UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS

BRICS Countries and the Construction of Conflict in the Women, Peace and Security Open Debates

Citation:

Hamilton, Caitlin, Pagot Rhaíssa, and Laura J Shepherd. 2021. “BRICS Countries and the Construction of Conflict in the Women, Peace and Security Open Debates.” International Affairs 97 (3): 739–57.

Authors: Caitlin Hamilton, Pagot Rhaíssa, Laura J Shepherd

Abstract:

The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda is a diverse field of practice comprised of numerous actors, activities and artefacts. Conventional accounts of WPS development and implementation tend to reproduce a narrative that positions states located in the global North as ‘providers’ of WPS, and those in the South as ‘recipients’. This assumption in turn prescribes, and proscribes, forms of WPS engagement and has a constitutive effect on the agenda itself, as shown by post- and de-colonial analyses of the WPS agenda. This article seeks to explore the WPS practices of a group of states that in many ways challenge these North/South and provider/recipient binaries by explicitly positioning themselves as operating beyond and across them: the BRICS countries, comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. In this article, we explore how constructions of conflict within the WPS practices of BRICS states relate to the acknowledgement of, and commitment to, the agenda more broadly. We ultimately argue that the BRICS' commitment to the WPS agenda is driven more by identity-making geopolitical considerations, including geostrategic interests, than a politics of peace.

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Peace and Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS Regions: Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, Americas, South America, Asia, South Asia, Europe Countries: Brazil, China, India, Russian Federation, South Africa

Year: 2021

The Protection of the Environment: A Gendered Analysis

Citation:

Yoshida, Keina. 2020. “The Protection of the Environment: A Gendered Analysis.” Goettingen Journal of International Law 10 (1): 283-305.

Author: Keina Yoshida

Abstract:

This article addresses the International Law Commission’s Draft Principles on the Protection of the Environment in Relation to Armed Conflicts. The main argument presented is that any principles on the protection of the environment – pre-conflict, during conflict, and post-conflict – should be complementary to and inclusive of both the Women, Peace and Security agenda and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Diccimination Against Women as part of a holistic and integrated approach to environmental protection. The erasure of the specific women’s human rights instruments, including Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Diccimination Against Women, cannot be legitimized on the basis that mentioning gender equality or the right to nondiscrimination is redundant given that other more general instruments have been cited or that considering them is too controversial. Their inclusion as part of the underlying international human rights framework is vital.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS

Year: 2020

Women, Peace and Security in Zimbabwe - The Case of Conflict in Non War Zones

Citation:

Chabikwa, Rutendo. 2021. "Women, Peace and Security in Zimbabwe - The Case of Conflict in Non War Zones." Journal of African Conflicts and Peace Studies 4 (2).

Author: Rutendo Chabikwa

Abstract:

The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda is the United Nation’s (UN) key policy instrument for addressing gender violence in conflict zones. However, the agenda has been preoccupied with “hot” conflicts, and its application and relevance to sustained, but “low level” conflict situations is poorly conceptualized. This research considers this issue through a case study of Zimbabwe since 2000. I make the case for broadening the understanding of conflict as found in the WPS agenda.

This paper addresses the question: ‘How does the case of Zimbabwe exemplify the need for a broader understanding of conflict within the WPS agenda as it applies to non-war settings?’

I first consider the nature of non-war zones, adopting a feminist international relations theory perspective, incorporating elements of postcolonial feminist theory and critical race theory. We then review Zimbabwe’s recent history and situate it as a country in non-war conflict zone. We situate Zimbabwe’s recent history clearly within the concept of non-war zones and discuss the nature of gender violence in this setting.

My analysis adds to the body of literature and research on non-war zones and argues for broadening the WPS agenda to encompass a broader understanding of conflict, specifically arguing for the centrality of gender-based violence in non-war situations, as exemplified in Zimbabwe’s recent history.

Keywords: WPS agenda, Zimbabwe, conflict

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Race, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, Violence Regions: Africa, Central Africa Countries: Zimbabwe

Year: 2021

Gender in the United Nations’ Agenda on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism

Citation:

Rothermel, Ann-Kathrin. 2020. “Gender in the United Nations’ Agenda on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 22 (5): 720–41.

Author: Ann-Kathrin Rothermel

Abstract:

The United Nations (UN) policy agenda on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) promotes a “holistic” approach to counterterrorism, which includes elements traditionally found in security and development programs. Advocates of the agenda increasingly emphasize the importance of gender mainstreaming for counterterrorism goals. In this article, I scrutinize the merging of the goals of gender equality, security, and development into a global agenda for counterterrorism. A critical feminist discourse-analytical reading of gender representations in P/CVE shows how problematic imageries of women as victims, economic entrepreneurs, and peacemakers from both the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the Women, Peace and Security agenda are reproduced in core UN documents advocating for a “holistic” P/CVE approach. By highlighting the tensions that are produced by efforts to merge the different gender discourses across the UN’s security and development institutions, the article underlines the relevance of considering the particular position of P/CVE at the security–development nexus for further gender-sensitive analysis and policies of counterterrorism.

Topics: Development, Feminisms, Gender, Gender Analysis, Gendered Discourses, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Security, Terrorism, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS

Year: 2020

‘Masculinities Perspectives’: Advancing a Radical Women, Peace and Security Agenda?

Citation:

Wright, Hanna. 2020. “‘Masculinities Perspectives’: Advancing a Radical Women, Peace and Security Agenda?” International Feminist Journal of Politics 22 (5): 652–74.

Author: Hanna Wright

Abstract:

Feminist scholars have long explored the relationships between masculinities, femininities, and war, yet men are rarely named in Women, Peace and Security (WPS) policies, and masculinities even less commonly. Some activists in favor of bringing analysis of masculinities into WPS policies propose that a focus on reshaping masculinities and femininities as a strategy for resisting militarism is necessary to return the agenda to what they perceive as its “original” purpose of preventing war. Drawing on my personal experiences as an NGO advocate, and on participant observation and interviews with UK government officials, this article explores what we can learn from efforts to integrate a “masculinities perspective” into WPS policies. I argue that, while some language concerning men and boys and, to a lesser degree, masculinity/ies has been incorporated into these policies, this is usually done in ways that subvert the intentions of civil society actors who have advocated for this shift. As a result, these concepts have been assimilated in ways that do not challenge militarism, and indeed at times serve to normalize it. I argue that this demonstrates the limitations of WPS policies as a vehicle for pursuing feminist anti-militarist goals.

Topics: Civil Society, Feminisms, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS

Year: 2020

International Law, COVID-19 and Feminist Engagement with the United Nations Security Council: The End of the Affair

Citation:

O’Rourke, Catherine. 2020. “International Law, COVID-19 and Feminist Engagement with the United Nations Security Council: The End of the Affair?” Feminist Legal Studies 28 (3): 321-8.

Author: Catherine O'Rourke

Abstract:

The gendered implications of COVID-19, in particular in terms of gender-based violence and the gendered division of care work, have secured some prominence, and ignited discussion about prospects for a ‘feminist recovery’. In international law terms, feminist calls for a response to the pandemic have privileged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), conditioned—I argue—by two decades of the pursuit of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda through the UNSC. The deficiencies of the UNSC response, as characterised by the Resolution 2532 adopted to address the pandemic, manifest yet again the identified deficiencies of the WPS agenda at the UNSC, namely fragmentation, securitisation, efficacy and legitimacy. What Resolution 2532 does bring, however, is new clarity about the underlying reasons for the repeated and enduring nature of these deficiencies at the UNSC. Specifically, the COVID-19 ‘crisis’ is powerful in exposing the deficiencies of the crisis framework in which the UNSC operates. My reflections draw on insights from Hilary Charlesworth’s seminal contribution ‘International Law: A Discipline of Crisis’ to argue that, instead of conceding the ‘crisis’ framework to the pandemic by prioritising the UNSC, a ‘feminist recovery’ must instead follow Charlesworth’s exhortation to refocus on an international law of the everyday.


Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Health, International Law, International Organizations, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS

Year: 2020

The Nature of Women, Peace and Security: A Colombian Perspective

Citation:

Yoshida, Keina, and Lina M Céspedes-Báez. 2021. “The Nature of Women, Peace and Security: A Colombian Perspective.” International Affairs 97 (1): 17–34.

Authors: Keina Yoshida, Lina M Céspedes-Báez

Abstract:

On 12 November 2019, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), handed down a landmark decision in the case of ‘Katsa Su’ concerning the Awa indigenous group in Colombia. The Colombian conflict has particularly affected indigenous groups, such as the Awa people, and has also affected the territory in which they live. In this article, we explore the decision of the JEP, within a broader analysis of the Colombian peace agreement and consider how it might help us to think about the place of the environment in the Women, Peace and Security agenda and in international law. We call for a gendered and intersectional approach to environmental peacebuilding which is attentive to the importance of gender and different groups. Further, we highlight how the Colombian example shows how concepts such as relief, recovery and reparations are often confined in international law to women's recovery and redress with respect to sexual violence and yet, this conceptualization should be much broader. The Katsa Su case provides an example of the fact that reparations and redress must address other forms of violence, spiritual and ecological, which women also suffer in times of conflict.

Keywords: Americas, Energy and Environment, International Governance, Law and Ethics, conflict, Security and Defence

Topics: Conflict, Environment, Gender, Women, Indigenous, Infrastructure, Energy, International Law, Peacebuilding, Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, Violence Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2021

Women, Peace and Security in a Changing Climate

Citation:

Cohn, Carol, and Claire Duncanson. 2020. “Women, Peace and Security in a Changing Climate.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 22 (5): 742-62.

Authors: Carol Cohn, Claire Duncanson

Abstract:

In this article, we argue that the effort to get the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda implemented in a series of bureaucratic institutions has pulled the agenda quite far from its original motivating intent. Indeed, going down the bureaucratic implementation rabbit hole has made it almost impossible for advocates to stay in touch with the foundational WPS question: how do you get to gender-just sustainable peace? As we approach the twentieth anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, we argue that WPS advocates need to return to that question, but in doing so, must also acknowledge the changed context. One striking change is that climate breakdown is both more acute and more apparent than in 2000, and any attempt to build gender-just sustainable peace will face serious climate-induced challenges. However, the climate crisis creates not only challenges for the WPS agenda, but also opportunities. The sustainability of peace and of the planet are inextricably linked, and we argue that the realization of the WPS agenda requires transformations to social, political, and, most importantly, economic structures that are precisely the same as the transformations needed to ward off greater climate catastrophe.

Keywords: women, peace and security, UNSCR 1325, feminist political economy, climate, peacebuilding

Topics: Economies, Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Feminist Political Economy, Peace and Security, Peacebuilding, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325

Year: 2020

The Role of African Women in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: The Case of Rwanda

Citation:

Issifu, Abdul Karim. 2015. "The Role of African Women in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: The Case of Rwanda." Journal of Pan African Studies 8 (9): 63–78.

Author: Abdul Karim Issifu

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to explore the role of women in post-conflict peacebuilding in Africa via a look at the roles played by the Rwandese women during and in the post-genocide era. Data for the paper is from a secondary source, including articles, books, internet publications, and journals, etc. A thorough content analysis and critical document review of the secondary data, reveals that, despite a UN Security Council Resolution repeated appeals to respect the equal rights of women and their role in peacebuilding, millions of women and children in Africa continue to account for the majority of casualties in hostilities, marginalisation and discriminations. Hence, to help promote and ensure sustainable peace for women, it is recommended that the United Nations, African Union, the European Union, large donor countries, etc. should make a greater effort to financially support a broader spectrum of local actors who work in the gender dimension, and specifically in the women’s movement.

Keywords: conflict, genocide, peacebuilding, Rwanda, women

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Genocide, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Africa, Central Africa Countries: Rwanda

Year: 2015

The Forgotten Lives: Connecting Gender, Security, and Everyday Livelihoods in Ukraine’s Conflict

Citation:

O’Sullivan, Mila. 2020. “The Forgotten Lives: Connecting Gender, Security, and Everyday Livelihoods in Ukraine’s Conflict.” Politics & Gender 16 (3). doi:10.1017/S1743923X20000343

Author: Mila O'Sullivan

Annotation:

Summary:
Recent debates within Women, Peace and Security (WPS) scholarship (e.g., Bergeron, Cohn, and Duncanson 2017; Elias 2015; True 2015) have underlined the need to position the WPS agenda in the context of broader feminist security analysis as defined by early feminist international relations scholars (e.g., Tickner 1992). More precisely, this requires integrating feminist security studies (FSS) and feminist political economy (FPE). At the center of these largely theoretical reflections is a concern that gender-responsive peace-building efforts have too often been undermined by postwar neoliberal economic processes. This essay provides an empirical contribution to this debate, taking the case study of Ukraine as an atypical example of how WPS has been adopted and implemented for the first time during an active conflict. The integration of FPE and FSS proves especially relevant for a country in conflict, where economic austerity policies come along with increased military expenditure. The essay illustrates that the bridging of security and economy is entirely absent in Ukraine's WPS agenda, which has largely prioritized military security while failing to connect it to the austerity policies and the gendered structural inequalities deepened by the ongoing conflict.

Topics: Conflict, Economies, War Economies, Feminisms, Feminist Political Economy, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Peacebuilding, Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS Regions: Europe, Eastern Europe Countries: Ukraine

Year: 2020

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