Post-Conflict

Citation:

Arino, Maria Villellas. 2008. "Nepal: A Gender View of the Armed Conflict and the Peace Process." Quaderns de Construccion de Pao 4. 

Author: María Villellas Ariño

Abstract:

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Society, Combatants, Female Combatants, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Nepal

Year: 2008

Citation:

Anaya, Liliana. 2007. "Individual Demobilization and Reintegration Process in Colombia: Implementation, Challenges and Former Combatants' Perspectives." Intervention 5 (3): 179-90. doi:10.1097/WTF.0b013e3282f1d036.

Author: Liliana Anaya

Abstract:

After decades of armed conflict, the Colombian government has implemented a voluntary individual disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programme (DDR). This paper is based on interviews of former combatants from illegal armed groups, from both the left and right, governmental officials, and military personnel involved in the processes. The findings of this research suggest that the individual demobilization process as a military strategy is a success. However, in order to strengthen the peace-building process, the programme needs to give more support to the socialization and re-socialization processes that former combatants experience. It needs to provide the former combatants with the skills needed to be economically and socially productive members of society. This will help them redefine their identity as civilians and undergo a successful reintegration and reconciliation.

Keywords: ex-combatants, peace-building, reconciliation, reintegration, re-socialization

Topics: Combatants, DDR, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Non-State Armed Groups, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2007

Citation:

Jacobsen, Ruth. 1999. "Complicating ‘Complexity’: Integrating Gender into the Analysis of the Mozambican Conflict.” Third World Quarterly 20 (1): 175–87.

Author: Ruth Jacobsen

Abstract:

A case study of the Mozambican conflict is used to illustrate the need to integrate a gender perspective which is historically grounded and which encompasses social relationships between women and men rather than the existing 'impact of conflict on women' approach. This is demonstrated first by examining ways in which postcolonial states have continued constructions of gender which assign women to the private/ domestic sphere and then by establishing how security in Southern Africa has been mediated by gendered constraints, whether in peace or war. The specific character of the Mozambican conflict is summarised, as are its outcomes in terms of gender relations which have intensified women's vulnerability. This is then related to an examination of the nature of some of the major humanitarian responses to the Mozambican emergency, where there was a wide divergence between stated policies on gender and practice. It is argued that this 'gender gap' is being perpetuated in some aspects of the reconstruction phase, despite women's enormous contribution to the task of rebuilding Mozambican society.

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Gender, Women, Men, Gender Roles, Gender Analysis, Gender-Based Violence, Gender Mainstreaming, Humanitarian Assistance, Livelihoods, NGOs, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Mozambique

Year: 1999

Citation:

Anderson, Jessica L. 2009. “Gender, Local Justice, and Ownership: Confronting Masculinities and Femininities in Northern Uganda.” Peace Research 41 (2): 59–83.

Author: Jessica L. Anderson

Abstract:

This article describes the livelihood structures of internally displaced men and women during Uganda's civil war, how these livelihood structures affect femininities and masculinities, and how they inform mens and women's opinions on transitional justice. It argues that insecurity and deprivation in northern Uganda's displacement camps during the country's twenty-four years of conflict have had a significant impact on the construction of masculinities and femininities in the region. Both men and women crave agency in their daily lives following this prolonged period of displacement and disempowerment. This sense of ownership refers to different forms of communal and individual reparation and the local practice of mato oput, a restorative justice process that has been criticized as gender insensitive. Acholi men's and women's support for the practice of mato oput points to the need to adopt a more thoughtful perspective on gender justice that balances international values with the ideas and desires of war survivors. Acholi men and women request control and ownership over justice mechanisms as an integral part of their conception of justice. Through examining such requests, this article analyses the ways in which Acholi men and women desire ownership and how a transitional justice process can extend and bolster this ownership.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Domestic Violence, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender Roles, Femininity/ies, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Health, Trauma, Households, Justice, Transitional Justice, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Security, Human Security Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Uganda

Year: 2009

Citation:

Arostegui, Julie. 2013. "Gender, Conflict, and Peace-Building: How Conflict Can Catalyse Positive Change for Women." Gender & Development 21 (3): 533-49. doi:10.1080/13552074.2013.846624.

Author: Julie Arostegui

Abstract:

Keywords: women, peace and security, Gender, conflict, peace building, UN Security Council Resolution 1325, gender policy, women's empowerment, women's advocacy, Maputo Protocol, International Conference on the Great Lakes Region

Topics: Armed Conflict, Development, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Health, Trauma, Households, International Organizations, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Rights, Women's Rights, Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa Countries: Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda

Year: 2013

Citation:

Corrin, Chris. 2003. “Developing Policy on Integration and Re/Construction in Kosova.” Development in Practice 13 (2/3): 189–207.

Author: Chris Corrin

Abstract:

The Gender Audit (GA) and associated reports and reviews drawn upon in this article enable an evaluation of how far the intervention processes at work in Kosova since 1999 have been inclusive of gender analysis and supportive of women's and girls' needs and interests. This assessment considers the strengths and drawbacks of various attempts to use and implement gender-sensitive projects. The GA was designed to support the emerging feminist reconstructive politics in Kosova. Its findings and recommendations tackle aspects of empowerment, equity, and opportunities, outlining some developments from community activism as well as outcomes of the international administration. By considering developments over a two-year period, it is possible to place issues of equity and opportunities in the context of change over time, with change at local and national levels linked with developing international dialogues. The article analyses local work undertaken by the Kosova Women's Network to overcome violence against women in war and domestic peace, and reviews international work engaged in by the Kosovo [sic] Women's Initiative (KWI). Many Kosovar women (of all ethnicities) do fully acknowledge their community membership, and recognise the risks involved in talking across their differences to achieve everyday security and reconciliation. International reports and reviews such as those produced in 2002 by the UN Secretary-General and UNIFEM on women, war, peace, and security, as well as the review of the KWI, allow an assessment of how dialogues are changing and what the potential impact of such change might be on policy development and implementation.

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, International Organizations, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Security, Violence Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Kosovo

Year: 2003

Citation:

Moosa, Zohra, Maryam Rahmani, and Lee Webster. 2013. "From the Private to the Public Sphere: New Research on Women's Participation in Peace-Building." Gender & Development 21 (3): 453--72. doi:10.1080/13552074.2013.846585.

Authors: Zohra Moosa, Maryam Rahmani, Lee Webster

Abstract:

Despite the United Nation’s landmark Security Council Resolution on women, peace and security in 2000 which highlighted the importance of women’s participation in peace-building, only one in 40 peace treaty signatories over the last 25 years has been a woman. Yet evidence from non-government organisations and women’s rights organisations shows that women are active agents of peace, resolving conflicts at all levels of society with little or no recognition. This article discusses new research which tracks women’s roles in building peace at local levels in five conflict-affected contexts: Afghanistan, Liberia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sierra Leone. The article highlights the significance of violence against women as a barrier to peace-building, and explores how and why women’s exclusion and marginalisation from peace processes tends to increase the more formal the processes become. The article uses two case studies of women’s rights organisations in Afghanistan and Nepal to illustrate the research findings and demonstrate how communities can mobilise to promote gender equality and fulfill women’s rights.

Keywords: peace, women, security, peace-building, Afghanistan, Nepal, women's rights organisations, women human rights defenders

Topics: Development, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, NGOs, Peacebuilding, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict, Rights, Women's Rights, Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS Regions: Africa, West Africa, Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, Liberia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sierra Leone

Year: 2013

Citation:

United Nations Development Fund for Women. 2001. Women’s Land and Property Rights in Situations of Conflict and Reconstruction: A Reader Based on the February 1998 Inter-Regional Consultation in Kigali, Rwanda. New York: UNIFEM.

Author: United Nations Development Fund for Women

Abstract:

Women constitute the majority of small farmers, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, in countries around the world, they continue to be denied the right to own the ground that they cultivate and on which they raise their families. This publication presents a diversity of views and experiences that describe the multiple strategies being used in countries worldwide to secure women's rights to land and property. Nowhere is the impact of unequal land rights more acutely felt than when women find themselves obliged to fend for themselves and their families as a result of conflicts which have cost them the husbands, brothers or fathers in whose name land and property was traditionally held and passed on. On returning home to the fields they used to work and the house they used to keep, women in many countries find themselves denied access, often by their former in-laws or neighbours. Without the security of a family home or the income and produce of their fields, women and their dependants may be pushed to the margins of society, further exacerbating their struggle to achieve health and well-being for their families and themselves. Against this sombre background, the unstinting efforts of women at all levels to keep families functioning in adversity, maintain community dialogue and sustain the fabric of social development, go largely unsung. Against all the odds, women continue to organise to address their livelihood and empowerment needs, and increasingly to champion their rights. They want a place at the peace table. And they are lobbying for new legislation that can enable them to acquire land, property and credit facilities with which to restart their lives. Above all, they recognise that conflict, with its attendant trauma and displacement, has also honed their existing skills and taught them new ones. As returnees from refugee situations - or something like that, they are not prepared to revert to the status quo ante but wish to capitalise on the changes brought about in adversity. 

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Economies, Gender, Women, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Land Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights

Year: 2001

Citation:

Rock, June. 2000. “The Land Issue in Eritrea’s Reconstruction & Development.” Review of African Political Economy 27 (84): 221–34.

Author: June Rock

Abstract:

At the end of the 30 year‐long liberation struggle against Ethiopian overrule, Eritrea was faced with the enormous tasks of political and economic reconstruction, the repair of the country's physical infrastructure, and the need to rebuild and rehabilitate the devastated agricultural sector. These tasks coincided with those of the demobilisation of fighters and the repatriation and reintegration of some 600,000 refugees that had fled to the Sudan during the struggle. High on the agenda of Eritrea's decision‐makers immediately after Independence, was the issue of land. A speedy resolution of the land issue was seen as integral to the government's overall policies for post‐war recovery and reconstruction. This resulted in the introduction, in 1994, of the Eritrea Land Proclamation, which aimed to radically transform the country's tenure systems. Some six years later, with the exception of one or two small pilot projects in the immediate environs of the capital, Asmara, the Proclamation has still to be implemented. This article examines some of the specific provisions of the Land Proclamation in order to explore what would need to be done to initiate it on the ground. It is argued that, while the principles of the Land Proclamation are well intentioned, its implementation would be too complex and costly, and that there are alternative lessons to be learned from the EPLF's own, earlier land reforms of the mid‐1970s and 1980s.

Topics: DDR, Development, Economies, Land Tenure, Governance, Households, Livelihoods, Political Economies, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Eritrea

Year: 2000

Citation:

Kindi, Fredrick Immanuel. 2010. “Challenges and Opportunities for Women’s Land Rights in Post-Conflict Northern Uganda.” Working Paper 26, MICROCON-A Micro Level Analysis of Violent Conflict, Brighton.

Author: Fredrick Immanuel Kindi

Abstract:

Since the late 1980s to 2006, the northern region of Uganda underwent an armed conflict between the government of Uganda and the rebel group led by Joseph Kony. The conflict displaced virtually the entire population in the region, and by 1990 people were living in internally displaced peoples’ camps. As the war winds up, many people have left the camps returning to their former villages. The journey back home has not been easy, however. For women in particular, many are facing a lot of challenges especially related to access, ownership and use of land. Using data that was qualitatively gathered in two IDP camps in Gulu district, northern Uganda, the paper examines these challenges. It argues however that despite the challenges, opportunities do exist that can be exploited, if there is commitment by various stakeholders, to ensure that women access, own and use land in the return process.

Annotation:

Quotes:

“In this paper I examine the challenges of women’s land rights in the return process in the region. I also assess the effectiveness of Peace, Recovery and Development Plan in addressing these challenges in the post conflict reconstruction. I conclude by noting the opportunities that can be exploited to address some of the challenges in the post conflict reconstruction.” (3)

“In situations of high mortality of men during the war, the women who have survived have found it difficult to secure access to land that was formerly owned or jointly owned by the husbands or with other male relatives. This is because such women might be denied access to land by their in-laws or by other surviving male relatives. This phenomenon has been widely reported in countries that have experienced armed conflicts. For instance, UNHCR (2001) noted that in the aftermath of the genocide and massacres of 1994 in Rwanda, many women who became widows met stiff resistance from in-laws or male members of their own family in accessing land. While in Kenya Mwagiru (2001: 19) reported that the conflicts of 1991-1993, including one of 1997 due to general elections, had serious consequences that adversely affected social patterns, including access to land and property rights.” (5)

“As Hetz, et al (2007) argued, the time span of displacement tends often to correlate with the incidences of disputes and conflicts over access to land and land rights. In such a context, women’s chances to own and access land are thinned as most of them flee from such conflicts.” (5)

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Refugee/IDP Camps, Gender, Women, Governance, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Non-State Armed Groups, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Land Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Uganda

Year: 2010