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1942 Words
Introduction Of The Importance Of Gender Mainstreaming In Un Peacekeeping And Its Effects On Gender Equality
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The UN peacekeeping mission is a result of efforts between two departments of the UN Government, Peace operations and Operational support. Since 1948, as an individual department it helps the country to move into the path of peace. It is an essential part of the Department of peace operations, which played the most effective role in maintaining the long-lasting peace of the country. In this difficult path, it is important to have equal participation from both genders, because this equality and at the same time diversity helps to prevent conflict. However, for proper implementation of gender equality, UN peacekeeping is following effective policies, still, there are some lacks because of which UN women can face challenges in the process.
Gender mainstreaming policy and its relevance
Gender equality and participation from all genders are very important in every field, and UN peacekeeping is no exception. For making a work ambience acceptable for both genders, the policy they are following is "Gender mainstreaming" (policyforum.net, 2022). It is a public policy concept that focused on valuing the suggestions applicable to different genders that come under a policy action and it includes the many programs and legislation. It is an approach that helps to value both genders and it was introduced first in the year 1985, at the World Conference on Women later it was welcomed by the development community of the UN (peacekeeping.un, 2022). It focuses on gender equality and includes the decision-making skill of both genders for a larger purpose.
Implementation Process of gender mainstreaming in UN peacekeeping
The UN peacekeeping department has its own goal of maintaining gender equality, not only for the sake of the internal composition but also for an important mission of equality that will work for the whole nation. In the process of balancing equality, a policy is required to ensure the true implementation of the intention (peacekeeping.un, 2022). The main purpose of Gender Mainstreaming is to fulfill the requirement of equal participation in the Peacekeeping mission, from all gender which includes Men, women, boys and girls. In this department, the implementation of the policy is required to outline the principle of gender equality and here comes the importance of gender mainstreaming as the core strategy (Gray et al. 2022).
The main principle that the team of DPKO or the departments of Peacekeeping operations believes in for gender equality purposes is inclusiveness, non-discrimination, gender balance and efficiency (peacekeeping.un, 2022). In a post-conflict country, it is important to consult both genders for decision-making, and it helps to integrate all the components that are part of the community. Gender discrimination is a common problem that every other gender faces in the workplace, to ensure non-discrimination in the DPKO the policy plays a major role (un.org, 2022). The personnel ensure all the support that can bring equal rights for the women and can protect them from any kind of sexual violence. Equal participation is the basis to establish equality and in this department, the number of employees in headquarters and in the mission reflects the equality in the participation of women and men at all the post available (Osland et al. 2020). Most importantly the use of all human resources including men, women, girls and boys, is important to establish a long-term peace process.
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The implementation of the policy has some of the most positive outcomes. In the first place, it ensures that all the work done under the department is gender responsive and that the staff understands the importance of equality in daily life as well (Kaltiainen, 2019). It also ensures all the staff from the ground level to the top-level officials, advances the principal regarding this.
There is a separate body, which includes the Gender advisers, Gender units and Gender Focal points applied in both headquarters and the missions, responsible for the proper implementation of the policy (Väyrynen et al. 2021). Everything is monitored and controlled under Gender affairs in all the components and functions of the DPKO. The main focus of the team is to ensure gender equality and prioritization of the WPS principles. It eventually helps to establish the condition of peace, detect, and delete all the negative impacts on the woman and girls of society.
Major Challenges faced by UN Women in Peacekeeping
The peacemaking organization of the UN is focused on bringing peace and security from the core level and UN women play the most crucial role and are considered the key to success in this mission. In the year 2000, with the Security Council Resolution 1325, the UN decided to emphasize implementing the gender perspective. In this resolution, they focus on increasing the number of women in the military in all the posts so they can participate in the peace-making process. In the past 20 years, the participation and involvement of Women military personnel have achieved the target however the targeted number is still not achieved (policyforum.net, 2022). The main challenge that the women primarily faced in the process is mainly related to recruitment and retention. The challenge is still the traditional conception of the gender arrangement; as a result, many women do not see the military jobs as the fittest. Lacking opportunity based on gender and for women reduce the role model is majorly based on violence (Azizah et al. 2020). A recent example of one major challenge is that the women in uniform faced during the crucial time of Covid 19. During the time of the pandemic, women peacekeepers were the front liners and faced all the challenges from the core level. However, the inequality was reflected in the process when the accommodations were allocated for women, used for the quarantining purpose for the Covid-19 affected (giwps.georgetown, 2022).
Best way to make gender mainstreaming effective
The policy does not focus only on the peacekeeping personnel; rather it targeted civilians, military personnel and police. That is the reason the proper implementation of the policy is mandatory (Basini, 2015). The Gender Team in the DPKO should be the one responsible for the process and the Headquarter should become the repository so the whole team can support the implementation process from the ground level.
The gender unit needs to be present in the office and for heads of the missions; therefore they can help in providing strategies regarding gender equality, directly (reliefweb.int, 2022). They will provide advice to the senior-level authority of the department, so they can ensure advancing the process of gender equality and take both operational and technical support from the team.
The core of any planning should focus on gender expertise and in that case, the gender team will play the most crucial role here to be the main resource and making the terms related to the gender that can be implemented in both HQ and on the field.
Some other courses of action can also help in bringing stability such as the presence of effective security can be effective to ensure the protection of women, which includes gender equality and protection from gender-based violence (unwomen.org, 2022). A proper presence from the human rights protection and promotions mechanism can help to fight challenges that have been faced by the women peacekeepers during the pandemic. They can ensure and fight for the proper right of the women in uniform.
Conclusion
Women in uniform inherently have the capacity of better communicators, which is the key to the process of peacekeeping. The better communicators are the better decision-makers and can provide all the required outputs that can help the nation to stand on the path of peace. In this process, gender inequality is a major drawback that the organization can face internally. In the UN peacemaking where women are a huge part of the team, are represented as underrepresented. For the betterment of the situation, the only way is the implementation of a policy that can bring fruitful results. In the process of avoiding any kind of obstacle of gender inequality the policy should be modified accordingly. The implementation of gender balance in the internal part of the department can reflect and bring a positive effect on the whole nation. It is already proven that women's participation in the community can change the whole narrative of a story, therefore it is important to make sure that women are having all equal opportunities compared to men.
References
Journals
Azizah, N., Maksum, A. and Hidayahtulloh, M.A., 2020. Enhancing Women Contribution in Peace, Conflict Resolution, and Security Agenda: Indonesian Female Peacekeepers in the United Nations Peacekeeping Operation (Garuda Contingent–KONGA). Revista UNISCI, (53).
Basini, H., 2015. Gender mainstreaming unraveled: The case of DDRR in Liberia 1. In Gender, Peace and Security (pp. 210-231). Routledge.
Gray, S., Stuart, H., Lee, S. and Bartels, S.A., 2022. Development of an index to measure the exposure level of UN peacekeeper-perpetrated sexual exploitation/abuse in women/girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Violence against women, 28(12-13), pp.3215-3241.
Kaltiainen, L., 2019. A growing force?: an empirical study on the role of female military peacekeepers in UN peacekeeping operations (Master's thesis).
Osland, K.M., Nortvedt, J. and Røysamb, M.G., 2020. Unity in Goals, Diversity in Means-and the discourse on female peacekeepers in UN peace operations. NUPI Report.
Väyrynen, T., Parashar, S., Féron, E. and Confortini, C.C. eds., 2021. Routledge handbook of feminist peace research. London UK: Routledge.
Websites
giwps.georgetown, (2022), Gendered impacts on the operational effectiveness of un peace operations, Available at: https://giwps.georgetown/resource/gendered-impacts-on-operational-effectiveness-of-un-peace-operations/ [Accessed on: 26th October, 2022]
ipinst.org, (2022), The Impact of Women Peacekeepers on Public Support for Peacekeeping in TroopContributing Countries, Available at: https://www.ipinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/IPI-E-RPT-Impact_of_Women_Peacekeepersweb.pdf [Accessed on: 26th October, 2022]
peacekeeping.un, (2022), Gender equality in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations , Available at: https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/peacekeeping/en/gender_directive_2010.pdf [Accessed on: 26th October, 2022]
peacekeeping.un, (2022), Gender Responsive United Nations Peacekeeping Operations , Available at: https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/english_gender_responsive_united_nations_peacekeeping_operations_policy_1.pdf [Accessed on: 26th October, 2022]
peacekeeping.un, (2022), Women in peacekeeping, Available at: https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/women-peacekeeping [Accessed on: 26th October, 2022]
policyforum.net, (2022), Barriers for women in peacekeeping, Available at: https://www.policyforum.net/barriers-for-women-in-peacekeeping/ [Accessed on: 26th October, 2022]
reliefweb.int, (2022), Overcoming Hurdles for Women Peacekeepers in the Field, Available at: https://reliefweb.int/report/world/overcoming-hurdles-women-peacekeepers-field [Accessed on: 26th October, 2022]
un.org, (2022), Women in Peacekeeping: A Key to Peace, Available at: https://www.un.org/en/exhibits/page/women-peacekeeping-key-peace [Accessed on: 26th October, 2022]
unwomen.org, (2022), Keeping the peace in an increasingly militarized world, Available at: https://wps.unwomen.org/keeping-peace/ [Accessed on: 26th October, 2022]
