The UN Peacebuilding Commission and Gender: A Case of Norm Reinforcement

Abstract

In recent years, increasing reference has been made to the issue area of ‘women, peace and security’, reflecting a set of norms that are gradually becoming institutionalized within the UN. This article explores the validity of such claims through an empirical study of the relatively newly established UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) and the extent to which gender language and concerns have been integrated into the latter's founding resolutions and deliberations on peacebuilding strategies. The article suggests that ‘women, peace and security’ concerns have emerged as a legitimate normative framework in the peacebuilding context. The PBC has served an important role in reinforcing this normative framework. However, the actual inclusion of women in strategic thinking and policy development is still dependent on the lobbying of dedicated norm entrepreneurs among member states, UN bureaucrats and nongovernmental organizations.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The article derives from the ‘Gender, Conflict and Peacebuilding’ project at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO), funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The article also forms part of the output of the ‘Liberal Peace and Ethics of Peacebuilding’ project at PRIO, funded by the Norwegian Research Council. I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers, Jennifer Bailey, Lars Christie, Kristoffer Lidèn, Michael Pugh, Oliver Richmond, Suk Chun and the panellists at the annual International Studies Association in New York, 2008, for invaluable comments. The views expressed, however, are mine.

Notes

See Richard Jolly, Louis Emmerij and Thomas G. Weiss, UN Ideas That Changed the World, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009.

UN doc., S/RES/1325 (31 Oct. 2000).

Torunn L. Tryggestad, ‘Trick or Treat? The UN and Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security’, Global Governance, Vol.15, No.4, 2009, pp.539–57.

See Cora True-Frost, ‘The Security Council and Norm Consumption’, New York Journal of International Law and Politics, Vol.40, 2007, pp.115–218; David M. Malone, ‘Introduction’, in Malone (ed.), The UN Security Council: From Cold War to the 21st Century, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2004, pp.1–15; Peter Wallensteen and Patrik Johansson, ‘Security Council Decisions in Perspective’, in Malone (ed.), The UN Security Council: From Cold War to the 21st Century, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2004, pp.17–33.

The author is particularly inspired by the work of Kathryn Sikkink, Margareth Keck and Martha Finnemore published in the late 1990s. See Kathryn Sikkink, ‘Transnational Politics, International Relations Theory, and Human Rights’, Political Science and Politics, Vol.31, No 3, 1998, pp.516–23; Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998; Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, ‘International Norm Dynamics and Political Change’, International Organization, Vol.52, No.4, 1998, pp.887–917.

Field work in New York was conducted in November 2006, June 2007 and November 2008.

Finnemore and Sikkink (see n.5 above), p.891.

Sikkink borrows the term ‘norm cascade’ from Cass Sunstein, Free Markets and Social Justice, New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Sikkink (see n.5 above), p.518.

Ibid., pp.518–19.

Ibid., p.520.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Keck and Sikkink (see n.5 above).

Finnemore and Sikkink (see n.5 above), pp.907.

See Security Council resolutions: 1820 on sexual violence in armed conflict (S/RES/1820, 19 June 2008); 1888 on sexual violence in armed conflict (S/RES/1888, 30 Sept. 2009); 1889 on women and girls in post-conflict situations (S/RES/1889, 5 Oct. 2009).

Available at http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-8&chapter=4&lang=en.

See Jacqui True and Michael Mintrom, ‘Transnational Networks and Policy Diffusion: The Case of Gender Mainstreaming’, International Studies Quarterly, Vol.45, No.1, 2001, pp.27–57.

As of December 2009, 16 member states had adopted national action plans for the implementation of resolution 1325, including large donor countries such as the Netherlands, the Nordic countries and the UK. The majority had been adopted since 2007. In addition, a significant number of action plans are under development by governments in the Global South.

See Taking Stock, Looking Forward: A Strategic Review of the Peacebuilding Commission, independent analysis by the New York University Center on International Cooperation and the International Peace Institute, commissioned by the Permanent Mission of Denmark to the UN, April 2008. The PBC was first proposed by the High-Level Panel on ‘Threats, Challenges and Change’ in 2004 and subsequently endorsed by then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his March 2005 report In Larger Freedom. It was one of the few proposals that the UN World Summit could agree upon. See ‘Summit Outcome Document’, UN doc., A/RES/60/1, Oct. 2005 (at: http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/487/60/PDF/N0548760.pdf?OpenElement).

View expressed by several UN diplomats interviewed for this study.

UN Security Council resolution S/RES/1645 (20 Dec. 2005) and General Assembly resolution A/RES/60/180 (30 Dec. 2005).

In December 2007, Guinea-Bissau was referred to the PBC, followed by the Central African Republic in June 2008.

See www.un.org/peace/peacebuilding/index.html.

See www.un.org/peace/peacebuilding/pbso.shtml.

See ‘Report of the Peacebuilding Commission on Its First Session’, UN doc., A/62/137-S/2007/458, 25 July 2007; ‘Report of the Peacebuilding Commission on Its Second Session’, UN doc., A/63/92-S/2008/417, 24 June 2008.

For example, ‘Enhancing Security and the Rule of Law: How Can Gender Be Better Integrated into the Priorities of the UN Peacebuilding Commission?’, roundtable initiated by International Alert and the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, coorganized with the permanent missions of Norway and the Netherlands (both PBC members at the time), and hosted by the delegation of the European Commission to the UN and the Liaison Office of the General Secretariat of the Council of European Union, 5 June 2007.

‘Concept Note: Peacebuilding Commission – Working Group on Lessons Learned – Gender and Peacebuilding – Enhancing Women's Participation’ (at: www.un.org/peace/peacebuilding/pbc-lessons.shtml).

‘Chair's Summary: Peacebuilding Commission – Working Group on Lessons Learned – Gender and Peacebuilding – Enhancing Women's Participation’, 29 Jan. 2008, WGLL/2008/7, PBSO (at: www.un.org/peace/peacebuilding/pbc-lessons.shtml).

‘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/pbc-lessons.shtml).

Interview with Carolyn McAskie, New York, 6 June 2007.

Unpublished draft overview of PBF projects with special focus on women or projects with explicit women beneficiaries and/or gender components compiled by PBSO, 16 Jan. 2009, in author's possession.

As of June 2008, the PBF had received US$269.9 million in pledges from 44 donors, while the total for firm commitments stood at US$249.9 million. ‘First Consolidated Annual Progress Report on Activities Implemented under the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF)’, Report of the Administrative Agent of the Peacebuilding Fund for the Period 1 Jan. to 31 Dec. 2007, Parts I & II, Multi-Donor Trust Fund Office, Partnerships Bureau, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 16 June 2008.

Ibid.

Conversation with the author in Oslo, Nov. 2007. Denmark's representative was one of very few female permanent representatives to the UN at the time.

The NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security is a New-York-based network of 16 women's and human rights organisations that advocates full implementation of resolution 1325. See: www.womenpeacesecurity.org.

See ‘UN Peacebuilding Commission: A Blueprint for Amplifying Women's Voices and Participation’, issue brief, NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security/UNIFEM/United Nations Methodist Office, Nov. 2005 (at: www.womenpeacesecurity.org/media/pdf-pbc_amplifying_women_2006.pdf); ‘SCR 1325 and the Peacebuilding Commission: Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security – Six Years On Report’, NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, New York, Oct. 2006.

Interview with Gina Torry, coordinator of the NGO Working Group, New York, 7 Nov. 2006.

Interview with Heather Sonner, project manager, Global Civil Society Project on the UN Peacebuilding Commission, Institute for Global Policy, New York, 14 Nov. 2008.

The UK represented the 25 EU members at that time. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Iceland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia–Montenegro and Turkey aligned themselves with the statement. ‘EU Statement, Informal Consultations of the Plenary of the Peacebuilding Commission’, 7 Oct. 2005 (document in author's possession).

Author's interview, New York, 7 Nov. 2006.

Author's interview, New York, 5 June 2007.

Conversation with the author, UN Secretariat, 5 June 2007.

Author's interview with Heather Sonner (see n.37 above).

‘Strategic Framework for Peacebuilding in Burundi’, UN doc., PBC/1/BDI/4, 30 July 2007; ‘Sierra Leone Peacebuilding Cooperation Framework’, UN doc., PBC/2/SLE/1, 3 Dec. 2007.

A view expressed to the author by diplomats in interviews and informal conversations. The view was also expressed by then Burundian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antoinette Batumubwira at a public seminar, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Oslo, 9 Feb. 2007.

Interview with Gina Torry (see n.38 above).

Interview with Vina Nadjibulla, Gender Adviser, UNIFEM, New York, 8 Nov. 2006.

Author's interview with senior diplomat, New York, Nov. 2008.

Email correspondence from Ambassador Johan L⊘vald, chair of the Burundi configuration from 2006 to 2008, 14 Nov. 2009.

See, e.g., ‘The UN Peacebuilding Commission: Benefits and Challenges’, background paper prepared by the International Peace Academy for the regional seminars organized by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, New York Office, 6 June 2006; Taking Stock, Looking Forward (see n.18 above); Rob Jenkins, ‘The UN Peacebuilding Commission and the Dissemination of International Norms’, Working Paper 38, Crisis States Series No.2, Crisis States Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, June 2008; Mats Berdal, Building Peace after War, London: International Institute for Strategic Studies/Routledge, 2009; International Peace Institute issue briefs on Perspectives on the Peacebuilding Commission and Mutual Accountability (Nov. 2009) and Perspectives on the Peacebuilding Commission's Coordination Role (Nov. 2009); Security Council reports on the PBC (at: www.securitycouncilreport.org).

See, e.g., Catherine Guicherd, ‘Picking up the Pieces: What to Expect from the Peacebuilding Commission’, Dialogue on Globalization, briefing paper, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Dec. 2005; ‘Integrating Women's Priorities into Peacebuilding Processes: Experiences from Burundi and Sierra Leone’, report of an International Alert workshop on civil society, London, 25–9 Feb. 2008; ‘Consolidating the Peace? Views from Sierra Leone and Burundi on the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission’, a study by Action Aid, CAFOD and CARE International, London, June 2007.

Synthesis Report (see n.29 above), p.10.