Championing the WPS Agenda?

ABSTRACT

This article draws on official sources to investigate how New Zealand interpreted its Women, Peace and Security obligations through the development and implementation of its first National Action Plan (NAP) in 2015. Existing beliefs that New Zealand was already a ‘world leader’ in this field yielded an unambitious document. Government agencies such as the New Zealand Police (NZ Police) and New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) have gone on to make some gains under the narrow remit of the NAP, but resourcing and accountability are lacking. Moreover, this focus on perceived existing strengths, and the drawing of objectives from these, meant that New Zealand missed an opportunity to initiate the kind of deeper structural changes initially envisaged by WPS advocates. This article therefore closes with a discussion of how two broader processes – ‘re-gendering’ and ‘de-othering’ – could help New Zealand to better serve the original intent of the WPS agenda.

KEYWORDS:

• Women peace and security
• New Zealand
• National action plan
• gender

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the editors, anonymous reviewers and WJ Fish for their exceptionally helpful comments. She would also like to express deep gratitude to those who have been willing to discuss this issue in informal settings and to those were tasked with obtaining information under the OIA request – this research would not have been possible without the data provided.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

B. K. Greener teaches International Relations at Massey University, New Zealand. Her research centers on security provision: international policing, peace operations, security in the Pacific region, the role of military forces, gendering security, and the privatization of security. Her work has been published in journals such as International Peacekeeping, Policing and Society, Small Wars and Insurgencies, the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development and the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.

ORCID

B. K. Greener http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7641-1872

Notes

1 Mark. “New Zealand Minister of Defence.”

2 Shepherd, “The Women Peace and Security Agenda,” 142.

3 Otto, “Women, Peace and Security.” Davies and True, “WPS: A Transformative Agenda?”

4 See: Cohn et al., “Women, Peace and Security Resolution 1325”; Kirby and Shepherd, “The Futures Past of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda”; Lee-Koo, “Engaging UNSCR1325 Through Australia's National Action Plan.”

5 Shepherd, “The Women, Peace and Security Agenda,” 147.

6 Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Member States.

7 Lee-Koo and Trojanowska. “Does the United Nation's Women, Peace and Security Agenda,” 290.

8 See World Economic Forum, The Global Gender Gap Report; and PRIO Center on Gender Peace and Security/Georgetown Institute for Women Peace and Security (GIWPS) University, Women, Peace and Security Index 2019/2020, 16.

9 MFAT (a), Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325.

10 Ibid.

11 MFAT (d), New Zealand's National Action Plan.

12 MFAT (b), New Zealand's National Action Plan.

13 Kirby and Shepherd, “The Futures Past,” 378.

14 MFAT (a), Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325.

15 MFAT (c), New Zealand's National Action Plan, 4.

16 New Zealand Government, New Zealand National Action Plan.

17 George, Lee-Koo, and Shepherd, “Gender and the UN's Women Peace and Security Agenda.”

18 New Zealand Government, New Zealand National Action Plan, 12.

19 Ibid., 23.

20 MFAT, Memo 18 December 2014, 6.

21 Ibid.

22 New Zealand Government, New Zealand National Action Plan, 12.

23 For a similar argument levelled at the Australian government see Lee-Koo, Engaging UNSCR 1325, 345.

24 New Zealand Government, New Zealand National Action Plan, 34.

25 Wendy Adams for Acting Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 31 August 2018 official covering letter in response to 27 July OIA Request.

26 Helene Quilter, Secretary of Defence, 17 August 2018 official covering letter in response to 27 July OIA Request. Notably, in 2019, the Ministry of Defence helped launch the Pacific Defence Gender Network and indications are that this will become more of a priority into 2020.

27 Miller, Pournik, and Swaine, Women in Peace and Security, 25, see also Jacevic, “WPS, States, and the National Action Plans.”

28 Manning, “Women, Peace and Security.”

29 NZ Police (c), New Zealand National Action Plan, 5.

30 Jordan, Why Aren't More Senior Rank New Zealand Police Women, 21.

31 NZ Police, 2017 Annual Report, 6.

32 NZ Police (b), New Zealand National Action Plan, 2.

33 NZ Police (a), New Zealand Action Plan.

34 NZ Police (b), 25 October Memo to Mike Pannett Assistant Commissioner, 1.

35 NZDF, OP RESPECT Handout.

36 O’Brien, Financial Business Case for Initial Funding.

37 Woods, Chief of Staff HQNZDF Official Covering Letter.

38 Prugl, “International Institutions and Feminist Politics.”

39 NZ Police, New Zealand Policewomen 75 Years Timeline.

40 NZ Police, 2016 Annual Report, 6 and NZ Police, 25 October Memo to Mike Pannett, 5.

41 Ten One Magazine, “Women Answer the Call.”

42 New Zealand's Written Response to the CEDAW Committee, 3, and NZ Police. New Zealand Policewomen 75 Years Timeline.

43 NZ Police, 2017 Annual Report, 12.

44 New Zealand's Written Response to the CEDAW Committee, 4.

45 Ministry of Defence, Maximising Opportunities.

46 New Zealand's Written Response to the CEDAW Committee, 4.

47 Figures taken from, respectively, Weekes, 25 Years of Women in the New Zealand Armed Forces; NZDF, New Zealand Defence Force Annual Report; Parsons, “The Future of Our Force.”.

48 Ministry of Defence, Maximising Opportunities, 12.

49 Derbyshire, “Women in the Armed Forces,” 173.

50 Ministry of Defence, Maximising Opportunities, 26.

51 New Zealand's Written Response to the CEDAW Committee, 6–7.

52 Ibid., 4–5.

53 Ibid., 5–6.

54 NZ Police, 2016 Annual Report, 5.

55 Pascall, Gender Perspectives.

56 NZ Police, New Zealand Police Advisor, Senior Advisor and Team Leader.

57 Kane, National Manager International Service Group, 5.

58 Pascall, Gender Perspectives.

59 Bibby, “Using Communication Strategies,” 22.

60 Woods, Chief of Staff HQNZDF Official Covering Letter, 9.

61 O’Brien, Gender Perspectives in Military Operations.

62 NZDF, Commander's Guide to Women, Peace and Security, 17–23.

63 Woods, Chief of Staff HQNZDF Official Covering Letter, 11.

64 NZ Police, 2016 Annual Report, 8.

65 Lee-Koo, Engaging UNSCR 1325, 345.

66 Hurley, “Watermelons and Weddings,” 452.

67 Huber and Hudson, “Deepening the Conversation,” 8.

68 See Enloe, Globalisation and Militarism and Cockburn, Where We Stand.

69 Women's International League of Peace and Freedom (WILPF), National Action Plan.

70 See Amnesty International, Submission on the New Zealand's Draft National Action Plan, Women Peace and Security Academic Collective (WPSAC), Submission on the New Zealand Draft Women, Peace & Security and WILPF Aotearoa, Submission on the National Action Plan.

71 Davies and True, “WPS: A Transformative Agenda?” 5.

72 Joachim and Schneiker, “Changing Discourses, Changing Practices?” 539.

73 See Nelson, “The Social Well-Being of Women Officers Who Have Left the New Zealand Army”, and Brosnan, “Exploring the Leadership Experiences of Senior Female Officers”.

74 Karim et al., “International Gender Balancing Reforms in Postconflict Countries.”

75 Dill-Russell, “The Argument for Equality vs Effectiveness,” 68.

76 Kember, “The Impact of the Indian Formed Police Unit.”

77 Huber and Hudson, “Deepening the Conversation,” 4.

78 Heinecken, “Conceptualising the Tensions Evoked.”

79 Centola et al., “Experimental Evidence for Tipping Points”.

80 See Childs and Krook, “Analysing Women's Substantive Representation.”

81 Cockburn and Hubic, “Gender and the Peacekeeping Military.”

82 Wilen and Heinecken, “Regendering the South African Army,” 671.

83 Duncanson and Woodward, “Regendering the Military,” 12.

84 Bevan and Mackenzie, “‘Cowboy’ Policing Versus the ‘Softer Stuff’.”

85 Stevens and Greener, “The New Zealand Army, Peacekeeping and Masculinities.” See also Brosnan, “Exploring the Leadership Experiences”; Nelson, “The Social Well-being of Female Officers” and Harding, “You Bring It, We’ll Bring It Out.”

86 See Devlin, “New NZDF Training Focuses”; Hager, “Nicky Hager Reveals Fresh Allegations”; Strang, “Bullying in the Police.”

87 Duriesmith and Holmes, “The Masculine Logic.”

88 Swaine, “Assessing the Potential of National Action Plans,” 426.

89 Shepherd, “Making War Safe for Women? National Action Plans,” 1.

90 Walters, “Domestic Violence Victims.”

91 Duriesmith and Holmes, “The Masculine Logic,” 5.

92 Government of Canada, Canada's National Action Plan 2017–2022, 4–5.

93 Ibid., 10.

94 Hill, Aboitiz, and Poehlman-Doumbouya, “Nongovernmental Organizations’.” and Miller, Pournik, and Swaine, Women in Peace and Security, 17.

95 Cuillerier, Sarosi, and St-Pierre, What's in a NAP?.

96 Van Bohemen, “Open Debate.”