recent reading

A Few articles that I have read and found relevant to my research:

I found an amazing article very relevant to my subject

Women, War, Peace-building and Reconstruction. Onyejekwe, Chineze J. International Social Science Journal, no. 184, pp. 277-83, June 2005

this directly discusses 1325 and how it should be implemented. The author also mentioned a book relevant to the topic Development, Women, andWar: Feminist Perspectives, Deborah Eade and Haleh Afshar (2003) whichaims to "highlight the shared experiences
of women and their potential tocontribute to war but especially to peace", I have requested tihs book from new college library because UTSC does not have it, so I look forward to receiving that in a week's time.

Another article I have read and have to follow up on further research was "The Ombudsman Insitution and Conflict resolution in Contemporary Third World Societies" by Najmul Abedin, which basically exlains the role of the ombudsman in government as a check on bureaucratic discrimination and its role in third world societies. I have to follow up on what I have learned from this article to see if Sri Lanka and Russia have ombudsman and if they have received complaints from various groups about systemic discrimination based on ethnicity.

"Strengthening women's contributions to sustainable peace: the benefits of flexibility Larson", Mary Jo; Tian, Xiaoping Conflict resolution quarterly, vol. 23 no. 1, pp. 53-70, 2005

This article links peace processes to development and advocates for grassroots development rather than top-down administration by arguing that those women in particular situations know how to best solve the problems they themselves are have.

Also it defines different types of threats:
p 55

"55
A more comprehensive definition of the threats to peace and security identifies three dimensions of violence. Cultural violence is prejudice or stigma reinforced through language, art, religion, and ideology. Structural violence takes place through legitimized discrimination. Direct violence refers to events or empirical acts, such as bombing, rape, and environmental
destruction. These three interrelated forms of violence exist above andbelow the surface of consciousness (Galtung, 1996)"

It then addresses empowerment in relation to these threats. The most important element of instigating a process of empowerment according to the authors is flexbility if third parties intend to get involved in the matter.

Anna Politkovskaya's last piece

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1868072.ece

an interesting article

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1868073.ece

on A.P. and Chechnya

Other than compiling my formal proposal I have been trying to get thru 'A Dirty War" by Anna Politkovskaya in its entirety. It is a compilation of reports she made during the leading up to and during the second Chechen war. She was actually murdered earlier this month, which was sad to hear because as a Russian writer she is incredibly objective, critical and thorough in her reporting (which is why she was murdered perhaps).

Not only does she report on various peace efforts that (mostly Russian) women are partaking in, she herself is an example of the coourageous steps women have taken in this conflict to rebuild life during and after war.

Key points I have taken up so far from AP's book:

An organised body of Russian women, the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers is basically a lobby group advocating for soliders' rights. Conscripts as young as 18 are forced to leave home to train for war. They are promised they will only be sent to conflict zones on a voluntary basis, and instead woken up at 2 am after a night of heavy drinking and dragged to conflict zones in Daghestan and Chechnya. After fighting a war they never signed up for, soldiers that survive often shoulder serious injuries, paralyzation etc only to find out that the government has made no provisions for those who need to be taken care of as a result of combat.

These sort of injustices have led to the formation of this committee, however the military holds a much higher proportion of power that pervades many Russian state departments (even ones that are supposedly civilian such as the Ministry of Justice).

Russian mothers have actually kidnapped their sons from various military training bases after hearing of the widespread military deception their sons undergo.

On the Chechen side, many Chechen men in Russia were imprisoned arbitrarily as they were all cast as criminals by the State and the cooperating media outlets. In Chechnya itself, many of the men were captured as every Chechen man was seen as a potential 'terrorist', leaving the women as the primary members of society to rebuild (homes in Gorzny for example)

1325 Background

Resolution 1325 explicitly recognizes other resolutions as the backbone of this one:

Resolution 1261 – August 26, 1999 On Protection of Civilians in armed conflict

http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N99/267/94/PDF/N9926794.pdf?OpenElement

This resolution recognized the hardship that civilians go through during armed conflict and that civilians in particular suffered the most causalities. It advocates for the free passage of civilians and UN workers in various conflict zones. It also advocates for involvement of the secretary-general on issues of peace-making. The resolution also cites various treaties to be used as guidelines for various nations, such as the Geneva Conventions.

On women this resolution stated:

-recognized acts of violence that are particularly made against women and children [p 1]
-underlined the needs of children, explicitly singling out “girl-child” [2]
-“welcoming the ongoing work within the United Nations system on theimplementation of a gender perspective in humanitarian assistance and on violence against women” [p 2]
-made general appeals for nations to respect various human rights treaties, within those the gender issue is addressed

Resolution 1296 On Protection of Civilians in armed conflict

http://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?Open&DS=S/RES/1296%20(2000)&Lang=E&Area=UNDOC

This is very similar to UN Resolution 1261, the main extension being is speaks more about deliberate targeting of civilian populations.

On women:

Article 10. Expresses its intention, where appropriate, to call upon the parties to aconflict to make special arrangements to meet the protection and assistancerequirements of women, children and other vulnerable groups, [p 2]
Article 19. Reiterates the importance of compliance with relevant provisions ofinternational humanitarian, human rights and refugee law and of providingappropriate training in such law, including child and gender-related provisions, [p 4]

Resolution 1314 on Children and Armed Conflict

http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N00/604/03/PDF/N0060403.pdf?OpenElement

Speaks about children being used in conflicts as child soldiers and also underlines women’s and children’s rights. Also applauds the adoption by the General Assembly on 25 May 2000 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, going further to speak to integrating youth in peace-building strategies.
(Much of the resolution speaks to the conflict in Sierra Leone and its use of child soldiers).

On women:

Women’s issues are inexorably tied to children’s issues as the world over women are the primary caregivers for children. All resolutions affecting women will affect children and vice versa.
Article 16.(b) Consider including child protection staff in their peace and fieldoperations and providing training to members of their peace and field operations on rights and protection of women and children;(e) Integrate a gender perspective into all policies, programmes and projects;[p3]


Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/declar.htm

This declaration was from the fourth UN conference for women in 1995, articles within this declaration reaffirm equal and inalienable rights for woman in various sectors of society.

Article 28 in particular is key to my study of UN Resolution 1325:'

“Take positive steps to ensure peace for the advancement of women and,recognizing the leading role that women have played in the peace movement,work actively towards general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control, and support negotiations on the conclusion, without delay, of a universal and multilaterally and effectively verifiable comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty which contributes to nuclear disarmament and the prevention of the proliferation of nuclear weapons in all its aspects;”


The twenty-third Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly entitled
“Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-FirstCentury”

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/followup/beijing+5.htm

summary of this one to come…

Gender and International Conflict

Mon Sept 25, 2006

Hamideh Sedghi writes about third world women caught in conflict: " Third World women captured world attention as 'victims', but Western reporters saw them subjagted only by their own cultures and not by international conflict" [90, "Third World Feminist Perspectives on World Politics", Women, Gender, and World Politics. Ed Pter R. Beckman and Francine D'amico 1994: Westport, pp 89-105]

When Sedghi writes about the 'West' she mostly cites the US media as examples however as her Third World example that she begins the chapter with she talks about Saudi Arabian womens' protests against a patriarchal culture and the first Gulf war. Although her assertion confirms my initial observation about the portrayal of women in conflict zones when speaking about Saudi women she is incorrect as citing them as Third World because Saudi Arabia is a high income country, but perhaps she was referring to their protest against the war being waged in Iraq. Sedghi also doesn't make it entirely clear where exactly the 'third world' is, only stating that she is not using the term in an ethnocentric or orientalist manner.

An interesting oberservation Sedghi makes is that women are under two patriarchal systems: the national and international so when conflict arises women either accept the patriarchy they are under nationally to help in an international conflict or decide to stand up for their gender-specific concerns [103]. In the Chechen and Sri Lankan case, both conflicts are intra-state rather than inter-state. Sedghi's assertion can still be applied I think; for example that Tamil women may assist their own against the Sinhalese government even though they are under restraints based on gender by the Tamil culture. For example, differences in gender roles between Sinhalese Sri Lankans and Tamil Sri Lankans could stem from the dominant religions in each group, in this case Buddhism and Hinduism.

scratching the surface...

Wed. Sept 20, 2006

Today i started to read up on various topics related to my research study, i was first trying to support my statement about women being represented as victims in the media, but I stumbled across some other interesting findings...

In Gender and Political Theory by Judith Squires, she points out (perhaps obviously) that have been exlcuded out of political theory and practice. That got me to thinking about the causal connection betweent the two: since there really is no way to ascertain that one causes the other, I came to accept that they reinforce one another. And since dominant way of viewing politics in a 'gendered' fashion is presumed to take a feminist stance and that previously assumed to be a gender neutral, taking a 'feminist' approach is not always seen as legitimate or whole.
My research will not be taking an explicitly 'feminist' stance I don't think, but I think gender theory helps organize thoughts and provokes interesting ideas and poses questions about womens' experiences that I otherwise would miss. Another thing Squires pointed out for example was that women are excluded in the political realm largely because of how we define political [ie formal institutional government fora]. She goes further to say that women's
representation in 'the political process' can be changed in two ways:

1. A higher proportion of women are permitted to enter current institutional channels
2. The deftn of political process changes to include activities that wmen participate in; this requires a breaksdown of the barriers liberalism has helped put up between 'public' and 'private' space, whereby civil society falls under 'private' space

This led me to thinking: definitions are obviously very important, and I have to determine what PRECISELY is the research question for my subject so when trying to come up with an answer I define key concepts clearly early on, so as to not confuse deeper inquiry.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Short Term Plan

1. Continue to scratch the surface with regards to gender and political theory
2. Extrapolate/simplify key pts from resolution 1325
3. Ensure enough information is available for both conflicts by preparing in the short run:

• Summary of each conflict
• Summary of womens' roles in that society [pre-war]
• Summary of womens' role during the conflict

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

before i forget ...
Another observation I made today when thinking about what is similar and different about Chechen and Sri Lankan societies is that both are societies that underwent major transitions [and arguable are still under transition]
Chechnya in a post-cold war era and Sri Lanka in a post-colonial context.

Tues Sept 19, 2006

UN Resolution 1325

Here is the link for the resolution in its entirety
http://www.un.org/events/res_1325e.pdf

Initial thoughts/directions

Fri Sept 15, 2006

I have finally narrowed down what I would like to research throughout the semester.
I have decided to approach a topic I do not know too much about, as a fresh start will probably help me have a balanced perspective.

In mainstream discourse surrounding various conflicts such as the ongoing conflicts in Chechnya and Sri Lanka, women are often framed as victims, helpless beings subjected to lists of human rights violations and trapped in war zones or refugee camps. While it is true that during war, women suffer considerably, whether in a war zone or as IDPs, it is often forgotten somehow that women have a larger role than 'victim'. Although women are largely shut out of the political processm, this does not mean that women are powerless.

Personally I would like to look at the experiences of the other half of the human race, not to suggest that mainstream discourses about conflict resolution and peace building is solely about males, however actors involved in those precarious political processes tend to be male which colours the whole process a particular way. The mainstream newsmedia is generally fraught with sexist undertones and overtones which has over the years coloured my own mindset a particular way when thinking about these issues.

I plan to study conflict resolution and peace building processes in Chechnya and in Sri Lanka, comparing women's role in these processes and seeing how the actions women have taken and have been permitted to have taken compare with the UN resolution 1325 which promotes a more active role for women in these types of political processes.

My interest to study this topic is mainly derived from:

i) interest in conflict resolution and peace building processes in general- much of my schooling in political science has been focussed in theory and I have never had the chance to underake such a study that looks at these processes in 'real time' so to speak; it will allow me look beyond rational words on paper into the complex, real world processes that have a real impact on peoples' lives.

ii) the two regions i have chosen to study, Sri Lanka and Chechnya, each have a unique story to tell whether it is from a Russian, Chechen, Tamil or Sinhalese perspective as the conflicts are ongoing and other than short blurbs in the paper here and there are largely ignored by the international community. I am not presumptous enough to believe that I can give voice to these stories, because they are not mine however I think it would be very interesting to contrast the way these women are dealing with conflict based on different notions on the acceptable role of women, how the particular conflicts have changed those perceptions etc.

iii) to look at the impact UN resolutions have (or don't have), to examine how particular carefully contructed prescriptions stand up to real life circumstances.