Gender and ConflictChris Coulter, PhDchris.coulter@indevelop.se

Men = WarMen = Soldiers

Women = PeaceWomen = Victims

Militarization and Masculinity

Maternal Thinking: Women as Mothers

Rape - a Weapon of War

When Women Fight

• “Their female accomplices were almost more terrifying, covered from head to foot in black, their veils bearing Islamic slogans, their waists wrapped with belts full of explosives” (BBC 2002-12-16)

Black Diamond and her comrades may look like any bunch of street-wise girls with attitude but they have the military hardware to back up the look.” (BBC 2003-08-26)

Lynndie England in the Abu Ghraib Prison (BBC 2004-06-15)

Women’s and men’s roles often polarized

in war and conflict

Women’s and men’s roles often politicized

in war and conflict

War, Peace and Post-war

UN Security Council Resolution 1325

• UNSCR 1325: Women, Peace and Security • UNSCR 1820: address the issue of

widespread sexual violence in conflict• UNSCR 1888: mandate peacekeeping

missions to protect women and children from sexual violence

• UNSCR 1889: monitoring and indicators• UNSCR 1960: Especially focusing on the

issue of sexual violence against women and children in armed conflict

§ 1. Urges Member States to ensure increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict;

§ 8. Calls on all actors involved, when negotiating and implementing peace agreements, to adopt a gender perspective;

§ 10. Calls on all parties to armed conflict to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse, and all other forms of violence in situations of armed conflict;

§13 Encourages all those involved in the planning for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration to consider the different needs of female and male ex-combatants and to take into account the needs of their dependants

§ 1. Urges Member States …

§ 8. Calls on all actors involved…

§13 Encourages all those involved

Gender responsive DDR1. Does she possess any type of weapon?

Eligible for disarmament

2. Was the use of weapons an important part of her job?

3. Does she have any experiences of using weapons? / Did she undergo any weapons training

Eligible for demobilisatio

n

4. Did she perform essential support functions during the conflict?

5. Is she socially and financially dependent on a male ex-combatant?

Eligible for Reintegration

YESNO

Gender Responsive

DDR

Appropriate Service Delivery Gender

Training

Gender Specialists

Gender Responsive

Needs Assessment &

Programme Design

Gender Responsive

M&E

Gender Responsive

Budget

Donor Support

Coordina-tion Mechanism with CSOs

Commitment to UNSCR 1325

Thank you

Tack

شكرا