Human Security

Citation:

Porter, Elisabeth. 2008. “Is Human Security a Feminist Peacebuilding Tool?” Paper presented at the International Studies Association’s 49th Annual Convention, San Francisco, CA, March 26-29.

Author: Elisabeth Porter

Abstract:

Women are both victims of war and agents of peace as recognized by the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) on 'Women, Peace and Security' (2000). This paper has three aims. First, it offers a brief critical analysis of the broadening of security studies to encompass human security. Second, it gives a short outline of different ways that feminist scholars understand security, explaining the rationale for the gendering of human security. Third, I maintain that human security is a peacebuilding tool and offer reasons why it has particular appeal for feminists. By tool, I mean it provides an emancipatory framework within which to judge whether concrete goals further just peace with security. I suggest that feminist ethics affords an analytic tool through which to understand our responsibilities for human welfare by practicing political compassion. I assess the applicability of this tool in terms of UNSCR 1325.

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Security, Human Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325

Year: 2008

Citation:

Hoogensen, Gunhild, and Svein Vigeland Rottem. 2004. “Gender Identity and the Subject of Security.” Security Dialogue 35 (2): 155–71. doi:10.1177/0967010604044974.

Authors: Gunhild Hoogensen, Svein Vigeland Rottem

Abstract:

This article is a contribution to the ongoing debate on human security in Security Dialogue; the authors argue that they provide an illustration of the complexity and dynamism of security. To illustrate this point, the authors examine security through the notion of societal security as understood by Ole Wæver, and use identity as a ‘door’ to a broader understanding and use of the concept of security. The focus of the article is gender identity as an integral perspective of security. In conjunction with elite-defined state interests, identity articulates the security interests of ‘significant groups’, supporting the articulation of security needs by individuals (as they identify themselves with various significant groups) and communities. Gender is identified as a ‘significant group’ relevant to the security dynamic. Using gender identity to understand security requires breaking down rigid and fundamental structures that have been built around traditional notions of security, allowing for articulations of security as it is understood by individuals in general and by women in particular.

Topics: Gender, Security, Human Security

Year: 2004

Citation:

Carpenter, R. C. 2006. “Recognizing Gender-Based Violence Against Civilian Men and Boys in Conflict Situations.” Security Dialogue 37 (1): 83–103. doi:10.1177/0967010606064139.

Author: R. C. Carpenter

Abstract:

While gender-based violence has recently emerged as a salient topic in the human security community, it has been framed principally with respect to violence against women and girls, particularly sexual violence. In this article, [Carpenter] argue[s] that gender-based violence against men (including sexual violence, forced conscription, and sex-selective massacre) must be recognized as such, condemned, and addressed by civilian protection agencies and proponents of a ‘human security’ agenda in international relations. Men deserve protection against these abuses in their own right; moreover, addressing gender-based violence against women and girls in conflict situations is inseparable from addressing the forms of violence to which civilian men are specifically vulnerable.

Keywords: gender-based violence, sexual violence, conscription, humanitarian assistance

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Men, Gender-Based Violence, Security, Human Security, Sexual Violence, SV against Men

Year: 2006

Citation:

Johnston, Nicola. 2001. Gender and Peace Support Operations: Opportunities & Challenges to Improve Practice. London: International Alert.

Author: Nicola Johnston

Topics: Gender, Gender Balance, Gender Mainstreaming, International Organizations, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes, Rights, Human Rights, Security, Human Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325

Year: 2001

Citation:

Denov, Myriam. 2008. “Girl Soldiers and Human Rights: Lessons from Angola, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Northern Uganda.” International Journal of Human Rights 12 (5): 813–36.

Author: Myriam Denov

Abstract:

The issue of child soldiers has become an issue of global concern. More than 250,000 soldiers under the age of 18 are fighting in conflicts in over 40 countries around the world. While there is ample descriptive evidence of the conditions and factors underlying the rise of child soldiery in the developing world, most of the literature has portrayed this as a uniquely male phenomenon, ultimately neglecting the experiences and perspectives of girls within fighting forces. Drawing upon the findings of three studies funded by the Canadian International Development Agency's Child Protection Research Fund, this paper traces the perspectives and experiences of girls as victims and participants of violence and armed conflict in Angola, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, and Northern Uganda. The three studies collectively reveal three salient themes. First, whether in the heat of conflict or within post-war programming, girls are, for the most part, rendered invisible and marginalised. Second, in spite of this profound invisibility and marginalisation, girls are fundamental to the war machine—their operational contributions are integral and critical to the overall functioning of armed groups. Third, girls in fighting forces contend with overwhelming experiences of victimisation, perpetration, and insecurity. In the aftermath of conflict, girls arguably bear a form of secondary victimisation through socio-economic marginalisation and exclusion, as well as the ongoing threats to their health and personal security.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Child Soldiers, Gender, Girls, Health, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Non-State Armed Groups, Rights, Human Rights, Security, Human Security, Violence Regions: Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa Countries: Angola, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Uganda

Year: 2008

Citation:

Shepherd, Laura J. 2007. "Victims, Perpetrators, and Actors' Revisited: Exploring the Potential for a Feminist Reconseptualisation of (International) Security and (Gender) Violence." The British Journal of Politics & International Relations 9 (2): 239-56.

Author: Laura J. Shepherd

Abstract:

In the discipline of International Relations (IR), which takes seriously issues of war and peace, there has been a lack of attention paid to theorising security in relation to violence. In this article, I explore the potential for a feminist reworking of these concepts. With reference to a range of literature addressing security and violence, I offer some insights into the relevance of such a reconceptualisation. I draw attention to the ways in which work on issues of violence and security function to reproduce understandings of these concepts that delimit the value of both academic theorising and policy prescription. In the study of security, because of the discursive power of the concept, and of violence, these considerations are particularly important, as they can literally be issues of life and death.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Peacebuilding, Security, Human Security, Violence

Year: 2007

Citation:

Gya, Giji. 2007. “The Importance of Gender in ESDP.” European Security Review, no. 34, 1–8.

Author: Giji Gya

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender Mainstreaming, Security, Human Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325

Year: 2007

Citation:

Vayrynen, Tarja. 2004. “Gender and UN Peace Operations: The Confines of Modernity.” International Peacekeeping 11 (1): 125–42.

Author: Tarja Varynen

Abstract:

The essay seeks to problematize the recent UN discourse on gender, peace and war by demonstrating how modernity sets the limits for the discourse, and therewith confines the discourse to the pre-given binary categories of agency, identity and action. It engages in an analysis of modernity and the mode of thinking that modernity establishes for thinking about war and peace. It is demonstrated in the text that new thinking on post-Westphalian conflicts and human security did open up a discursive space for thinking about gender in peace operations, but this space has not been fully utilized. By remaining within the confines of modernity, the UN discourse on peace operations produces neoliberal modes of masculinity and femininity where the problem-solving epistemology gives priority to the ‘rationalist’ and manageralist masculinity and renders silent the variety of ambivalent and unsecured masculinities and femininities.

Topics: Gender, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Gendered Discourses, International Organizations, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes, Security, Human Security

Year: 2004

Citation:

Sutton, Barbara, Sandra Morgen, and Julie Novkov. 2008. Security Disarmed: Critical Perspectives on Gender, Race, and Militarization. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Authors: Barbara Sutton, Sandra Morgen, Julie Novkov

Abstract:

From the history of state terrorism in Latin America, to state- and group-perpetrated plunder and genocide in Africa, to war and armed conflicts in the Middle East, militarization--the heightened role of organized aggression in society--continues to painfully shape the lives of millions of people around the world.

In Security Disarmed, scholars, policy planners, and activists come together to think critically about the human cost of violence and viable alternatives to armed conflict. Arranged in four parts--alternative paradigms of security, cross-national militarization, militarism in the United States, and pedagogical and cultural concerns--the book critically challenges militarization and voices an alternative encompassing vision of human security by analyzing the relationships among gender, race, and militarization. This collection of essays evaluates and resists the worldwide crisis of militarization--including but going beyond American military engagements in the twenty-first century. (Amazon)

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Militarization, Race, Security, Human Security, Violence

Year: 2008

Citation:

Reardon, Betty, and Asha Hans. 2010. The Gender Imperative: Human Security Vs State Security. New Dehli: Routledge.

Authors: Betty Reardon, Asha Hans

Abstract:

Topics: Armed Conflict, Economies, Economic Inequality, Feminisms, Gender, Gendered Discourses, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Gender Equality/Inequality, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Security, Human Security

Year: 2010