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Ellerby: A Seat at the Table is not Enough: Understanding Women's Substantive Representation in Peace Processes

Tags: papers, un and global governance lecture 11

Ellerby, Kara. “A Seat at the Table Is Not Enough: Understanding Women’s Substantive Representation in Peace Processes.” Peacebuilding 4, no. 2 (May 3, 2016): 136–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/21647259.2016.1192240.

When do women actually particpate in peace processes? When they do, do peace processes substantively include more provisions to reflect women’s interests?

  • UNSCR 1325
  • undertakes a textual analysis of all negotiated civil war peace agreements

Argues that women’s representation is not just one where they are at the table, but must include a:

  • Agenda
  • Access
  • Advocacy

Agenda

  • guatemala - women created written general demands for development, repatriation, and reintegration
  • burundi - special women’s conference within the Arusha Peace and Reconcilation agreement
  • sudan - Darfur’s Peace Agreement used various women’s groups during the african union (au) mediators
  • uganda - women did not have specific or written agenda, but did have a Uganda Women’s Coalition for Peace’s work in communities
  • philippines - Comphrensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro - inlcuded the Mindanao Women Conference on Peace and Security
  • Women can shape the agenda in different ways, sometimes with specific demands and sometimes with general agreements

Access

  • guatemala - Women participated in the formal civil society access to peace process, secured via the Civil Society Assembly
  • democratic republic of the congo (DRC) - Women worked with the forces vives, civil society sector involved in ICD
  • burundi, uganda - women were granted “observer” status, women constantly lobbying for access granted them access
  • sudan - IO’s promoted the women’s agenda, depended on the mediators for access that was both indirect and not mandated
  • philippines - women had both direct and indirect access to the peace process, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) promoted women’s access
  • direct access allows women a seat at the table
  • observer status may strengthen engagement with formal negotiations by maintaining their independence and ability to critque and criticise
    • potential of having women’s pov filtered through “mediators”

Advocating

  • Women’s demands are complementary to peace and not in competition to them
  • sudan - CPA - original delegates had dropped women’s rights, treating women only as victims and not as fighters, but results from AU promoted women as an actual mediator
    • CPA did not avocate for women, but the Darfur process was different
  • guatemala - Learned from el salvador’s failures to address women’s issues
  • democratic republic of the congo (DRC) - Enagaged women’s demands for better representation
  • philippines - women’s issues were considered complementary to the larger goals of the talks

barriers

  • uganda - approached it women friendly, but what was included was not enough, peace was “forged at the expense of women”
  • sudan - women had to slip suggestions under doors and were marginalized because they were percieved as not having fought in the war
  • Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) - had never included women prior to 2012