Peacekeeping and the Sexual Exploitation of Women and Girls in Post-Conflict Societies: A Serious Enigma to Establishing the Rule of Law

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 184-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Morris
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Situational Analysis ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Gender Based

The article discusses the exploitation of women and girls by peacekeepers and its effect on efforts to establish the rule of law in a post-conflict situation. It provides a situational analysis of the problem, examining the issue from rights-based, stabilization, and organized crime perspectives. It considers the rule of law mandate of modern peace-building operations, including the ability of peacekeepers to help combat trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women and girls. It proposes a solution to tackling gender-based violence, trafficking and exploitation in the establishment of the rule of law through accountability and domestic capacity-building. The work of committed peace-builders is critical to achieving this goal.

Gender-Based Violence and the Arms Trade

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-155
Author(s):  
Ray Acheson
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Arms Trade ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
The Relationship

This article explains gender-based violence (gbv) and the relationship between gbv and the international arms trade. It examines how governments and activists worked together to ensure that the Arms Trade Treaty included a legally binding provision to prevent gbv, and how this provision has been used—or not used—since the Treaty’s adoption in 2013. It also encourages states, arms producers, lawyers, and activists to work to ensure that human lives and wellbeing are prioritised over profits as an imperative to realising the att’s objective and purpose, and to ensuring respect for the rule of law and international law.

The Conflictual Promises of the United Nations' Rule of Law Agenda: Challenges for Post-Conflict Societies

2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 131-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphanie Vig
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
International Norms ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
National Ownership

AbstractThe role of UN missions in post-conflict societies has progressed through peace-keeping and peace-making to a more recent emphasis on peace-building. To accompany this new focus, the UN has articulated a rule of law agenda, two central components of which are promoting international norms and standards and facilitating national ownership. This paper explores the self-sanctioned role the UN has awarded itself in promoting the rule of law in post-conflict societies by exploring each one of these two central components and their interaction.Meritorious in their own right, the potential of these two components of the rule of law agenda may position the UN in situations where both cannot be satisfied contemporaneously. In implementing its rule of law agenda, the United Nations will likely come to face the prospect of a local authority seeking to differ from international norms and standards. In such circumstances, the UN's rule of law agenda makes conflictual promises. The choices and prioritization that the UN will be called upon to make in such circumstances will reveal much about how it conceptualizes its role in promoting the rule of law in post-conflict societies. This paper seeks to delineate the nature of the choices confronting the United Nations in pursuit of its rule of law agenda.

scholarly journals A Feminist Perspective and the Challenge of Post Conflict Development in Africa

2018 ◽  
pp. 19-36
Author(s):  
Mashood Omotosho
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Religious Conflicts ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Participation Of Women ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

In the last two decades, Africa has witnessed series of wars and ethno-religious conflicts with devastating impact on women. Various atrocities against women have been recorded during these conflicts and these developments have created a dangerous dimension against non-combatant women in the continent. In an attempt to resolve the conflict and armed conflict on women in the areas of sexual and gender-based violence, series of peace missions and peace building mechanism were put in place. Despite the various peace negotiations, evidence has shown that women are largely absent from formal peace negotiations and their voices are not heard both at local and continental levels especially within the modern-day challenges and post conflict development. In fact, the transformation agenda of post-conflict peace negotiations routinely failed to consider the gendered causes and consequences of armed conflict and post-conflict reconstruction. It is against this backdrop that this paper attempts to reassess the ambivalent role of women in conflict management in Africa. More importantly, the paper argues that there is need to increase women’s participation in peace talks, planning of demilitarisation, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) and determining governance and security structures, especially in conflict prone areas. Ultimately, the paper seeks to also identify challenges hindering the role and the participation of women in post conflict development in Africa.

scholarly journals Continuum of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence risks among Syrian Refugee Women and Girls in Lebanon

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Roupetz ◽  
Garbern Stephanie ◽  
Michael Saja ◽  
Bergquist Harveen ◽  
Glaesmer Heide ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
First Person ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Refugee Women ◽  
Syrian Refugee ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background: A myriad of factors including socio-economic hardships impact refugees, with females being additionally exposed to various forms of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). For instance, sexual exploitation and forced prostitution can become negative coping mechanisms through which some women and girls raise funds to cover their families’ living expenses. The aim of this qualitative analysis was to understand and to provide new insight into the experiences of SGBV among Syrian refugee women and girls in Lebanon. Methods: The data are gained from a larger mixed-methods study, investigating the experiences of Syrian refugee girls in Lebanon, using an iPad and the data collection tool, SenseMaker®. The SenseMaker survey intentionally did not ask direct questions about experiences of SGBV but instead enabled stories about SGBV to become apparent from a wide range of subjects of the daily lives of Syrian girls. For this analysis, all first-person stories by female respondents were screened and those about experiences of SGBV were included in a thematic analysis. To present men’s perceptions on these experiences, a random selection of stories about Syrian girls in Lebanon from male respondents was analyzed. Results: In total, 70 of the 327 first person stories from female respondents and 42 of the 159 male stories, included dialogue on SGBV. While experiences of sexual harassment were mainly reported by women and girls, male respondents were much more likely to talk explicitly about sexual exploitation. Due to different forms of SGBV risks in public, unmarried girls were at high risk of child marriage, whereas married girls more often experienced some form of IPV and/or DV. In abusive relationships, some girls and women continued to face violence as they sought divorces and attempted to flee unhealthy situations. Conclusions: Our findings shed light on the importance of recognizing the impact of SGBV on the family as a whole in addition to each of the individual members and to consider the cycle of SGBV not only across the woman’s lifespan but also across generations. The identified gendered differences in how SGBV was discussed may have implications for the design of future research focused on SGBV.

scholarly journals Structural and Symbolic Violence Exacerbates the Risks and Consequences of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence for Forced Migrant Women

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanine Hourani ◽  
Karen Block ◽  
Jenny Phillimore ◽  
Hannah Bradby ◽  
Saime Ozcurumez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Symbolic Violence ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Conflict Settings ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Forms Of Violence

While much attention is focused on rape as a weapon of war, evidence shows that forced migrant women and girls face increased risks of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) both during and following forced displacement. In this paper, we argue that gendered forms of structural and symbolic violence enable and compound the harms caused by interpersonal SGBV against forced migrant women and girls. These forms of violence are encountered in multiple contexts, including conflict and post-conflict settings, countries of refuge, and following resettlement. This paper illustrates the consequences of resultant cumulative harms for individuals and communities, and highlights the importance of considering these multiple, intersecting harms for policy and practice.

Extralegal Groups in Post-Conflict Liberia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
The State ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Dual Nature ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Commercial Environment

In the aftermath of the Liberian civil war, groups of ex-combatants took control of natural resource enclaves. With some of them threatening a return to war, these groups were widely viewed as the most significant threats to Liberia’s hard-won peace. Building on fieldwork and socio-historical analysis, this study shows how extralegal groups emerge as a product of livelihood strategies and the political economy of war. It analyzes the trajectory of extralegal groups in three sectors of the Liberian economy: rubber, diamonds, and timber. The findings offer a counterpoint to the prevailing narrative, arguing that extralegal groups have a dual nature and should be viewed as accidental statebuilders driven to provide basic governance goods in order to create a stable commercial environment. These groups do not seek to rule; they provide governance because they need to trade—not as an end in itself. This leads to the book’s broader argument: it is trade, rather than war, that drives contemporary statebuilding. In areas where the state is weak and political authority is contested, where the rule of law is corrupt and government distrust runs deep, extralegal groups can provide order and dispute resolution, forming the basic kernel of the state. Extralegal groups also perform a series of hidden governance functions that establish public norms of compliance and cooperation with local populations. This sheds new light on how we understand violent nonstate actors, allowing us to view them as part of an evolutionary process of state-making, rather than simply as national security threats.

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