Rebuilding peace in exile: bringing together the Women, Peace and Security Agenda and the International Refugee Protection Regime in Turkey

ABSTRACT

Refugee women are generally depicted as vulnerable and dependent subjects and excluded from peacebuilding efforts. This article is a response to the need for balancing the protection needs of refugee women and their participation in decision-making processes. It brings two different but complementary frameworks, namely the International Refugee Protection Regime (IRPR) and the United Nations Security Council’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda, into conversation through a gender analysis. The article shows that bringing these two frameworks together can overcome each other’s limitations regarding refugee women’s agency. Through analysing legal and policy frameworks together with the existing literature on refugee women and the WPS Agenda, this article focuses on Turkey as a case study. This article argues that implementing the IRPR and the WPS Agenda together in a national action plan in Turkey would strengthen refugee women’s protection and promote their agency as actors of peacebuilding in exile.

KEYWORDS:

• Refugee women
• participation
• International Refugee Protection Regime
• Women, Peace and Security Agenda
• Turkey

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Jane Freedman, Zeynep Kivilcim, and Nurcan Özgür Baklacıoğlu, A Gendered Approach to the Syrian Refugee Crisis (London: Routledge, 2017); Aiko Holvikivi and Audrey Reeves, ‘Women, Peace and Security after Europe’s “Refugee Crisis”’, European Journal of International Security 5 (2020): 135.

2 Elisabeth Porter, ‘Women, Political Decision Making, and Peace Building’, Global Change, Peace and Security 15 (2003): 245, 246.

3 Ibid., 257.

4 Naila Kabeer, ‘Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: A Critical Analysis of the Third Millennium Development Goal I’, Gender and Development 13 (2005): 14.

5 Laura J. Shepherd, ‘Sex, Security and Superhero(in)es: From 1325 to 1820 and Beyond’, International Feminist Journal of Politics 13 (2011): 510.

6 Jennifer Hyndman and Wenona Giles, ‘Waiting for What? The Feminization of Asylum in Protracted Situations’, A Journal of Feminist Geography 18 (2011): 361; Naohiko Omata, ‘Unwelcome Participation, Undesirable Agency? Paradoxes of De-Politicisation in a Refugee Camp’, Refugee Survey Quarterly 36 (2017): 108.

7 Lucy Hall, ‘WPS, Migration, and Displacement’, in The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace, and Security, eds S. E. Davies and J. True (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018); Holvikivi and Reeves, ‘Women, Peace and Security’.

8 M. O’Sullivan and K. Krulišová, ‘“This Agenda Will Never Be Politically Popular”: Central Europe’s Anti-Gender Mobilization and the Czech Women, Peace and Security Agenda’, International Feminist Journal of Politics 22, no. 4 (2020): 528.

9 Vanessa Newby and Alanna O’Malley, ‘Introduction: WPS 20 Years On: Where Are the Women Now?’, Global Studies Quarterly 1 (2021): 1–13.

10 UNHCR, ‘Regional Refugee & Resilience Plan: Turkey Country Chapter 2021–2022’, 2021, 4 https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Turkey_2021_2022_final_ENG2%20v2.pdf (accessed July 18, 2021).

11 Laura Barnett, ‘Global Governance and the Evolution of the International Refugee Regime’, International Journal of Refugee Law 14 (2002): 246.

12 In the Protocol the following expression was deleted: ‘[a]s a result of events occurring before January 1951’. The Protocol removed geographical limitations of the Convention. Yet, it also underlined that ‘existing declarations made by States already Parties to the Convention in accordance with article I B (I) (a) of the Convention’ can also be applied under the Protocol (article 1(3)).

13 Bret Thiele, ‘Persecution on Account of Gender: A Need for Refugee Law Reform’, Hastings Women’s Law Journal 11 (2000): 221.

14 Victoria Foote, ‘Refugee Women as a Particular Social Group’, Refuge 14 (1994): 8.

15 Jane Freedman, ‘Protecting Women Asylum Seekers and Refugees: From International Norms to National Protection?’, International Migration 48 (2010): 177.

16 Barnett, ‘Global Governance’, 256.

17 Georgina Firth and Barbara Mauthe, ‘Refugee Law, Gender and the Concept of Personhood’, International Journal of Refugee Law 25 (2013): 476.

18 Anthea Roberts, ‘Gender and Refugee Law’, Australian Yearbook of International Law 22 (2002):166.

19 Ibid.

20 Barnett, ‘Global Governance’, 256.

21 Nahla Valji, ‘Where Are the Women? Gender Discrimination in Refugee Policies and Practices’, Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity 55 (2003): 61.

22 Ibid.

23 Audrey Macklin, ‘Refugee Women and the Imperative of Categories’, Human Rights Quarterly 17 (1995): 259.

24 Alice Edwards, ‘Age and Gender Dimensions in International Refugee Law’, in Refugee Protection in International Law, eds. E. Feller, V. Türk, and F. Nicholson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 49.

25 Ibid. 50.

26 Deborah E. Anker, ‘Refugee Law, Gender, and the Human Rights Paradigm’, Harvard Human Rights Journal 15 (2002): 140.

27 Natalie Oswin, ‘Rights Spaces: An Exploration of Feminist Approaches to Refugee Law’, International Feminist Journal of Politics 3 (2001): 349.

28 Alice Edwards, ‘Transitioning Gender: Feminist Engagement with International Refugee Law and Policy 1950–2010’, Refugee Survey Quarterly 29 (2010): 23–4.

29 UNHCR, ‘Executive Committee Conclusion No 54’, 1988.

30 Teresa L. Peters, ‘International Refugee Law and the Treatment of Gender-Based Persecution: International Initiatives as a Model and Mandate for National Reform’, Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems 6 (1996): 231.

31 UNHCR, ‘Policy on Refugee Women’, 1990.

32 Ibid 7.

33 Ibid 4.

34 Tina Wallace, ‘Refugee Women: Their Perspectives and Our Responses’, Gender & Development 1 (1993): 17.

35 Dale Buscher ‘Refugee Women: Twenty Years on’, Refugee Survey Quarterly 29 (2010): 7.

36 Thiele. ‘Persecution on Account’, 229.

37 UNHCR, ‘Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women’, 1991, para. 3.

38 Ibid., paras 18–9.

39 Ibid., para 26.

40 Ibid., paras 31–38.

41 Thiele, ‘Persecution on Account’, 229.

42 UNHCR, ‘Handbook for the Protection of Women and Girls’, 2008.

43 Edwards, ‘Transitioning Gender’, 32.

44 Susan M. Akram, ‘Assessing the Impact of the Global Compacts on Refugees and Migration in the Middle East’, International Journal of Refugee Law 30 (2018): 694.

45 B. S. Chimni, ‘Global Compact on Refugees: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back’, International Journal of Refugee Law 30 (2018): 631–2.

46 Eileen Pittaway and Emma Pittaway, ‘“Refugee Woman” – A Dangerous Label: Opening a Discussion on the Role of Identity and Intersectional Oppression in the Failure of the International Refugee Protection Regime for Refugee Women’, Australian Journal of Human Rights 10 (2004): 123.

47 Elisabeth Olivius, ‘(Un)Governable Subjects: The Limits of Refugee Participation in the Promotion of Gender Equality in Humanitarian Aid’, Journal of Refugee Studies 27 (2014): 47.

48 Simon Turner, ‘Negotiating Authority between UNHCR and “The People”’, Development and Change 37 (2006): 760–1.

49 Omata, ‘Unwelcome Participation’, 108.

50 Liisa H Malkki, ‘Speechless Emissaries: Refugees, Humanitarianism, and Dehistoricization’, Cultural Anthropology 11 (1996): 386; Prem Kumar Rajaram, ‘Humanitarianism and Representations of the Refugee’, Journal of Refugee Studies 15 (2002): 247.

51 R. Charli Carpenter ‘“Women, Children and Other Vulnerable Groups”: Gender, Strategic Frames and the Protection of Civilians as a Transnational Issue’, International Studies Quarterly 49 (2008): 295.

52 Freedman, ‘Protecting Women’, 193.

53 Yumna Asaf, ‘Syrian Women and the Refugee Crisis: Surviving the Conflict, Building Peace, and Taking New Gender Roles’, Social Sciences 6 (2017): 111.

54 Gina Heathcote, ‘Feminist Politics and the Use of Force: Theorising Feminist Action and Security Council Resolution 1325’, Socio-Legal Review 7 (2011): 37.

55 Carol Cohn, ‘Beyond the “Women, Peace and Security” Agenda: Why We Need a Feminist Roadmap for Sustainable Peace’, Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights. Feminist Roadmap for Sustainable Peace Project Background Paper, 2017.

56 Dianne Otto, ‘The Exile of Inclusion: Reflections on Gender Issues in International Law over the Last Decade’, Melbourne Journal of International Law 10 (2009): 17.

57 Torunn L. Tryggestad, ‘Trick or Treat? The UN and Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security’, Global Governance 15 (2009): 539.

58 Laura J. Shepherd, ‘Power and Authority in the Production of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325’, International Studies Quarterly 52 (2008): 389.

59 Heathcote, 'Feminist Politics’, 30.

60 J. Ann Tickner and Jacqui Tickner, ‘A Century of International Relations Feminism: From World War 1 Women’s Peace Pragmatism to the Women, Peace and Security Agenda’, International Studies Quarterly 62 (2018): 226.

61 Paul Kirby and Laura J. Shepherd, ‘The futures past of the Women Peace and Security Agenda’, International Affairs 92 (2016): 375.

62 UNSC, ‘Resolution 1325’, S/RES/1325, 31 October 2000, para. 7.

63 UNSC, ‘Resolution 1820’, S/RES/1820, 19 June 2008, para. 7.

64 UNSC, ‘Resolution 1889’, S/RES/1889, 5 October 2009, para. 12.

65 UNSC, ‘Resolution 2467’, S/RES/2467, 23 April 2019, para. 31.

66 Christy Fuijo, ‘From Soft to Hard Law: Moving Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security across the Spectrum’, Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law 9 (2008): 219.

67 UNSC, ‘Resolution 1325’, para. 1.

68 UNSC, ‘Resolution 2242’, S/RES/2242, 13 October 2015.

69 Laura J. Shepherd, ‘Advancing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda: 2015 and Beyond’, NOREF, 2014 https://noref.no/Publications/Themes/Gender-and-inclusivity/Advancing-the-Women-Peace-and-Security-agenda-2015-and-beyond (accessed April 10, 2021).

70 Shepherd, ‘Sex, Security and Superhero(in)es’, 507.

71 UNSC, ‘Resolution 1889’.

72 UNSC, ‘Resolution 2242’, para. 1.

73 Shima Bahre, ‘How the Aid Sector Marginalises Women Refugees’, The New Humanitarian, 15 March 2021, https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/first-person/2021/3/15/How-the-aid-sector-marginalises-women-refugees (accessed July 16, 2021); Shepherd, ‘Sex, Security and Superhero(in)es’.

74 Naila Kabeer, ‘Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the Measurement of Women’s Empowerment’, Development and Change 30 (1999): 466.

75 Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atau, ‘United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security — Is It Binding?’, The Human Rights Brief 18 (2011): 2; Nicole George and Laura J. Shepherd, ‘Women, Peace and Security: Exploring the Implementation and Integration of UNSCR 1325., International Political Science Review 37 (2016): 297.

76 UN, ‘Charter of the United Nations’, 1 UNTS XVI, 24 October 1945.

77 George and Shepherd, 'Women, Peace and Security’, 289.

78 Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, ‘The Netherlands National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (2016–2019)’, 2016 https://www.wpsnaps.org/nap/dutch-national-action-plan-iii/ (accessed July 16, 2021); Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, ‘Dutch National Action Plan (2012–2015)’, 2011, https://www.wpsnaps.org/nap/dutch-national-action-plan-ii/ (accessed July 16, 2021).

79 Germany’s Federal Foreign Office, ‘Action Plan of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany on the Implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security for the Period 2017 – 2020’, 2017, https://www.wpsnaps.org/nap/german-national-action-plan-ii/ (accessed July 16, 2021).

80 Vanessa Newby and Alanna O’Malley, ‘Introduction: WPS 20 Years On: Where Are the Women Now?’, Global Studies Quarterly 1, (2021), 7.

81 O’Sullivan and Krulišová, ‘This Agenda Will Never be Politically Popular’, 527.

82 Newby and O’Malley, ‘Introduction: WPS 20 Years On: Where Are the Women Now?’, 8.

83 Catherine O’Rourke, ‘Walk[ing] the Halls of Power Understanding Women’s Participation in International Peace and Security’, Melbourne Journal of International Law 15 (2014): 131.

84 Dipti Tamang, ‘Rethinking “Participation” in Women, Peace and Security Discourses: Engaging with “Non-Participant” Women’s Movements in the Eastern Borderlands of India’, International Feminist Journal of Politics 22 (2020): 498.

85 UNSC, ‘Resolution 1325’, para. 1; UNSC, ‘Resolution 2493’, S/RES/2493, 29 October 2019, para. 2.

86 Cohn, ‘Beyond the “Women, Peace and Security”’, 9.

87 Karolin Tuncel, ‘20 Years of Women, Peace and Security: How We Argue for Participation Matters’, LSE WPS Blog, 2021, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/wps/2021/01/21/20-years-of-women-peace-and-security-how-we-argue-for-participation-matters/ (accessed July 16, 2021).

88 Isobel Renzulli, ‘Women and Peace’: A Human Rights Strategy for the Women, Peace and Security Agenda’, Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 35 (2017): 216.

89 Maria Jansson and Maud Eduards, ‘The Politics of Gender in the UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security’, International Feminist Journal of Politics 18 (2016): 596.

90 Sheri Lynn Gibbings, ‘No Angry Women at the United Nations: Political Dreams and the Cultural Politics of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325’, International Feminist Journal of Politics 13, no. 4 (2011): 531–2.

91 Ibid., 532.

92 Ibid., 534.

93 Lucy B. Hall, ‘Logics of Gender, Peace, and Security: Theorizing Gender and Protection at the Intersections of State and Civil Society’, Global Studies Quarterly 1, (2021): 1.

94 Ibid., 5.

95 Ibid.

96 Ibid.

97 Ibid., 7.

98 Ibid., 9.

99 Cohn, ‘Beyond the “Women, Peace and Security”’, 7.

100 Catherine Powell, ‘How Women Could Save the World, If Only We Would Let Them: From Gender Essentialism to Inclusive Security’, Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 28 (2017): 288.

101 UNHCR, ‘Regional Refugee’, 4.

102 UNHCR, ‘Turkey: Key Facts and Figures, February 2020’, 2020, https://reliefweb.int/report/turkey/unhcr-turkey-key-facts-and-figures-february-2020-entr (accessed July 18, 2021).

103 Despite various categories in Turkey, we will use the term ‘refugee’ in a broader sense. Considering the complexities of the definition of refugee and the ongoing debates in the refugee studies, the term ‘refugee’ will be used to denote people who are forcefully displaced and seek protection and refuge: Eftihia Voutira and Giorgia Dona, ‘Refugee Research Methodologies: Consolidation and Transformation of a Field’, Journal of Refugee Studies 20 (2007): 163.

104 Law on Foreigners and International Protection No.2013/6458, 4 April 2013, entry into force 4 April 2014, The Official Gazette No.28615, 11 April 2013, Article 62.

105 Ibid Article 4; Temporary Protection Regulation (TPR) No 2014/6883, 22 October 2014, The Official Gazette No.29153, Article 4.

106 Şenay Özden, ‘Syrian Refugees in Turkey’, MPC Research Report 2013/05, 2013, 5.

107 Sema Buz, ‘Göçte Kadınlar: Feminist Yaklaşım Çerçevesinde Bir Çalışma’, Toplum ve Sosyal Hizmet 18 (2007): 43.

108 TPR, Article 21.

109 Ibid. Article 14(2).

110 Council of Europe, ‘Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence’, 2011.

111 Canan Güllü, ‘Syrian Refugee Women and Girls in Turkey & the Istanbul Convention’, Turkish Policy Quarterly 18 (2019): 83.

112 Zeynep Kivilcim, ‘Legal Violence against Syrian Female Refugees in Turkey’, Feminist Legal Studies 24 (2014): 200.

113 Şenay Özden and Oula Ramadan, ‘Syrian Women’s Perspectives on Life in Turkey: Rights, Relations and Civil Society’, Badael Foundation, 2019, https://docs.euromedwomen.foundation/files/ermwf-documents/8644_5.20.syrianwomen%E2%80%99sperspectivesonlifeinturkey.pdf (accessed July 18, 2021).

114 Meriç Çağlar Chesley, ‘Mülteci Hakederliği ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet Kırılganlık Arasındaki İlişkiyi Anlamak: Uluslararası Koruma Altındaki Mülteciler için Sosyal Yardımlar Örneği’, in Toplumsal Cinsiyet Perspektifinden Türkiye’de Göç Araştırmaları, eds K. Biehl and D. Danış, (Istanbul: SU GENDER and GAR, 2020), 151.

115 Lucy Williams, Emel Coşkun and Selmin Kaşka, ‘Women, Migration and Asylum Seeking in Turkey: Turkey, Policy and Practice’, in Women, Migration and Asylum in Turkey: Developing Gender-Sensitivity in Migration Research, Policy and Practice, eds L. Williams, E. Coşkun, and, S. Kaşka (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), 4.

116 Emel Coşkun and Beril Eski, ‘Gender in the Turkish Asylum System’, in Women, Migration and Asylum in Turkey: Developing Gender-Sensitivity in Migration Research, Policy and Practice, eds L. Williams, E. Coşkun and S. Kaşka (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).

117 Ministry of Interior Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency in Turkey (AFAD), ‘Syrian Women in Turkey’, 2014, https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/54512, (accessed July 18, 2021); Seda Gönül, ‘Zorunlu Göç ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet: Suriyeli Kadınların Evlilik Deneyimleri’, in Toplumsal Cinsiyet Perspektifinden Türkiye’de Göç Araştırmaları, eds K. Biehl and D. Danış, (Istanbul: SU GENDER and GAR, 2020); UNHCR, ‘Regional Refugee’, 9.

118 The Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (SGDD-ASAM) and UN Women, ‘Needs Assessment of Syrian Women and Girls under Temporary Protection Status in Turkey’, 2018, 8, https://www2.unwomen.org/-/media/field%20office%20eca/attachments/publications/country/turkey/the%20needs%20assessmentengwebcompressed.pdf?la=en&vs=3139 (accessed July 18, 2021).

119 Hyndman and Giles, ‘Waiting for What?’, 373.

120 Özden and Ramadan, ‘Syrian Women’s Perspectives’, 17.

121 Reyhan Atasü-Topcuoglu, ‘Welfare State Responses and Social Workers’ Attitudes towards Syrians in Turkey’, in Women, Migration and Asylum in Turkey: Developing Gender-Sensitivity in Migration Research, Policy and Practice, eds L. Williams, E. Coşkun, and S. Kaşka (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), 128.

122 Çağlar Chesley, ‘Mülteci Hakederliği’, 155–9.

123 Özden and Ramadan, ‘Syrian Women’s Perspectives’, 17–18.

124 Freedman, Kivilcim, and Özgür Baklacıoğlu, ‘A Gendered Approach’, 176.

125 AFAD, ‘Syrian Women’.

126 Özden and Ramadan, ‘Syrian Women’s Perspectives’, 50.

127 Catherine Brun, ‘Active Waiting and Changing Hopes: Toward a Time Perspective on Protracted Exile’, Social Analysis 59 (2015): 33.

128 Hilal Sevlü, ‘Gündelik Direniş Deneyimleri: Gaziantep’te Suriyeli Kadınlar’, in Toplumsal Cinsiyet Perspektifinden Türkiye’de Göç Araştırmaları, eds K. Biehl and D. Danış (Istanbul: SU GENDER and GAR, 2020); Nurcan Özgür Baklacıoğlu, ‘The Violence of Tolerated Temporality: Syrian Women Refugees on the Outskirts of İstanbul’, in A Gendered Approach to the Syrian Refugee Crisis, eds. Freedman, J. Freedman, Z. Kivilcim, and N. Özgür Baklacıoğlu (New York: Routledge, 2017).

129 Rejane Herwig, ‘Strategies of Resistance of Syrian Female Refugees in Şanlıurfa’, Movements 3 (2017): 191.

130 Hall, ‘WPS, Migration’, 653.

131 Holvikivi and Reeves, ‘Women, Peace and Security’, 3.

132 Hall, ‘WPS, Migration’, 653.

133 Ibid., 652.

134 UNSC, ‘Resolution 1325’.

135 UN Women, Statement by UN Women on Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, 20 March 2021, https://eca.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2021/03/statement-un-women-turkey-withdrawal-from-the-istanbul-convention.

136 Zeynep Alemdar, ‘Women, Peace and Security Agenda: A roadmap for Turkey’, Turkish Policy Quarterly, Summer 2019.

137 TRT World, ‘Turkey’s Withdrawal from Istanbul Treaty Not a Step Backwards: Erdogan’, 1 July 2021, https://www.trtworld.com/turkey/turkey-s-withdrawal-from-istanbul-treaty-not-a-step-backwards-erdogan-47979.

138 UN Women, Statement by UN Women on Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention.

139 O’Sullivan and Krulišová, ‘This Agenda Will Never Be Politically Popular’.

140 Ibid., 527.

141 Ibid.

142 Ibid., 528.

143 Ibid., 539.

144 Holvikivi and Reeves, ‘Women, Peace and Security’, 13.

145 UNSC, ‘Resolution 1889’.

146 UNSC, ‘Resolution 2467’.

147 UNSC, ‘Resolution 1889’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Irem Sengul

Irem Sengul received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Warwick on the temporary protection of Syrian refugees in Turkey. Sengul is working as a lecturer in the School of Law, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University. Her research interests are refugee law, temporary protection of refugees, refugee protection in Turkey.

Ebru Demir

Ebru Demir completed her Ph.D. at the University of Sussex on women’s post-conflict experiences in Bosnia–Herzegovina. Demir is currently working as an editor at the International Feminist Journal of Politics. She holds a position as a lecturer in the School of Law, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University. Her research interests are international law, women’s rights, human rights.

Bilge Sahin

Bilge Sahin completed her Ph.D. at SOAS University of London on the impact of international actors on challenging sexual violence crimes in conflict in the eastern DR Congo. Sahin is currently working as a research associate at SOAS University of London and lecturer in the International Relations Department at Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey. Her academic work critically engages with gendered issues in international security and international law with a particular focus on East Africa.