Gender and Peacebuilding Research Papers (original) (raw)

The historical novel From the Nile to the Jordan is an enthralling story about the "Second Exodus" of Jews from Egypt to Israel. This so far little-noticed aspect of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, could spread new light on the events of 1948, make the suffering of both sides public and bring the middle east one step closer to peace. Before 1948 there was a prospering community with 100,000 Jews in Egypt, today there are only few Jewish widows left. This book combines the well-researched historical facts based on Aharoni's research on the topic, as a professor of Sociology, with her personal perspective as a witness who had to leave Egypt as a young woman. This approach makes the book an eye-opener for an important chapter of Jewish history, that is widely unknown. Aharoni goes beyond the past, aiming at using the story of the "Second Exodus" as a tool for reconciliation, convinced that if Israel and Egypt can make peace, peace between Israel and Palestine is possible too.

- by Ars Artium
- •
- Peace and Conflict Studies, Peace Movements, Egypt, Peacekeeping

There is a dearth of research on the frustrations, moral
dilemmas and challenges non-Western teachers might face
in the everyday praxis of peace education. To address this
gap, this study analyses how violence is negotiated and
understood in an Indian school seeking to build a culture of
peace. Interviews with eight teachers and four students are
analysed using grounded theory. Firstly, the study discusses
a teacher’s response to a student witnessing domestic violence. Thereby, it explores the limits of peace education in
the face of home-school boundaries and societal stigmas.
Secondly, the study discusses a teacher’s attempt to help
an abused child labourer. It questions the extent to which
peace education can tackle systemic inequalities and the
danger of the field reproducing exclusionary structures.
Thirdly, the study discusses the intergenerational politics of
children endorsing corporal punishment. It seeks to demonstrate how socio-economic pressures and historical legacies
might lead to children legitimating violence against their
own bodies. By exploring the fractures and gaps within
peace education in an understudied non-Western context,
the study aims to raise larger questions about the structures
and norms hindering ideals of peace and the need for peace
education to prioritise criticality, context and reflexivity

- by Shabnam Rashid
- •
- Gender and Peacebuilding

A retrospective overview of successive DDR processes in Burundi, an impact assessment of program outcomes, and a strategic analysis of institutional partnerships. Commissioned by and submitted to the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Section, Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions (OROLSI/DDR), United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations. October 2011. 114pp.

The Ifugaos seem to be the only people in the world who have developed peacemaking ideology in a typically aggressive genre of oral literature. The rich literature on epic traditions worldwide portrays a highly male-centered genre of song glorifying heroic values and warlike acts. Ifugao male epics represents aggressive ideology, which it shares with all the corresponding genres from India to Iceland. But what is specific of the Ifugao epic lore is that it contains two trends. The /hudhud/, female epic tradition of the Ifugaos, is a unique specimen of peacemaking, even pacifist ideology in epic form. This ideology has developed in the peak of headhunting period, i.e. it is genuine, not imposed by the influence of other cultures as, for instance, the motives of regret that appeared in Kalinga Ullalim under the influence of Christianization and American "order".

- by Maria V. Stanyukovich
- •
- World Literatures, Comparative Literature, Gender Studies, Anthropology

From restorative justice literature in general. two conceptions of restorative justice processing can be discerned. The one is a
modest conception based on individual (dispositional) theories of crime and the other is an expansive view which is closer to peacebuilding and has a further distinction. One distinction is based on situational theories of crime which hold that structural factors are responsible for crime. The other distinction is based on integrative theories of crime which hold that there is an interaction between individual and structural factors that produce crime and that structural factors should be taken into account during restorative justice processing.

- by Marie-Christine Heinze and +1
- •
- Gender Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Yemen, Gender and Peacebuilding

ABSTRACT There is a dearth of research on the frustrations, moral dilemmas and challenges non-Western teachers might face in the everyday praxis of peace education. To address this gap, this study analyses how violence is negotiated and understood in an Indian school seeking to build a culture of peace. Interviews with eight teachers and four students are analysed using grounded theory. Firstly, the study discusses a teacher’s response to a student witnessing domestic violence. Thereby, it explores the limits of peace education in the face of home-school boundaries and societal stigmas. Secondly, the study discusses a teacher’s attempt to help an abused child labourer. It questions the extent to which peace education can tackle systemic inequalities and the danger of the field reproducing exclusionary structures. Thirdly, the study discusses the intergenerational politics of children endorsing corporal punishment. It seeks to demonstrate how socio-economic pressures and historical legacies might lead to children legitimating violence against their own bodies. By exploring the fractures and gaps within peace education in an understudied non-Western context, the study aims to raise larger questions about the structures and norms hindering ideals of peace and the need for peace education to prioritise criticality, context and reflexivity.

Zimbabwe has achieved a lot in terms of promoting gender equality and women's empowerment. The Zimbabwean government is a signatory to various regional and international conventions, treaties, declarations and protocols that seek to promote and create an enabling environment for the attainment of gender equality and women's empowerment. Zimbabwe signed the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Violence Against Women (CEDAW) (1991), Convention on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) and the Global Platform for Action and Beijing Declaration (1995). On regional level, Zimbabwe signed in 1997 the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development, and the Prevention and Eradication of Violence Against Women and Children. Influenced by the international and regional developments in gender sensitivity, various bodies in the country emerged to address gender issues, but particularly on the emancipation of women.

This paper is the product of a review of recent literature on issues of gender in the context of conflict and post-conflict reconstruction. It was prepared as background material for an international workshop on gender equity and peacebuilding jointly convened by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Key findings and research questions are presented in relation to the effective integration of gender concerns into policies and programs that shape post-conflict societies. There has been progress in considering a gender perspective in international thinking, policy statements, and programs related to peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction, as evidenced by recent documentation on this topic from the United Nations. Findings reported below indicate a slow but positive shift in international opinion and understanding about the consequences of conflict on women and the importance of their participation in peacebuilding processes and post-conflict social transformation. However, gender discrimination continues through political exclusion, economic marginalization, and sexual violence during and after conflict, denying women their human rights and constraining the potential for development.

Predominately male DDR experts do not pay adequate attention to women combatants’ motivations, roles and responsibilities or the politicization and militarization of gender relations in recruitment and operational strategies of non-state armed groups. The marginalization of women ex-combatants’ experiences in peace negotiations and subsequent DDR processes poses particular challenges to their social, political and economic reintegration. Focusing on the experiences of women combatants of the FARC in Colombia, this paper demonstrates that women’s motivations to join armed groups vary but are not significantly different than men’s. However, even in leftist guerrilla movements the organizational structure is based on male dominance, fueled by the notion of militarized masculinity. Examining the individual demobilization program for guerrilla combatants in the 1990s and 2000s, the paper shows that previous DDR programming in Colombia has failed women ex-combatants on the psychosocial, social, political and economic level. Focusing then on the recently concluded peace negotiations between the FARC and the Colombian Government, the paper discusses the effects of women’s unprecedented participation in the peace process on future, potentially more inclusive DDR programming that also contributes to challenging militarized mindsets within society.

- by Nadine Isabelle Lainer
- •
- Peace and Conflict Studies, Colombia, Militarism, Gender and Peacebuilding

This assessment focuses on gender dynamics in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states in northeast Nigeria, a region affected by conflict between armed opposition groups (commonly grouped together in the umbrella 'Boko Haram') and the Nigeria state. After an overview of trends across the three states, the assessment turns to examining Adamawa, Borno and Yobe in detail. For each state, the assessment starts by providing context, highlighting key conflict dynamics in the state and outlining relevant legal frameworks. It then goes on to cover involvement in conflict, physical harm caused by armed actors, dynamics around displacement, economic and psychological impacts. The state sections finish with examination of women’s participation and voice (or lack thereof) in governance and peacebuilding and discussion of VAWG through an overview of incidence and trends and analysis as to prevention and response mechanisms.

- by Chitra Nagarajan
- •
- Gender Studies, Terrorism, Political Violence and Terrorism, Feminism

This manuscript discusses the problem of the inability of most individuals who seem to be ‘stuck’ in a circumstance of seemingly destined to remain single, unable to find an appropriate partner to share their lives with. And, it is elucidated that the problem is much more pronounced with the female gender, because many of these individuals are not only singles as a result of having either conceived children out of wedlock, or having being divorced, with the greatest majority of them having been left to ward for themselves as well as bringing up their children. These individuals are particularly under severe hardship and stress, often being afflicted with anxiety, fear, as well as anger resulting from having been abandoned to deal with bringing their children by themselves, as well as many are plagued with their unpleasant memories with regard to their ex-husbands, or ex-partners. And, at the foundation or the crux of the whole affair lies the genetic memories of misogyny as a result of having had to endure experiencing their sojourns of lives within AI-imposed blended consciousness realities imbued with patriarchal domination, which could lead to some form of psychosis-neurosis by itself. And, to add to all this complication leading to incredibly unbalanced consciousness energetic scenario, is the fact that for millennia they have themselves been subjected to mind control programming that imposes the self-destructive impulses of living their lives in a society that regards being a seductress archetype is the only way to survive through trying to balance or nullify the negative effects of patriarchal domination, by compelling the male counterpart to chase their seductive signals, necessitated by the fact that the males themselves are programmed to do the very same thing, always literally ‘chasing skirts’ wherever they can find or encounter with. Of course, not all males nor females are 100% forced to follow such trends as there is the case of following and exercising one’s sense of Right of Free Will and Sovereignty no matter how challenging it has been made for them to overcome all the dire odds to experience their sojourns of lives. Accordingly, with major emphasis put on the case of the females, herein, certain guidelines have been suggested as to be able to cope with such difficulties that are more pertinent to these particularly difficult or challenging times of Pre-Ascension.

- by Mohsen Paul Sarfarazi
- •
- Gender Studies, Sex and Gender, Gender History, Gender and Sexuality

This Development Dialogue volume highlights some of the gaps between the recognition that peacebuilding requires long-term participation and engagement from a broad spectrum of society, and the experience on the ground where this is not happening. It identifies some of the practical challenges that arise when engaging multiple groups of local stakeholders. It also offers suggestions for the international community as it revises its peacebuilding institutions and policies about how to move from token engagement to genuine participation in supporting local efforts to build peace. The volume features articles by academics and practitioners from various backgrounds, who explore key issues such as participation of women at all levels, the engagement of youth, the roles of religious and traditional leaders, the importance of supporting existing community structures and the potential positive contributions of the private sector. In addition, this volume adds to the increasingly loud call for the international community to enshrine the principle of inclusive local ownership and leadership in all its peacebuilding efforts.

Feminist scholars have long touted the necessity
of employing a gender lens to better understand
power and violence in global politics. Sexuality is
an important dimension of these gendered power
dynamics. LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,
and queer) perspectives in peacebuilding
unsettle the assumptions about what is the “correct”
or “normal” sexual orientation, gender identity,
or family structure. Drawing on a multiplicity
of LGBTQ voices to inform post-conflict
responses allows for a more expansive approach
to understanding what gendered insecurities look
like and how best to respond to them. Centering
LGBTQ communities in responses to conflictrelated
violence is also important when working
to develop peacebuilding processes that move
beyond the heteronormative patriarchal power
dynamics that have historically resulted in violent
conflict. LGBTQ perspectives in peacebuilding
introduce voices generally marginalized or left
out entirely.

- by Jamie J . Hagen
- •
- Peace and Conflict Studies, Gender and Peacebuilding, Peacebuilding, LGBT Studies

This paper argues basing on Galtung's (1969,1975) theory of Structural violence that violence has obtained both in colonial and post-colonial Zimbabwe and that it's structural nature evolved together with the political regime of the day. The paper will also argue basing on Galtung's typologies that though Gender-based violence may have taken the physical and cultural forms the structural form is the bedrock supporting its continued existence across the frontier of independence. This paper hopes to cogently conclude that the post colonial state has been complicit with the structural order inherited from the colonial masters in ensuring the subjugation of women in Zimbabwe.

- by Nixon Nembaware
- •
- Gender Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Anthropology of Gender, Gender

La relación entre la paz, la seguridad, y las políticas de desarrollo es una cuestión debatida y con importantes implicaciones para la cooperación internacional. En el escenario de la posguerra fría, esa relación se definió a través del concepto de Naciones Unidas de “seguridad humana”, y de las políticas de “construcción de la paz” (peace building) adoptadas para la prevención y resolución de los conflictos armados, así como para las políticas de reconstrucción post-conflicto de ese periodo. Los atentados del 11-S, sin embargo, han dado lugar a un periodo de “securitización” de las políticas de desarrollo en el que éstas se han subordinado a los imperativos del antiterrorismo y de las visiones tradicionales de la seguridad nacional.
Este volumen, coordinado por José Antonio Sanahuja (Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales, ICEI ) aborda los conceptos, interpretaciones y actores relevantes en este debate, incluyendo estudios de caso de Afganistán, Angola, Palestina, Timor Leste o Latinoamérica, con aportaciones de Isaías Barreñada (Universidad Complutense de Madrid); Volker Boege, Anne Brown, Kevin Clements y Anna Nolan (Australian Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, ACPACS, Universidad de Queensland); Julia Schünemann y Luis Elizondo (Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales, ICEI); Nils Petter Gleditsch (Peace Research Institute Oslo, PRIO); Dirk Kruijt (Universidad de Utrecht); Carmen Magallón (Seminario de Investigación para la Paz de Zaragoza); y Karlos Pérez de Armiño (Hegoa, Universidad del País Vasco).

A discourse to peace educators and activists from Palestine and Israel on the techniques of 'Satyagraha', created and employed by Mahatma Gandhi in the struggle for Indian independence. While the techniques are identified and briefly explained, a diagrammatic presentation of the context within which he acted reveals the courage and discipline required in a Gandhi-inspired subversion of structural and cultural injustice.
Date of discourse: 10, March, 2007.
Date of publication on Academia.edu: 2012

This course is designed to introduce students to the specific human rights issues that come into play through the implementation of peacebuilding missions, NGO interventions, and public policy initiatives in the wake of authoritarian regimes, civil wars, and other violent conflicts. Over the course of the quarter, students will learn about peacebuilding at the international, national, and local levels, as well as the tensions that emerge among various actors at each of these levels. The course covers transversal approaches to peacebuilding – e.g., the differential needs of women, individuals with non-hegemonic sexual identities, children, and indigenous persons – and draws from readings in the policy, academic, and organizational domains to reveal the complexities and multi-disciplinary approaches to this field. Students will apply these lessons through the development of policy and analytic papers and presentations on a case study of their choosing.

This paper maps the closely intertwined trajectories of Islamic feminism and peacebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It examines how the socio-political context of the region influenced the emergence of peacebuilding and Islamic feminism, and how secular human rights and feminist organizations provided a fertile ground for female Bosnian activists to practice feminist theology even before they were exposed to the theoretical underpinnings of Islamic feminism. Through examples of notable feminists and human rights activists in the region, as well as projects committed to raising awareness about topics such as gender-equality, peace, and reconciliation, the paper explores the enduring relationship between Islamic feminism and peacebuilding. The language of religion and feminism has proven to be a useful tool for promoting peacebuilding and dialogue within the community, while at the same time secular human rights organizations continue to provide the only space for engagement with Islamic feminism in a patriarchal society.

- by Zilka Spahic Siljak
- •
- Gender Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Trauma Studies, Islamic feminism

What does a ''responsible end'' to war in Afghanistan mean? As a panacea for international disengagement, the Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Program (APRP) was launched in 2010. After the 2001 intervention, the Bonn Agreement laid the foundations for a new Afghan state. Its exclusion of the Taliban signaled continuing conflict. The APRP is ostensibly designed to address this and other exclusions and foster an ''inclusive peace.'' This article probes the peace process at the macro-, meso-, and micro levels within the context of ongoing war. It examines the aban-donment and marginalization experienced by women, segments of the insurgency, civil society and human rights groups as well as fragile communities undergoing reintegration. I argue that these exclusions are facilitated by a coalescence of interests that have reinforced the cycle of war and deepened exclusion. Consequently , the peace process has become incapable of offering real solutions, instead functioning as a pretext for excluding already marginalized groups.

Las mujeres rurales desde el rol de liderazgo, defensa del territorio y organización colectiva proponen una mirada singular sobre la construcción de la paz en el Putumayo que no está exenta de tensiones, involucra sus experiencias de vida y la voz de un territorio afectado por las violencias y el conflicto armado. Desde su accionar realizan incidencia política en distintos niveles: local-departamental, local-nacional, local-internacional, que aportan a la prevención, gestión y regulación de los conflictos en el territorio en medio de un contexto de implementación del acuerdo de paz entre el gobierno y las FARC y escalonamiento del conflicto. Esta investigación tiene enfoque cualitativo, es un estudio de caso abordado desde el paradigma crítico y el método etnográfico que aporta a la comprensión compleja de la paz territorial a partir de su relación con las categorías de género y territorio.

- by Anat Reisman-Levy
- •
- Peace and Conflict Studies, Dialogue, Israel/Palestine, Conflict Transformation

Norway’s and Switzerland’s recent hosting of the de facto Taliban regime representatives in early 2022 has overshadowed the risks to women and their rights in the aftermath of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. Unless international and European policymakers make significant policy interventions while engaging with the de facto Taliban regime, these risks will only escalate.

- by Farooq Yousaf
- •
- Afghanistan, Gender and Peacebuilding, Taliban

With the UNSCR 1325, the topic of gender and armed conflict is strongly placed on the international agenda. Most attention so far has been paid to women's roles in conflict prevention, conflict resolution, and post-conflict rehabilitation. Less consideration is given to women's roles in active warfare and to women who operate as combatants in (ir)regular armies in conflict (Bouta, 2005).
The following paper is a chapter of the dissertation written by Gabriele G. Marchionna and titled "Disarmament and deconstruction of armed conflicts: the case study on the Central African Republic".

Listening is one of the four language skills and works behind other skills, especially behind speaking. This study aimed to reveal the challenges of implementing listening practice using audio materials in EFL classroom in Bangladesh. Self-administered questionnaires and 4 FGDs were used to collect data from the respondents who were randomly selected from 10 secondary schools, 2 teachers and 5 students from each. The study found that the respondents from regular schools face more challenges than those are from EIA intervention schools and the challenges emerged from lack of technical support and access to audio materials in regular schools.

- by Awet Andemicael
- •
- Religion, Social Change, African Studies, Asian Studies
- by Aisling Swaine
- •
- Gender and Peacebuilding, Gender, Peace and Conflict

There is increasing awareness and international support for rebuilding states that have gone through conflict. Third-party interventions in bringing peace to countries that have emerged from civil wars have been channeled through a fundamental concept known as liberal peacebuilding. Liberal peacebuilding, even though it faces much criticism, has been a prominent strategy for third-party intervention in postwar countries since the end of the Cold War. This paper deals with the liberal peacebuilding process in Sierra Leone, after its decade-long brutal civil war. The focus lies on Dr Roland Paris' institutionalization before liberalization (IBL) peacebuilding strategy, its strengths and shortcomings, and its contributions to sustaining peace in Sierra Leone since the end of the war in 2002. Arguing that the IBL strategy has helped to maintain peace in Sierra Leone after ten years of civil war, the paper analyzes how peacebuilding has been implemented in postwar Sierra Leone under the six different pillars of the IBL strategy.

This report was produced as part of the project “Whole of Society Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding”. It analyses lessons learned and good practices in introducing a gender perspective to peace processes in order to strengthen the EU’s capabilities in multi-track diplomacy. The document reflects on various practical experiences by the EU and other third parties in the area of gender and multi-track diplomacy in two specific spheres: the gender dimension in EU’s role as a mediator/facilitator, and EU’s actions via other types of engagement (promoting, supporting, leveraging and funding). The report contributes to identifying ideas and challenges for EU peacebuilding, which will require further analysis and problem-solving beyond the life of this project. Based on the research and engagement with key stakeholders, it is part of a series of reports that investigate cases of best practices and lessons learned related to several cross-cutting themes that the project focuses on.

Este artículo de investigación tiene como objetivo analizar las prácticas sociales de paz del proceso nacional de Confluencia de Mujeres para la Acción Pública (CMAP) de 2009-2019, como una expresión del movimiento social por la paz en Colombia. Entre las conclusiones más importantes se encuentran las siguientes: la oportunidad de identificar que las prácticas sociales de paz de la CMAP se hacen evidentes en la acción colectiva feminista, lo simbólico como potencia política y las memorias subalternas como construcciones de saber. A su vez, se reconoce el aporte del movimiento social en Colombia caracterizado por producir prácticas de paz, ya que ha sido un movimiento en defensa de la vida y de los territorios.

The concept of hybridity has been used in numerous ways by scholars
across a range of disciplines to generate important analytical and
methodological insights. Its most recent application in the social
sciences has also attracted powerful critiques that have highlighted
its limitations and challenged its continuing usage. This article, which
introduces the collection on Critical Hybridity in Peacebuilding and
Development, examines whether the value of hybridity as a concept
can continue to be harnessed, and how its shortcomings might be
mitigated or overcome. Specifically, we seek to demonstrate the
multiple ways to embrace the benefits of hybridity, while also guiding
scholars through some of the potentially dangerous and problematic
areas that we have identified through our own engagement with the
hybridity concept and by learning from the critiques of others. This
pathway, which we have termed ‘critical hybridity’, identifies eight
approaches that are likely to lead scholars towards a more reflexive
and nuanced engagement with the concept.

The research entailed a four-stage process that significantly focused on building the research capacity of women with disabilities and their advocates, enabling their participation in the project as expert knowers of the interstice of gender and disability under transitional arrangements. Spanning a period of more than 12 months of fieldwork, the outcome of the research is a clear set of recommendations to advance the rights of women with disabilities in law, policy and institutional practice

- by Karen Soldatic and +1
- •
- Disability Studies, Critical Disability Studies, Feminist Disability Studies, Transitional Justice

los artículos en este problema y demuestra de qué manera promueven una agenda emergente sobre la seguridad humana: integrando la WPS en las iniciativas de seguridad dirigidas por la ONU, como la responsabilidad de proteger (Responsibility to protect, R2P), y los desafíos de la implementación de la agenda sobre WPS en diversos contextos locales y nacionales. Concluimos sosteniendo que, para afrontar futuros retos, la agenda sobre WPS debe ampliarse para incluir áreas que no pertenecen a las concepciones tradicionales de la seguridad y adoptar toda la jurisdicción de las amenazas a la seguridad en evolución, particularmente los obstáculos estructurales que evitan el empoderamiento de las mujeres de manera global.

- by Vanessa Newby
- •
- Peacekeeping, Gender and Peacebuilding, Gender and Security, Peacebuilding

This practice paper examines the experiences of peacebuilding practitioners and policy actors in undertaking gender-sensitive conflict analysis and integrating that analysis into programming and policymaking in conflict-affected contexts. It aims to identify and promote good practice by exploring the challenges faced by different actors in doing this work and identifying lessons learned from their experiences.

2015 marks the 15th anniversary of the passing of United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. This publication presents case studies of Australian supported foreign policy and and aid program initiatives contributing to the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. These include work through United Nations agencies, partner governments, civil society, women and women’s organisations to ensure that women have a central place in international peace and security efforts.