tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/women-peace-and-security-6936/articlesWomen, Peace and Security – The Conversation2022-07-29T12:22:56Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1866832022-07-29T12:22:56Z2022-07-29T12:22:56ZWhy men overwhelmingly wear the UN’s blue helmets – a former US ambassador explains why decades of recruiting women peacekeepers has had little effect<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475901/original/file-20220725-11-nocbix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=91%2C0%2C1036%2C688&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Female police officers working with the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Liberia participate in a parade in 2008.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://dam.media.un.org/CS.aspx?VP3=DamView&VBID=2AM94SKKB92P&SMLS=1&RW=1495&RH=648#/DamView&VBID=2AM94SKKBOX8&PN=1&WS=SearchResults">UN Photo/Christopher Herwig</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United Nations has about <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/where-we-operate">74,000 peacekeepers</a> in uniform stationed in a dozen conflict zones around the world. It’s easy to spot them in their signature light blue helmets. It’s harder to find a woman among them. </p>
<p>There are military experts, police and infantry units who come from <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/01_contributions_to_un_peacekeeping_operations_by_country_and_post_49_april_22.pdf">121 countries</a> to help maintain peace. </p>
<p><a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/07_gender_statistics_49_april_2022.pdf">Just 8%</a> of peacekeepers are women. </p>
<p>This is a significant increase from 15 years ago – when the number of peacekeepers was about the same as today but women made up only <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/dec07.pdf">about 2%</a> of the ranks. For 20 years, the U.N. has been <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/gender">trying to improve</a> this statistic. </p>
<p>But the U.N.’s long-term goal of having as many female peacekeepers as men may well be unachievable. </p>
<p>As a U.S. diplomat and an <a href="https://sia.psu.edu/faculty/jett">international affairs scholar</a>, I have been involved in peacekeeping in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. While dramatically increasing the number of female peacekeepers has clear benefits, including improved community relationships, the evolution of peacekeeping makes gender parity impossible. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475897/original/file-20220725-13-79362n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men in suits walk past a row of female peacekeepers in camo with blue hats" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475897/original/file-20220725-13-79362n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475897/original/file-20220725-13-79362n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475897/original/file-20220725-13-79362n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475897/original/file-20220725-13-79362n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475897/original/file-20220725-13-79362n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475897/original/file-20220725-13-79362n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475897/original/file-20220725-13-79362n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Namibia’s vice president inspects U.N. peacekeeping troops in Windhoek, Namibia, in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/oct-31-2020-namibias-vice-president-nangolo-mbumba-inspects-troops-picture-id1229412837?s=2048x2048">Musa C Kaseke/Xinhua via Getty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What the UN calls for</h2>
<p>The U.N. does not have its own military. So when the U.N. launches a peacekeeping mission, it must ask its 193 member countries to provide the personnel necessary to staff it.</p>
<p>The U.N. pays countries a bit over <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/role-peacekeeping-africa">US$1,400 a month</a> for each soldier loaned to the organization. This can help poorer countries maintain <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2010/12/why-south-asia-loves-peacekeeping/">their armies and pay </a>their soldiers. Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Rwanda <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/troop-and-police-contributors">give the most</a> soldiers to serve as peacekeepers, with over 5,000 people each. The U.S. currently provides only <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/01_contributions_to_un_peacekeeping_operations_by_country_and_post_49_april_22.pdf">30 staff officers</a>. </p>
<p>In 2000, the U.N. Security Council recognized the gender imbalance in peacekeeping when it approved <a href="http://unscr.com/en/resolutions/doc/1325">Resolution</a>1325, which urged that women be given more opportunities to serve. In 2018, the U.N. began specifically <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/uniformed-gender-parity-strategy-2018-2028-full-text">instructing</a> its peacekeeping missions to work toward including as many women as men. </p>
<p>Research shows that including women in resolving conflicts is a good idea, especially since they are frequently the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3877825">victims of war</a> more often than men. When women participate in peace negotiations, the <a href="https://www-tandfonline-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/doi/full/10.1080/03050629.2018.1492386?src=recsys#">resulting peace</a> is more lasting. </p>
<p>Having more female peacekeepers can also help improve <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/217455354?https://literature-proquest-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/lion?accountid=13158&parentSessionId=6Us3I5B86vHEja6PB%2BkbKN1ZPDOfkC8tDoSW0btbjUM%3D&pq-origsite=summon">relationships</a> with civilians. Open communication and trust between local communities and peacekeepers can lead to <a href="https://unu.edu/publications/articles/why-un-needs-more-female-peacekeepers.html">better cultural understanding and valuable intelligence</a> – including information about sexual violence that women are more likely to report to a female peacekeeper. </p>
<p>This is particularly important since in the past few years there have been <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/11/un-peacekeeping-has-sexual-abuse-problem">multiple cases</a> of peacekeepers being accused of <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/women-week-un-withdraws-450-peacekeepers-central-african-republic">mistreating and abusing </a>civilians – <a href="https://apnews.com/article/africa-arrests-united-nations-only-on-ap-e6ebc331460345c5abd4f57d77f535c1">including children</a>. </p>
<h2>Not so easy to achieve</h2>
<p>Despite the advantages, there are three major obstacles to getting more women involved in peacekeeping. </p>
<p>First, women make up a <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-countries-with-the-most-women-in-the-military/ar-AAOK9Ab">small percentage</a> of the armed forces in almost every country, ranging from less than 1% in India and Turkey to 20% in Hungary.</p>
<p>Second, very <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_combat">few countries</a> train women for ground combat, which may be part of a U.N. peacekeeping mission. </p>
<p>Third, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/01/25/map-which-countries-allow-women-in-front-line-combat-roles/">countries</a> that do train women for combat are almost always democratic and wealthier. They are also least likely to contribute troops to the more dangerous U.N. peacekeeping missions. </p>
<p>These practical challenges have become even more daunting because of the way peacekeeping has changed.</p>
<h2>Peacekeeping’s evolution</h2>
<p>The U.N. was only three years old when it initiated its <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/undof">first peacekeeping mission </a>in 1948 to respond to the war between Israel and its Arab neighbors. In that operation, and in subsequent ones dealing with conflicts between countries over territory, once the fighting stopped peacekeepers could be placed between the opposing armies to help ensure the cease-fire continued. </p>
<p>In the 1990s, peacekeeping also addressed civil wars in such places as <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/past/Unavem2/UnavemIIB.htm">Angola</a> and <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/past/onumozFT.htm">Mozambique</a>. Those operations had to demobilize former combatants, reintegrate them into civilian life and form a new national army. </p>
<p>Often the most important task was helping conduct an election. While I was the U.S. ambassador in <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/past/onumozS.htm">Mozambique in 1994</a>, all this was successfully accomplished and the peacekeepers went home. But this kind of peacekeeping is also mostly a relic of the past. </p>
<h2>A new broader mandate</h2>
<p>In the U.N.’s five most recent peacekeeping missions, launched between 2010 and 2014 and all in Africa, the peacekeepers are mandated to protect civilians and help the government expand its control to lessen the threat of armed rebel groups. Doing that requires large infantry units, which is why the <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/mali-suspends-rotation-of-un-forces/6659011.html">mission in Mali</a>, for example, includes 12,000 troops. </p>
<p>These are not just the largest missions, but also the most deadly – an average of 16 peacekeepers are killed each year in these missions, while an average of two peacekeepers die each year in the oldest peacekeeping operations. </p>
<p>The U.N. initially insisted that all warring parties agree to the presence of the peacekeepers and that the peacekeepers remain impartial and use force only to defend themselves.</p>
<p>In the five newest missions, the mandate required the use of force to be <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/where-we-operate">expanded</a>. This meant peacekeepers no longer had the consent of all the combatants and discarded impartiality to help the government in power. As a result, some of those opposing the government began targeting peacekeepers. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475903/original/file-20220725-10216-rtsroy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Soldiers are seen carrying coffins draped in blue flags, in front of a white UN plane." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475903/original/file-20220725-10216-rtsroy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475903/original/file-20220725-10216-rtsroy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475903/original/file-20220725-10216-rtsroy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475903/original/file-20220725-10216-rtsroy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475903/original/file-20220725-10216-rtsroy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475903/original/file-20220725-10216-rtsroy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475903/original/file-20220725-10216-rtsroy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ivorian soldiers carry the coffins of four U.N. peacekeepers in Mali in February 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/ivorian-soldiers-carry-coffins-wrapped-with-united-nations-flags-out-picture-id1230731222?s=2048x2048">Sia Kambou/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The connection to female peacekeepers</h2>
<p>These latest peacekeeping missions require thousands of troops prepared for combat in order to be able to use force. For that reason, 86% of all of the peacekeepers are military troops, but only <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/07_gender_statistics_49_april_2022.pdf">6%</a> of the troops are women.</p>
<p>The low percentage of female troops stands in sharp contrast to the <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/07_gender_statistics_49_april_2022.pdf">other types of peacekeepers</a> who don’t risk being involved in combat – 27% of the military experts, 19% of the staff officers and 19% of the police are women. </p>
<p>While the wealthy countries pay <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/how-we-are-funded">86% of the financial cost</a> of U.N. peacekeeping, which amounts to $6.4 billion year, they contribute less than 8% of all the troops. </p>
<p>In the U.N.’s six oldest missions, like the ones in Israel, only 7% of the troops are women, and 37% of these women come from the rich countries. In the five more lethal missions, however, 5% of the troops are female and <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/07_gender_statistics_49_april_2022.pdf">only 3% </a> of them are from wealthier members.</p>
<p>So, while the rich countries pay in treasure, the poor countries pay in blood.</p>
<p>Getting more female peacekeepers would require countries to assign more women to the most dangerous peacekeeping missions. In other words, it would be necessary to give more women the chance to shed that blood.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186683/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dennis Jett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The UN has been working for 20 years to increase the number of female peacekeepers – but countries that give their troops to the UN are reluctant to put more women in active combat.Dennis Jett, Professor of International Affairs, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1617172021-05-29T07:35:24Z2021-05-29T07:35:24ZRwanda genocide: Macron forgiveness plea resets historic ties<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403352/original/file-20210528-24-8ypnv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">French president Emmanuel Macron lays a wreath on a mass grave at the Kigali Genocide Memorial on 27 May 2021.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> EPA-EFE/Eugene Uwimana</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>French president Emmanuel Macron has just paid his <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210526-macron-seeks-reset-with-rwanda-on-africa-visit-after-years-of-tensions">first state visit to Rwanda</a>. While many world leaders have visited the central African nation of 13 million, including past French presidents, such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/world/europe/26france.html">President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010</a>, this trip was going to be different. </p>
<p>Sure enough president Macron would come the closest to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/27/kagami-the-winner-as-macron-gives-genocide-speech-in-rwanda">apologising</a> for France’s involvement during the <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20140402113037-u315s/">1994 genocide</a> against the Tutsis.</p>
<p>At the Kigali Genocide Memorial, Macron <a href="https://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/time-bow-genocide-victims-listen-survivors-macron">asked</a> for forgiveness for France’s involvement in the genocide. He also expressed his desire to combat genocide ideology and denial in order to foster stronger relations with Rwanda. </p>
<p>The long-term impact of this trip will be based on building on this commitment. France’s tangible foreign policy mechanism will be committing itself to helping Rwanda through foreign aid development funding and COVID-19 vaccines. However, for France to gain the trust of Rwandans, the country has to commit itself to combatting genocide ideology and denial. A great start would be the arrest and extradition of Rwandans who participated in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis.</p>
<h2>The history</h2>
<p>Prior to the genocide, France was Rwanda’s closest European ally. It was never the colonising power. Rwanda was colonised by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Rwanda/Rwanda-under-German-and-Belgian-control">Germany</a> (1884-1919) and later transferred to Belgium. It was during the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rwanda/etc/cron.html">Belgian colonial period</a> (1919-1962) that socio-economic divisions of Hutu, Tutsi and Twa become immovable ethnic divisions. To <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Rwanda_Before_the_Genocide/IawzAAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=jj+carney&pg=PP2&printsec=frontcover">justify Belgium’s colonial atrocities</a>, the colonial government elevated some Tutsi elites into positions of power to illustrate local rule. </p>
<p>In a 1973 coup, Juvénal Habyarimana <a href="https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dossiers/rwanda/r1271.asp#P1538_159983">took</a> the presidency. <a href="https://watermark.silverchair.com/mqi059.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAr4wggK6BgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggKrMIICpwIBADCCAqAGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMVb1nio-L8HxBN5IVAgEQgIICcfmSwQPwxnjhFmGazhzmvbvWVJHCsdHtBhSaRUxEPbWaooM_6zm3YbVvLQFQ5w3K1fzj_VpgJ7lhBJ2Mo51JzbrBo6aIhVV-rSMLVTF_NYAqnf1e9dca2g72gCnzsZh7RGsNOiWi4KncyQR_kuf6If0DxMzmynXoGSa_zYVhRoxs6OFwFXrKqDUWTHKbdSoJHHpAUjmuyHR60HMxJP5xgvEKSRIW52kwQOiZaq5lXKMh3mj4JSEhrJoOFaU8OhNRWGS1izkN5ThorQPj_qM_tb4Dz4C6UXBQFlAs317hufIaCo_UljeXiHPQ99v_xck4S9AySSSKnb0k9tAplFT8NYJm_IPH9PvneNGOdZ8F8kEkdA-lWo0F5j07na5AjvCBAZxHDY_IyLprT59_gzEFXrn9NVz1673Vz39A6r2m0HLnRHsjxlR7T9BUSVuqLqCXq8rv79g3FE_ZpWk3i0CiC3bK02cD13G5VwxlLOwoVAT9zO3xHSJ_rA-p595gNXCDMOqE_Odib_wUxM-yTMydmHkuaTYzKboAyxxpca6YVxJZHWUPMf6G9q87zso6ntLOegnyFUbZuI69wLjQxPGtDTxeyTbar3SQD_5i91d1QT6Ash3Q3lpcEMFfWSMz5s7eRuMShH9ETbNudZG_JbvlXzDc_xxBkzX_pACcGXdqGsPj3icp_HfSeSCG0aNLMuwejx8cDxj2sJMPSZrFA5w5BufpCGcMNOkArPpW6qhcoT_R0NcyYDxwrSiPfVp9FT40g3eLm4-xmvZa4lK8zBBL1_cvMhEkkkxaCYX64m35dhcYOqYEqbyW5bO2tWkEWsvynTE">He</a> developed a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/05/paris-trial-elysee-rwanda-genocide">close personal relationship</a> with French president François Mitterrand (1981-1995). </p>
<p>France under Mitterrand provided the Habyarimana regime with considerable financial and military support. Mitterrand’s backing helped create a sense of legitimacy for his Rwandan counterpart. This in turn aided the policies of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4187200.pdf?casa_token=2_AoP5kA5cYAAAAA:T5NDvKsEM6UwsdYT-nhG_J5J3_i7WmE7RvDrvEtKtrxPCaY1LFhFrAY-3kD_GRPkjq3oR4P7rXcQNJdP-QqzvoE1zjPTIbQuI_fIwmeFPUP9pg8l4A">ethnic divisionism</a>, hatred and pogroms that would eventually result in the 1994 genocide.</p>
<p>Since then, Rwandan-French relations have been poor at best. Many within the Rwandan government, led by the Rwanda Patriotic Front, <a href="https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1696&context=gsp">denounced</a> France’s closeness to Habyarimana as unacceptable. Rwanda also demanded an acknowledgement of French involvement in the 1994 genocide. Unfortunately, this did not happen under the next French president <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/opinion/15iht-edkinzer.1.15328850.html">Jacques Chirac</a>. </p>
<p>Subsequently, president <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/feb/25/sarkozy-rwanda-genocide-kagame">Sarkozy</a> attempted to foster greater relations with Rwanda. He came close to admitting France’s role during the genocide, but blamed “political errors” for the country’s actions. Relations deteriorated again under president <a href="https://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/187831">François Hollande</a> who minimised France’s involvement prior to and during the genocide. </p>
<p>Now, however, Macron has gone beyond Sarkozy’s tentative steps. </p>
<h2>How relations went south</h2>
<p>As Cold War declined in the early 1990s, France <a href="https://apnews.com/article/edfa5353874d34c97d3062d300bca767">began to apply pressure</a> on its African allies – such as Habyarimana – to democratise. In Rwanda, however, the transition from dictatorship to open political competition did not go well. Rather than peaceful mobilisation, the opening of political space helped Hutu ideological extremists loyal to Habyarimana to propagate the ideology of genocide against the Tutsis. </p>
<p>At the same time, Rwandan exiles — mostly Tutsis – formed the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/161382?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">Rwandan Patriotic Front</a> signalling the start of the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1462352042000225958?casa_token=XXZMNZVErBsAAAAA:EHqfGZrSRrG1vr1c8CDkKHS1k_Mx8BN5bSuyYwg0OJB7RwtuZ4DBw8Djnr4iFG7AZrDLzMZ1RXw">Rwandan Civil War (1990-1994)</a> between government and well-organised rebels.</p>
<p>France backed Habyarimana’s regime by fighting back the first invasion by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (1990-1991). After this campaign, the French government provided its military assistance to rebuild Rwanda’s military against the party. They also secretly supported a government-backed militia, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Rwanda-genocide-of-1994/Genocide#ref1111308">Interahamwe</a> (Those who fight together).</p>
<p>The genocide began hours after the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/12/rwanda-hutu-president-plane-inquiry">assassination</a> of Habyarimana. The presidential plane he was in was shot down by unknown assailants. </p>
<p>France remained steadfastly behind the new genocide government. While not providing military equipment or troops, it pressured for the removal of the United Nation’s peacekeeping <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/past/unamirS.htm">force</a> in Rwanda. It also moved the Rwandan government’s <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-arrest-of-madame-agathe">inner circle</a> of power out of Rwanda in the early days of the genocide.</p>
<p>Later France was to send military troops under the UN-sanctioned <a href="https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/05/14/assessment_of_opration_turquoise_113440.html">Opération Turquoise</a>. The French government publicly stated their substantial contribution of nearly 2,500 soldiers would help stop the genocidal killings. However, it became a safe zone for genocide perpetrators to continue the massacres as well as to <a href="https://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/Zaire.htm">flee</a> into neighbouring Zaire.</p>
<h2>Goodwill gestures</h2>
<p>The political fallout from the 1994 genocide will remain at the heart of relations between Rwanda and France for some time to come. But the signs are promising. A great first step was made in 2019 with the creation of the <a href="https://www.voanews.com/europe/report-frances-role-rwandas-genocide-fails-lay-rest-dark-past">Duclert Commission</a> to investigate France’s role in the genocide. </p>
<p>The commission report expressed reasonable doubt as to whether the French government was fully aware of how its relationship with the Habyarimana regime and training of Interahamwe forces would lead to the genocide. It nevertheless acknowledged France’s involvement in the events leading to the mass killings. </p>
<p>The Rwandan government <a href="https://www.gov.rw/blog-detail/statement-on-the-release-of-the-duclert-commission-report">accepted</a> the report’s findings and commented on how important this was to help restore trust between the two nations.</p>
<p>Macron and current Rwandan president Paul Kagame recently <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/27/world/africa/france-rwanda.html">met</a> in France. Macron publicly showed his desire for a <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/video/20210527-replay-france-s-macron-meets-rwanda-s-kagame-to-turn-page-on-post-genocide-tensions">friendship</a> with his Rwandan counterpart. </p>
<p>During Macron’s Rwanda state visit some significant <a href="https://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/rwanda-france-sign-two-bilateral-agreement">agreements</a> were made between the two countries – for <a href="https://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/rwanda-france-sign-two-bilateral-agreement">example</a> a bilateral cooperation agreement between the two nations’ foreign ministers, financial support for development and for combating Covid-19.</p>
<p>But the highlight for Rwandans was Macron’s visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial. While this might not appear to be a tangible benefit in foreign policy, it holds significant influence in Rwandan perceptions of France amid hesitation, scepticism and open hatred for France. </p>
<p>For many Rwandans, France represents a period in their country’s history that was filled with ethnic hatreds, instability and Habyarimana’s dictatorship. Many still hold France responsible for aiding the destructive ideology of the genocide. </p>
<p>It will take time for Rwandans, especially those who suffered or witnessed the genocide, to trust France again. Macron will be aware of these challenges and how French-Rwandan relations will require time, gestures of goodwill and actions addressing the past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161717/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Beloff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It will take time for Rwandans, especially those who suffered or witnessed the genocide, to trust France again.Jonathan Beloff, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1013662018-08-27T10:45:47Z2018-08-27T10:45:47ZIndia has a sexual assault problem that only women can fix<p>India is the most dangerous country for sexual violence against women, according to the Thomson Reuters Foundation <a href="http://poll2018.trust.org/">2018 survey</a>.</p>
<p>The survey, which measures sexual and non-sexual violence, discrimination, cultural traditions, health care and human trafficking, has been <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-42436817">criticized</a> for reflecting more perception than data. </p>
<p>But India barely fares better in other studies that rank its treatment of women. It placed 131st of 152 countries in the <a href="https://giwps.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/WPS-Country-Ranking.pdf">Georgetown Institute’s global ranking of women’s inclusion and well-being</a>. </p>
<p>India’s <a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/CII/CII2016/pdfs/NEWPDFs/Crime%20in%20India%20-%202016%20Complete%20PDF%20291117.pdf">National Crime Records Bureau</a> reported 338,954 crimes against women – including 38,947 rapes – in 2016, the most recent government data available. That’s up from <a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/">309,546 reported incidents of violence against women</a> in 2013. </p>
<p>High-profile attacks on Indian women have shocked this nation of 1.3 billion in recent years. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/03/five-years-after-gang-murder-jyoti-singh-how-has-delhi-changed">2012 gang rape</a> of a 23-year-old student in Delhi who died from her injuries caused public outrage. The incident helped spur an <a href="http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=91979">amendment to India’s criminal law</a>, which broadened the definition of sexual crimes against women to include stalking, acid attacks and voyeurism.</p>
<p>This year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued an executive order allowing the death penalty as a punishment for <a href="https://indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/2079/1/201232.pdf">people convicted of sexually assaulting a child under 12</a>. </p>
<p>But stricter laws apparently did little to prevent 34 girls from being <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/i-am-gripped-with-a-sense-of-remorse-over-bihar-shelter-home-rape-cases-nitish-kumar/articleshow/65262219.cms">tortured and raped</a> at government-funded shelters in India’s Bihar state earlier this year.</p>
<h2>Women’s representation in India</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://works.bepress.com/nisha-bellinger/">research on diversity in government</a> suggests that one of the reasons India has not been able to effectively address crimes against women is the lack of women in national political office. </p>
<p>That’s because, <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1017/S002238160808033X">research shows</a>, having women in government can lead to more and better laws that safeguard women’s well-being.</p>
<p>India’s population is <a href="http://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=world-development-indicators">48 percent</a> female. But women hold <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm">just under 12 percent</a> of seats in the national legislature. </p>
<p>That falls well below the 30 percent “critical mass” that the <a href="http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr02-03/english/panels/ha/papers/ha0314cb2-1636-1e.pdf">United Nations Equal Opportunity Commission</a> believes is necessary for women lawmakers to be influential in policymaking. </p>
<p>Local governments in India actually have a quota system that ensures women hold <a href="https://thewire.in/gender/politics-womens-representation">one-third</a> of seats in rural and city councils. But female representation in India’s far more powerful national government remains comparable to countries like the Republic of Congo and Mauritius, where women hold about <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm">11 percent</a> of legislative seats. </p>
<p>Rwanda, where <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm">61 percent</a> of legislators are female, has the most women in government of any nation in the world, followed by Cuba, with <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm">53 percent</a>. </p>
<p>These are not necessarily the safest places in the world for women. According to the <a href="https://giwps.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/WPS-Index-Report-2017-18.pdf">Georgetown Institute’s ranking of women’s well-being</a>, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Slovenia and Spain are some of the safest – all countries where women hold <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm">over 30 percent of legislative seats</a>. </p>
<p>Political representation does not translate precisely, directly or immediately into physical security for a given population. But it’s a start. </p>
<h2>Women help women</h2>
<p>Research demonstrates that governments that include representatives from across society – that is, of different political parties, races, classes, genders, geographies and religions – produce better quality of life for citizens than less inclusive governments. </p>
<p>My latest <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-65391-4">book</a> shows that countries with a vibrant political party system enable diverse groups to influence decision-making. Because they are a product of deliberation and cooperation between politicians with divergent ideologies, policies formulated in such societies are more likely to reflect the needs of diverse groups.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1017/S002238160808033X">Scholarship</a> likewise indicates that women in office may prioritize different kinds of policies than men – including those that address the needs of women and children. </p>
<p>In New Zealand, where women hold <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm">38 percent of parliamentary seats</a> and the prime minister is a woman, lawmakers recently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/26/new-zealand-paid-domestic-violence-leave-jan-logie">guaranteed</a> paid leave for victims of domestic violence. That gives victims time to relocate, protecting themselves and their children from their abusers. </p>
<p>Women in the United States Congress have also proactively addressed sexual harassment inside government. </p>
<p>In March, female senators from both parties – who make up <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm">22 percent of the U.S. Senate</a> – pushed Senate leadership to call a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/women-senators-demand-vote-sexual-harassment-bill-n860706">vote on legislation</a> that would give legal representation to women who complain of sexual harassment on Capitol Hill and reduce barriers to filing a formal complaint. The bill <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/24/senate-harassment-bill-reaction-607731">passed</a> in May, and is currently being reconciled with the House’s version of a similar bill. </p>
<p>And it was the late chief minister of India’s Tamil Nadu state, J. Jayalalithaa, who in 2010 announced a <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/jayalalithaa-proposes-death-chemical-castration-for-rapists/article4261610.ece">13-point action plan</a> for the state to better protect sexual violence survivors. Her provisions, which have since been partially <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/22-more-courts-to-be-established-in-Tamil-Nadu/articleshow/49108500.cms">implemented</a>, included state-paid medical expenses after abuse, female investigating officers and fast-track courts for sexual violence cases. </p>
<p>India’s 2013 national legislation on sexual violence ignores many of these victims’ rights issues, as the human rights organizations <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/11/08/everyone-blames-me/barriers-justice-and-support-services-sexual-assault-survivors#290612">Human Rights Watch</a> and <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/press-releases/2013/03/india-new-sexual-violence-law-has-both-positive-and-regressive-provisions-2/">Amnesty International</a> have pointed out. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232950/original/file-20180821-149463-8f7p06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232950/original/file-20180821-149463-8f7p06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232950/original/file-20180821-149463-8f7p06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232950/original/file-20180821-149463-8f7p06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232950/original/file-20180821-149463-8f7p06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232950/original/file-20180821-149463-8f7p06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232950/original/file-20180821-149463-8f7p06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Villagers gather near a crime scene in a field near Jewar, India, where a gang of highway robbers allegedly raped four women in May 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Gang-Rape/330196b821fb4df5b6749929bb3876f0/7/0">AP Photo/Altaf Qadri</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Getting women at the table</h2>
<p>India has contemplated the need for more women in public office. </p>
<p>In 2010, the upper house of its legislature voted on a <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pass-long-pending-women-reservation-bill-demand-women-organisations/articleshow/64980701.cms">bill</a> that would have designated one-third of seats in national and state legislative assemblies for women. Then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/mar/09/india-parliament-approves-female-quota">described</a> it as a “historic step forward toward emancipation of Indian womanhood.” </p>
<p>But the lower house never voted on the bill. And though Prime Minister Modi has expressed <a href="https://www.bjp.org/images/pdf_2014/full_manifesto_english_07.04.2014.pdf">support for a gender quota in Indian government</a>, he has made little effort to work with parliament to get the legislation passed. </p>
<p>Putting Indian women in positions of political power won’t solve a longstanding, pervasive and entrenched social issue like violence against women. </p>
<p>But evidence suggests that an Indian government with more women in it could better protect Indian women by passing comprehensive laws that defend women from abuse and help victims recover.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101366/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nisha Bellinger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>India is the most dangerous country for women in 2018, according to a new survey. Putting more women in government is a necessary first step in preventing rape and better protecting abuse survivors.Nisha Bellinger, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Boise State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/854212017-11-01T13:05:36Z2017-11-01T13:05:36ZAfrican commission turns 30, but threats to its independence remain real<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192808/original/file-20171101-19861-11rf2uf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A political body of the AU is second-guessing a legal body in its interpretation of the African Charter, on the basis of prejudice against LGBTI people.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">REUTERS/Antony Njuguna</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The African Union’s longest serving human rights body, the <a href="http://www.achpr.org/">African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights</a>, is celebrating 30 years since its inauguration. Regrettably, celebrations have been stifled by an unresolved challenge to its autonomy. What’s at stake is the commission’s ability to do its job of making sure that AU member states comply with its main human rights treaty, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights <a href="http://www.chr.up.ac.za/index.php/documents-by-theme/african-charter-achpr.html">(African Charter)</a>.</p>
<p>The crisis has its origins in April 2015 when the commission granted observer status to the South African based NGO <a href="https://www.cal.org.za/">Coalition of African Lesbians</a>. Being given observer status gives an NGO the right to participate in the commission’s sessions. It’s usually a rather routine affair – more than 500 NGOS have been given the status. </p>
<p>The Coalition of African Lesbians case was out of the ordinary because it was the first time an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender organisation had been granted observer status. </p>
<p>Every six months, the African Commission submits a report of its activities to the AU’s executive council, a political body consisting of the ministers of foreign affairs of member states. The report is tabled for the executive council’s “consideration”. The current situation arose when the council took the unprecedented step of telling the commission to reverse one of its findings in the activity report related to human rights. </p>
<p>When the executive council “considered” the commission’s report it directed it to withdraw Coalition of African Lesbian’s observer status. The executive council argued that granting observer status to the coalition was not “in line with … fundamental African values, identity and <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/decisions/31762-ex_cl_dec_873_-_898_xxvii_e.pdf">good traditions</a>.</p>
<p>The conclusion is inescapable – a political body of the AU is second guessing a legal body in its interpretation of a legal text, the African Charter, on the basis of prejudice against lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people.</p>
<p>The council’s decision was not only unprecedented, it is also deeply troubling given the commission’s role as the watchdog of human rights on the continent. Its mandate is to interpret the African Charter without fear or favour. If politicians are allowed to dictate how it does its job, the commission will no longer be autonomous and independent. And its role of supervising states will be eroded badly. </p>
<p>The commission has a great deal to be proud of. Over the past three decades it has advanced the rights of individuals and groups in AU member states when their rights were at risk, and provided remedies to many of them. It also held states accountable for human rights violations. And it contributed to building a culture of human rights among governments and civil society, providing a forum where they could discuss human rights.</p>
<h2>Court’s failure to defuse the crisis</h2>
<p>To make matters worse, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights recently missed an opportunity to defuse this looming crisis. One of the court’s functions is to give advice about the interpretation of AU legal texts. Making use of this opportunity, the Coalition of African Lesbians and another NGO, the Centre for Human Rights at University of Pretoria, approached the court in an attempt to defuse the situation. They asked it to answer the question whether the executive council may, as part of its competence to "consider” the commission’s report, overrule the commission’s decisions <a href="http://www.chr.up.ac.za/images/files/news/news_2015/Request%20for%20an%20advisory%20opinion%20to%20African%20Court%20by%20CHR%20and%20CAL%202%20November%202015.pdf">resolved</a>.</p>
<p>We submitted the request in line with the court’s protocol which allows “African organisations recognised by the AU” to submit request for advisory opinions. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the court adopted a very narrow approach in its <a href="http://www.chr.up.ac.za/images/files/news/news_2017/002-2015-African%20Lesbians-%20Advisory%20Opinion-28%20September%202017.pdf">finding</a>. It held that the two NGOs were not “recognised by the AU”, and therefore not entitled to make a request to get the dispute resolved. This is despite the argument that they <em>are</em> recognised because they both enjoy observer status with the African Commission. </p>
<p>In effect, the court decided that only NGOs that have entered into a formal memorandum of understanding with the AU Secretariat (AU Commission) are entitled to approach the court with advisory requests. </p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>Ideally, the court needs to resolve what is essentially an intra-AU constitutional dispute. But the court does not act at its own initiative.</p>
<p>There are two realistic possibilities to get the court to issue an advisory opinion. The Commission itself, and any other AU body such as the African Committee of Experts on the Rights of Welfare of the Child, could approach the court with a request for an advisory opinion. Or an NGO that’s got a memorandum of understanding with the AU Secretariat could submit such a request. But to get there will require these bodies – or a qualifying NGO – to take action on an issue that some of their members may see as politically too controversial and risky. </p>
<p>If the court’s advisory role is not brought into play, the executive council and the African commission will remain on a collision course that may seriously jeopardise the protection of human rights within the AU. If the matter is left unresolved, one of two things will happen: either the commission will have to give in and withdraw observer status for the Coalition of African Lesbians, seriously undermining its authority and legitimacy. Or it will have to defy the executive council. The consequence of this could be that it sees support – financial and other – cut. Such cuts are likely to diminish its role of protecting the rights of people living on the continent. </p>
<p>It is in the best interest of everyone in AU member states that this matter be resolved in a way that defuses the potential for conflict between the two bodies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85421/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frans Viljoen is affiliated with the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria. </span></em></p>A dispute between the African Union’s executive and the commission responsible for overseeing human rights could weaken the protection of peoples’ rights.Frans Viljoen, Director and Professor of International Human Rights Law, Centre for Human Rights, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/854442017-10-11T00:36:39Z2017-10-11T00:36:39ZIn Latin America, is there a link between abortion rights and democracy?<p><em>Leer <a href="http://theconversation.com/sin-derechos-reproductivos-no-hay-democracia-el-flagelo-del-aborto-ilegal-en-america-latina-82945">en español</a>.</em></p>
<p>Three-quarters of all abortions in Latin America are performed illegally, putting the woman’s life at risk. Together with Africa and Asia, the region accounts for many of the 17.1 million unsafe abortions performed globally each year, according to a <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)31794-4/fulltext">new report in The Lancet</a>, published jointly with the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy group. </p>
<p>Though worrying, this fact is unsurprising in a region where <a href="http://derechosdelamujer.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/CRR-Mapa-Aborto-AL-2016.pdf">six countries ban abortion under all circumstances</a>: the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Suriname. Such complete criminalization, even when fetal termination is necessary to save a woman’s life, exists in only two other places in the world: <a href="http://www.worldabortionlaws.com/">Malta and the Vatican</a>.</p>
<p><iframe id="t73Yb" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/t73Yb/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Numerous <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/infographic/2016/restrictive-laws-do-not-stop-women-having-abortions">studies</a> confirm that restrictive laws <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)30380-4/fulltext">do not in any way prevent</a> women from seeking or getting abortions. And in the vast majority of Latin American countries – including <a href="http://derechosdelamujer.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/CRR-Mapa-Aborto-AL-2016.pdf">Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela</a> and, since <a href="http://www.lanacion.com.ar/2049592-chile-el-congreso-aprobo-la-despenalizacion-del-aborto-en-tres-casos">August 2017</a>, Chile – this medical procedure is legal, though it generally requires specific justification, such as maternal health or rape. </p>
<p>Not so in Central America, home to three of the eight countries in the world with total abortion bans. As I am a Costa Rican lawyer and feminist, to me, it’s no small matter that women in many neighboring countries lack access to this basic health service.</p>
<p>Why does this region so studiously avoid recognizing women as full individuals entitled to their own human rights? In my view, there’s a clear link in Latin America between the state of a country’s democracy and the reproductive rights of its female citizens. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189642/original/file-20171010-17673-kq022p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189642/original/file-20171010-17673-kq022p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189642/original/file-20171010-17673-kq022p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189642/original/file-20171010-17673-kq022p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189642/original/file-20171010-17673-kq022p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189642/original/file-20171010-17673-kq022p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189642/original/file-20171010-17673-kq022p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Neighbors Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador are among the few countries in the world with total abortion bans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMap_of_Central_America.png">Cacahuate/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Honduras: Land of inequality</h2>
<p>In Honduras, for example, it was only after the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/world/americas/29honduras.html?mcubz=3">2009 coup d'état that ousted President Manuel Zelaya</a> – a huge democratic setback that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/31/hillary-clinton-honduras-violence-manuel-zelaya-berta-caceres">ushered in an era of violence</a> – that the country passed a total ban on abortion. </p>
<p>Today, women must carry to term even a pregnancy that endangers their life, and <a href="http://www.laprensa.hn/honduras/tegucigalpa/700457-98/posible-legalizaci%C3%B3n-de-p%C3%ADldora-del-d%C3%ADa-despu%C3%A9s-reaviva-debate-en-honduras">emergency contraception is heavily penalized</a>. These restrictions were <a href="https://www.reproductiverights.org/es/centro-de-prensa/corte-suprema-de-honduras-reafirma-prohibici%C3%B3n-de-venta-distribuci%C3%B3n-y-uso-de-pae">reaffirmed</a> by the Supreme Court in 2012.</p>
<p>Despite efforts by human rights defenders and official statements by the <a href="http://www.eldiario.es/pikara/Honduras-sigue-penalizando-aborto-Espana_6_641895842.html">United Nations</a>, <a href="http://www.un.org/spanish/News/story.asp?NewsID=37212#.Wcv1VLLyj3g">independent experts</a> and NGOs like <a href="https://twitter.com/AmnistiaOnline/status/857373984022818816">Amnesty International</a>, there has been no material progress in advancing the reproductive rights of Honduran women. </p>
<p>In some ways, this is not surprising. In post-coup Honduras, human rights violations – ranging from <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-06-27/map-here-are-countries-worlds-highest-murder-rates">violence</a> and <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-honduras-rising-poverty-and-inequality-report-20131106-story.html">poverty</a> to <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/honduras">impunity</a> – are routine fare for the entire population. Rampant <a href="http://datatopics.worldbank.org/gender/country/honduras">gender inequality</a> is just another symptom of this dismal situation.</p>
<h2>Nicaragua and El Salvador: Dangerous setbacks</h2>
<p>The situation in Nicaragua, just to the south, is similar. There, “therapeautic abortion” – the common parlance for ending a pregnancy for health-related reasons – was acceptable <a href="http://wpd.ugr.es/%7Eproyectopf/admin/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Tesis-final_roberta-granelli.pdf">from 1837 until relatively recently</a>. But starting in 2007, President Daniel Ortega, who has <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-25937292">modified the Constitution to end term limits</a>, began <a href="https://confidencial.com.ni/diez-anos-de-penalizacion-del-aborto/">passing legal amendments</a> to ban abortions completely, <a href="https://elpais.com/sociedad/2007/11/14/actualidad/1194994802_850215.html">without any exceptions</a>. </p>
<p>Ortega supported abortion rights <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6161396.stm">during his first presidency, in the 1980s</a>. But he has since embraced the Catholic Church’s position of strong opposition, with deadly consequences for Nicaraguan women. </p>
<p>In 2010, for example, a pregnant woman who went by the pseudonym of “Amelia” was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/oct/08/health.lifeandhealth">refused treatment for metastatic cancer</a> because the state ruled that the regime of chemotherapy and radiotherapy – which her doctor had urgently recommended – might trigger a miscarriage. </p>
<p>The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ultimately issued <a href="http://www.oas.org/es/cidh/mujeres/proteccion/cautelares.asp#inicio">injunctions</a> for Amelia, but the damage was already done. She died in 2011.</p>
<p>Impossible though it may seem, women fare worse in El Salvador, a civil war-torn country <a href="https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/el-salvador-bloody-civil-war-devastating-criminal-violence">rife with violence, unpunished crimes</a> and <a href="http://www.insightcrime.org/investigations/the-infiltrators-a-chronicle-of-el-salvador-police-corruption">criminal infiltration of the police</a>. <a href="https://www.elespanol.com/sabadodomingo/20151031/75742440_0.html">In 1999</a>, El Salvador constitutionally mandated that human life starts at the <a href="https://elfaro.net/es/201703/columnas/20063/Desde-el-instante-de-la-concepci%C3%B3n.htm">moment of conception</a>. </p>
<p>This legal argument is now used to uphold a full criminalization of abortion, even under the most extenuating circumstances, such as when a woman’s life is at risk, the pregnancy is the result of rape or the fetus is severely malformed.</p>
<p>Anti-abortion sentiment is so virulent in El Salvador today that even miscarriages may be investigated on <a href="https://www.reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/documents/crr_ElSalvadorReport_Sept_25_sp.pdf">suspicion that they were self-induced</a>. This persecution has had <a href="https://www.hrw.org/es/news/2017/02/18/el-salvador-deberia-despenalizar-el-aborto">lethal consequences</a>: Women who’ve <a href="https://elpais.com/internacional/2017/07/08/america/1499467183_661779.html">spontaneously lost a pregnancy</a> <a href="https://www.reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/documents/crr_ElSalvadorReport_Sept_25_sp.pdf">have been accused</a> of murder, sometimes by even their own law-abiding relatives.</p>
<p>In 2016, <a href="http://elmundo.sv/suecia-da-asilo-a-salvadorena-por-sufrir-persecucion-politica-tras-aborto/">Sweden offered political asylum</a> to a Salvadoran woman who was sentenced to 40 years of prison for the aggravated homicide of a fetus miscarried before she even knew she was pregnant. </p>
<p>The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women <a href="https://www.reproductiverights.org/es/centro-de-prensa/comit%C3%A9-de-la-onu-le-pide-a-el-salvador-despenalizar-el-aborto">has requested</a> that El Salvador decriminalize abortion, saying that the fact that <a href="http://www.tribunafeminista.org/2017/02/casi-un-70-de-las-mujeres-condenadas-por-abortar-en-el-salvador-tienen-entre-18-y-25-anos/">most women</a> prosecuted and sentenced for this crime are among the country’s most vulnerable citizens – young, uneducated, jobless and single – represents a powerful <a href="http://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2017/07/11/la-intensa-lucha-por-el-aborto-en-el-salvador-el-pais-con-la-prohibicion-mas-severa-del-mundo/">social injustice</a>. </p>
<h2>Women’s citizenship</h2>
<p>Though there are great economic, cultural and political differences between these three countries, across Central America the connection between the lack of rule of law and women’s restricted reproductive rights is noteworthy.</p>
<p>That’s because <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/es/documents/amr01/3388/2016/es/">denying</a> women the ability to make decisions about their own bodies means that a woman’s life matters only to the extent that she is the custodian of a potential future life, rather than as a life worthy of protection. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.corteconstitucional.gov.co/relatoria/2006/c-355-06.htm">Constitutional Court of Colombia</a> agrees. In 2006, it stated in its legal justification for decriminalizing abortion, “The dignity of women does not permit that they be considered mere receptacles.”</p>
<p>In Chile, which recently legalized abortion after nearly a half-century of its total prohibition, history shows a similar relationship between democracy and women’s rights. In 1931, the Chilean Congress <a href="http://www.lanacion.com.ar/2049592-chile-el-congreso-aprobo-la-despenalizacion-del-aborto-en-tres-casos">approved</a> the voluntary interruption of pregnancy for medical purposes if the woman’s life was endangered or the fetus was not viable. </p>
<p>This exception remained in place until, in 1973, under the <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6606013">dictatorship of Augustin Pinochet</a>, abortion became illegal. In <a href="https://www.clarin.com/mundo/chile-aprobo-historica-ley-despenaliza-aborto-causales_0_Bk6_nQbvW.html">1980, the Chilean Constitution</a> established that the law protected the life “of the unborn,” indicating that the life of a woman was worth less than that of an embryo. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188681/original/file-20171003-18916-obmopm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188681/original/file-20171003-18916-obmopm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188681/original/file-20171003-18916-obmopm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188681/original/file-20171003-18916-obmopm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188681/original/file-20171003-18916-obmopm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188681/original/file-20171003-18916-obmopm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188681/original/file-20171003-18916-obmopm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Feminists in Chile celebrated three new exceptions to the abortion ban – mother’s health, fetal health, rape – but also wondered what took so long.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Corporación Miles Chile</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even after <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1988-09-18/opinion/op-3102_1_augusto-pinochet">democracy was restored to Chile</a>, in 1991, this ban remained in place. It was not until August 2017, some 26 years later, that the country <a href="http://www.lavanguardia.com/internacional/20170803/43297583830/chile-aprueba-historico-proyecto-despenalizar-aborto.html">adopted a more sensible approach, focused on protecting women’s lives and health</a>. The Chilean case demonstrates that once women lose their value as individuals in the eyes of the state, it is difficult to win back. </p>
<p>What’s at risk in the Latin American regimes where abortion is still forbidden, then, are not only women’s lives but also the political systems of Central American society itself. Can democracy exist in places that don’t recognize women as people?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85444/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Larissa Arroyo Navarrete is a professor of Human Rights at both the Universidad de Costa Rica and the Universidad Nacional, in Costa Rica. She is also president of the Asociación Ciudadana ACCEDER and has collaborated with the Center for Reproductive Rights.</span></em></p>Seventy-five percent of all abortions in Latin America are illicit. In Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador, where abortion is totally illegal, the bans correlate with a generalized failure of the rule of law.Larissa Arroyo Navarrete, Professor of Human Rights, Universidad de Costa RicaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/793872017-07-06T06:10:59Z2017-07-06T06:10:59ZTo fight radicalisation in Southeast Asia, empower the women<p>Women have always been a quiet force to be reckoned with in <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/blog/post/female-terrorists-a-surprisingly-timeless-phenomenon">uprisings worldwide</a>. But, until recently, most studies focused on their roles as <a href="http://news.siteintelgroup.com/blog/index.php/about-us/21-jihad/41-feb09-sp-102064454">suicide bombers</a> and combatants. </p>
<p>Terrorism research is now seeing a notable shift, with analysis examining the role women play as possible <a href="http://www.mei.edu/content/map/role-women-islamic-state-dynamics-terrorism-indonesia">instigators of violence</a>: mothers and mother-figures who are raising the next generation of soldiers. </p>
<h2>Women as radicalisers</h2>
<p>In Southeast Asia, for example, over the past year, there has been a rise in the number of stories of women involved in <a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/woman-in-jakarta-bomb-plot-was-a-maid-in-singapore">planning acts of terror</a> and <a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/indonesian-militants-recruiting-women-terrorists?xtor=EREC-16-1">declaring support for extreme religious beliefs</a>. </p>
<p>And ISIS is known to actively <a href="https://archive.org/stream/SistersRoleInJihad/78644461-Sister-s-Role-in-Jihad_djvu.txt">indoctrinate</a> women in order to <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-booklet-issues-guidelines-to-mothers-on-how-to-raise-jihadi-babies-9952721.html">nurture young holy warriors</a>. </p>
<p>Networks of women who pledge allegiance to the cause – whether ISIS’ or other extremist ideology – can exchange radical ideas among themselves and inculcate their children through a sustained <a href="http://www.rsis.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/CO17074.pdf?utm_source=getresponse&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rsis_publications&utm_content=RSIS+Commentary+074%252F2017+Women-Terrorism+Nexus+in+Pakistan+by+Sara+Mahmood+">domestic radicalisation strategy</a>. </p>
<p>This suggests that terrorism prevention efforts should target not just extremist elements themselves, but also women, as possible vectors of radicalisation. </p>
<p>In Southeast Asia, <a href="http://guides.library.cornell.edu/IslamSoutheastAsia">home to 25%</a> of the world’s Muslims, however, this proposition may sound particularly offensive. Here, women are often portrayed as symbols of virtue, selflessness and purity; entire sermons and treatises are dedicated to reverence for mothers.</p>
<p>A selection of <a href="https://www.soundvision.com/article/the-quran-and-hadith-on-mothers">hadiths</a>, or Islamic teachings, about revering mothers are often cited as the reason for this inculcated respect, but even before the advent of Islam, Southeast Asian cultures treated mothers with great reverence. </p>
<p>Asian myths of various origins often feature a mother goddess who is deemed the personification of <a href="https://journeyingtothegoddess.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/goddess-bixia-yuanjin/">motherhood</a>, <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/goddess-durga-1770363">fertility</a> and <a href="http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/child-protectors.html">creation</a>. </p>
<p>Malay communities, for example, espouse <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26167656">a mother’s cherished status</a>, and it is commonly believed that the pathway to heaven is in the footsteps of the mother.</p>
<p>The notion that it might lead instead to extremist thought and violent action is a dramatic departure from traditional thinking. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, across Muslim Southeast Asia, there are clear indications of increasing religiosity, from the controversial <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/19/divisive-campaign-for-jakarta-governor-sees-muslim-candidate-elected">election, in April, of a conservative Muslim as Jakarta’s governor</a> to purported support and <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/09/why-does-malaysia-have-an-islamic-state-problem/">empathy for ISIS in Malaysia</a>. </p>
<p>Could mothers, those glorified beings, be part of the problem? Given dramatic economic and cultural changes underway in the region, the notion is not unfounded.</p>
<h2>From distress to reprieve</h2>
<p>As many parts of rural and coastal Southeast Asia undergo rapid development and urbanisation, many communities are quickly <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0964569110001730">losing the natural habitats</a> upon which their traditional livelihoods, like fishing and farming, depended.</p>
<p>Some families have been forced to migrate or commute to urban areas to seek employment in manufacturing, but volatile economic conditions and increasing <a href="https://reconnectingasia.csis.org/analysis/entries/3-d-printings-tipping-point/">automation</a> have cast doubt on the longevity of even these jobs.</p>
<p>As a result, societies in which men have typically been <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTGENAGRLIVSOUBOOK/Resources/Module10.pdf">the main breadwinner</a> are now leaning on women to put food on the table. </p>
<p>To do so, mothers often rely on informal women’s networks . These provide information on bargain shopping or bartering for food. They might also resort to income-generating activities that men disdain as too difficult (such as the sale of homemade products) or too demeaning (such as collecting snails and greens in the forests). </p>
<p>Even as women in Southeast Asia increasingly serve as the family backbone, they receive little recognition or support for this role. Mental health services and financial assistance for women under pressure, such as those provided in <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijfm/2011/621426/">some rural parts of India</a>, are rarely, if ever, available here. </p>
<p>On the contrary, research has shown that that when men perceive that their public standing has been diminished by the inability to provide for the family, they may seek to exert more control in the personal sphere, translating into <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/researchAndExpertise/researchHighlights/socialPolicy/Female%20breadwinners.aspx">even more prohibitions on their wives and children</a>. </p>
<p>Such economic and psychological burdens may leave poor, isolated women with religion as virtually their only <a href="https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=vrbczEELSTQC&pg=PA254&lpg=PA254&dq=women+turn+to+religion+in+times+of+suffering&source=bl&ots=6l714_R53Y&sig=6CPdVCRwcyEFy0Mt0Ep3i1HVbbI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjoyaKI3uTUAhUFpY8KHYkrB7AQ6AEIUDAH#v=onepage&q=women%20turn%20to%20religion%20in%20times%20of%20suffering&f=false">reprieve</a>. </p>
<h2>Women as the family’s beacon of religion</h2>
<p>A 2009 study of upper middle-class urban Malaysian women by <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/429101/pdf">Sylvia Frisk</a> found that in spite of societal patriarchy, mothers and mother-figures are primarily responsible for disseminating and enforcing religious knowledge and rituals within their families. </p>
<p>And, in a decade of fieldwork in Malaysian coastal areas, we have seen that women who are most constrained by their husbands or families also most proactively take command of religious enforcement in their homes. </p>
<p>In other words, women who are under the most mental, physical or emotional pressures seem to find a sense of power that they are unable to exercise in other parts of their lives by compelling religious compliance in those closest to them. </p>
<p>Dictating religious practice becomes a way to exercise some form of control. The promise of a happier afterlife may also provide some sustenance. </p>
<p>The danger is that, unlike the upper middle-class women in Frisk’s study, poorer women have limited access to religious information. Their social circles are smaller, their movements more limited and they are less likely to read widely and critically question what they are taught. </p>
<p>If such women rely on a single source of Islamic learning, and that source is a radical one, they can be convincingly poisoned by extreme teachings. From here, it is not difficult to envision children being imbued with radical thought as well.</p>
<h2>Empower the mothers</h2>
<p>Women enforcing religious thought is innocuous on its own. But it becomes a concern when considered alongside the rise in female engagement with Islamic extremism. </p>
<p>In the <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/6/e1501742.full">Middle East</a>, the existence of radical Muslim women’s networks has been documented. In several high-profile cases, mothers have <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/palestinian-lawmaker-mother-militants-dies-130719155.html">encouraged their sons</a> to fight the “holy war”. </p>
<p>At times, mothers appear to have even <a href="http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=585&fld_id=635&doc_id=15029">celebrated</a> their children’s deaths as martyrs. </p>
<p>This is now happening in Southeast Asia too. As the recent case of Malaysian <a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/malaysian-women-looking-for-isis-lovers-left-stranded-at-turkish-border">women selling their property to be with their ISIS lovers</a> shows, radicalisation among women is on the rise.</p>
<p>We also found that it is increasingly socially unacceptable to speak out against or disagree with a religious entity – <a href="http://www.themalaymailonline.com/what-you-think/article/system-and-culture-of-abuse-aziff-azuddin">a religious school</a> or <a href="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/malaysia-s-muslims-grapple-with-being--good-enough--as-conservat-7604730">a faith leader</a>, for example – in Malaysian society today, which allows venues for extremist education to flourish unchecked.</p>
<p>Among Malay Muslim, the fear that not abiding by anything taught by a religious teacher can lead to a loss of <em>pahala</em>, the reward of heaven, encourages compliance with religious instruction – no matter its source or content.</p>
<p>All of these factors combined create the perfect setting for women to disseminate radical Islamic beliefs, both intentionally and unintentionally. Their offspring may then fulfil their filial duty to obey.</p>
<p>To reduce the likelihood that radical thought will be spread in Southeast Asia, empower the mothers. Providing socioeconomic support where it is most needed – among women – is the best insurance against future terrorism, ensuring that mothers and families remain vectors for positive action and tolerant beliefs, not hotbeds of distress and discontent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79387/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Socioeconomic support is essential to help families resist the temptation of extremism.Serina Abdul Rahman, Visiting Fellow (Malaysia Programme/ Regional Economic Studies), National University of SingaporeChristopher H. Lim, Senior Fellow in Science, Technology & Economics at RSIS, Nanyang Technological UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/774272017-05-21T10:43:26Z2017-05-21T10:43:26ZElection season offers a reminder that Kenya remains deeply sexist<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169790/original/file-20170517-24307-q3s2zg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman leaves a polling station after casting her vote during the 2013 Kenyan elections.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Goran Tomasevic</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kenyan folk stories celebrate women as strong, fierce heroines of the distant past. Women in some communities in western and central Kenya are said to have <a href="http://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/123456789/10672/Women%20political%20participation%20a%20case%20of%20Bomachoge%20Constituency%20in%20Kenya%2C%201963-2013..pdf?sequence=4&isAllowed=y">enjoyed considerable power</a> directly or indirectly as chiefs, queens, queen mothers and advisors. </p>
<p>One of these communities even started off as being <a href="http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/magazine/434746-509930-dpqo3a/index.html">matrilineal</a>. Women led and fought fearlessly to extend their territory. Although this community has since become patrilineal, its nine clans are still named after the daughters of its legendary descendants.</p>
<p>In more recent times, women endured the same hardships as their male counterparts in the political struggle to free the country from Britain’s colonial grip. They risked <a href="http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=27623">life and limb</a> to ensure armed freedom fighters got food. They were also an important source of intelligence for the armed fighters as they came under less suspicion. </p>
<p>But, in the 50-odd years since independence, Kenya’s women have had a rough time of it in politics. The first post-independence parliament in 1963 did not have a single woman representative. Only nine had contested for a seat in the 158-member house.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until 1969 that the <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/Kenyas-first-Iron-Lady-of-politics/1064-1932162-100u2cfz/index.html">first woman</a> was elected to parliament. In a chamber of 169 members, there were only two women – one elected and one nominated. At the end of 1992, 30 years after independence, the count was just two women in a chamber of 198. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169972/original/file-20170518-12254-1p8mpqt.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169972/original/file-20170518-12254-1p8mpqt.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169972/original/file-20170518-12254-1p8mpqt.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169972/original/file-20170518-12254-1p8mpqt.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169972/original/file-20170518-12254-1p8mpqt.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169972/original/file-20170518-12254-1p8mpqt.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169972/original/file-20170518-12254-1p8mpqt.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169972/original/file-20170518-12254-1p8mpqt.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Women representation and participation in Kenya’s parliament since independence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kihoro, W. (2007) updated for this article</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kenya’s progressive 2010 Constitution brought a sea of change in the last elections held in 2013. Not only were there seats reserved for women, but more candidates than ever threw their hats in the ring. The new parliament had a whopping 88 both elected and nominated. More encouraging was the number willing to contest House at 449. </p>
<p>But the change went only so far. None of the 19 women candidates seeking senate and gubernatorial positions were elected. Of the 1,450 elected to county assemblies there were 88 women (or 6%). In Parliament, the increase in numbers amounted to 19%. All were well below the constitutional minimum entitlement of at least a third. </p>
<h2>Lazy, idlers and busy bodies</h2>
<p>As the election draws closer, Kenyans are reminded how sexist and patriarchal their society has remained. Choosing to run is a particularly difficult decision for a woman and her family. Campaigning is often marked by violence <a href="http://nairobinews.nation.co.ke/news/goons-hold-passaris-hostage-uon-demand-sh150k-ransom/">directed at women</a> candidates. </p>
<p>Women candidates in cross ethnic marriages are often <a href="http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2016/06/15/dont-fight-me-because-my-husband-is-luo-says-laboso_c1368961">easy targets</a>. Some are taunted to go seek elective seats where they were born. The <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26049787">naming and shaming</a> of the single, divorced and married as people who should be taking care of their husband is the order of the day in campaign rallies.</p>
<p>The agitation for a greater political role for women led to progressive legal frameworks. But historical prejudices have ensured that a bill that would enshrine the law has twice failed to get the numbers in a male-dominated House. </p>
<p>The Affirmative Action Bill is better known as the two thirds gender rule. Under an article of the constitution Parliament is required to pass laws to ensure that no gender holds more than two thirds of elective posts and public appointments.</p>
<p>Sadly, the 2013 Parliament has struggled to give to life the requirements of this rule. The failure further demonstrates the complexities of negotiating and upholding democratic principles, people’s wishes and constitutional imperatives. </p>
<p>Those against the implementation of the rule argue that women should not be handed free positions. They ought to go to the people and campaign for support. They have been branded as being lazy, idlers and <a href="http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000196994/new-proposals-to-achieve-two-third-gender-rule?articleID=2000196994&story_title=new-proposals-to-achieve-two-third-gender-rule&pageNo=2">busy bodies</a> who don’t deserve to be in Parliament. </p>
<p>In addition, it has been <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000200820/why-kenyan-mps-shot-down-gender-bill">argued</a> that increasing women representation in parliament will hurt the economy due to the ballooning budget. One reads negativity and selfishness in the reasons being advanced. Those who hold leadership positions don’t want to let go. </p>
<h2>Political parties can do more</h2>
<p>Fundamentally excluding women from leadership means that the aspirations of half of the population are ignored. It should therefore be appreciated that if the playing ground was level, there would be no need to include the two thirds gender rule in the Constitution.</p>
<p>What will it take to bring the rule to life? Political parties can do more by making their leadership structures fair and inclusive. Their nominations should not be gender skewed and women who express interest should be given a fair chance to compete. And they could do more to shield women from acts of violence and thuggery.</p>
<p>Women are known to opt out of politics because of fear of violence because the impact on them goes beyond the physical harm. When they do, they lose their right to participate in politics as equal partners. And the country loses the opportunity to experience their aspirations, skills and the ability to lead and articulate the needs and voices of their people. </p>
<p>Having more women in leadership positions will also motivate young girls to strive for leadership positions when they grow up. The younger generation will grow confident that society is fair and doesn’t impose limitations on the basis of gender.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77427/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beatrice M’mboga Akala does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Kenya’s progressive 2010 Constitution brought improved women’s representation in Parliament and public life. But historical prejudices remain, always more intensely apparent during elections.Beatrice M’mboga Akala, Post Doctoral Research Fellow, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/739472017-04-05T06:08:46Z2017-04-05T06:08:46ZColombian guerrillas disarm, starting their risky return to civilian life<p><em><strong>This article, originally published on April 5 2017 with the headline “For Colombian rebels, a risky shift from armed revolt to party politics”, has been updated to reflect the latest developments in Colombia’s peace process.</strong></em></p>
<hr>
<p>As of today, the Colombian Armed Revolutionary Forces are armed no more. </p>
<p>After missing the initial May 31 deadline to hand over their weapons, the FARC guerrillas have now completed the disarmament process, closing (perhaps) the final chapter of a 50-year conflict with the government of Colombia.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://twitter.com/TimoFARC/status/877157611715612672">tweeted statement</a>, FARC leader Timochenko has called disarmament “an act of will, bravery and hope”.</p>
<p>The peace process, which officially began with an accord signed on November 30 2016, has run up against numerous obstacles – from the <a href="http://caracol.com.co/radio/2017/02/22/nacional/1487718984_248013.html">inadequate</a> FARC <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-colombia-actually-put-its-peace-plan-into-action-73895">centralisation zones</a> and a much-criticised <a href="https://noticias.terra.com.co/mundo/onu-amnistia-en-colombia-viola-estandar-internacional,c6fe27e35a0a54c19c5f8aa90c844df2bi1un5lo.html">amnesty law</a> to the alarmingly frequent assassinations of Colombian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/19/colombia-farc-activist-killings">human rights activists</a>.</p>
<p>Now the country – and the FARC – is asking how well the decommissioned fighters from this half-century-old Marxist insurgency will transition back into civilian life. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"879322874833768449"}"></div></p>
<p>For peace to stick, a violent rebel group must now successfully become a political actor, deeply transforming who it is, how it sees itself and what it does. And while commanders like Timochenko have a clearly political vision for the FARC’s future, the path there remains fraught, particularly for the now out-of-work rank-and-file soldiers. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://thecitypaperbogota.com/news/colombian-authorities-release-composites-of-men-implicated-in-andino-bombing/17393">a recent deadly bombing in Bogotá</a> confirmed, the end of one of the longest-standing guerrilla insurgencies in contemporary world history does not mean the end of violence in Colombia. </p>
<h2>Making friends, gaining influence</h2>
<p>As a political party, the FARC – consummate political outsiders – will have to establish dialogue with other parties and social movements. At the moment, this is difficult to envision. Negotiations with the the FARC <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-colombia-voted-no-to-peace-with-farc-66416">faced stiff opposition</a>, and the organisation <a href="https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm">still features on the US terrorist watchlist</a>.</p>
<p>Currently, no politician dares to suggest an alliance. But in the long run, such domestic relationship-building seems <a href="http://www.eltiempo.com/politica/partidos-politicos/posibles-coaliciones-de-partidos-con-organizacion-politica-de-farc-28589">both necessary and probable</a>. Most likely, the FARC will seek to build ties with Colombia’s leftist national parties and social movements, as it has done in the past. </p>
<p>In the 1980s, negotiations with the FARC and other rebels resulted in the <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Colombias-Patriotic-Union-A-Victim-of-Political-Genocide-20151023-0056.html">Patriotic Union</a>, a big-tent leftist political party. In the decade to come, more than 3,000 <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Colombias-Patriotic-Union-A-Victim-of-Political-Genocide-20151023-0056.html">party representatives</a> were assassinated, including presidential candidate Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa. For the FARC’s leaders, this hardly feels like ancient history. </p>
<p>In addition to the threat of violence, the question of whether the reinvented FARC will be allowed access to the highest spheres of national political power is very much open one. Will Colombia’s political establishment accept these fighters-turned-politicians?</p>
<h2>Persistent social hierarchies</h2>
<p>One thing is certain about the FARC’s reinvention: not all members will benefit equally from the organisation’s shift from armed insurgency to political party. </p>
<p>The FARC is heterogeneous, with a relatively <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-peru-to-colombia-the-silenced-voices-of-women-fighters-65817">high female participation rate</a> (around 40% are women), a fact that has attracted <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/sep/16/colombia-farc-female-fighters-in-pictures">the most public attention</a>. </p>
<p>It is also diverse in terms of ethnicity, age, education level and social origins. Like Colombian society at large, the FARC’s fighters are Afro-Colombian, indigenous, white and mixed-race. Some members are college graduates from <a href="http://www.semana.com/educacion/articulo/que-estudiaron-los-miembros-de-las-farc/491224">middle-class homes who have been in the group for decades</a>; others are poor teenagers who joined a few years back. </p>
<p>Its <a href="http://www.farc-ep.co/nosotros/que-es-el-secretariado-de-las-farc-ep.html">leadership</a>, however, looks less varied. Like any social group, the FARC’s internal power relations reproduce the social hierarchy of the outside world: from lead peace negotiator Ivan Marquez to general Timochenko, the orgnisation’s highest-ranking, most publicly visible officials are mostly white men. </p>
<p>As a revolutionary movement, the FARC sought to abolish historical social power relations, or <a href="http://www.farc-ep.co/nosotros.html">at least to reinvent</a> them. And, up to a point, the group was indeed able to overcome much of the social discrimination that is so deeply institutionalised in Colombian society.</p>
<p>FARC women have enjoyed <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/24/women-in-the-farc-have-had-a-mixed-experience-you-wouldnt-know-that-from-the-new-york-times/?utm_term=.f39b32b9b7ed">(some) greater sexual freedoms</a> and reproductive rights, and poor <a href="http://colombiareports.com/farc-demands-reform-for-colombias-rural-education-system/">kids got a free education</a>.</p>
<p>The gender subcommittee of the peace negotiations, established in September 2014 after <a href="https://www.elheraldo.co/politica/la-participacion-de-las-mujeres-en-los-acuerdos-de-la-habana-288413">pressure from women’s groups and international organisations</a>, represented an opportunity for learning and leadership for female FARC fighters. </p>
<p>Victoria Sandino, the FARC delegation’s subcommittee chairwoman, stepped out of the shadows to become a prominent principal spokesperson of what the FARC is now calling “<a href="http://colombia2020.elespectador.com/politica/estamos-creando-el-feminismo-en-las-farc-victoria-sandino">insurgent feminism</a>” – a set of collective anti-patriarchal, anti-racist and anti-classist practices built from the lived experience of female FARC fighters. </p>
<p>The experience of negotiation with political actors from different countries and ideologies shows how exchanges might contribute to mutual learning and help guide the deep transformation underway within the guerrilla group. </p>
<h2>Facing inequality</h2>
<p>As a political party, the FARC will find itself compelled to create new opportunities for political participation of other minority members as well. </p>
<p>Colombia is <a href="https://theconversation.com/protests-in-colombia-and-south-africa-reveal-link-between-inequality-and-popular-uprisings-78214?sr=1">highly unequal, with marginalisation based on race, class and gender</a>. As soldiers become civilians, the reintegration process is likely to highlight, and maybe reinforce, inequalities that were less visible when the FARC was a military organisation. </p>
<p>Now that the group is not the sole provider of material support to its members, for example, high-ranking former combatants with a diploma and family support are likely to be better able to navigate the postwar period than their less privileged peers. </p>
<p>As experience from <a href="https://theconversation.com/advice-for-colombia-from-countries-that-have-sought-peace-and-sometimes-found-it-67419">other countries’ transitions out of armed conflict</a> shows, decommissioned soldiers who are not well trained for a new career or supported sufficiently during their transition are more likely to rejoin armed militancy. </p>
<p>To date, there has been dangerously little attention paid to providing psychological support for ex-FARC fighters (and, more broadly, to the general <a href="http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/salud-mental-en-colombia-un-desafio-del-posconflicto/511266">mental health issues that arise in post-conflict nations</a>). </p>
<p>The <a href="http://colombiareports.com/colombias-largest-neo-paramilitary-group-agc-claims-8000-members/">persistence of</a> of paramilitary groups in Colombia suggests that some former fighters of the Colombian armed conflict may not be ready to actually disarm.</p>
<p>As the FARC lays down its weapons, officially entering an explicitly political stage of life, potential spoilers to peace – both those outside of the FARC’s control and those well within its mandate – remain pressing in Colombia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73947/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Camille Boutron does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Colombia’s FARC guerrillas have officially laid down their weapons. How will these former fighters fare in the group’s transition from Marxist rebellion to political party?Camille Boutron, Research assistant professor, Universidad de los Andes Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/352652014-12-10T09:45:11Z2014-12-10T09:45:11ZTo stop violence against women, we need to get men to help change social norms<p>A series of research projects is to take place in countries including Afghanistan, Palestine and South Africa to address our significant lack of knowledge about how to prevent physical and sexual violence against women.</p>
<p>A total of <a href="http://www.svri.org/WhatWorks.htm">18 projects</a> will be funded by the UK government, it has been announced. While awareness about violence against women is growing, we still lack good evidence about what actually stops it from happenening and these projects aim to contribute to filling that gap. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.genderjustice.org.za/one-man-can/">One Man Can</a> project in South Africa, for example, will engage men and boys to challenge traditional models of masculinity. Another in the Democratic Republic of Congo will work with faith leaders to change the social norms that enable violence to continue, and in Afghanistan, boys and girls will work together on peace programmes in schools. Male leaders and families will also be involved in projects that aim to promote an understanding of women’s rights, and build healthy relationship skills based on peaceful conflict resolution.</p>
<p>Another project will link international buyers and their supplier factories in Bangladesh with local NGOs to address sexual harassment in garment factories and a national media campaign will be rolled out across the Occupied Palestinian Territories to challenge the acceptability of violence against women.</p>
<h2>Wrong target?</h2>
<p>In recent years, attention has turned to engaging men and boys rather than talking to women about how to avoid violence. This approach started with programmes that focused on perpetrators of violence against women. But many women’s rights activists were sceptical. Some were concerned that projects like these would divert limited resources away from women’s programmes and others warned that they have the potential to further reassert male power, framing men as the protectors and saviours of women.</p>
<p>Now The UN’s high-profile <a href="http://www.heforshe.org/">He For She</a> campaign is just one example of the projects emerging that call on all men – not just those who are violent – to be part of the solution. They are asked to stand in solidarity with women and make equality one of their own personal missions.</p>
<p>Other projects include lectures and workshops for men to help them redefine what it means to be a man and to have non-violent, egalitarian relationships. Others engage men as bystanders – encouraging them to intervene when they witness other men being aggressive or sexist.</p>
<p>But for all these, the evidence about whether they actually work is limited.</p>
<h2>New ground</h2>
<p>It is being increasingly recognised that violence against women and girls is not just about individually violent men. It is a much larger systemic issue. Violence is caused by gender inequality and related to ideas about men needing to be strong and in control.</p>
<p>That means we can’t work with men and boys in isolation from the realities of the wider world. To stop violence against women, we need to change the norms and structural gender inequalities in society.</p>
<p>This may include work to change social norms in villages and societies, therapeutic interventions for boys and men who have themselves experienced violence or school programmes about healthy, equal relationships. It might even mean marketing and media campaigns to promote new models of masculinity.</p>
<p>The point is we don’t know which stands a chance of having an impact and which wouldn’t. These 18 projects can’t answer all the questions but they could give us a better idea about what works to bring down rates of violence – and indeed what doesn’t. </p>
<p>Through these projects and others we can start to learn more about what works to prevent violence, so that the work to engage men and boys, along with women and girls, can be driven by rigorous evidence. We will all benefit from that.</p>
<p><em>Emma Fulu also contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35265/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lori Heise receives funding from UK AID as part of the What Works to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls global programme. </span></em></p>A series of research projects is to take place in countries including Afghanistan, Palestine and South Africa to address our significant lack of knowledge about how to prevent physical and sexual violence…Lori Heise, Senior Lecturer in Social Epidemiology and Co-Research Director of STRIVE, London School of Hygiene & Tropical MedicineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/174902013-08-29T20:24:21Z2013-08-29T20:24:21ZWomen, peace and security: the theme of Australia’s Security Council presidency<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/30161/original/45txhq4s-1377740296.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Raising the issue of protecting women in conflict zones such as Syria should be high on Australia's agenda when it assumes presidency of the Security Council.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Lucie Parsaghian</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A priority mentioned in Australian speeches and statements to the United Nations this year - Women, Peace and Security (WPS) - is likely to feature as the key “theme” of Australia’s presidency of the Security Council. </p>
<p>But what is the WPS agenda? What progress has been made so far, and - given our support has been stronger in rhetoric than practice - what can Australia do better?</p>
<p>Just before the election was called, foreign minister Bob Carr <a href="http://foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/2013/bc_sp_130626-reference-paper.html">confirmed</a> that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…[a] key priority for Australia on the council — particularly during our presidency in September — will be to highlight the important leadership role women can play in ensuring long-lasting peace in fragile post‑conflict societies.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The presidency carries great responsibility for holding the crisis management powers of the Security Council bestowed under the UN Charter. It also offers the opportunity to frame an agenda that carries forward the broader themes of the Security Council, which includes the WPS agenda since 2000.</p>
<h2>About the WPS agenda</h2>
<p>The Women, Peace and Security agenda appears in a cluster of UN Security Council Resolutions. The groundbreaking <a href="http://www.un.org/events/res_1325e.pdf">Resolution 1325</a> was adopted in 2000 with an agenda framed on the premise that women and girls experience conflict differently from men and boys. It affirmed that women have an essential role in conflict prevention, peace building and post-conflict reconstruction and that governments are required to ensure women are represented in all levels of decision-making.</p>
<p>Later resolutions reaffirmed the first. The most recent is <a href="http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/RES/2106%282013%29">Resolution 2106</a>, adopted in July this year, which focused on prevention of sexual violence in conflict and increasing the participation of more women in the UN’s own “good offices” roles in mediating conflict and negotiating peace.</p>
<p>The UN Secretary-General has also appointed a <a href="http://www.peacewomen.org/peacewomen_and_the_un/un-implementation/un-gender-officesmandate/entity/74/office-of-the-srsg-on-sexual-violence-in-conflict">Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict</a>, whose mandate includes empowering women to seek redress,ending impunity for conflict-related sexual violence and increasing recognition of rape.</p>
<p>One key action in terms of WPS is for states to design and implement National Action Plans. Australia launched a <a href="http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/05_2012/aus_nap_on_women_2012_2018.pdf">National Action Plan</a> in 2012. So far, only around 40 countries have <a href="http://www.peacebuilding.no/var/ezflow_site/storage/original/application/716bc7bf67b47437fa98b1a5c63f0496.pdf">implemented</a> National Action Plans. However, few are funded, and there is little or no baseline data for many of the actions. It seems that institutional commitment to WPS is more rhetorical than real.</p>
<p>In some cases, even the rhetoric has proven controversial. In the last two years, debates on the thematic agendas have been <a href="http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/cross-cutting-report/women-peace-and-security-sexual-violence-in-conflict-and-sanctions.php">criticised</a> as extending beyond the Security Council’s mandate, such as the focus on sexual violence during election turmoil. But there is some evidence that WPS issues are being considered more routinely in debates. </p>
<h2>What will Australia do?</h2>
<p>Australia will host a “side event” on September 6 focused on women’s leadership in peace-building. The event is intended to be an interactive meeting between civil society, field practitioners and peace-building and gender experts of Security Council delegations, with an Asia-Pacific focus. Australia will also launch a publication by London-based NGO <a href="http://www.c-r.org/">Conciliation Resources</a> entitled <a href="http://www.c-r.org/accord-project/women-and-peacebuilding">Women building peace</a>. There are essays from women in strife-torn places such Somalia, West Africa, Aceh and Cambodia.</p>
<p>As chair of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), Croatia, together with UN Women, will hold a high-level meeting on women’s economic empowerment in post-conflict peace-building during leaders’ week in late September.</p>
<p>Australia is working closely with Croatia on planning for this event to highlight the close links between the work of the PBC and the UNSC on women’s leadership in post-conflict peace-building.</p>
<p>There are a number of other opportunities for Australia to focus on WPS in September. For example, the UK is planning a high-level event on its <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/preventing-conflict-in-fragile-states--2/supporting-pages/preventing-sexual-violence-initiative">Champions Initiative</a> as part of its program to prevent sexual violence.</p>
<h2>What more should Australia do?</h2>
<p>A positive aspect of the government’s current plans is a clear focus on the participation of women, which is at the heart of the WPS agenda. This differentiates Australia’s focus from the theme so far this year on the protection of women against sexual violence during conflict. </p>
<p>Bringing peace-building experts to talk to gender experts is important, as these experts are often operating within UN silos. So too is presenting the evidence for why these issues deserve to be at the centre of the agenda and not at the margins. </p>
<p>To do this using the direct voice of women involved - such as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQIAmeVEwy4&noredirect=1">Sister Lorraine</a> in Papua New Guinea - is crucial.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/30162/original/f5ydpccr-1377741346.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/30162/original/f5ydpccr-1377741346.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/30162/original/f5ydpccr-1377741346.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/30162/original/f5ydpccr-1377741346.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/30162/original/f5ydpccr-1377741346.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/30162/original/f5ydpccr-1377741346.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/30162/original/f5ydpccr-1377741346.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Groups like UN Women work to end violence against women in conflict zones.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CWGL</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another positive aspect of Australia’s plans is to strengthen some of the Security Council architecture such as the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/peacebuilding/">Peacebuilding Commission</a> and the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/peacebuilding/pbso/">Peacebuilding Support Office</a>. It is also important to bring an Asia-Pacific perspective to the debates of the Security Council, which is often heavily focused on Africa. There has been significant civil society consultation, both here and in New York, and civil society actors from the field will be involved.</p>
<p>However, there are also disappointing aspects of the current plans. For example, why is Australia planning simply side events on WPS? There is an array of other mechanisms within the Security Council processes, including a presidential statement and open debate that are recorded in the official proceedings.</p>
<p>Of course, Australia has the opportunity to raise WPS during the business of the Security Council as it plays out in crisis mode. This could be in the sanctions committees and the drafting of mandates, country-based debates and budget decisions - not just in September but for our whole term on the council. Civil society should keep on Australia’s case about this. For example, Australia could draw attention to the <a href="http://www.rescue-uk.org/sites/default/files/Syria-%20A%20Regional%20Crisis.pdf">evidence</a> that the major cause of flight for Syrian refugees was sexual violence. </p>
<p>The timing of the election has clearly cast a pall over Australia’s first presidency. Let’s hope that Australia starts planning now for a more impressive presidency stint next November.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/17490/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Harris Rimmer is a member of the Security Council Analysis Network (SCAN) and a member of the Women Peace and Security Academic Collective.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hilary Charlesworth is a member of the Security Council Analysis Network (SCAN) and a member of the Women Peace and Security Academic Collective. She receives ARC funding.</span></em></p>A priority mentioned in Australian speeches and statements to the United Nations this year - Women, Peace and Security (WPS) - is likely to feature as the key “theme” of Australia’s presidency of the Security…Susan Harris Rimmer, Director of Studies, Asia Pacific College of Diplomacy, Australian National UniversityHilary Charlesworth, Director, Centre for International Governance and Justice, Professor & ARC Laureate Fellow, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.