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ABSTRACT
This article examines why the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has been so challenging to implement and argues that the political economy of war and peace, driven by a complex network of power, is a deterrent to sustainable and gender-just peace. However, peace initiatives are not a zero-sum game. They are dialectical, offering possibilities for both regressive and transformative change. Although inclusion of women and gender concerns in current peace processes lags behind expectations, the WPS agenda has been instrumental in changing the negotiation landscape and empowering women beyond the peace table. It has also exposed the need for a paradigm shift in the understanding of peace and security that effectively responds to power asymmetries and the neo-liberal environment that shapes policy and practice. Given their marginalised positioning vis-à-vis hegemonic power structures, women stand to contribute towards this end.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University for hosting me as Global Research Associate (2017-2018), which facilitated this project.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Legal authority of SCRs, created under Chapter VI of the UN Charter, is questioned. CEDAW General Recommendation (GR) 30 has reinforced the legal status of SCRs by interpreting them as constitutive state obligation under the Convention. For discussion on legal status of SCRs and SC’s role as lawmaker, see O’Rouke, ‘Feminist Strategy in International Law’. SCRs are also controversial due to their state-centric character, association with the security sector and silence on disarmament and militarisation (O’Rouke Ibid, Charlesworth & Chinkin, ‘Between Margins and Mainstream’).
2. Between 1990–2017, women represented only two per cent of mediators, eight per cent of negotiators and five per cent of witnesses/signatories (SG, S/2018/900, para 25).
3. See: Bell & O’Rouke, ‘Peace Agreements or Pieces of paper’, UN Women ‘Global Study’, Krause et al, ‘Women’s Participation in Peace’. A study of 585 PAs found that16 per cent of agreements before SCR 1325 contained some reference to women, reaching a modest 27 per cent after the resolution (Bell & O’Rouke, Ibid).
4. S/2018/900, para 42.
5. UN Women, ‘Women’s Meaningful Participation’, 31.
6. Rape illustrates the continua of violence that links war and peace; it is common at all times, increases with criminality, becomes a preferred form of torture by state agents and endemic in armed conflict; thus, differentially manifesting in time, space and scale (Cockburn, ‘Anti Militarism’, 254).
7. The term ‘gender-based violence’ (GBV) is used to denote the differences in male and female experiences of violence; but the problem is not only about ‘difference’, it is about ‘why’. Furthermore, gender tends to be used as a noun synonymous with women, thus obscuring reality and undermining the analytical value of ‘gender’. This article uses VAW, understood as a process of gendering.
8. For example, in the 2016, 1128 ‘academics for peace’ signed a petition calling for an end to the military operations in Eastern Turkey; they faced individual indictments under the anti-terror law.
9. See: UN Women, ‘Global Study’, Paffenholz et al, ‘Making Women Count’.
10. PPs include, ‘…preventive diplomacy, conflict prevention, peace-making and peace-building. activities, inter alia, conflict resolution, peace negotiations, reconciliation, reconstruction of infrastructure and the provision of humanitarian aid’ (SCR 1889), i.e. phased negotiations for transition to peace.
11. The first six SCRs emphasised full and equal participation of women in PPs, subsequent resolutions (particularly 2122 and 2242) shifted to the qualitative components of women’s participation.
12. Krause et al, ‘Women’s Participation in Peace’, UN Women, ‘Women’s Meaningful Participation’.
13. As UN Special Rapporteur on VAW (SRVAW, 2003–2009) I conducted official missions to these countries. Mission reports are available at www.ohchr.org (El Salvador E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.2, Guatemala E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.3, Afghanistan E/CN.4/2006/61/Add.5, and DRC (2008-A/HRC/7/6/Add.4).
14. See: SRVAW report, ‘Political economy of women’s rights’ (A/HRC/11/6), True, ‘Political Economy of VAW’.
15. Cohen, ‘Women & War’, 21
16. Inter Pares, ‘Towards a Feminist Political Economy’, 4.
17. These observations are consolidated in Ertürk,’Violence without Borders’.
18. Extraterritoriality also questions the association made between gender equality and peace (Hudson et al, ‘Sex and World Politics’). In 2016, the CEDAW Committee, in its concluding observations concerning a number of developed states parties, addressed extraterritorial obligations emerging from arms exports and private sector practices that undermine women’s human rights abroad (Adams & Judd, ‘Women’s Rights Without Borders’). Gender equality in these countries is relatively advanced but their foreign policy and corporate operations are not necessarily peace prone. The disparity between democratic ideals and gender equality standards upheld domestically in the developed world and their direct or indirect involvement in violations of women’s rights abroad contravenes the universality of rights as enshrined in international documents.
19. Friedman, ‘Globalisation, Dis-integration, Re-organization’.
20. Giddens, ‘Runaway World’.
21. Sassen, ‘Globalization and Its Discontents’.
22. Friedman Ibid, 22.
23. Kaldor, ‘New and Old Wars”.
24. Cockburn, ‘Anti Militarism’.
25. Connell, ‘Arms and the man’.
26. Niarchos, ‘Women, War and Rape’, 291.
27. Cohn, ‘Women & War’, 2.
28. Recognition of VAW as a policy concern has also resulted in inclusion of new species of crimes in criminal justice systems. The Rome Statute accepted war crimes against women as crimes against humanity punishable by the International Criminal Court.
29. According to the Georgetown Institute WPS index (2017–18), out of 152 countries El Salvador ranks 77, Guatemala 102, DRC 148 and Afghanistan 151. The index includes 11 indicators capturing three dimensions of women’s well being: inclusion (education, financial inclusion, employment, cell phone use, parliamentary representation), justice (legal discrimination, son bias, discriminatory norms) and security (intimate partner violence, community safety, organised violence).
30. See: Streeter, ‘Managing the Counterrevolution’, Manz, ‘Paradise in Ashes’.
31. Call, ‘Assessing El Salvador’s Transition from Civil War to Peace’.
32. Women comprised 60 per cent of logistical support, 30 per cent of combatants and 20 per cent of FMLN military leadership.
33. See: Naslund, ‘Looking at Peace Through Women’s Eyes’, Luciak, ‘Joining Forces for Democratic Governance’, Ellerby, ‘Engendering peace’.
34. Call, Ibid, 588.
35. Hayner, ‘Unspeakable Truth’.
36. Officials attributed street crimes to gangs [maras] that originated from among Salvadorians relocated in Los Angeles during the war and deported back in 1996. A controversial Anti-Maras Act was adopted in 2003, which observers believe contravenes El Salvador’s constitution and international treaty obligations.
37. Luciak, Ibid.
38. Hipsher, ‘Right and Left-Wing Women in Post-Revolutionary El Salvador’.
39. In 2012 a law on femicide was enacted, and in 2018 a special unit was created to oversee crimes against women.
40. Ertürk, ‘Violence without Borders’.
41. 80 per cent of the URNG’s members came from 21 ethnolinguistic indigenous groups and the remainder from revolutionary Ladino groups.
42. According to the 1999 report of the Commission for Historical Clarification, soldiers committed shocking forms of violence against indigenous women, who were raped and gang-raped. In some cases, foetuses were removed from their uterus.
43. de Alwis et al, ‘Women and Peace Processes’, 187.
44. See: Luciak, ‘Gender Equality and Guatemalan Peace Accords’, Spence et al, ‘Promise and Reality’.
45. Luciak, ‘Joining Forces for Democratic Governance’.
46. Women’s parliamentary representation, which was 13.8 per cent in the 1995 elections, steadily declined in the subsequent election and in 2015 rose to 19.3 per cent.
47. A/58/566, annexe, para. 22.
48. This was the first case globally where a former head of state was found guilty of genocide in a country’s own national courts. The Constitution Court suspended the proceedings on a technical ground vacating the verdict. After long delays the retrial began in October 2017; Montt, who was diagnosed with dementia, died in 2018 at age 92.
49. Kandiyoti, ‘Gender in Afghanistan’.
50. Ibid.
51. Consequently, women won around 27 per cent of seats in the lower house and 26 per cent in the upper house in both the 2010 and 2018 elections. In 2013 the parliament passed a law lowering the proportion of provincial council seats reserved for women from 25 per cent to 20 per cent.
52. The High Peace Council, the highest peace-making body in Afghanistan, also seeks reconciliation with the Taliban. Due to their low representation and lack of influence in the Council, women fear they will pay a heavy price.
53. In 2018, against pressures from multinationals, the parliament passed a new mining code that increased loyalties and removed the ‘stability’ clause from the previous code that guaranteed a 10-year grace period for any amendment to the terms of mining contracts.
54. Whitman, ‘Women and Peace-building in the DRC’, 38.
55. Mpoumou, ‘Women’s Participation in Peace Negotiations’, 121–122.
56. Whitman, Ibid, 42.
57. In 2006, Joseph Kabila was sworn in as the first President since 1965 who assumed office following elections. Following the turbulent 2011 general elections, Kabila was able to retain his presidency. His refusal to step down at the end of his term in 2016, as mandated by the Constitution, pushed the country into a new period of disarray and violence. Felix Tshisekedi replaced Kabila following new elections in 2018.
58. UNFPA recorded 11,769 cases of sexual violence from January to September 2014 in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Orientale, Katanga and Maniema. 39 per cent are said to be related to the armed conflict.
59. Since 1999, Panzi hospital in eastern DRC has been treating woman and girl survivors of sexualised violence. Dr Denis Muwege, the founder, was awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace prize; a late but welcomed recognition.
60. See Hume, ‘El Salvador’.
61. Dorronsoro, ‘The SC and the Afghan Conflict’.
62. Wennmann, ‘Economic Provisions in Peace Agreements’, 8.
63. For instance, in 2013 the Turkish government announced a peace initiative to resolve decades of armed conflict between security forces and the PKK. Kurdish and Turkish women joined forces to advance their peace agenda, including by strategically employing SCR 1325 (See: Ertürk, ‘A call to engender Turkey’s peace process’, Çelik, ‘15 Years after UNSCR 1325ʹ). Regrettably, the process ended prematurely and the problem became securitised, which deepened social polarisation and blocked channels of dialogue and civic activism.
64. In addition to the Nordic Women Mediators Network, three others were established in 2017: the African Network of Women in Conflict Prevention and Mediation, the Mediterranean Women’s Mediation Network, and Women Mediators Across the Commonwealth.
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Yakin Ertürk
Yakin Ertürk academician; international human rights mandate holder, including UN special rapporteur on violence against women; founding member of Turkish Antenna of the Mediterranean Women’s Mediation Network. Recent publications: Violence without Borders: Paradigm, Policy and Praxis Concerning Violence against Women (2016); Co-editor, Feminist Advocacy, Family Law Reform and Violence against Women (2019).