International Organizations

Women participants in Conflict

Peacekeeping, Compliance with International Norms, and Transactional Sex in Monrovia, Liberia

Citation:

Beber, Bernd, Michael J. Gilligan, Jenny Guardado, and Sabrina Karim. 2017. “Peacekeeping, Compliance with International Norms, and Transactional Sex in Monrovia, Liberia.” International Organization 71 (1): 1–30.

Authors: Bernd Beber, Michael J. Gilligan, Jenny Guardado, Sabrina Karim

Abstract:

United Nations policy forbids its peacekeepers and other personnel from engaging in transactional sex (the exchange of money, favors, or gifts for sex), but we find the behavior to be very common in our survey of Liberian women. Using satellite imagery and GPS locators, we randomly selected 1,381 households and randomly sampled 475 women between the ages of eighteen and thirty. Using an iPod in private to preserve the anonymity of their responses, these women answered sensitive questions about their sexual histories. More than half of them had engaged in transactional sex, a large majority of them (more than 75 percent) with UN personnel. We estimate that each additional battalion of UN peacekeepers caused a significant increase in a woman’s probability of engaging in her first transactional sex. Our findings raise the concern that the private actions of UN personnel in the field may set back the UN’s broader gender-equality and economic development goals, and raise broader questions about compliance with international norms.

Topics: Gender, Women, International Organizations, Peacekeeping, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Liberia

Year: 2017

Explaining Variation in the Implementation of Global Norms: Gender Mainstreaming of Security in the OSCE and the EU

Citation:

Jenichen, Anne, Jutta Joachim, and Andrea Schneiker. 2019. "Explaining Variation in the Implementation of Global Norms: Gender Mainstreaming of Security in the OSCE and the EU." International Political Science Review 40 (5): 613-26.

Authors: Anne Jenichen, Jutta Joachim, Andrea Schneiker

Abstract:

Why do regional security organizations choose different approaches to implementing global gender norms? To address this question, we examine how the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Union (EU) integrated requirements derived from UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) on women, peace and security into their security policies. We identify differences in scope and dynamics between the change processes in the two organizations. The OSCE simply adapted its existing gender policy and has not changed it since, whereas the EU introduced a new, more extensive and specific policy, which it has already amended several times. Drawing on historical institutionalism and feminist institutionalism, we found that, first, reform coalitions prepared the ground for gender mainstreaming in the organizations’ respective security policies; and that, second, embedded policy structures, including rules and norms about external interaction as well as existing policy legacies, were responsible for the different approaches of the EU and OSCE with respect to UNSCR 1325.

Keywords: gender mainstreaming, European Union (EU), feminist historical institutionalism, Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE), UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325)

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Gender Mainstreaming, International Organizations, Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Europe

Year: 2019

La violencia sexual en contra de las mujeres como estrategia de despojo de tierras en el conflicto armado colombiano

Citation:

Céspedes-Báez, Lina-María. 2010. "La violencia sexual en contra de las mujeres como estrategia de despojo de tierras en el conflicto armado colombiano." Revista Estudios Socio-Juridico 12 (2): 273-304.

Author: Lina-María Céspedes-Báez

Abstract:

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
This article reviews the evidence collected by diverse national and international organizations regarding the relationship between sexual violence against women, forced displacement, and dispossession in the context of the Colombian armed conflict. To this end, it uses the concept of "sexual violence regimes" to highlight that the ends pursued by sexual violence are not always exhausted by simple consummation (that is, the act of sexual violence itself), but depending on the context, can be connected with broader strategic goals of armed actors. At the same time, this document admits the difficulty of proving this relationship with respect to judicial procedures, and thus sets out the possibility of creating a rebuttable presumption, in the framework of "unconstitutional state of affairs" created by judgment T-025 of 2004, that alleviates the burden of proof of the victims, and serves as a catalyst to promote new gender-based mechanisms of reparations.
 
SPANISH ABSTRACT:
El presente artículo parte de la evidencia que ha sido recogida por diversas organizaciones, tanto nacionales como internacionales, en materia de la interrelación entre la violencia sexual en contra de las mujeres, el desplazamiento forzado y el despojo en el conflicto armado colombiano. Para el efecto, utiliza el concepto de regímenes de violencia sexual, a fin de realzar el que los fines perseguidos por la conducta no se agotan siempre en el simple consumo, sino que, dependiendo del contexto, pueden estar conectados con objetivos más amplios dentro del repertorio estratégico de los actores armados. Asimismo, el documento admite la dificultad de la prueba de esta correlación en las instancias judiciales pertinentes, por lo cual plantea la posibilidad de crear una presunción desvirtuable, en el ámbito del estado de cosas inconstitucional declarado por la sentencia T-025 de 2004, que morigere la carga de la prueba de las víctimas y sirva como un catalizador para promover nuevos arreglos de género.

Keywords: desplazamiento forzado, Conflicto Armado, violencia sexual, tierras, pruebas, forced displacement, armed conflict, sexual violence, land, evidence

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, Forced Migration, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Land Tenure, International Organizations, Sexual Violence, SV against Women Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2010

New Directions in Women, Peace and Security

Citation:

Basu, Soumita, Paul Kirby, and Laura Shepherd, eds. 2020. New Directions in Women, Peace and Security. Bristol: Bristol University Press.

Authors: Soumita Basu, Paul Kirby, Laura Shepherd

Annotation:

Summary:
What does gender equality mean for peace, justice, and security? At the turn of the 21st century, feminist advocates persuaded the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution that drew attention to this question at the highest levels of international policy deliberations.
Today the Women, Peace and Security agenda is a complex field, relevant to every conceivable dimension of war and peace. This groundbreaking book engages vexed and vexing questions about the future of the agenda, from the legacies of coloniality to the prospects of international law, and from the implications of the global arms trade to the impact of climate change. It balances analysis of emerging trends with specially commissioned reflections from those at the forefront of policy and practice. (Summary from Bristol University Press)
 
Table of Contents:
United Nations Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security
Foreword: Toward Strategic Instrumentalism
Anne Marie Goetz
 
1. Women, Peace and Security: A Critical Cartography
Soumita Basu, Paul Kirby and Laura J. Shepherd
 
Part I: Encounters
2. South Sudanese Women on the Move: An Account of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda
Rita M. Lopidia and Lucy Hall
 
3. The Price of Peace? Frictional Encounters on Gender, Security and the ‘Economic Peace Paradigm’
Nicole George
 
4. Difficult Encounters with the WPS Agenda in South Asia: Re- scripting Globalized Norms and Policy Frameworks for a Feminist Peace
Rita Manchanda
 
5. Best Practice Diplomacy and Feminist Killjoys in the Strategic State: Exploring the Affective Politics of Women, Peace and Security
Minna Lyytikäinen and Marjaana Jauhola
 
6. Between Protection and Participation: Affect, Countering Violent Extremism and the Possibility for Agency
Elizabeth Pearson
 
7. Lessons Lived in Gender and International Criminal Law
Patricia Viseur Sellers and Louise Chappell
 
8. Holding Feminist Space
Sam Cook and Louise Allen
 
Part II: Horizons
9. Global Racial Hierarchies and the Limits of Localization via National Action Plans
Toni Haastrup and Jamie J. Hagen
 
10. Towards a Postcolonial, Anti- Racist, Anti- Militarist Feminist Mode of Weapons Control
Anna Stavrianakis
 
11. The Privatization of War: A New Challenge for the Women, Peace and Security Agenda
Marta Bautista Forcada and Cristina Hernández Lázaro
 
12. Human Trafficking, Human Rights and Women, Peace and Security: The Sound of Silence
Gema Fernández Rodríguez de Liévana and Christine Chinkin
 
13. Addressing Future Fragility: Women, Climate Change and Migration
Briana Mawby and Anna Applebaum
 
14. Feminist Challenges to the Co-optation of WPS: A Conversation with Joy Onyesoh and Madeleine Rees
Joy Onyesoh, Madeleine Rees and Catia Cecilia Confortini

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Environment, Climate Change, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Law, International Organizations, Peace and Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, Weapons /Arms

Year: 2020

The Road to Johannesburg and Beyond: Networking for Gender and Energy

Citation:

Karlsson, Gail, and Sheila Oparaocha. 2003. “The Road to Johannesburg and Beyond: Networking for Gender and Energy.” Energy for Sustainable Development 7 (3): 62–7. 

Authors: Gail Karlsson, Sheila Oparaocha

Abstract:

Although the Plan of Implementation adopted at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) contained important provisions regarding the role of energy in sustainable development, it did not adequately reflect the linkages between energy, poverty and traditional gender roles. This was especially noticeable in comparison to the decision on energy adopted at the Ninth Session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-9). ENERGIA, an international network on gender and energy, worked in partnership with other organizations to undertake successful lobbying and advocacy activities to ensure that a gender and energy perspective was reflected in the CSD-9 decision. UNDP, in particular, has been an important partner in raising awareness about the importance of gender-sensitive energy policies. The text of the WSSD Plan of Implementation recognised the importance of gender equality in sustainable development, but did not include specific references to gender issues in the substantive paragraphs of the text. To some extent this reflects the fact that the need for gender sensitivity has become much more widely recognised and accepted. With regard to the provisions concerning access to energy, the negotiators at the WSSD were focused on much more controversial matters. Nevertheless, in order to ensure that gender and energy concerns are included in national and international planning and decision-making processes, ENERGIA and its partners need to develop greater capacity for advocacy and information-sharing. Some of the partnership initiatives launched at the WSSD will provide new opportunities for gender and energy advocates to participate in the design and implementation of sustainable energy activities. For example, the Global Village Energy partnership sponsored by UNDP and the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme has emphasised gender sensitivity in energy decision-making, and has included ENERGIA members on its Board of Directors.

Topics: Development, Economies, Poverty, Gender, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Infrastructure, Energy, International Organizations

Year: 2003

Gender, Taxation, and Equality in Developing Countries

Citation:

Lahey, Kathleen. 2018. “Gender, Taxation, and Equality in Developing Countries.” Discussion Paper, UN Women, New York. 

Author: Kathleen Lahey

Annotation:

Summary:
“Attention to the gender impact of tax laws has been accelerated by key trends in public finance policy frameworks. Beginning in 2005, the OECD and other international organizations began to recommend that countries at all levels of development focus on tax and spending cuts to stimulate economic growth. In the aftermath of the 2007/2008 global financial crisis, although many countries responded to the crisis by expanding selected spending measures to offset the recessionary effects of the crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) began in 2010 to turn the focus back to fiscal consolidation through tax and spending cuts to promote economic recovery. Since then, the majority of countries at all levels of development began to replace crisis policies with fiscal austerity programmes to cut spending on public resources and shift revenue production from progressive tax structures to regressive consumption taxes and privatization of public assets and services. 
 
“During this past decade, income inequalities have increased gaps between rich and poor due to lower levels of taxation on high incomes, increased business and individual use of transnational tax reductions and tax havens, over-reliance on short term extractive revenues and tax incentives to the corporate sector, and falling levels of public support for key drivers of economic development such as health, education, transportation, and income security spending. 
 
“All of these changes have drawn increased attention to the gender impact of tax and budgetary policies as it became clear even at the outset of the 2007/8 crisis that cuts to public spending, privatization of income support, health, and educational programmes, and the growing concentration of income and capital in the hands of the wealthy all increase after-tax income inequalities that are particularly damaging to those with low incomes and limited economic resources. Women are over-represented in both categories in every country, as are both men and women living in low- and medium-income countries. 
 
“This discussion paper examines the gender effects of taxation and related fiscal policies within a framework integrating three critical perspectives: the realities of women’s continuing economic, social, legal, and political inequalities; new global commitments to end poverty and all forms of sex discrimination; and the possibilities for shifting tax policy priorities from the present emphasis on taxing for economic growth to prioritize taxing for equality -- including taxing for gender equality, women’s empowerment, and eco- nomic security over the life course. 
 
“Within this framework, the gender effects of the main types of taxes used in domestic tax systems are discussed along with promising alternative tax policies to promote gender equality. This discussion paper addresses both core elements of the knowledge agenda for gender-equal fiscal policy with particular focus on developing and emerging countries, and the full range of gender effects and gender equal policy options for all aspects of personal, corporate, and consumption tax laws at the domestic and global levels” (Lahey 2018, 1).
 
Table of Contents:
1. Taxing for Gender Equality: Economic Realities and Human Rights Norms
 
2. Gender Issues in Personal Income Taxation
 
3. Corporate Income Taxation and Gender Issues
 
4. Impact of the VAT on Gender Equality and Ability to Pay
 
5. Conclusion and Recommendations

Topics: Development, Economies, Economic Inequality, Public Finance, Gender, Women, International Organizations

Year: 2018

Women and Taxation – from Taxing for Growth and Tax Competition to Taxing for Sex Equality

Citation:

Lahey, Kathleen. 2015.  "Women and Taxation – from Taxing for Growth and Tax Competition to Taxing for Sex Equality." First Quarter 10 (1): 8-10.

Author: Kathleen Lahey

Annotation:

Summary:
"For more than a generation, the IMF and the World Bank have pushed governments to prioritise economic growth over social justice in their approach to fiscal policy. The results of this experiment are now in; sluggish growth, steepening inequality and the continued subjugation of women. It is time for a new vision of development, in which real needs take precedence over the fantastical desires that incubate in the global institutions" (Lahey 2015, 8).

Topics: Development, Economies, Public Finance, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, International Organizations

Year: 2015

Sticking to Their Guns: The United Nations’ Failure to See the Potential of Islamic Feminism in the Promotion of Women’s Rights in Afghanistan

Citation:

Ghadery, Farnush. 2019. "Sticking to Their Guns: The United Nations’ Failure to See the Potential of Islamic Feminism in the Promotion of Women’s Rights in Afghanistan." In The Asian Yearbook of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, edited by Javaid Rehman, Ayesha Shahid, and Steve Foster, 117-43. Leiden: Brill Nijhoff.

Author: Farnush Ghadery

Abstract:

In recent years, peace and justice processes in post-conflict countries have turned into an industry of their own. With a variety of actors, norms and processes involved, the fields have not only expanded as areas of practice, but also attracted considerable attention amongst scholars. Whilst the role of the international community in post-conflict States, particularly as part of peace and justice processes, has been subject of much scholarly debate, this article focuses on international actors’ attempts at advancing women’s rights in predominantly Muslim post-conflict countries. It discusses the reluctance of the most significant international actor in a variety of post-conflict processes, namely the United Nations, to engage more closely with contextualised bottom-up approaches to women’s rights advocacy under its Women, Peace and Security agenda. The article focuses specifically on the United Nations’ failure to see the potential of Islamic feminism in post-conflict Afghanistan as an alternative to its hitherto strategy of grounding women’s rights in Western liberal conceptions of ‘universal’ human rights. It argues for a more contextual approach to women’s rights advocacy by the United Nations that allows for the possibility of including non-hegemonic rights discourses as well as granting more attention to local bottom-up approaches.

Topics: Feminisms, International Organizations, Post-Conflict, Peace Processes, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Religion, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2019

Health in Conflict and Post-Conflict Settings: Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health in Colombia

Citation:

Jaraba, Sara Milena Ramos, Natalia Quiceno Toro, María Ochoa Sierra, Laura Ruiz Sánchez, Marlly Andrea García Jiménez, Mary Y. Salazar-Barrientos, Edison Bedoya Bedoya, Gladis Adriana Vélez Álvarez, Ana Langer, Jewel Gausman, and Isabel C. Garcés-Palacio. 2020. "Health in Conflict and Post-Conflict Settings: Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health in Colombia." Conflict and Health 14.

Authors: Sara Milena Ramos Jaraba, Natalia Quiceno Toro, María Ochoa Sierra, Laura Ruiz Sánchez, Marlly Andrea García Jiménez, Mary Y. Salazar-Barrientos, Edison Bedoya Bedoya, Gladis Adriana Vélez Álvarez, Ana Langer, Jewel Gausman, Isabel C. Garcés-Palacio

Abstract:

Background: In conflict-afflicted areas, pregnant women and newborns often have higher rates of adverse health outcomes. Objective: To describe maternal and child health indicators and interventions between 1998 and 2016 comparing high and low conflict areas in Colombia. 
 
Methods: Mixed study of convergent triangulation. In the quantitative component, 16 indicators were calculated using official, secondary data sources. The victimization rate resulting from armed conflict was calculated by municipality and grouped into quintiles. In the qualitative component, a comparative case study was carried out in two municipalities of Antioquia: one with high rates of armed conflict and another with low rates. A total of 41 interviews and 8 focus groups were held with local and national government officials, health professionals, community informants, UN agencies and NGOs. 
 
Results: All of the indicators show improvement, however, four show statistically significant differences between municipalities with high victimization rates versus low ones. The maternal mortality ratio was higher in the municipalities with greater victimization in the periods 1998–2004, 2005–2011 and 2012–2016. The percentage of cesarean births and women who received four or more antenatal visits was lower among women who experienced the highest levels of victimization for the period 1998–2000, while the fertility rate for women between 15 and 19 years was higher in these municipalities between 2012 and 2016. In the context of the armed conflict in Colombia, maternal and child health was affected by the limited availability of interventions given the lack of human resources in health, supplies, geographical access difficulties and insecurity. The national government was the one that mostly provided the programs, with difficulties in continuity and quality. UN Agencies and NGOs accessed more easily remote and intense armed conflict areas. Few specific health interventions were identified in the postconflict context. 
 
Conclusions: In Colombia, maternal and child health indicators have improved since the conflict, however a pattern of inequality is observed in the municipalities most affected by the armed conflict.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Gender, Women, Health, Reproductive Health, International Organizations, NGOs, Post-Conflict Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2020

Health Services for Women, Children and Adolescents in Conflict Affected Settings: Experience from North and South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo

Citation:

Altare, Chiara, Espoir Bwenge Malembaka, Maphie Tosha, Christopher Hook, Hamady Ba, Stéphane Muzindusi Bikoro, Thea Scognamiglio, Hannah Tappis, Jerome Pfaffmann, Ghislain Bisimwa Balaluka, Ties Boerma, and Paul Spiegel. 2020. "Health Services for Women, Children and Adolescents in Conflict Affected Settings: Experience from North and South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo." Conflict and Health 14.

Authors: Chiara Altare, Espoir Bwenge Malembaka, Maphie Tosha, Christopher Hook, Hamady Ba, Stéphane Muzindusi Bikoro, Thea Scognamiglio, Hannah Tappis, Jerome Pfaffmann, Ghislain Bisimwa Balaluka, Ties Boerma, Paul Spiegel

Abstract:

Background: Insecurity has characterized the Eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo for decades. Providing health services to sustain women’s and children’s health during protracted conflict is challenging. This mixed-methods case study aimed to describe how reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH+N) services have been offered in North and South Kivu since 2000 and how successful they were. 
 
Methods: We conducted a case study using a desk review of publicly available literature, secondary analysis of survey and health information system data, and primary qualitative interviews. The qualitative component provides insights on factors shaping RMNCAH+N design and implementation. We conducted 49 interviews with government officials, humanitarian agency staff and facility-based healthcare providers, and focus group discussions with community health workers in four health zones (Minova, Walungu, Ruanguba, Mweso). We applied framework analysis to investigate key themes across informants. The quantitative component used secondary data from nationwide surveys and the national health facility information system to estimate coverage of RMNCAH+N interventions at provincial and sub-provincial level. The association between insecurity on service provision was examined with random effects generalized least square models using health facility data from South Kivu. 
 
Results: Coverage of selected preventive RMNCAH+N interventions seems high in North and South Kivu, often higher than the national level. Health facility data show a small negative association of insecurity and preventive service coverage within provinces. However, health outcomes are poorer in conflict-affected territories than in stable ones. The main challenges to service provisions identified by study respondents are the availability and retention of skilled personnel, the lack of basic materials and equipment as well as the insufficient financial resources to ensure health workers’ regular payment, medicaments’ availability and facilities’ running costs. Insecurity exacerbates pre-existing challenges, but do not seem to represent the main barrier to service provision in North and South Kivu. 
 
Conclusions: Provision of preventive schedulable RMNCAH+N services has continued during intermittent conflict in North and South Kivu. The prolonged effort by non-governmental organizations and UN agencies to respond to humanitarian needs was likely key in maintaining intervention coverage despite conflict. Health actors and communities appear to have adapted to changing levels and nature of insecurity and developed strategies to ensure preventive services are provided and accessed. However, emergency non-schedulable RMNCAH+N interventions do not appear to be readily accessible. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will require increased access to life-saving interventions, especially for newborn and pregnant women.

Keywords: health services, health system, conflict, population displacement, North Kivu, South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, maternal, newborn, child, reproductive health

Topics: Age, Youth, Conflict, Gender, Women, Girls, Boys, Health, Reproductive Health, International Organizations, NGOs, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Regions: Africa, Central Africa Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Year: 2020

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