Assessing progress on women’s inclusion in peacekeeping in Latin America¹

Evaluación de los avances en la inclusión de la mujer en el mantenimiento de la paz en América Latina

Avaliando o progresso na inclusão das mulheres na manutenção da paz na América Latina

FABIANA SOFIA PERERA² Centro de Estudios Hemisféricos en Defensa “William J. Perry”, Washington, DC

KIMBERLY NÚÑEZ-ARGUETA³ Georgetown University, Washington, DC

EMILY F. SMITH⁴ Centro de Estudios Hemisféricos en Defensa “William J. Perry”, Washington, DC

¹. Artículo resultado de investigación de tipo: artículo de reflexión.
². PhD en Ciencias Políticas de la Universidad George Washington. Profesora asistente del Centro de Estudios Hemisféricos de Defen-sa William J. Perry. Contacto: fabiana.s.perera.civ@ndu.edu
³. Estudiante de Georgetown University. Pasante del Centro de Estudios Hemisféricos de Defensa William J. Perry. Contacto: kyn2@georgetown.edu
⁴. Asistente académica y coordinadora de pasantes del Centro de Estudios Hemisféricos de Defensa William J. Perry. Contacto: emily.f.smith.civ@ndu.edu

Abstract

Resumen 

Palabras clave: Mujeres, Mantenimiento de paz, América Latina, Seguridad

Resumo

Introduction

UNSCR 1325 and Peacekeeping

UNSCR 1325 does not label the inclusion of women in peacebuilding process-es as a requirement but instead is written as a call to reform the gender imbalance that persists in international security, which has disproportionately excluded the role of women and the protection of women in armed conflict. Subsequent resolu-tions were established to strengthen the four pillars outlined in UNSCR 1325 (Table 1). UNSCR 1820 was adopted in 2008 as a supplement to the principles stated in UNSCR 1325. It attempts to address the legacy of sexual violence in internation-al peacekeeping operations. UNSCR 1820 was considered a breakthrough as the first UN Security Council recognition of sexual violence as a war crime (Willett, 2015). The Resolution calls for the Security Council to mobilize peacekeepers in protecting targeted women from gender-based violence. Recognizing sexual vio-lence as a war crime further prompts action from peacekeepers to protect women in conflict zones. Resolutions 1888 and 1889 were adopted in 2009 to build upon the provisions of Resolution 1820. UNSCR 1888 calls for the deployment of a team of experts to situations where sexual violence in armed conflict took place. It also calls for an investigation on all reports of sexual violence committed by civilians and military personnel (SC 2009, p. 4). Moreover, Resolution 1889, calls for a wholistic approach when addressing sexual violence by requesting the United Nations ensure all UN bodies and civil society “to assess the particular needs of women and girls in post-conflict situations” (SC, 2009, p. 3).

Table 1. United Nations Security Council Resolutions Relating to UNSCR 1325

 

 

Source: (WILPF, 2020)

 

Note: UNSCR 1325 spearheaded a wave of WPS driven resolutions. These resolutions

have strengthened the WPS initiatives that were adopted in response to UNSCR1325.

 

From 2010 to 2013, further resolutions were adopted to support UNSCR 1325. In 2010, Resolution 1960 was adopted by the Security Council to es-tablish “monitoring, analysis and reporting arrangements? on conflict-re-lated sexual violence” (SC, 2010, P. 4). This resolution is recognized for its “naming and shaming” provision, which encourages the UN Security Council to include in their reports information on parties that are “credibly suspect-ed of committing or being responsible for acts of rape” (SC, 2010, p. 3). To complement UNSCR 1960, in 2013, Resolution 2106 was adopted in accor-dance with Resolution 1888. UNSCR 2106 calls for further deployment of Women Protection Advisors and for these roles to be assessed to ensure that Advisors are appropriately trained and deployed to oversee the prevention of gender-based violence (SC, 2013). In 2013, Resolution 2122 strengthened the requirements to include female peacekeepers in peace processes. Compared to other resolutions, UNSCR 2122 emphasizes female leadership and requests that the UN Secretary-General conduct a global study on the implementa-tion of UNSCR 1325 to capture the advantages and disadvantages of women’s rights concerns covered by the Resolution (Miller, Pournik & Swaine, 2014). Finally, Resolution 2122 was adopted in 2015, which established the Informal Experts Group to call for improved Security Council working methods on Women, Peace, and Security (UN Women, 2020). 

Although the intention of inclusion of women in peacekeeping operations is addressed in UNSCR 1325, the effectiveness of its implementation is dependent upon the conditions of a nation’s civil society, institutional governance, and par-ticipation in international peacekeeping., Despite the codification of WPS in 2000 along with subsequent resolutions, in 2020 there was a persistent, widespread gender imbalance favoring male personnel in UN forces: women constitute less than 4 percent of the roughly 100,000 strong UN forces (Crawford & Macdonald, 2013). To address this gender imbalance, National Action Plans (NAPs) for WPS are widely accepted as an indicator of increasing women’s participation in peace-keeping but the connection between the two has been understudied. This paper presents an initial exploration of the connection between NAPs and female par-ticipation in peacekeeping in Latin American countries.

WPS and NAPs

Figure 1. UNSCR 1325 National Action Plans Globally

 

 

Source: (WILPF, 2020).

Note: The countries in yellow signify that they have not adopted a National Action Plan.

Whereas the countries in purple have adopted a National Action Plan.

WPS, NAPs and Latin America

National Action Plans provide a blueprint for how a country plans to move forward in adopting Women, Peace, and Security measures that addresses their respective priorities and difficulties in implementing UNSCR 1325. National Action Plans allow each nation to develop a coherent WPS response that best fits their political, economic, and social conditions. Hence, the make-up of a NAP will differ across Latin American countries Although a NAP is not the sole indicator of a region’s overall performance in Women, Peace, and Security, these pieces of legislation can signal the region’s potential to address the four pillars of the UNSCR 1325 agenda. Whereas the region in general tends to lag in developing National Action Plans, some countries have been leading the process. Chile, for instance, was the first in advancing WPS agendas, such as UNSCR 1325, in Latin America. Chile was the first Latin American country in the region to adopt a NAP under President Michelle Bachelet’s leadership in 2009 (WILPF, 2020). Few Latin American coun-tries have created a NAP (Table 2). Notably, two out of the six countries that have adopted NAPs did so while a woman was president of the country. While this is does not imply causation, it may suggest that representation at the highest levels of leadership matter for the adoption of a NAP. Chile, for example, used UNSCR 1325 as a foundation for embedding a policy framework that highlighted the im-portance of the protection and promotion of women’s rights. This, combined with their active engagement and membership with the UN Security Council, partici-pation in various peacekeeping missions, and recognizing the disproportionately low number of women in its armed forces prompted the government to begin working on a NAP (Gobierno de Chile, 2015). Although the Chilean government began drafting their NAP in 2008, it was during a period of female leadership at the highest level that pushed for the official adoption of the NAP by President Michelle Bachelet in 2009, the first NAP of the region. 

Table 2. NAPs Adopted in Latin America

Military personnel in Latin America

The adoption of NAPs, while significant, does not fully explain differences in fe-male participation in peacekeeping. The participation of women in peace pro-cesses is linked to their involvement in the military and police forces (Donadio, 2008). Low rates of female inclusion in military and police forces are then re-flected in low rates of female inclusion in peacekeeping. A National Action Plan might eventually affect PKO participation if it expressly includes plans to increase female recruitment and retention across the security and defense forces.

The limited number of women represented in Latin American military and po-lice forces is then proportionally reflected in the lagging representation of women in the peacebuilding sector. In Latin America, women constitute less than 10% of military personnel, apart from Argentina and Uruguay in which women comprise 11.63% and 16.09% respectively (Giannini & Lotte, 2014). These rates are general-ly reflected in the limited number of female peacekeeping personnel stationed at UN peacekeeping missions, even those with a higher proportion of peacekeepers representing Latin American countries. For example, in MINUSTAH (the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti) representation of female peacekeeping person-nel is consistently low, despite the involvement of many countries in the region (Donadio, 2008). Out of the total peacekeepers deployed in MINUSTAH from 2005- 2017, 1.48% were female (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2020).

Many service academies throughout the region have only started admitting female students within the last 30 years, precluding female service members from careers lengthy enough to achieve the highest ranks in their respective branches. Several Latin American countries have not yet fully incorporated women into all branches and specialties of their armed forces (Table 3). As more service acad-emies admit female students, eventually there will be more opportunities for female graduates to reach high ranking positions, such as Special Observers or Special Envoys.

Table 3. Incorporation of Women into different Branches of Military Training

Source: Atlas Comparativo de la Defensa en América Latina y Caribe (RESDAL, 2016, p. 46)

Note: “Partial” and “total” describes the level of access and opportunity for women to ascend to higher ranking positions in each armed force institution in Latin America and the Caribbean. The level of access differs within each country.

The adoption of UNSCR 1325 marked an important milestone in the pro-cess of giving female military personnel access to higher-ranking positions in the chain of command (Donadio, 2008). For most countries in the region, military academies began accepting women after 2000, as a result, there are currently very few women who have achieved the rank necessary to act as a military observer in peacekeeping missions, though this appears to be changing over time (Giannini, 2012). Bolivia has granted access to women in the professional corps since 1979 –1985 (Giannini, 2012). Presumably because of this training, Bolivia has sur-passed other countries in the region in its contributions of female troops to PKO. The changes that allowed for this result were achieved prior to the adoption of a NAP and indeed predate the adoption of UNSCR 1325, suggesting that while helpful, a NAP is not a necessary precondition to achieving inclusion of women in PKO.

Contributions of Female Peacekeepers from Latin American

In addition to changes in military training overall, Latin America has worked to incorporate WPS into Peacekeeping Training Centers (PTCs). At these centers there is increasing availability and institutionalization of courses and seminars addressing gender and the role of women in peacekeeping as a result of UNSCR 1325 (Abdenur et al., 2018). The training centers have led to collaboration across the region, sharing curriculum design while deepening their understanding of each other’s practices. For instance, Brazil’s CCOPAB collaborates on curriculum design with Argentina and Chile (Abdenur et al., 2018).

Overall, Latin American countries are important contributors of personnel for peacekeeping operations (Abdenur et al., 2018). It is precisely the region’s increased involvement in peacekeeping operations that has sparked discussion about its low participation of women in the field. UN Peacekeeping involves more than just military oversight but demands diversified personnel to reflect the gender issues that can arise during conflict. Between 2008 and 2017, female UN Peacekeeping personnel increased from 1360 to 3145 and the proportion of women in the military increased from 1.9% to 3.9% (Smit & Tidbald-Lundholm, 2018). These low numbers are reflected in Latin America’s armed forces as well. However, as noted by Crawford, Lebovic, and Macdonald (2015), “the evidence indicates nonetheless that some UN members—by reason of their democratic and rights-observant governance—are peculiarly prone to contribute at least a small number of female personnel to UN operations” (p. 41). 

The MINUSTAH offers the largest example of peacekeeping contributions by Latin America. By June 2008, 4,040 of the mission’s 8,997 military troops were from Latin America, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay (Crawford et al, 2015). As the mission expanded, the total female personnel hovered around 2%. Latin American troop contributions specifically were about 2.5% female (Giannini, 2012). Most recent data details an increase in female Latin American troops — 4.2% of peacekeepers were female by 2017 (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2020). 

Though MINUSTAH is Latin America’s most important effort, countries in the region are further engaged abroad as well. In 2018, 16 of 20 Latin American countries were contributing to 14 ongoing UN Peacekeeping missions with a total of 2,230 police and military (Abdenur et al., 2018). These high rates of overall participation are not mirrored in rates of female participation. Currently, in UN operations, women compromise 8.4% of Latin American police forces, 3.9% of military experts, and 4.3% of military troops (Giannini & Lotte, 2014). 

The rise of women personnel in military operations, where women are now a part of work areas that include committees, services, and peacekeeping mis-sions, is vital to maintain peace and security in conflict zones (Barriga, 2020). Colonel Lourdes Barriga, a Peruvian UN peacekeeper from MONUSCO (the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 2005, emphasizes the importance of women peacekeepers on the ground to assist in cases of sexual assault for women and children. Barriga reflects on her time as a UN peacekeeper and mentions that the participation of military women on the ground allowed “local women to have better support and an improved sense of security”, additionally, “military women [...] contributed to the improved protection of women and children” despite only having one woman assigned to each Verification and Monitoring Team, each of whom were tasked with reporting and assisting in gender cases (Barriga, 2020, 215-219). Major Karina Lazo, the first female officer to have graduated from the Military School of Chorrillos in Peru to participate as a military observer in a United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission also reflects on her peacekeeping mission at the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic in 2016. As a member of the Female Engagement Team (FET) she re-counts “these female officers patiently sought to interact with the women of the communities and earn their trust, which illustrates the importance of female staff ” (Lazo, 2020, 2929-232).

Both Barriga and Lazo have witnessed the impact of female personnel in the peacekeeping missions. Their experience in the field further validates the need for more women peacekeepers and the opportunities for trust building that are missed with their absence.

NAPS and Contributions

Though they have not been linked directly to increased female PKO contri-butions, there appears to be a correlation between the regions more aggressively adopting NAPS and demonstrated success in the representation of women in UN peacekeeping personnel. Within Latin America, the relationship does not appear to be present at the country level (table 4) Some countries that have not adopted NAPs have percentages of female troops that exceed those of countries that do have a NAP in place. Peru, for example, has committed 37 women peacekeepers, 15.7% of their total contributions, despite not having a NAP. In contrast, Brazil adopted a NAP in 2007, yet women still account for only 3.9% of its peacekeepers.

Table 4. Number of Women from Latin America in Peacekeeping Operations

Source: Data are from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (2020)

Note: The table outlines the percentage of female peacekeepers in UN missions from respective Latin American countries. Although there is a rise of female representation in peacekeeping operations, the number of women in UN missions is limited.

As suggested by the table above, the WPS framework is underdeveloped in Latin America relative to other UN member states that have undergone process-es of institutional transformation to meet the goals of WPS. While NAPs don’t conclusively lead to an increase in female participation in peacekeeping, their adoption signals a country’s understanding of the gender imbalance in interna-tional security agendas and a willingness to address it. In addition to NAPs, there are other ways to signal commitment to the inclusion of women in security and defense. Colombia, for example, does not have a NAP, yet its 2016 peace agree-ment included 100 provisions on gender issues, addressing accountability and the improvement of women’s rights in Colombia (Goldscheid, 2020). Regional ini-tiatives such as the Colombia example can provide a model for Latin America in implementing more WPS-aligned practices in its UN peacekeeping operations.

While this paper suggests there is a relationship between NAPs and contribu-tions of female personnel to PKOs, further research is needed to understand the role that NAPs play in promoting WPS in countries in the region. Research of this sort faces many challenges, including problems of data availability related to institu-tional unwillingness to disclose the number of female personnel in police, military, and peacekeeping forces limits UNSCR 1325. Since there is a lack of data, research regarding Women, Peace, and Security falls short when attempting to identify re-cent and up-to date findings. Consequently, if there is no public pressure to produce research studies about WPS, countries will not have access to the knowledge needed to implement effective NAPs nor the motivation to adopt WPS agendas. Accessible data will allow countries to craft policies that are tailored to their specific situation. Importantly, it will also help countries identify achievable targets across defense and security sectors, including contributions of female personnel to PKO.

Latin American countries must adopt a NAP that not only responds to the demands of UNSCR 1325 but develop a series of policies that will internalize WPS agendas in their respective government institutions. NAPs can mandate enforce-ment and accountability measures to ensure international WPS goals, suggest-ed by UNSCR 1325, are followed through in addition to local WPS initiatives. By pushing implementation at a local level, NAPs facilitate the recruitment of more women into local police forces and government institutions (Jacevic, 2019). Eventually, this will create a pipeline for more female representation in peace-keeping operations and peace processes once women have the access to these po-sitions. While operational challenges may arise when developing a NAP, a unified response within the region can assist with the implementation of resources to execute WPS goals. Additionally, an “inclusive design process” outlined in a NAP, which can involve cooperation efforts between government ministries and agen-cies to enforce UNSCR 1325 measures, can relieve potential bureaucratic, finan-cial, and operational difficulties as well (Jacevic, 2019). 

NAPs demonstrate a significant milestone for the six Latin American countries where they have been adopted, however as mentioned previously, the lack of sup-port and intergovernmental cooperation limits their potential to execute WPS goals to the fullest. The countries that have a NAP demonstrate more initiative in imple-menting UNSCR 1325, particularly the participation pillar as demonstrated by their number of female personnel in peacekeeping operations. However, it is important to note that although some countries may not have an NAP, political willingness to incorporate the four pillars of UNSCR 1325 is expressed through other policy avenues. In short, NAPs appear to be an important but not sufficient condition for progress on the inclusion of women in peacekeeping in Latin America.

References