POLS2603 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Structural Violence, System On A Chip, Masculinity
Lecture 9 - Women, Peace and Security
•History + Content of the WPS Agenda
•What is the WPS Agenda?
◦glob policy framework from the UN Sec Council
◦aim is to mainstream gender perspective in security discourse
◦example of gender mainstreaming
◦Uses language of gender mainstreaming
◦8 UNSC Resolutions
•How did it emerge?
◦result of three int developments
▪changes in the way war is conducted
•became visible following the Cold War, e.g. Balkan Wars
•deliberate targeting of citizens - no longer collateral damage
•sexual + gender-based violence became more prominent as a military strategy
•increasing visibility of women in peace-making processes
•scholars aware of need to re-conceptualise security
◦state -> human
▪Changes in UN institutional framework that reflects this
•1992 “An Agenda for Peace” - Boutros-Ghali
◦emphasis on peace building
▪int community has a stake in responding to internal armed conflicts
▪war -> a matter of int peace + security
◦Acknowledgement of changes in conflicts
▪Non-state actors
•UN Conference on Human Rights
◦large presence of women
◦lobbying: violence against women to be recognised as crime
◦women from Bosnia
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•UN Fourth World Conference on Women
◦first time UN recognised that gender is important in responding to armed conflict
•UNSC Res’s on protection of civilians
◦first acknowledgement that this was necessary
•2000: NGOs pushing cause forward
◦NGO Working Group
◦Beijing +5 Gen Assembly Special Session to review progress
◦Namibian presidency of Sec council
◦sec council meeting with NGOs
▪NGO + feminist lobbying at UN
•What is the content?
◦Protection
▪protecting women + children from violence in armed conflict
◦Prevention
▪validating women’s role in preventing conflict/escalation
▪increasing amount of women in peacekeeping forces
▪also community level prevention - indicators that conflict is shifting
▪Women as community builders
▪suggestion that women should have more involvement in oversight of sec organs of
state to counteract militarisation
◦Participation
▪increasing women’s presence in pol processes surrounding conflict
•Why is this agenda significant?
◦first time UNSC recognised gender as important for global peace + sec
◦part of sec shift from state -> human centric
◦sec became understood as gendered
◦focused on women as political agents as well as victims of violence
◦provided framework for lobbying
◦Framework for organisation against militarism
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