scholarly journals The Dangerous Reproduction of Gender Inequalities Within the UN in the Politics and Institutions of Peace

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-79
Author(s):  
Susie Hermaszewska
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Conflict Mediation ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Underrepresentation Of Women ◽  
Lack Of Commitment

The UN agenda for Women, Peace and Security, and the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 reaffirm the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, and stresses the importance of their equal participation in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security. Despite this, the United Nations continues to ease the reproduction of gender inequality in post-conflict reconstruction due to a lack of commitment to the principles of 1325 and an unwillingness to restructure their own conflict mediation teams. Examples from Cyprus, Bosnia, and Herzegovina demonstrate that the underrepresentation of women at the negotiation table during conflict resolution results in women’s underrepresentation in postconflict institutions of government, and therefore fails to challenge ingrained gender inequalities in society more widely. The United Nations should adhere to the agenda for Women, Peace and Security and target their own institutionalized inequality to better lead by example.

Regional Arrangements and the Maintenance of International Peace and Security: The Role of the African Union Peace and Security Council

2011 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 97-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Riziki Majinge
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
African Union ◽  
International Peace ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
The United Nations

SummaryThis article examines the role of regional arrangements under the Charter of the United Nations (UN Charter) in the maintenance of international peace and security. The African Union Peace and Security Council (AU PSC), the organ within the AU charged with addressing threats to international peace and security on the African continent, is used as a case study. The author contends that the major challenges facing regional arrangements in exercising mandates under Article 53 of the UN Charter of the United Nations have more to do with inadequate financial and logistical resources than the nature of those mandates. Taking the AU’s role in Somalia, Sudan, and other African countries as examples, the article demonstrates that the AU PSC has failed to achieve its objective of maintaining peace and security precisely because the United Nations (UN) Security Council — a more powerful and better resourced organ — has failed to live up to its responsibility of extending the assistance necessary to enable the AU PSC to perform its functions. Consequently, the author concludes that the UN Security Council, when delegating powers to regional arrangements to maintain international peace and security, should provide adequate resources to such regional arrangements, especially those that will otherwise have minimal or no capacity to fulfil their mandate effectively.

WPS and Adopted Security Council Resolutions

2018 ◽  
pp. 97-109
Author(s):  
Laura J. Shepherd
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Security Council Resolution ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Representational Practices ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Over Time

This chapter outlines the architecture of the Women, Peace, and Security agenda at the United Nations. Building on the explanation of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 provided earlier in the volume, it explores the meanings of “women,” “peace,” and “security” that are constructed through the WPS policy framework. The chapter traces the continuities and changes to the central concepts in the resolutions and reflects on the implications of these representational practices as they affect the provisions and principles of the WPS agenda in practice. Moreover, the chapter draws out the key provisions of each resolution to explore the tensions that have arisen over time regarding the types of energy and commitment that have become manifest in the architecture supporting WPS implementation. This in turn enables a brief analysis of likely future directions of WPS practice and a comment on the ways in which Security Council dynamics might affect and effect certain possibilities while excluding or proscribing others.

What Future for the UN Charter System of War Prevention?

2003 ◽  
Vol 97 (3) ◽  
pp. 590-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Falk
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Security Council ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Inspection Process ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Relationship

President George W. Bush historically challenged the United Nations Security Council when he uttered some memorable words in the course of his September 12, 2002, speech to the General Assembly: “Will the UN serve the purpose of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?” In the aftermath of the Iraq war there are at least two answers to this question. The answer of the U.S. government would be to suggest that the United Nations turned out to be irrelevant due to its failure to endorse recourse to war against the Iraq of Saddam Hussein. The answer of those who opposed the war is that the UN Security Council served the purpose of its founding by its refusal to endorse recourse to a war that could not be persuasively reconciled with the UN Charter and international law. This difference of assessment is not just factual, whether Iraq was a threat and whether the inspection process was succeeding at a reasonable pace; it was also conceptual, even jurisprudential. The resolution of this latter debate is likely to shape the future role of the United Nations, as well as influence the attitude of the most powerful sovereign state as to the relationship between international law generally and the use of force as an instrument of foreign policy.

United Nations and Regional Organizations: Complementarity v. Subsidiarity

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 241-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alena F. Douhan
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
Universal System ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
New System

The United Nations organization was planned to be established as a single universal system of collective security. Major efforts were supposed to be taken by the UN Security Council. Regional organizations were introduced into the system as a subordinate subsidiary means – elements of the system. Over the course of the time it has, however, appeared that the UN Security Council was not able to act in the way prescribed by the UN Charter in suppressing newly emerged threats and challenges in the sphere of security. In the contrary, the role of regional organizations has increased substantially. They do the majority of tasks in the sphere of maintenance of international peace and security, often without authorization or even informing the UN Security Council, although the legality of some of these actions may be dubious. As a result, the Council itself transfers the accent in relations between the UN and regional organizations from subsidiarity to complementarity or even partnership. It is thus necessary to re-check the meaning of the concepts of complementarity and subsidiarity as well as the UN Charter provisions in the changed circumstances and to specify principles of the new system.

Female rebels and United Nations peacekeeping deployments

2021 ◽  
pp. 001083672110471
Author(s):  
Marius Mehrl ◽  
Christoph Dworschak
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Multivariate Regression ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Growing Body

How does the presence of female rebel combatants during conflict influence the likelihood of United Nations post-conflict peacekeeping deployment? While past literature on peacekeeping emphasizes the role of conflict attributes and security council interests, only few studies investigate the importance of belligerent characteristics. We argue that, because dominant gender stereotypes paint women as peaceful, female rebel combatants lead domestic and international audiences to perceive conflicts in which they fight as more severe. Given that recent UN resolutions and mission mandates align with these stereotypes, this in turn, causes the UN to intervene and deploy peacekeepers. Multivariate regression models drawing on a global sample of UN post-conflict missions provide empirical support for our hypothesis. Our findings add to the growing body of literature emphasizing the role of women in combat roles, and contribute to the discussion on the UN’s Women, Peace, and Security agenda.

15. The Role of the United Nations

2020 ◽  
pp. 313-334
Author(s):  
Paola Gaeta ◽  
Jorge E. Viñuales ◽  
Salvatore Zappalà
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Grand Design ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
To Come ◽  
Second World

This chapter discusses the role of the United Nations (UN), covering the grand design of the post-Second World War period, the ideals of the primacy of international law, the goals and structure of the new organization, the principal achievements and failures, and the current role of the UN, particularly in light of the adoption in 2015 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—a new Agenda in which all UN goals tend to come together. The chapter describes the functions and roles of the principal organs of the UN and the interplay between them. It argues that since the UN came into existence it has often failed in three areas: maintenance of peace and security, disarmament, and bridging the gap between industrialized and developing countries. On the other hand, progress was made in the area of self-determination of peoples and in promoting human rights, while in the area of economic co-operation, despite some progress, much more remains to be done. However, for all its deficiencies and in spite of the lack of vision of some of its Secretaries-General, the primary failings of the UN must be traced back to the States behind it, chiefly the Great Powers.

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 Transition from Civil War to Peace: The Role of the United Nations and International Community in Mozambique

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayokunu Adedokun
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Community ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Budget Support ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The United Nations

With the heavy involvement of the United Nations (UN) and the international community, the Rome General Peace Agreement of 1992 ended more than 16 years of civil war in Mozambique. The peace agreement and post-conflict initiatives by the international community was successful in transforming the Mozambique National Resistance
(Renamo) from a rebel group into a viable political party. Key components of the United Nations and the broader international community success in negotiating peace and creating conditions for political stability and democracy in Mozambique were (a) the provision of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) before democratisation, (b) decentralization of humanitarian and relief efforts to provincial and district levels, (c) provision of financial support directly for the development of political parties, and (d) budget support to sectors relevant to peacebuilding. Though imperfect, Mozambique remains an important case study in how the UN and international community can help in post-conflict environments. Thus, the paper argues that success in peacebuilding operations depends on credible and impartial international support through the UN, as opposed to peacebuilding operations through the United States of America or Russia.

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