Browse

This chapter focuses on the absence of certain marginal groups from the United Nations’ Women, Peace, and Security Agenda and suggests correctives to those exclusions. The chapter discusses how men and boys as victims of sexual and gender-based violence have been erased in this agenda, and the consequences of this erasure. It challenges the assumptions of militarized masculinity as a uniformly shared identity among conflict-engaged men. It also looks at the outcome of pregnancies resulting from wartime rape and shows how children born of rape are presented and treated in their communities. The chapter draws on research conducted in Peru and Colombia and shows the necessity of understanding both the perpetration and experience of violence in nuanced ways.

This chapter analyses the gender dimension of terrorism and counterterrorism efforts. It explores women’s roles as both supporters and preventers of terrorism. It tracks the increasing incorporation of gender in the counterterrorism strategy of the United Nations and the growing focus on the intersections between the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) and countering terrorism agendas. The chapter suggests that the WPS Agenda and the countering violent extremism program are convergent and complementary. At the same time, counterterrorism measures have had gendered collateral effects and continue to utilize gender stereotypes. The chapter provides suggestions for what a more gender-sensitive approach would mean for counterterrorism efforts.

This chapter analyses the political influences that shaped reform of healthcare service provision and financing during four decades of neoliberal capitalist dominance, with its emphasis on individualism, consumerism, competitiveness, and the capitalist market in determining social needs and healthcare priorities. New financing sources and market competition, which shaped adoption of reforms, are contrasted with earlier reform efforts that were premised on the socialisation of risk and the universalisation of healthcare provision on an equitable basis for all. Transformation of state forms promoted the market and substantially weakened capacities to provide for basic needs. Controversy over these outcomes has coincided with astounding increases in global inequality, particularly since the 2008 global financial meltdown, with devastating and unequal effects on the health of populations. The chapter concludes by returning to the quest for universal health coverage by reaffirming the “Health for All” principles of social justice and solidarity within a ‘post-Washington consensus’.

This chapter looks at the gendered dynamics of Security Council–authorized humanitarian interventions. The chapter focuses on the Libyan intervention to demonstrate the failure of the Security Council to consult women or gender experts regarding the decision to intervene. The chapter shows how the focus on women’s insecurity in humanitarian crises reinforces gendered political outcomes due to the lack of feminist consciousness within the Security Council deliberations and actions. It concludes with suggestions for feminist engagement, including consultation with communities where interventions have occurred in the past. The chapter also suggests utilizing Security Council resolution 2122 to disrupt gendered dynamics.

This chapter explores the application of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to conflict and post-conflict contexts as detailed in General Recommendation 30. It examines the implications of CEDAW and General Recommendation 30 on gender-based violence, the trafficking of women, the situation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees, women’s participation, and women’s access to health, education, employment, and justice. It also focuses on CEDAW’s reporting procedure, and suggests that this tool be utilized more effectively to address women’s situations in conflict and post-conflict situations. The chapter also examines the Optional Protocol to CEDAW as an accountability tool. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the importance of CEDAW acting in synergy with the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda.

Peace agreements, seeking to end conflict and establish a road map for the future, have significant effects on women’s lives, yet historically women have been absent from peace processes. This chapter examines obstacles that often limit women’s involvement in peace negotiations, despite the creation of an international framework that supports the inclusion of women in such processes. The chapter reviews the pragmatic opportunities and challenges for women in the pre-negotiation stage, the framework development/substantive stage, and the implementation/renegotiation stage. Among the challenges addressed are issues of access and power within negotiating spaces. The chapter describes instances where women have successfully participated in peace negotiations, and offers three directions for future growth: further involvement of women in negotiations; using a gender perspective in all aspects of the substantive agreement; and developing a long-term commitment to sustaining peace.

This chapter historicizes the United Nations Security Council’s Women, Peace, and Security Agenda. It opens by describing the vision of peace emerging out of the Hague Congress of Women, wherein a pacifist agenda perceived resorting to arms to resolve inter-state disputes as unacceptable. It analyzes this vision in the context of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, and argues that the Security Council fails in protecting women from conflict-related harm. It demonstrates how feminist conceptions of positive peace have become captive to the militarized security frame of the Security Council. The chapter concludes with suggestions for how peace needs to be reconceptualized to strengthen the feminist opposition to war and to fight protective stereotypes of women.