The Women, Peace and Security agenda and Australian leadership in the world: from rhetoric to commitment?

Abstract

What is the ‘Women, Peace and Security agenda’ and why is it relevant now for Australia? During 2013–14, Australia is a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and, with a growing foreign military, peacebuilding and aid presence around the world, the country must play a role in preventing conflict, in protecting women and girls from violence before, during and after conflict, and in encouraging the participation of women in these peace and security decisions in order to create the structural, gender-equal conditions for lasting peace. This article highlights the promises made by Australia during the campaign for the Security Council seat. It evaluates the credibility of the campaign commitments by assessing Australia's foreign policies and overseas aid spending on women and peacebuilding in Asia and the Pacific; exploring the avenues for government-funded research on women, peace and security issues to influence government policies and programs; and taking stock of the government's record of engaging with civil society in developing and carrying out its National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. The article suggests concrete actions that would allow Australia to fulfil its promises and progress its international leadership on the major pillars of the Women, Peace and Security agenda.

“妇女、和平和安全计划”是怎么一回事？为什么跟澳大利亚相关？2013至2014年，澳大利亚成为联合国安理会非常任理事国。随着它更多地参与全世界范围内的维和建设及援助，澳大利亚需要在防止冲突，保护冲突前、冲突中以及冲突后的妇女和女童方面，在推动妇女参与和平及安全决策、为持久和平打造稳定的性别平等方面发挥作用。本文主要讨论了澳大利亚在竞争非常任理事国席位时所做出的承诺，并根据澳大利亚的对外政策、海外援助妇女的花费、以及在亚太地区和平建设的经历，并通过考察政府资助的妇女、和平以及安全问题研究如何影响政府政策和计划，通过研究政府与公民社会合作落实“妇女、和平和安全全国行动计划”的记录，对其可信性做了探讨。作者就澳大利益如何兑现承诺，在妇女、和平和安全主要议题上发挥国际领导作用，提出了具体的行动建议。

Keywords:

• Australian foreign policy
• feminist security studies
• United Nations Security Council
• Women, Peace and Security agenda

Notes

1. The first author gratefully acknowledges research support provided by the Australian Research Council Discovery Project award DP130100707, ‘Gender, Peacebuilding and the Politics of Space: A Critical Examination of United Nations Peacebuilding Practices’. Both authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers of this article and the journal's editor for their careful and constructive engagement.

2. These Resolutions are UNSC Resolutions 1325 (2000); 1820 (2008); 1888 (2009); 1889 (2009); 1960 (2010); 2106 (2013) and 2122 (2013). The seven Resolutions should be taken together, as they comprise the WPS thematic agenda of the UNSC, and the international security policy framework.

3. In fact, a recent conversation with a very senior minister in Gillard's government confirms that this was, indeed, the case: the focus on women's leadership in peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction reportedly came ‘straight from the prime minister’.

4. Personal communication, ‘NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security input into to June 2013 Resolution’, April 29, 2013.

5. This statement on June 26, 2013 was made on the same day that Prime Minister Julia Gillard, known to be a supporter of the women's leadership in peacebuilding theme, was deposed in a leadership challenge by subsequent Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

6. The other two pillars are: ‘Advancing equal access to gender-responsive health and education services’ and ‘Empowering women economically and improving their livelihood security’.

7. Data based on the marker does not allow exact quantification of the aid allocated or spent on gender equality and women's empowerment. It gives an indication (best estimate) of aid flows in support of gender equality and of the extent to which each donor supports gender equality.

8. This AU$320 million commitment has been restated by the newly appointed Global Ambassador for Women and Girls, Natasha Stott-Despoja. See Stott-Despoja 2014.

9. This data is drawn from the authors' analysis of funding announcements publicly available from the ARC and ADRAS websites. The authors are grateful to Caitlin Hamilton (at the University of New South Wales) for compiling the database.

10. LS0900001: ‘Reconceptualizing Human Security: Its Uses and Limitations for Developing Australian Foreign Policy’; LP110100708: ‘Strengthening the Rule of Law through the United Nations Security Council’; LP0991223: ‘A Global Standard for Reporting Conflict’; LP0989385: ‘Assessing Development: Designing Better Indices of Poverty and Gender Equality’.

11. This and the following section draw on Jacqui True's (2013) Policy Brief for the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre on ‘Women, Peace and Security in Peacebuilding Contexts'.

12. This research is funded by the Discovery Project award mentioned above. Field interviews were conducted in New York in 2013 with a number of people in institutions involved in peacebuilding activities. All participants agreed to be interviewed on the basis that their contributions would be fully anonymised. The research received ethics approval from the University of New South Wales' Human Research Ethics Advisory Panel B (ref. 121 64).

13. This data on a ‘gender-mainstreaming’ strategy going forward after the change of premier in Australia derives from a Civil Society Consultation with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (August 1, 2013). In a subsequent consultation (December 12, 2013), commitment to a ‘mainstreaming’ approach was reaffirmed, alongside a specific focus on women's participation in peace and security governance.