Women's Role in Post-Conflict Resolution
by Lauren Ting
While the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on October 31, 2000 was a bold first step in international recognition of the effects of war on women, an incredible amount of work remains to be done if women’s unique roles in post-conflict situations and peace processes are to be fully incorporated into reconstruction efforts. The resolution encourages women's "equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security," and recognizes the "need to increase their role in decision-making with regard to conflict prevention and resolution." The resolution also seeks to "incorporate a gender perspective into peacekeeping operations," calling for extra protection for women against gender-based violence, and asking that gender play into decisions made at refugee camps, and when planning for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration.
While, in the almost seven years since its inception, this document has not (nor was it expected to) provoked all the necessary changes needed to make sure women's concerns are fully addressed, the UN has brought light to the issue of women’s unique struggles during and following war. More literature can now be found focusing on issues such as sexual violence, policy concerns and the impact of disarmament on women. Case studies abound following the successes and failures of plans implemented in compliance with 1325, and other researchers have followed the effects of gender marginalization or incorporation during the peace process. As academic and policy institutions have focused more on gender in post-conflict reconstruction, they've come up with several suggestions for increasing women’s roles in peace-building, and they are still discovering new questions which must be addressed.
In order to even begin implementing the goals of 1325, international organizations must ask what difficulties are encountered in reconstructing post-conflict societies. For gender analysis to truly benefit women and children, it's necessary to understand the system's current failings and the policy implications of women's continued subservient role in many societies. In many post-conflict societies, structural domestic abuse towards women persists, and such violence cannot be reduced without giving women more of a voice to protect their own interests. Social conditioning and traditional stereotyping of gender roles play into these cultural abuses, making the patterns of exploitation and violence difficult to break.
The responsibility falls on the government to disseminate information countering this violence and punishing violators. Some accountability must also fall on NGO's and other international organizations to investigate these crimes and assess their causes and effects objectively. Unfortunately, neither money nor resources currently allow for sufficient international intervention in many crisis situations, and corrupt leadership often deters efforts to hold offenders accountable.
Women also find themselves most susceptible to STDs and rape in refugee settings, but humanitarian efforts often discount their medical needs in order to focus on "traditional" assistance including food, water and shelter. Humanitarian aid must morph into more than just subsistence relief and become a form of development assistance in order to facilitate the health of those in camps, by providing reproductive and mental health services and information to traumatized victims of abuse.
Developing gender-sensitive initiatives and an inclusive women's movement in troubled countries could help combat the persistent cultural ideology of men as perpetrators of war, and women as victims, by giving women more control over their futures. Post-war situations offer a single chance to remedy structural and cultural damage and implement social change through an equitable development process. While resolution 1325 hasn't succeeded yet, we must maintain hope that its ideals will spread to those in the position to provoke positive change, and that little by little, developing countries will adopt the resolution’s egalitarian ideals, allowing women a voice of their own.
