Peacekeeping

Citation:

Blakemore, Sarah, Rosa Freedman, and Nicolas Lemay-Hébert. 2019. "Child Safeguarding in a Peacekeeping Context: Lessons from Liberia." Development in Practice 29 (6): 735-47.

Authors: Sarah Blakemore, Rosa Freedman, Nicolas Lemay-Hébert

Abstract:

This article reviews how peacekeeping officials safeguard children from sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) in Liberia, more than 15 years after the landmark reports published on this issue. Based on original fieldwork conducted in Liberia and in New York, the article introduces an innovative framework to assess whether or not organisations effectively safeguard children from SEA. It reviews three interrelated issues: reinforcing the institutional environment in the country, strengthening prevention of and accountability for child SEA by UN actors. The article concludes with specific policy recommendations for actors involved in peacekeeping activities.

Keywords: aid, accountability, aid effectiveness, civil society, NGOs, gender and diversity, youth, Rights, Sub-Saharan Africa

Topics: Age, Youth, Civil Society, Gender, Girls, Boys, NGOs, Peacekeeping, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa, Americas, North America Countries: Liberia, United States of America

Year: 2019

Citation:

Pruitt, Lesley J. 2018. "A Global South State’s Challenge to Gendered Global Cultures of Peacekeeping." In Revisiting Gendered States: Feminist Imaginings of the State in International Relations, edited by Swati Parashar, J. Ann Tickner, and Jacqui True, 122-137. New York: Oxford University Press.

Author: Lesley J. Pruitt

Abstract:

This chapter explores the first all-female formed police unit (FFPU) in UN peacekeeping, deployed from India to Liberia. The FFPU has fostered important outcomes supporting the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. However, global norms that presume efforts can only be “legitimate” when conducted in ways that align with particular, Global North approaches can hinder implementation of the WPS agenda. Such norms marginalize differences that intersect with gender and influence participation. Effective implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the WPS agenda will not occur under assumptions that only some states, or only certain kinds of states, can credibly contribute; instead, a plurality of approaches is needed.

Keywords: peacekeeping, United Nations, policing, women, India, Liberia, WPS

Topics: Gender, Women, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Africa, West Africa, Asia, South Asia Countries: India, Liberia

Year: 2018

Citation:

Vandenberg, Martina. 2018.  "Peacekeeping, Human Trafficking, and Sexual Abuse and Exploitation." In The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Conflict, edited by Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Naomi Cahn, Dina Francesca Haynes, and Nahla Valji. Oxford University Press. 

Author: Martina Vandenberg

Abstract:

This chapter provides an overview of human trafficking and other forms of sexual abuse committed by peacekeepers and civilians employed in peacekeeping missions. It opens with a historical review of violations committed by peacekeepers and the current international response to the issue. The chapter introduces relevant international legal instruments, including the UN Protocol to Suppress, Prevent and Punish Trafficking in Persons, and examines the United Nations’ response to various instances of misconduct. Focusing on Bosnia and Herzegovina and the MINUSCA mission in the Central African Republic, the chapter details the consistent failure of national courts to prosecute offenders and the inability of the UN to take action beyond repatriating the offenders. The chapter closes with recommendations for the UN to move beyond prevention work to improve enforcement of peacekeeper conduct policies.

Keywords: human trafficking, sexual abuse, peacekeepers, peacekeeping mission, UN Protocol to Suppress, Prevent and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Central African Republic, MINUSCA

Topics: International Law, International Organizations, Peacekeeping, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Africa, Central Africa, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Central African Republic

Year: 2018

Citation:

Valji, Nahla, and Pablo Castillo. 2019. "The Importance of Gender Parity in the UN's Efforts on International Peace and Security." Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations 20 (2): 4-19.

Authors: Nahla Valji, Pablo Castillo

Keywords: equality, gender, gender parity, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, United Nations, women, Africa

Annotation:

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender Balance, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, Peace and Security, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes

Year: 2019

Citation:

Connors, Niall. 2019. "Education and the Humanitarian Space: Is There a Dissonance between Military Education and Military Practice?" Irish Studies in International Affairs 30: 171-93.

Author: Niall Connors

Abstract:

Crossing the domains of foreign policy, defence policy and gender theory, this paper focuses on education and the humanitarian space, specifically, an analysis of whether there is a dissonance between military education and military practice in an Irish context. The paper argues that Irish Defence Forces' activity as peacekeepers can be framed within the human security paradigm, aligned with a national perception of self as good global citizens, and can reasonably be characterised as humanitarian. In this context, the paper argues that the human security paradigm offers a cosmopolitan, agency-oriented, feminist perspective on the humanitarian space and should prompt a re-examination of the gendered nature of the concepts of peace, peacekeeping and ‘citizenship in practice’. The paper concludes positing that a theory-practice gap exists between military education and military practice in an Irish context, and suggests a re-orientation of military education programmes to include a more feminist, cosmopolitan perspective.

Keywords: human security, peacekeeping forces, masculinity, feminism, environmental security, defense policy, military operations, men, military alliances

Topics: Citizenship, Feminisms, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Peacekeeping, Security, Human Security Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: Ireland

Year: 2019

Citation:

Vojdik, Valorie K. 2019. "Sexual Abuse and Exploitation by UN Peacekeepers as Conflict-Related Gender Violence." In International Human Rights of Women, edited by Niamh Reilly, 405-21. Singapore: Springer Singapore.

Author: Valorie K. Vojdik

Abstract:

For nearly 30 years, military and civilian peacekeepers across the globe have engaged in rape, sexual assault, forced prostitution, trafficking, and sexual exploitation of women and children. The mechanisms for policing and punishing peacekeeper SEA have been inadequate, creating a culture of impunity. Rather than treat sexual exploitation and abuse as a crime committed by individual peacekeepers, as the UN has done, the international community must situate peacekeeper SEA within the gendered structures of power that help perpetuate conflict-related violence against women and girls. Peacekeeper SEA is rooted in unequal gender relations and poverty, exacerbated by the social and economic dislocations of war. Peacekeeping troops often engage in masculinized social practices that encourage sexual exploitation and gender violence against women and children. With the rise of new peacekeeping economies, peacekeepers often fuel the growth of prostitution and survival sex, harming the individual victims while reinforcing the inequality of women in post-conflict societies. To address peacekeeper SEA requires dismantling the structures of gender inequality and empowering women. It also requires transforming the institutional norms and practices that encourage and enforce masculinized violence by peacekeeping troops.

Keywords: sexual exploitation and abuse, peacekeeping, militarized masculinities, gender inequality, post-conflict

Topics: Economies, Poverty, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, Justice, Impunity, Peacekeeping, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, SV against Women, Trafficking

Year: 2019

Citation:

Woodward, Rachel, and Claire Duncanson, eds. 2017. The Palgrave International Handbook of Gender and the Military. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: Rachel Woodward, Claire Duncanson

Annotation:

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, DDR, Domestic Violence, Ethnicity, Feminisms, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender Mainstreaming, Health, Mental Health, International Organizations, Intersectionality, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Militarism, Militarization, Non-State Armed Groups, Political Economies, Race, Peacekeeping, Security Sector Reform, Sexuality, Sexual Violence, Rape

Year: 2017

Citation:

Pierson, Claire. 2019. "Gendering Peace in Northern Ireland: The Role of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security." Capital & Class 43 (1): 57-71.

Author: Claire Pierson

Abstract:

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on ‘women, peace and security’ was passed in 2000 to recognise and enhance women’s participation in peace-building. The Resolution has growing global significance in conflicted societies yet there is limited analysis of its implementation in specific social contexts. Utilising feminist theory on gender in conflicted societies and original empirical evidence from key grassroots community activists in Northern Ireland, I will consider the potential of the 1325 framework as a tool for conceptualising and achieving gender security and equality. This article contributes to an understanding of the importance of deep contextual interpretation for implementation of the women, peace and security agenda and argues for a feminist intersectional interpretation of the Resolution to enable its transformative potential for both peace-building and gender equality.

Keywords: equality, gender, Northern Ireland, peace, security, women

Topics: Civil Society, Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping, Peace and Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: United Kingdom

Year: 2019

Citation:

Huber, Laura, and Sabrina Karim. 2018. “The Internationalization of Security Sector Gender Reforms in Post-Conflict Countries.” Conflict Management and Peace Science 35 (3): 263–79.

Authors: Laura Huber, Sabrina Karim

Abstract:

With the passing of several UN Security Council Resolutions related to Women, Peace and Security (WPS), gender balancing security sector reforms (SSR)—or policies that ensure the equal participation of women in the security sector—have received increased global attention over the past two decades. However, to date, there is no explanation for variation in their adoption. This paper examines the internationalization of SSR gender reform, arguing that the presence of a peacekeeping mission within a post-conflic country affects the state’s resources and political will to adopt gender balancing reforms. We explore the effect of multidimensional peacekeeping using an original dataset on SSR in post-conflict countries, the Security Sector Reform Dataset (SSRD), from 1989 to 2012. We find that peacekeeping missions increase the probability that a state adopts gender balancing reforms in SSR. As the first cross-national quantitative examination of gender balancing reforms, these findings also shed light on the conditions under which states adopt security sector reforms more generally.

Keywords: security sector reform, gender, conflict, post conflict

Topics: Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender Balance, Peacekeeping, Post-Conflict, Security Sector Reform, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS

Year: 2018

Citation:

Shekhawat, Seema, ed. 2018. Gender, Conflict, Peace, and UNSC Resolution 1325. Lanham: Lexington Books.

Author: Seema Shekhawat

Annotation:

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict Prevention, Displacement & Migration, Feminisms, Gender, Peace and Security, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes, Religion, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Africa, MENA, West Africa, Americas, South America, Asia, Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, Southern Europe Countries: Colombia, Cyprus, India, Israel, Liberia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Syria

Year: 2018