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92. Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations: Baseline Study
- Author:
- Marta Ghittoni, Léa Lehouck, and Callum Watson
- Publication Date:
- 07-2018
- Content Type:
- Case Study
- Institution:
- Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
- Abstract:
- The proportion of female police and military peacekeepers remains well below UN targets. Research suggests that the main reason behind the small numbers seems to be a variety of challenges and barriers to uniformed women deploying to PKOs. This baseline study compiles and analyses research published to date on the topic. The study was commissioned by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) in the framework of the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations. The main objectives of this study are to describe the current situation as concerns women’s participation in military and police roles in United Nations peacekeeping operations, document international good practice to increase such participation, and identify challenges and barriers to the recruitment, training, retention, deployment and promotion of uniformed women in peacekeeping operations.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Peacekeeping, Military Affairs, and Women
- Political Geography:
- Geneva, Canada, United Nations, and Global Focus
93. Tracking the Development Dividend of SSR
- Author:
- Elisabetta Baldassini, Robin Dyk, Mark Krupanski, Gustav Meibauer, Albrecht Schnabel, Usha Trepp, and Raphael Zumsteg
- Publication Date:
- 02-2018
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
- Abstract:
- This report aims at investigating and substantiating the assumed relationship between security sector reform (SSR) activities and their impact on development prospects in order to reconcile the apparent impasse between development and SSR practitioners. Understanding the linkages between SSR and development allows researchers to generalise and produce comparable data necessary to assess and improve the suitability of SSR in helping societies achieve their development and peacebuilding objectives.
- Topic:
- Security, Development, Peacekeeping, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- Geneva, United Nations, and Global Focus
94. Gender Parity in Peace Operations: Opportunities for U.S. Engagement
- Author:
- Luisa Ryan and Shannon Zimmerman
- Publication Date:
- 03-2018
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Women In International Security (WIIS)
- Abstract:
- At the UN Peacekeeping Defense Ministerial Conference, Canada announced the launch of the Elsie Initiative on Women in Peace Operations. Through tailored technical support, the initiative aims to help troop-contributing countries recruit and retain female soldiers. It is one of the first initiatives to directly address the lack of female personnel at the deploying country level. As one of the co-hosts of the 2017 UN Peacekeeping ministerial, the United States is in a strong position to partner in the work of the Elsie Initiative. By so doing, it can entrench the concept of gender parity in its current UN peacekeeping training programs and deployments and better lead knowledge-sharing efforts with partner militaries. The Elsie Initiative also gives the United States an opportunity to reinforce partnerships that enhance global security while bolstering its leadership in gender parity and UN reform. Efforts such as the Elsie initiative to improve the effectiveness of peace operations will directly benefit US national interests by strengthening alliances and enabling recipient countries to take an increasing role in providing for collective and regional security.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, United Nations, Peacekeeping, and Women
- Political Geography:
- United States and Global Focus
95. Improving Gender Training in UN Peacekeeping Operations
- Author:
- Velomahanina T. Razakamaharavo, Luisa Ryan, and Leah Sherwood
- Publication Date:
- 02-2018
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Women In International Security (WIIS)
- Abstract:
- United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 expressed a global commitment to the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda. Many policy statements and guidance on gender mainstreaming have followed in the 17 years since UNSCR 1325’s passage, yet peace operations on the ground appear little affected. They continue to overlook the many roles women play in conflict and conflict resolution, fail to engage fully with women’s organizations, and fail to include women fighters in reintegration and security sector reform programs. They even perpetrate exploitation: Sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) continues to be widespread within peace missions themselves, despite increased SEA and conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) training for operation forces. Further, peace operations have failed to address the more inclusive Gender, Peace and Security (GPS) agenda and the broader role gender plays in conflict dynamics. For example, while missions may seek to address the effects of conflict-related sexual violence on women and girls, they may miss similar impacts for male victims and their families. Improved gender training could help ameliorate this mismatch between policy rhetoric and practice. This policy brief outlines current gender training practice, identifies gaps, and recommends ways to strengthen training in order to help peace operations personnel better understand how to apply a gender lens to their missions.
- Topic:
- Political Violence, Gender Issues, United Nations, Peacekeeping, Women, and Gender Based Violence
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
96. IN THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL, AGREEMENT, NOT DISCORD, IS THE NORM. BUT HAS IT WORKED FOR PEACEKEEPING?
- Author:
- Lise Morjé Howard and Anjali Dayal
- Publication Date:
- 02-2018
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- Political Violence @ A Glance
- Abstract:
- The UN Security Council’s five permanent members—the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France and China—are unlike-minded states with diverging foreign policy agendas. Media coverage of the Security Council typically highlights divisions between its Permanent Five Members (P5). This week, for instance, we read about Russia blocking a resolution for a cease-fire to bring humanitarian aid to a suburb of Damascusin Syria. In January, CNN declared a “big power showdown” at the Security Council. The narrative of five great powers at loggerheads with one another, each with a unilateral veto over any of the Council’s actions, is a powerful explanation for the UN’s stasis on some high-profile issues of international peace and security. But the largest category of Security Council action—UN peace operations—does not fit easily into this narrative, and examining it should lead us to reconsider the way we think about Security Council politics. For peace operations, agreement, not gridlock, is the norm at the Security Council. In general, P5 cooperation is a vital common good, because it enables multilateral responses to global crises. When it comes to peace operations, however, the Council has settled on a puzzling, often counter-productive point of agreement.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Power Politics, Peacekeeping, and UN Security Council
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Syria, and Global Focus
97. THE UN’S DEFINING CHALLENGE: PEACEKEEPING AND PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS
- Author:
- Hanne Fjelde, Lisa Hultman, and Desirée Nilsson
- Publication Date:
- 10-2018
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- Political Violence @ A Glance
- Abstract:
- According to former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, protecting civilians from atrocity crimes is “a defining purpose of the United Nations in the twenty-first century”. It might also be one of the UN’s greatest challenges. Protection of civilians has become a core task of peacekeeping operations: more than 95 percent of all peacekeepers deployed globally are mandated to protect civilians. At the same time, media headlines often highlight UN failures to respond to violence in a timely manner (for example, here and here), leaving civilians without protection. Looking beyond individual cases, is the UN really unable to perform one of its core tasks and live up to its “defining purpose”? In a recently published article in International Organization, we shed some light on these issues. Using fine-grained geographical data at the sub-national level, we empirically examine both where peacekeepers are deployed and whether they are able to effectively reduce violence against civilians. In short, we find three things: 1) the UN does deploy to locations where civilians are at risk, most clearly so in areas where rebels perpetrate violence; 2) the UN is effective in protecting civilians from rebel violence, but struggles to protect civilians from government violence, and 3) peacekeeping presence does not just push violence to adjacent locations.
- Topic:
- United Nations, Peacekeeping, Civilians, and Protection
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
98. Reducing Sexual Abuse and Exploitation in UN Peacekeeping Missions: Reforming Data Collection to Inform Action
- Author:
- Anjali Dayal and Sophie Huvé
- Publication Date:
- 12-2018
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS)
- Abstract:
- Sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by United Nations (UN) peacekeepers is a critical issue. The UN has had a zero-tolerance policy in place since 2003 and has made data on SEA allegations in peace operations publicly available since 2007. This data reveals 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. However, gaps and inconsistencies in data collection, reporting, and interpretation make it difficult to draw conclusions from the data alone. We need substantial context and case-specific knowledge to fully interpret the reported numbers. This policy brief makes recommendations to the UN on how to improve data collection and clarify reporting mechanisms, and calls for extensive external investigation to explain the variation in reported cases of SEA.
- Topic:
- United Nations, Peacekeeping, Reform, Sexual Violence, Data, and Exploitation
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
99. Global Peace Operations Review 2018: Year in Review
- Author:
- Richard Gowan and Ryan Rappa
- Publication Date:
- 05-2018
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Global Peace Operations Review
- Abstract:
- The previous year bore witness to a number of deepening trends for peace operations, including budgetary pressures, shifting geopolitical terrain in the Security Council, and the continued support for large missions mainly focused on managing conflict (with little hope for a political solution in sight) despite renewed focus on the “primacy of the political” in UN peace operations. At the same time, a new Secretary-General brought fresh energy to the UN, calling more attention to prevention and sustaining peace, and ushering in reform processes across the UN system, now including the Action for Peacekeeping initiative. This report adds context to reform processes by documenting a number of other developments in peace operations, including operational, strategic, and financial challenges, debates over the values and practices to which peacekeeping should adhere, and progress–or lack thereof–made toward gender parity and geographical diversity among UN leadership.
- Topic:
- United Nations, Peacekeeping, UN Security Council, and Conflict Management
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
100. Can We Make UN Peacekeeping Great Again
- Author:
- Alexandra Novosseloff
- Publication Date:
- 05-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Global Peace Operations Review
- Abstract:
- If UN peacekeeping operations are “at a crossroads” as the Secretary-General told the Security Council on 6 April, then it is a policy and linguistic roundabout. This is the same phrase that a senior official used to describe the Brahimi report in 2000 and others used to characterize the work of the High-level Independent Panel on Peace Operations (HIPPO) in 2015. Does this mean that the policy debate that surrounds UN peacekeeping has just been going around in circles for the past twenty years? The recent declarations made by the US administration on possible cuts of its share of the peacekeeping budget and its push to cut individual missions at the time of mandate renewal (as observed in the case of MONUSCO already) has created uneasiness and has given new life to the old debate about the relevance of UN peacekeeping. But this in itself is not a new position. The HIPPO report has also argued for such a review of existing operations. Whether peacekeeping missions are “fit for purpose”, and what this actually means in practice, are questions numerous governments, delegations in New York, departments of the UN Secretariat, experts on the matter, non-governmental organizations and at times, international public opinion, have kept asking for years and even decades. The question was put on the table of the Security Council again by the new US administration during its presidency in April 2017. The goal, as outlined in its concept paper, was to review every single peacekeeping operation to “identify areas where mandates no longer match political realities.” The objective was to “propose alternatives or paths towards restructuring to bring missions more in line with achievable outcomes.”
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, International Cooperation, United Nations, and Peacekeeping
- Political Geography:
- North America, Global Focus, and United States of America