Gender (in)equality in UN peacekeeping missions

Written by: Anna Franco

Women are now widely acknowledged to be main victims of conflict situations and war. Furthermore, the invisibility of women in national politics, due to a decimation of women’s groups by conflict, is one of the structural obstacles to women’s peace leadership. The Agenda Women, Peace and Security (UNSCR 1325), dated 2000, has envisaged the political commitment to protect and empower women in international security and many organizations have adapted and integrated the Agenda for their purposes – like the European Union, NATO. Indeed, support of specific actions to eliminate discriminatory laws, policies and practices that prevent women and girls from enjoying their full and equal rights in post-conflict societies is respected and implemented only when mandated to do so^[1]Andrea Huber and Therese Rytter, Women, gender-specific abuse and peacekeeping operations, Penal Reform International, April 18, 2017, last accessed 17/05/2024 … Continue reading. Nevertheless, the Agenda itself is not totally comprehensive of the peacekeeping cycle in a conflict situation. For instance, WPS resolution does not recognise the “continuum of violence” that characterises the experience of women whose lives are not only marked by the “extraordinary” violence of “rape as a weapon of war”, but everyday forms of violence that occur in all contexts^[2]Andrea Huber and Therese Rytter, Women, gender-specific abuse and peacekeeping operations, Penal Reform International, April 18, 2017, last accessed 17/05/2024 … Continue reading. Not to count the known misbehaviors by UN personnel and involvement in sexual exploitation, abuse, and violence, including rape^[3]Renata Giannini and Lotte Vermeij, Women, Peace and Security: Gender Challenges within UN Peacekeeping Missions, NUPI, May 2014, last accessed 17/05/2024 … Continue reading. Besides merely policy matters, to effectively promote gender equality, the UN gender-responsive leadership training, mentoring, online resources, and assessment frameworks needs to continue being fostered^[4]Sarah Smith, Gender-Responsive Leadership in UN Peace Operations: The Path to a Transformative Approach?, IPI, February 2022,  last accessed 17/05/2024 … Continue reading. In the following paragraphs, the main challenges of gender equality mainstreaming in peacekeeping operations will be treated and finally some proposals to improve them will be underlined.

Inherently more efficient and effective peacekeepers  

One of the objectives of gender equality in peacekeeping operations is the promotion and representation of women as civil servants and security forces on site. In addition, it is argued that female peacekeepers have a better capacity to engage with women and children in local communities, as they use less violence, can de-escalate tensions and limit incidents of sexual exploitation^[5]Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde, Marsha Henry, Robin May Schott and Nina Wilén, Inclusion is Not Enough to Achieve Gender and Racial Equality in Global Peace and Security, DIIS, December 3, 2021, last … Continue reading. International institutions and NGOs have pushed for an increase in the number of uniformed female peacekeepers, according to the idea that they will add value to peace operations, which will become more efficient and effective. However, others label this opinion as pink propaganda, since depicting women as “more effective” peacekeepers has incited resentment, hostility, and a sense of disenfranchisement amongst male personnel^[6]Sarah Smith, Gender-Responsive Leadership in UN Peace Operations: The Path to a Transformative Approach?, IPI, February 2022,  last accessed … Continue reading. These assumptions reinforce gender stereotypes, putting pressure on the small minority of female peacekeepers to live up to such standards and expectations. Moreover, in trying to participate in overwhelmingly masculine militaries, female peacekeepers still face technical limits in respect of equipment, training and attitudes, which remain masculine. Consequently, some battalions are even unwilling to host female personnel, hindering joint protection strategies and effective communications with local communities. Many even argue that this male-dominated peacekeeping system is not working, particularly when it comes to community engagement. Anyways, the UN still struggles with low female representation, especially among the military, accounting for 6.5 per cent of military contingents as of April 2023^[7]UN Women, Facts and Figures: Women, Peace and Security, October 23, 2023, last accessed 17/05/2024 https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/peace-and-security/facts-and-figures.   

Gender equality fails because UN operations fail

Although UN peacekeeping missions bring a positive increase in post-conflict female empowerment levels, these operations are in a process of retrenchment, driven largely by perceived ineffectiveness and great power divergent interests^[8]Brett Schäfer, Peacekeeping sunset, GIS, September 6, 2023, last accessed 17/05/2024 https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/un-peacekeeping/. In recent years, national governments, in particular the US, have reduced their economic contribution to the organization, pressuring the UN to replan some of its activities. With less funds, the UN  decided it was better to deactivate some ongoing operations, slowly abandoning those “failed” countries like Mali and soon Congo. This is however not something exceptional. Haiti remains a failed nation even after six peacekeeping operations deployed for nearly a quarter of a century mandated to restore stability, establish democratic governance, and promote human rights^[9]Brett Schäfer, Peacekeeping sunset, GIS, September 6, 2023, last accessed 17/05/2024 https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/un-peacekeeping/. South Sudan is witnessing a violent conflict situation despite robust UN peacekeeping operations since before it became independent. Due to these experiences, further proposals for similar peacekeeping missions have been eventually turned down in the case of Syria, Ukraine and Yemen.

Yet, with the expected cuts, civilians, especially women and children, living in conflict situations will remain unprotected and aid groups will be unable to reach needy parts of the population, due to lack of security patrols and escorts by the peacekeepers^[10]Ortrun Merkle and Diego Salama, UN Peacekeeping Cuts Could be a Disaster for Women and Girls, Our World, United Nations University, July 20, 2017, last accessed 17/05/2024 … Continue reading. 

It is always a matter of money 

In the Secretary-General’s 2010 7-Point Action Plan on Gender-Responsive Peacebuilding, there was a clause for any national and institutional donor to spend at least 15% of resources in peacebuilding contexts on projects that promote gender equality or women’s empowerment^[11]Anne-Marie Goetz and Rob Jenkins, Missed Opportunities: Gender and the UN’s Peacebuilding and Peace Operations Reports, Center on International Cooperation, July 30, 2015, last accessed … Continue reading,^[12]Financing of Women, Peace and Security Agenda, 1325, dated 2015, last accessed 17/05/2024 https://wps.unwomen.org/financing/. After several years, we can state that this target has been unmet and in 2022, only four UN Agencies re-established this target: ESCWA, UNAIDS, UNICEF, and UNOCT^[13]UN Women, Facts and Figures: Women, Peace and Security, October 23, 2023, last accessed 17/05/2024 https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/peace-and-security/facts-and-figures. There is of course a consistent disparity between policy commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment, and the financial allocations to achieve them. OECD-DAC data shows in particular that most bilateral aid in support of gender equality in fragile states and economies goes to social sectors such as education and health, while the peace and security sector get the crumbs^[14]UN Women, Facts and Figures: Women, Peace and Security, October 23, 2023, last accessed 17/05/2024 https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/peace-and-security/facts-and-figures. Then, speaking about labor, gender advisors are not always deployed, as there is no obligation in peacekeeping to hire somebody in this position. In the Agenda or peacekeeping resolutions, there is also no mention of reform to increase the share of women among locally recruited civilian staff in UN missions, such as drivers, secretaries, translators, and policy analysts.

WPS objectives in peacekeeping resolution policies 

All operations mandates and peacekeeping Resolutions incorporate a general reference to the WPS resolutions – see Resolution 2594 (2021), Resolution 2719 (2023). There are also special Peacekeeping policy documents to highlight the commitment to gender equality, i.e. the UN’s Department of Peace Operations Gender Equality and Women Peace and Security Resource Package (2020) and the Gender Responsive United Nations Peacekeeping Operations’ Policy (2021). Furthermore, Security Council Resolution 2538, adopted in August 2020, became the first standalone resolution on women in peacekeeping. Despite being a milestone, it represents yet another resolution adopted to strengthen the initial UNSCR 1325. With its Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy, starting in 2018, the UN’s Department of Peace Operations (DPO) announced its intention to reach 15% of women in military contingents and 30% of women in police forces in all contingents deployed by 2028^[15]Marianne Bouchard, Gender, Peacekeeping, and Operational Effectiveness: Recommendations for the Deployment of Women in Peacekeeping Operations, Policy Report 5, Network for Strategic Analysis, … Continue reading.  

Striking is the fact that over 75% of troop contributions in peacekeeping operations come from Africa and Asia, with African states contributing close to 50% of all peacekeepers. Beyond gender equality, this condition raises a “Global South” question as well, revealing a racialised difference in peacekeepers’ experiences. In addition, since peacekeeping troop contingents are provided by national militaries, the UN is limited by domestic dynamics in the attempt to increase female deployment, and some member states continue to express reservations regarding these gender strategies for security.

Although this policy paper focuses on the implementation of women’s representation in peacekeeping operations, the main challenge remain Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA)^[16]Skye Wheeler, UN Peacekeeping has a Sexual Abuse Problem, Human Rights Watch, January 11, 2020, last accessed 17/05/2024 https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/11/un-peacekeeping-has-sexual-abuse-problem. Research proved striking results that peacekeeping missions with civilian protection mandates account for over 95 percent of reported allegations, while missions without such mandates account for under 5 percent^[17]Anjali Dayal and Sophie Huvé, Reducing Sexual Abuse and Exploitation in UN Peacekeeping Missions, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, 2018, last accessed … Continue reading. The majority of peacekeeping Resolutions analyzed by Penal Reform fail to address any specific challenge in ensuring protection of women or accountability for their abuse, nor are they specific in terms of measures required for protection – other than the “deployment of Women Protection Advisers”. 

Recommendations 

To address the failures of WPS Agenda and gender equality in peacekeeping operations and post-conflict situations, some tips should be followed:

• even with reduced budget, do not spread gender equality destined budget percentage to other objectives;
• include a gender “contingent” in every operation and avoid using quotas to determined how many women deploy in missions, as every country is context-specific and gender could be detrimental to certain interactions;
• draft a report with gender disaggregated data on the representation of women country in which there is a UN operation and consider it before deploying staff;
• define properly the role of women in peacekeeping operations – whether civil servants, armed forces or assistants, women must be deployed with a purpose and not just to increase their number;
• do not confine deployed women in the stereotyped female jobs – Female Engagement Units, medical or administrative roles and gender advisors – but train them to let them work in any type of mission;
• create realistic UN targets for gender equality to achieve its objectives;
• strengthen the mechanisms to protect and prevent sexual harassment of female peacekeepers and, conversely, reinforce the punishment system for UN uniformed staff who commit sexual abuse.

Conclusions

Peacekeeping has the potential to serve as a catalyst to advance implementation of the women, peace, and security agenda^[18]Lisa Sharland, Challenges to Sustainably Increasing Women’s Participation and Gender Equality in Peacekeeping, IPI, October 2, 2020, last accessed … Continue reading. On the other hand, this approach just gives the UN and peacekeeping in general an “armed” connotation, implying the necessity of always being ready for war. Indeed, crucial goals of the WPS agenda, notably gender equality and the pursuit of peace, risk being co-opted by military imperatives in service of security^[19]Lisa Sharland, Challenges to Sustainably Increasing Women’s Participation and Gender Equality in Peacekeeping, IPI, October 2, 2020, last accessed … Continue reading. For this reason, many countries in Europe and beyond, decided to adopt a Feminist Foreign Policy, aimed at ensuring peace and gender equality. Current geopolitical trends are not on this wave, but it does not deny a need for improvement of gender in peacekeeping missions.

The comments contained in this article are those of the author alone.

To cite this article: Anna Franco (14/06/2024), “Gender (in)equality in UN peacekeeping missions”, Gender in Geopolitics Institute, https://igg-geo.org/?p=19181&lang=en