Boosting women’s role in peace and security
Women, alongside children, are often disproportionately affected by war and conflict, and yet they face barriers that prevent them from partcipating fully in the peace-building process. But unless women – half the global population – play an equal role in preventing and resolving conflicts, lasting stability will be difficult to achieve.
To tackle the issue, in October 2000 the UN Security Council adopted Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on women, peace and security. It calls for the full and equal participation of women at all levels – from early conflict prevention to post-conflict reconstruction.
Women in uniform
NATO increasingly deploys female staff as part of peace-support operations.
One key step for NATO in implementing the resolution is to increase the number of women in the Alliance’s operations. Army Sergeant Angela Aaron works in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) US National Support Element office. She agrees that, while in some armed forces women are still not involved in direct combat, the fact that they are able to serve in Afghanistan can be a positive influence.
“These women want to go to college,” she says, talking about a trip earlier this year to an Afghan women’s school in Kabul . “It is their way of expressing that they want to contribute more. I feel like we can help them achieve that. I think seeing us serving in the military shows both the men and women that everyone can contribute.”
Female military personnel can be very valuable at checkpoints and search operations, where they can perform any required searches on local women, for illegal weapons for example. Also, female victims of violence often find it easier to approach and talk to other women.
NATO is also making efforts to involve more local women in peacemaking and peace-building efforts, because understanding local culture and integrating different perspectives on women’s rights is crucial to lasting stability.
Colonel Annicq Bergmans, former chairperson of the Committee on Women in the NATO Forces, speaks of the experience of peacekeeping in Kosovo: “To move negotiations forward with the male villagers, sometimes we needed to involve and convince female villagers, because they held the power behind the scenes.”
Training and education
Dr. Louise Olsson, a researcher at Folke Bernadotte Academy in Sweden, co-led a recent study by interested Allies and Partners to identify lessons and best practices to support the implementation of UNSCR 1325 in Afghanistan’s Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs).
“To integrate Resolution 1325 into operations, it is important to define objectives. To fulfill these, you need to improve the competence of personnel through training,” she says.
The study emphasizes the need for expert functions such as gender advisers and focal points, and highlights the crucial role of both political and military leadership in promoting and taking responsibility for integrating Resolution 1325.
Identifying training needs and lessons learned, but also sharing them among nations and international organizations and institutions is essential. At NATO’s Summit in April 2009, Allied leaders called for a comprehensive set of measures to be developed in time for the 10th anniversary of UNSCR 1325 in October 2010.
Equal opportunities
In general, to ensure women have access to decision-making and democratic processes, the number of women in the workforce needs to grow, particularly in senior positions in corporations, governments and organisations.
Stefanie Babst is Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy, and one of the few high-ranking women officials at NATO. At the International Women’s Entrepreneurship and Leadership Summit in Istanbul early June 2009, she called for the stronger involvement of women in security and defence sectors.
“NATO's operations stretch across three continents, involving nearly 70 000 troops from 28 Allies and 17 non-NATO countries from Switzerland to Australia,” she says. ”Women make up half of these countries’ populations, but few are involved in decision-making. It shows the imperative as well as potential the Organization has to act responsibly in support of gender equality.”