22 Feb 2007: ISS Today: Women Must Keep The Peace

22 February 2007: Women Must Keep The Peace

 

... Machel, wife of former president Nelson Mandela and an activist for women and children’s rights, said women and children were still the main victims of conflict, and that it was appalling that there were no structures in place to cater for the rights of women and children. She also mentions that women should get greater acknowledgment when it comes to peacekeeping initiatives. (Pretoria News, 7 February 2007)

 

Commentary

 

Although the mechanisms for “peacekeeping” are not included in the its Charter, the UN has deployed 61 peacekeeping operations into conflict and post-conflict situations since 1948. In earlier deployments, peacekeepers were tasked with monitoring ceasefires; in recent years, the scope of peacekeeping has widened to include multidisciplinary civilian and police components, as well as multi-dimensional missions involving electoral processes, human rights monitoring and civil affairs functions.

 

The transformation of peacekeeping has entailed two fundamental gender issues, one relating to women as victims of conflict and the other as victims of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by peacekeepers. It was in this context that the Pretoria News highlighted that women’s perspectives are essential in addressing the crucial problem of the victimisation of women and children, and until this is properly recognised, local as well as female peacekeepers will continue to be victimised. This implies that their authority and moral power will be compromised. According to UNIFEM, for instance, 90 percent of people killed in conflicts during the post-Cold War period have been civilians, mostly women and children. These issues are not unique to this era, but come at a time when UN peacekeepers are implicated in sexual scandals in peacekeeping missions globally. 

 

Statistics, more than anything else, indicate that vulnerable populations should be the focus of international peace operations.  Even more, they highlight that women should be at the forefront of decision-making, in order to ensure that perpetrators are held responsible for atrocities committed against women and children. While many welcome the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation after peace, too often amnesty means that men forgive men for the atrocities committed against women. Women on the other hand, are more likely to focus on appropriate punishments and stringent codes of conduct in peacekeeping.

 

These considerations informed the realisation by the UN that women peacekeepers would make a positive difference to peacekeeping and that women’s presence in peacekeeping missions would also improve access and support for local women. One could argue justifiably that the Security Council’s adoption of Resolution 1325 (2000), which calls on the Secretary General to “increase the participation of women at decision making levels in conflict resolution and peace processes”, was as a result of this realisation. Following this Resolution, concrete steps have been taken by the UNDPKO, including, but not limited to, the promulgation of the Secretary General’s Bulletins (SGB), which prohibit peacekeepers from committing acts of sexual exploitation and abuse, and impose upon them a particular duty of care towards women and children. Subsequently, for instance, five UN peacekeeping missions have included advisors for gender, child protection and trafficking, to ensure that gender issues are mainstreamed in peacekeeping. In addition, the UN’s first women-only peacekeeping contingent of about 100 Indian policewomen, has been deployed to the mission in Liberia. These measures have made huge improvements in the plight of women in peacekeeping operations in that they “ensure [d] that all parts of an operation are aware of gender dimensions of their work”. Further to this, the establishment of a policy of zero tolerance by senior mission leaderships has helped to deal more stringently with cases of sexual exploitation incidents. An example of this was the withdrawal of 120-strong Nigerian police contingent from the mission in the DRC. In 2006, conduct and discipline units and teams were established by the UNDPKO.

 

In spite of the concrete steps to address the participation of women in decision making, it is still contended that women should be given an even greater involvement in decision making and peacekeeping initiatives. Last week, for instance, South Africa’s Pretoria News underscored the argument that “women and children are still the main victims of conflict, and that it was appalling… that the structures in place do not adequately cater for the protection of rights of women and children”.

 

There is obviously no simple solution to this problem. But it bears repeating that more needs to be done to ensure the inclusion of women in what is held to be “inherently a man’s job”. Yet it is a known fact that to end conflict, the creation of sustainable peace by means of fundamental societal change, is one of the principal requirements. In so many ways, gender fits into one of the prerequisites for this societal change. The involvement of women in peacekeeping can serve as a powerful example to empower local women to become part of post-conflict peacebuilding.

 

The point, therefore, is not to suggest that women should take over peacekeeping because of all the aforementioned arguments, but to argue that their numbers be increased considerably at all levels. In acknowledging that many women have experienced sexual trauma and other forms of violence from mostly male combatants as well as peacekeepers, the existence and accessibility of female peacekeepers is crucial for local women.

 

Nilza Pessane, Training For Peace Programme, ISS Tshwane (Pretoria)