Human Security

Gendered Environmental Security in IDP and Refugee Camps

Citation:

Rosenow-Williams, Kerstin, and Katharina Behmer. 2015. “Gendered Environmental Security in IDP and Refugee Camps.” Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice 27: 188–95.

Authors: Kerstin Rosenow-Williams, Katharina Behmer

Annotation:

Summary:
"The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its Executive Committee have long stressed that situations of flight and displacement affect men and women differently and that effective programming must recognize these differences. In the mid-1980s UNHCR, and various other humanitarian actors, began incorporating a gender perspective into their humanitarian activities. Since then a large variety of handbooks, guidelines, and toolkits have been developed. The 2008 UNHCR Handbook for the Protection of Women and Girls, for example, notes that gender mainstreaming has been adopted as a United Nations (UN)–wide policy, recognizing that centralizing the differing needs of women and men into the design of programs, policies, and operations is necessary to fundamentally improve the position of gender equality.
 
"To monitor and advance this policy approach, this essay advocates the use of a gendered human security perspective as an analytical tool to disentangle the gendered dimensions of security for individuals and groups during displacement. It places a special focus on the interrelation between gender categories, their social construction, and the intersectionality of individual characteristics. An intersectional focus on gender-specific dimensions of displacement means taking into account other factors that can cause vulnerability and insecurities (such as age, sexuality, race, religion, class, and ethnicity), thus, also acknowledging the different security situations of individuals within the same gender group. Fusing the concepts of gender mainstreaming and human security proves to be a useful approach to conceptualize and address the multilayered and interrelated security needs of men, women, boys, and girls while providing evidence of the importance of making both sexes the key referents for human security" (Rosenow-Williams and Behmer 2015, 188). 

Topics: Age, Clan, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Refugees, Ethnicity, Gender, Gender Mainstreaming, International Organizations, Race, Religion, Security, Human Security, Sexuality

Year: 2015

The Grip of Sexual Violence: Reading UN Security Council Resolutions on Human Security

Citation:

Engle, Karen. 2014. “The Grip of Sexual Violence: Reading UN Security Council Resolutions on Human Security.” In Rethinking Peacekeeping, Gender Equality and Collective Security, edited by Gina Heathcote and Dianne Otto, 23–47. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Author: Karen Engle

Abstract:

The issue I would like to pose in this chapter is about the grip of sexual violence on human security discourse. I do not want to address the violence itself, but to consider why many feminist — and even non-feminist — discussions about human rights and security have become inextricably connected to concerns about sexual violence, primarily but not exclusively against women. I consider here the United Nations (UN) Security Council resolutions on what is termed ‘human security’, and debates and media around them. I do so because I believe they are representative of an escalating emphasis on the horrors of sexual violence more generally within international human rights and humanitarian law, discourse and advocacy.

Topics: Media, International Law, International Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law (IHL), International Organizations, Security, Human Security, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women

Year: 2014

Gender, Human Security and the United Nations: Security Language as a Political Framework for Women

Citation:

Hudson, Natalie Florea. 2009. Gender, Human Security and the United Nations: Security Language as a Political Framework for Women. New York: Routledge.

Author: Natalia Florea Hudson

Annotation:

Summary: 
This book examines the relationship between women, gender and the international security agenda, exploring the meaning of security in terms of discourse and practice, as well as the larger goals and strategies of the global women's movement.
 
Today, many complex global problems are being located within the security logic. From the environment to HIV/AIDS, state and non-state actors have made a practice out of securitizing issues that are not conventionally seen as such. As most prominently demonstrated by the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2001), activists for women's rights have increasingly framed women's rights and gender inequality as security issues in an attempt to gain access to the international security agenda, particularly in the context of the United Nations. This book explores the nature and implications of the use of security language as a political framework for women, tracing and analyzing the organizational dynamics of women's activism in the United Nations system and how women have come to embrace and been impacted by the security framework, globally and locally. The book argues that, from a feminist and human security perspective, efforts to engender the security discourse have had both a broadening and limiting effect, highlighting reasons to be sceptical of securitization as an inherently beneficial strategy.
 
Four cases studies are used to develop the core themes: (1) the campaign to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325; (2) the strategies utilized by those advocating women's issues in the security arena compared to those advocating for children; (3) the organizational development of the UN Development Fund for Women and how it has come to securitize women; and (4) the activity of the UN Peacebuilding Commission and its challenges in gendering its security approach.
 
The work will be of interest to students of critical security, gender studies, international organizations and international relations in general. (Summary from Routledge)

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Peace and Security, International Organizations, Peacebuilding, Rights, Women's Rights, Security, Human Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325

Year: 2009

Environmental Security and Gender: Necessary Shifts in an Evolving Debate

Citation:

Detraz, Nicole. 2009. “Environmental Security and Gender: Necessary Shifts in an Evolving Debate.” Security Studies 18 (2): 345–69.

Author: Nicole Detraz

Abstract:

Environmental security is a topic of study that has gained significant attention in the past few decades. Largely since the end of the Cold War, environmental security has come to represent a way for scholars and policy makers to link the concepts of traditional security scholarship to the environment. Many different conceptions of the relationship between the environment and security appear in academia. Yet despite the diversity of current work on the environment and security, there has been little systematic work done that examines the intersection between environmental security and gender. This article will address the necessity of including gender into the approaches on the environment and security. The environmental security debate exhibits gendered understandings of both security and the environment. These gendered assumptions and understandings benefit particular people but are often detrimental to others. Examining environmental security through a gender lens gives insight into the gendered nature of global environmental politics and redefines the concept in ways that are more useful, both empirically and analytically. The various environmental security perspectives have important, unexplored gender dimensions that must be uncovered so that the security of humans and the environment can be better protected.

Topics: Environment, Gender, Gender Analysis, Gendered Discourses, Security, Human Security

Year: 2009

The Protected, the Protector, the Defender

Citation:

Stiehm, Judith Hicks. 1982. “The Protected, the Protector, the Defender.” Women’s Studies International Forum 5 (3-4): 367–76.

Author: Judith Hicks Stiehm

Abstract:

The state claims the offering of protection through the use of legitimate force as its defining function. But for the most part only men are allowed to use that force; only men are allowed to be protectors. But women who are supposed to be protected know that they frequently are not. They also know that protectors are often a source of danger to the protected. This essay investigates the nature of the protected, the protector, and the defender who participates fully in the creation of security but who neither is dependent nor has dependents. It proposes that men and women share equally in defense.

Topics: Gender, Women, Men, Gendered Discourses, Gendered Power Relations, Security, Human Security

Year: 1982

Human Security and Disasters: What a Gender Lens Offers

Citation:

Enarson, Elaine. 2014. “Human Security and Disasters: What a Gender Lens Offers.” In Human Security and Natural Disasters, edited by Christopher Hobson, Paul Bacon, and Robin Cameron. London: Routledge.

Author: Elaine Enarson

Abstract:

This chapter explains the need for gender analysis in the ostensibly gender-neutral domains of human security, disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation, emphasizing that gender is more than a cross-cutting concern and introducing the main outlines of the subfield of gender and disaster. Human security discourse is surprisingly silent on some of the most critical human rights challenges of disasters while highlighting specific threats. Gender is a fundamental social organizing principle in all societies with implications throughout the disaster cycle and across all dimensions of human security. Nontraditional skills training for women postdisaster and such reforms as jointly titling post-disaster housing in both partners' names are further examples of how post-disaster recovery work can enhance human security by advancing gender equality. Gender-sensitive thinking about human security potentially strengthens civil society as it suggests the need for increased capacity in women's organizations, self-help groups, and networks, and highlights gender-focused work to enhance security in both the private and public sectors. (Taylor & Francis)

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender Analysis, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Health, Mental Health, Livelihoods, Security, Human Security

Year: 2014

Gendered Dimensions of Disaster Risk Management, Natural Resource Management, and Climate Change Adaptation in the Pacific

Citation:

Anderson, Cheryl L. 2009. “Gendered Dimensions of Disaster Risk Management, Natural Resource Management, and Climate Change Adaptation in the Pacific.” Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin, no. 20, 3–9.

Author: Cheryl L. Anderson

Annotation:

Summary: 
“Under the overarching frameworks of sustainable development and human security, the fields of disaster risk management and climate change adaptation have engaged in increasingly parallel tracks for planning and programming. In the Pacific, the cross-cutting themes of gender and traditional ecological knowledge are important perspectives for understanding the socioeconomic dimensions of disaster, environmental degradation, and climate changes. Explorations of gender dimensions of disaster and climate impacts provide a deeper understanding of these impacts, which enables the identification of solutions that may alleviate them” (Anderson 2009, 3).

Topics: Development, Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Security, Human Security Regions: Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Oceania

Year: 2009

Gender-Sensitivity in Natural Resource Management in Côte d’Ivoire and Sudan

Citation:

Stork, Adrienne, Cassidy Travis, and Silja Halle. 2015. “Gender-Sensitivity in Natural Resource Management in Côte d’Ivoire and Sudan.” Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice 27 (2): 147–55. doi:10.1080/10402659.2015.1037617.

Authors: Adrienne Stork, Cassidy Travis, Silja Halle

Annotation:

"This essay builds on the 2013 report and investigates how the key issues of gender and natural resources play out in two different conflict-affected settings. Based on UNEP’s field experiences in Côte d’Ivoire and Darfur, the first section discusses the findings of a gender analysis conducted as part of a Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment of Côte d’Ivoire in 2013, and identifies concrete entry points for addressing the identified risks and opportunities. The second part examines how gender considerations have been incorporated into UNEP’s activities in the Wadi El Ku region of Darfur in Sudan, providing tangible examples of how these issues can be taken into account in ground-level programming" (Stork et al., 2015, p. 148-49). 

Topics: Armed Conflict, Development, Extractive Industries, Gender, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Security, Human Security Regions: Africa, East Africa, West Africa Countries: Côte D'Ivoire, Sudan

Year: 2015

Mujeres entre mafiosos y señores de la guerra: Impacto del proceso de desarme, desmovilización y reintegración en la vida y seguridad de las mujeres en comunidades en pugna. Caso Villavicencio

Citation:

Barraza, Cecilia, y Luz Piedad Caicedo. 2007. Mujeres entre mafiosos y señores de la guerra: Impacto del proceso de desarme, desmovilización y reintegración en la vida y seguridad de las mujeres en comunidades en pugna. Caso Villavicencio. Bogotá, Colombia: Centro Regional de Derechos Humanos y Justicia de Género.

Authors: Cecilia Barraza, Luz Piedad Caicedo

Annotation:

English Summary:
"This study provides a comprehensive overview of the situation of women in local DDR contexts, with the aim to make progress in promoting women’s security. The aim of the research was to understand the impact of said processes, from the point of view of the municipality’s public officials, women, and the region’s key social actors.  This gives rise to a series of guidelines for the analysis which highlights the effects on the lives of the women of Villavicencio at the politico-organizational and socio-economic level, as well as at the level of sexual and reproductive rights, human security and violence against girls and women (VAGW)" (Barraza and Caicedo 2007, 9).
 
Spanish Summary:
"Este estudio ofrece una mirada integral a la situación de las mujeres en los contextos locales de desarme, desmovilización y reintegración, con miras a avanzar en la promoción de la seguridad humana de las mujeres. La investigación tuvo por objeto conocer el impacto de dichos procesos, desde la percepción de las y los funcionarios públicos del municipio, de las mujeres y de actores sociales claves de la región. De tal forma, se plantean una serie de lineamientos para el análisis que permiten evidenciar de forma específica los efectos sobre la vida de las mujeres de la ciudad de Villavicencio a nivel político-organizativo, socio-económico, de derechos sexuales y reproductivos, de seguridad humana y violencia contra las mujeres y niñas" (Barraza & Caicedo, 2007, 9).

Topics: Armed Conflict, DDR, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Security, Human Security Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2007

Pages

© 2023 CONSORTIUM ON GENDER, SECURITY & HUMAN RIGHTSLEGAL STATEMENT All photographs used on this site, and any materials posted on it, are the property of their respective owners, and are used by permission. Photographs: The images used on the site may not be downloaded, used, or reproduced in any way without the permission of the owner of the image. Materials: Visitors to the site are welcome to peruse the materials posted for their own research or for educational purposes. These materials, whether the property of the Consortium or of another, may only be reproduced with the permission of the owner of the material. This website contains copyrighted materials. The Consortium believes that any use of copyrighted material on this site is both permissive and in accordance with the Fair Use doctrine of 17 U.S.C. § 107. If, however, you believe that your intellectual property rights have been violated, please contact the Consortium at info@genderandsecurity.org.

Subscribe to RSS - Human Security