuring a transparent, accountable and democratic security sector in conflict-affected contexts. However, these processes tend to focus on the national-level and are implemented in a top-down manner with little input from stakeholders at the local level, and gender-differentiated security needs are rarely acknowledged and integrated into peacebuilding programming. Using Sierra Leone as a case study, this paper will assess the efforts to integrate gender into the DDR, SSR and justice reform processes during the peacebuilding process from 2002-2007. The paper will argue that women were not perceived to be part of the process of establishing security in Sierra Leone and were depoliticised into the private sphere. As a result, the security reforms did not necessarily meet their needs, and gender issues have not been addressed in the post-conflict phase.

Topics: Armed Conflict, DDR, Gender, Women, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Security Sector Reform Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2011

Citation:

Shepherd, Laura J. 2010. “Women, Armed Conflict and Language – Gender, Violence and Discourse.” International Review of the Red Cross 92 (877): 143–59. doi:10.1017/S1816383110000093.

Author: Laura J. Shepherd

Abstract:

Facilitating critical reflection on the words and concepts used to write policy enables practitioners to avoid unconsciously reproducing the different forms of oppression and exclusion that their policies seek to overcome. In this article, the author provides an analysis of Chapter 5.10 of the United Nations Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Standards, arguing that policy makers, scholars, students and practitioners cannot avoid making and/or changing meaning through their well-meaning interventions, but that this need not lead to political or practical inertia.

Topics: Armed Conflict, DDR, Gender, Women, International Organizations, Violence

Year: 2010

Citation:

Wessells, Michael. 2005. “Child Soldiers, Peace Education, and Postconflict Reconstruction for Peace.” Theory Into Practice 44 (4): 363-69.

Author: Michael Wessells

Abstract:

Worldwide, children are drawn into lives as soldiers and terrorism as the result of forced recruitment and also by extremist ideologies and their inability to obtain security, food, power, prestige, education, and positive life options through civilian means. Using an example from Sierra Leone, this article shows that peace education is an essential element in a holistic approach to the reintegration of former child soldiers and to the prevention of youth's engagement in violence and terrorism. In the post-conflict context, effective peace education has a stronger practical than didactic focus, and it stimulates empathy, cooperation, reconciliation, and community processes for handling conflict in a nonviolent manner. These processes play a key role also in the prevention of children's engagement in violence and terrorism.

Topics: Age, Youth, Armed Conflict, Combatants, Child Soldiers, DDR, Education, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Peacebuilding, Terrorism, Violence Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2005

Citation:

Ackley, Judith M. 2009. “Post-conflict Reintegration and Gender: Why Male Child Soldiers Have Been Denied Sexual and Reproductive Health Assistance in Post-conflict Societies?” PhD Diss., Webster University.

Author: Judith M. Ackley

Abstract:

In analyzing five of the most recent civil conflicts in Africa, civilians are in great danger. The targeting of civilians, specifically women and children, has increased dramatically for various reasons. This has led to a rapid expansion of conflict and post-conflict research in two fields: child soldiers and gender. The research on the issue of child soldiers has expanded as quickly as the number of children recruited every year. The same is true with respect to the field of gender. Presently, experts incorporate a gender-based approach to address the causes of and solutions to problems created by armed conflict. As the definition of gender has evolved, it has expanded to the political, economic, and social realms of societies. An engendered approach to post-conflict reconstruction has worked to ensure the inclusion of women and girls and recently men. Still, when discussing an engendered approach to post-conflict health, specifically sexual and reproductive health, the definition of gender has forgotten boys. Post-conflict programs should be expanded to make policy and theory into reality and action.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Combatants, Child Soldiers, DDR, Gender, Boys, Health, Reproductive Health, Humanitarian Assistance, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Africa

Year: 2009