Introduction: Security Council Resolution 1325: Assessing the Impact on Women, Peace and Security

Abstract

October 2010 marks the tenth anniversary of UN Security Council resolution 1325, on ‘Women, Peace and Security’. Hailed as a major milestone in the struggle for gender equality in all aspects of peacemaking, peacekeeping and post-conflict recovery, the implementation of 1325 has floundered over the intervening years. Gender discourse has been submerged by the dominant UN epistemology of hegemonic masculinity, militarism and war. This essay contextualizes the struggle for resolution 1325, and provides an overview of the major challenges that still need to be addressed if UN attempts to establish a durable peace in conflict zones are to conform to the 1325 mandate.

Notes

For instance only 2 per cent of funds committed by donors for post-conflict recovery development are targeted at women's needs. See Ines Alberdi, ‘A Call to Action: Accountability to Women in All Aspects of Conflict Prevention, Peacebuilding and Recovery’, speech to International Colloquium on Women's Empowerment, Monrovia, Liberia, UNIFEM, 7 Mar. 2009 (at: www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=845).

Tara Väyrynen, ‘Gender and UN Peace Operations: The Confines of Modernity’ International Peacekeeping, Vol.11, No.1, 2004, p.126.

Ibid., p.138.

See Anne Tickner, Gender in International Relations: Feminist Perspectives on Achieving Global Security, New York: Columbia University Press, 1992; Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics, Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 1989.

Enloe (see n.4 above), p.7.

Tickner (see n.4 above).

Rebecca W. Connell, Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1987.

Tickner (see n.4), p.9.

Ibid., p.94.

Tickner, Gendering World Politics: Issues and Approaches in the Post Cold War Era, New York: Columbia University Press, 2001, p.21.

Connell (see n.7 above).

Mary Kaldor, New and Old War: Organised Violence in a Global Era, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999.

The four Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols protect the civilian population not taking part in armed conflict and members of armed forces when captured. For a discussion on gender and humanitarian law see Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘International Humanitarian Law and Gender: Report Summary’, International Expert Meeting on ‘Gender Perspectives on International Humanitarian Law’, Stockholm, 4–5 Oct. 2007.

For the impact of war on women's lives see Cynthia Cockburn, ‘The Gendered Dynamics of Armed Conflict and Political Violence’, in Carol Moser and Fiona C. Clark (eds), Victims, Perpetrators or Actors? Gender, Armed Conflict and Political Violence, London: Zed Books, 2001, p.21; Thomas Plumper and Eric Neumayer, ‘The Unequal Burden of War: The Effect of Armed Conflict on the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy’, International Organisation, Vol.60, No.3, pp.723–54; Amnesty International, Lives Blown Apart: Crimes against Women in Times of Conflict, London, 2004.

Ken Booth, ‘Dare Not to Know: International Relations Theory versus the Future’, in Booth and Steve Smith (eds), International Relations Theory Today, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995, pp.328–350.

Tickner (see n.10 above), p.48.

Cynthia Enloe discusses the idea of a ‘natural’ relationship between the protector and the protected in the context of national security. Here the idea is applied to peacekeeping forces. See her Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link, Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, pp.60–1.

Ibid., p.136.

See gender mainstreaming in ‘Report of the Economic and Social Council for 1997’, UN doc., ECOSOC, A/52/, 18 Sept. 1997, Ch.IV.

See UN General Assembly, ‘Further Action and Initiatives to Implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action’, UN doc., S-23/3, 12 Nov. 2000 (at: www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/followup/ress233e.pdf).

UN Peace Building Commission, ‘Synthesis Report. Key Insights, Principles, Good Practices and Emerging Lessons in Peacebuilding’, working group on lessons learned, special session, 12 June 2008 (at: www.un.org/peace/peacebuilding/Working%20Group%20on%20Lessons%20Learned/keyInsights/Synthesis%20Report%20with%2012June08%20Meeting%20Conclusions%20Final.pdf), p.10.

Tara Väyrynen, ‘Gender and UN Peace Operations: The Confines of Modernity’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.11, No.1, 2004, pp.125–42.

Ibid., p.126.

Camille Pampell-Conaway and Joplynn Shoemaker, ‘Women in United Nations Peace Operations: Increasing Leadership Opportunities’, Women in International Security briefing paper, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, July 2008, p.8.

Ibid., p.8.

Anne-Marie Goetz, ‘Women's Participation in Peace Negotiations. Where Are the Numbers?’, UNIFEM briefing paper, 2008.

Latin American Security and Defence Network, ‘Challenge and Opportunities in Peace Operations: The Incorporation of Women’, Latin American Ministerial briefing paper, Mar. 2008 (at: www.peacewomen.org/resources/Peacekeeping/RESDAL%Brochure.pdf).

Jane Lloyd, ‘Women Peacekeepers: Making a Difference’, UN Chronicle Online [n.d.] (at: www.un.org/Pubs/2006/issue1/0106p06.htm#top).

Nicola Dahrendorf, ‘Addressing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in MONUC: Lessons Learned’, UN Department for Peacekeeping Operations, 2006.

Ibid., p. 10.

Maria Vladova and Lea Biason, ‘Women in an Insecure World: Violence against Women’, Figures Facts and Analysis, Report from the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, Geneva, 2005.

Letitia Anderson, ‘Analytical Inventory of Reponse by Peacekeeping Personnel to War Related Violence against Women’, background paper for Wilton Park Conference, ‘Women Trageted or Affected by Armed Conflict: What Role for Military Peacekeepers?’, 27–29 May 2008.

Ibid., p.5.

Donna Pankhurst, ‘Gender Issues in Post War Contexts: A Review of Analysis and Experience and Implications for Policy’, Working Paper No.9, 4th series, Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford (in conjunction with UNRISD), April 2007.

UN, ‘Report of the UN Secretary-General: Securing Peace and Development: The Role of the United Nations in Supporting Security Sector Reform’, UN doc., S/2008/39, 23 Jan. 2008, p.13.

Tsjeard Bouta, Georg Frerks and Ian Bannon, Gender, Conflict and Development, World Bank, Washington, 2005.

Birgitte Sorensen, ‘Women and Post Conflict Reconstruction: Issues and Sources’. War-Torn Societies Project, UN Research Institute on Social Development, Occasional Paper No.3, Geneva, June 1998.

See Pankhurst (see n.34 above); Sheila Meintijes, Anu Pillay and Meredith Turshen (eds), The Aftermath; Women in Post-conflict Transformations, London: Zed Books, 2001.

Pankhurst (see n.34 above).