Cynthia Enloe recently spoke in NYC about women and peace and security and unfortunately I missed it! I went on a mission to see what I missed I’m now watching/reading everything I can find of hers! Check out this video to get a sense of what she’s about and I’ve selected one of my favorite quotes from her lecture below:
“To really understand the costs of war - whether they be in in Uganda, or Iraq or Afghanistan or Combodia or Northern Ireland or the United States or the UK it really means that we have to be seriously interested in those women who are the care givers for the physically and the emotionally and mentally wounded after wars. And not just in the United States and the UK, but in Iraq too.”
When those meant to keep the peace commit sexualized violence
As the number of missions and peacekeepers has grown, widespread accounts of inappropriate behavior and sexual exploitation by peacekeepers have been reported around the world, notably in Haiti, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, Cambodia, East Timor, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, UN peacekeepers helped support sex trafficking as customers of brothels relying on forced prostitution, according to Amnesty International.
Through years of working with grassroots communities in east and central Africa, ALARM has found that for peacebuilding and reconciliation efforts to be sustainable, they must specifically target women.
Women need to be involved in more influential positions in the world” — Dalai Lama
Poonam Gupta is one of a 105 strong paramilitary police women from India who went to Liberia on January 2007 to help keep the peace in a country which is still recovering from 14 years of civil war. In 2006, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 which calls for a full and effective participation of women in peace building, peacekeeping and reconstructing efforts.
Woman in peace-keeping mission. Anneli Boman Berg, police inspector from Örebro, worked in a EU peace-keeping mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina to inspect parts of the security sector. The National Criminal Police Agency is one of the Swedish acencies working with resolution 1325.
FOTO: Helena Sundman
Given the special contributions that women can make to peacekeeping operations, a United Nations-backed conference has called for more female staffers in the world body’s operational requirements… I don;t know whether you realize it or not, that on most vacancy announcement, it has always said: “Women applicant is highly encouraged”. - from
“Low Numbers, High Impact: Involvement of Women in Peacekeeping Operations”
The power to empower
