International Perspectives
The need to increase the numbers of women within the Norwegian armed forces is related to international developments, and particularly to increasing international recognition of the need to analyze and understand peace and conflict matters along gender lines. Both academically and politically, the international focus on gender and conflict has been dominated by a focus on women’s needs for specific forms of protection against structural and direct forms of violence. Little has been done, however, to direct attention to the ways in which wars are gendered (that is, how men and women play different roles and have different economic and symbolic value during and after times of conflict) and how women might be able to make valuable contributions to political decisionmaking provided that their voices are given sufficient political attention. Recent developments, however, suggest that this tendency is about to change.11
United National Security Council Resolution 132512
One of the groundbreaking international achievements concerning women’s participation in peace and security matters was the unanimous adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 in October 2000.13 According to Tryggestad (2006), this represents the first time in the history of the UN that issues pertaining to women and security had been placed on the agenda of the Security Council. The actual text of the resolution is broad and far-reaching, and an understanding of women as actors and agents for change in conflict/post-conflict situations – rather than merely as victims – lies at its core. Emphasis is placed on acknowledging the rights of women to participate in political decisionmaking forums, as well as their rights as actors in negotiations and peacebuilding processes. The UN and its member-states are also challenged to do more in terms of appointing women to high-level positions both at headquarters and in field missions, and to recruit a larger number of women as peacekeepers (Tryggestad, 2006).14 In broad terms, according to Tryggestad (2007), the resolution seeks to achieve the following goals:
11 For a comprehensive overview of women and international peacekeeping, see Olsson & Tryggestad (2001).
12 I am deeply indebted to PRIO colleague researcher Torunn L.Tryggestad for enlightening me on the political context of UNSCR 1325. The present section is based on her analyses of and insights on this groundbreaking resolution.
13 See http://daccess-ods.un.org/TMP/7424888.html.
14 The term ‘peacekeeper’ encompasses military and police personnel, as well as different categories of civilian personnel.
• to encourage women’s participation in political decisionmaking and peace processes;
• to integrate a gender perspective in the planning stages of peacekeeping missions and provide all peacekeepers with gender-sensitive training; and
• to protect women in armed conflicts.
Within the resolution, there are two recommendations where the Security Council focuses specifically on military issues, namely under Point 4, where the Council
[f]urther urges the Secretary-General to seek to expand the role and contribution of women in United Nations field-based operations, and especially among military observers, civilian police, human rights and humanitarian personnel,
and under Point 6, where the Council
[r]equests the Secretary-General to provide to Member States training guidelines and materials on the protection, rights and the particular needs of women, as well as on the importance of involving women in all peacekeeping and peace-building measures, invites Member States to incorporate these elements as well as HIV/AIDS awareness training into their national training programmes for military and civilian police personnel in preparation for deployment and further requests the Secretary-General to ensure that civilian personnel of peacekeeping operations receive similar training.
Within UNSCR 1325, the inclusion of women in peacekeeping and peacebuilding activities is not just a normative issue; it is also seen as a prerequisite to sustainable peacebuilding. In addition, improvement in the gender balance in peace operations on both the civilian and military sides will ensure that operations have a more democratic outlook.
UNSCR 1325 is seen as an important document, but the process of implementing its goals is a very slow one, as recent statistics clearly testify (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Number of Women in United Nations Peacekeeping Missions
Source: http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/contributors/gender/feb07.pdf (accessed 31 March 2007)
Skjelsbæk, PRIO 2007 Page 26 The statistics in Figure 3 represent an overview of the numbers of women in the military components of current UN peacekeeping missions. As we can see, the total number of women amounts to 1,305 out of 73,307, which means that the total amount of women in the military components of peacekeeping missions stands at about 1.8%.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the UN Integrated Office in Sierra Leone (UNIOSL) have no women at all in their missions, while the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has the highest total, with 318 women out of 14,056, representing 2.3%.
Tryggestad (2007) notes, however, that despite the slow implementation rate within UN systems, it is the UN’s Department for Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) that has been the most innovative and successful of all the different departments within the UN Secretariat in terms of implementing the resolution, a point that was also underscored by outgoing UN secretary-general Kofi Annan in his most recent report on the implementation process of UNSCR 1325 to the Security Council.15 Specifically, the DPKO has focused on the following measures:
• establishing ‘gender units’ and ‘gender advisors’ in all new peacekeeping operations, along with the establishment of a gender advisor within DPKO itself;
• developing a resource package on gender issues for UN personnel that is also offered to all member-states;16
• increasing the recruitment of women in all peacekeeping capacities (civilian, military and police); and
• establishing of a code-of-conduct unit focusing on violations against civilian populations by UN personnel.
In the last few decades, there has been a great change in the UN’s peacekeeping operations, both on a quantitative and on a qualitative level. Since the end of the Cold War, the number of UN operations has increased by 400%. UN Deputy Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guehenno has referred to this as an
‘unprecedented growth’. By the beginning of 2007, there were about 100,000 persons in 18 peacekeeping operations around the world..17
In a situation where a number of UN operations are already understaffed, it will be an enormous challenge to also meet the need for new UN operations in new conflict areas, continues Tryggestad (2007). The need to include more women in UN operations is therefore not only a gender issue, but also a resource issue: the UN needs
15 Report of the Secretary-General on Women, Peace and Security, S/2006/770 (27 September 2006).
16 See ‘Gender Resource Package for Peacekeeping Operations’ , www.un-instraw.org/wiki/training/
index.php/.
17 See The Peacekeeping Year in Review 2006, http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/pub/
year_review06/YIR2006.pdf.
more staff. The following statistics show this quite clearly that there is room for more women:
• There are no women leaders in any UN peacekeeping operations (18 in total), and only one female ‘deputy’ (Afghanistan).
• Women constitute 1% of the military personnel in UN peacekeeping operations.
• Women constitute 4% of the police personnel in UN peacekeeping operations.
• Women constitute approximately 30% of the international civilian personnel, but this number decreases to about 10% for leadership positions (D1 and higher).
• Women constitute 22% of the national/locally recruited personnel (where they are predominantly employed in lower positions, such as secretaries, cleaning personnel, etc.).
The number of UN operations has not only increased; such operations have also changed character – from small observation forces to large and multifunctional forces.
This shift requires new forms of leadership and new areas of competence and experience, providing yet another reason why the UN is actively seeking to increase the numbers of its female personnel: more women will secure more effective peacekeeping operations. The UN argues that if it has more women in observation units, it will be easier for local women to report on sexual assaults. It is also argued that more women within a peacekeeping operation will reduce the number of (sexual) assaults by UN personnel.
To some extent, increasing the number of women within the UN is something the UN can do on its own; however, when it comes to military recruitment to UN peacekeeping missions, the organization is completely dependent on the member-states. On 8 March 2007, the DPKO therefore issued a press statement encouraging member-states to send more women to peacekeeping operations. More specifically, the DPKO encouraged member-states to double the number of women within their national armed forces over the next five years. The DPKO’s military division aims to have a 10% representation of women.18 However, if NATO countries can be taken as an indicator of what to expect from member-states, the picture is gloomy:
18 See ‘UN Asks for More Women Peacekeepers’, Inter Press Service (IPS), 20 March 2007.
Skjelsbæk, PRIO 2007 Page 28 Figure 4: Percentages of NATO Military Servicewomen 2006
Source: http://www.nato.int/issues/women_nato/pec_fem_soldiers-2006.jpg
If we look at the development over time, the following picture emerges:
Figure 5: Percentages of NATO Military Servicewomen 2001–06
Source: http://www.nato.int/issues/women_nato/perc_fem_soldiers_2001_2006.pdf
These overviews give us a glimpse of the diversity in the numbers of military servicewomen within the NATO countries. Latvia has the highest number of women,
with up to 18.2% (Figure 4), while Poland is at the lowest end of the spectrum, with only 0.52% (Figure 4). By looking at Figure 5, we also see that, though this 2006 figure for Poland is very low, it actually represents an increase from 2001, where the figure was as low as 0.1%, incidentally the same level as that of Italy and Turkey.
While these numbers might be quite discouraging for those who want to see more gender balance within military systems, it is important to underscore what an achievement it is that these numbers actually exist. Keeping track of women within military systems on a global scale is a relatively new phenomenon, and it shows that the ways in which international agencies and women’s groups have pushed for this kind of information has actually given some results. Knowing how many – or, rather, how few – women there are in military systems around the world provides a much better basis for analysis, as well as a baseline for discussion and points of improvement.
Returning, then, to the UN’s need for more female military personnel, it should be noted that Norway, an ardent supporter of the UN in both financial and moral terms, stands out as one of the few countries with a national action plan for the implementation of UNSCR 1325, as Tryggestad (2007) points out. It is therefore vital that Norway increases the number of women within its armed forces. In March 2006, a meeting was held in New York during which troop-contributing countries discussed the issue of increasing the number of military women. Here, it was concluded that ‘the deployment of female peacekeepers has become not just desirable, but an operational imperative’.19
There are three challenges that need particular attention and consideration if the goal of increasing the number of female personnel is to succeed within the UN system:
• More effective women recruitment in the member-states is crucial.
• The conditions within UN operations must improve, so that women feel welcome and are able to perform the jobs they are appointed to carry out.
• The member-states must be made more responsible in terms of taking the recruitment of military women seriously.
There are many challenges, but some best practices have nevertheless been identified:20
• Early in 2006, Pakistan had no women among its UN personnel (Pakistan is the largest contributor to the UN), but in November 2006 it appointed a female observer and interviewed an additional six during the same month. In addition, the military academy has accepted 35 women (out of a total of 250).
19 Policy Dialogue To Review Strategies for Enhancing Gender Balance Among Uniformed Personnel in Peacekeeping Missions, Final Report 3, New York, 28–29 March 2006.
20 These examples are from the report United Nations Reform: Improving Peace Operations by Advancing the Role of Women, which summarizes and analyses meetings that took place on 14 and 16 November 2006 in New York and Washington, DC. The report was funded by the Stanley Foundation in cooperation with Women in International Security.
Skjelsbæk, PRIO 2007 Page 30
• In December 2006, India sent a ‘formed police unit’ to Liberia, consisting of only women. It had taken three years of negotiations between DPKO and India to reach this arrangement.
• New Zealand reports that it has only positive experiences with including women in its troops.
• Sweden has experimented with women units in Afghanistan. It is currently in the process of evaluating these experiences.
Tryggestad (2007) emphasizes that during recent years there has been much focus on
‘codes of conduct’ and the need to increase the numbers of women in UN why the implementation of this particular resolution seems to be moving slower than other Security Council resolutions, including the lack of an overarching UN agency for women21 and the lack of follow-up resolutions that would ensure partial implementation of the resolution (something that has been done with other thematic UNSC resolutions); finally, some thought that the fact that the resolution focused on gender issues – that is, something that was strongly personal, political and social – was the main reason for the slow speed of the implementation. There was also much focus on the gender focal point function22 by the interviewees. There was a clear consensus that the idea of the gender focal point is important and viable, but the problem faced by many of the individuals assigned to this task is that they have little resources and are often junior in the UN system. This not only gives them little power and room for manoeuvre, but also has the unfortunate symbolic effect of signifying Advancement of Women and the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues be combined into one ambitiously funded agency. (Press Release, United Nations, 8 March 2007 [Reuters]).
22The gender focal point position has the role to support the Under Secretary-General and senior managers to carry out their responsibility to implement gender mainstreaming in the substantive work programme. The position is not linked to the promotion of gender equality within the department - i.e. to promotion of gender balance, work/life issues, harassment, including sexual harassment and a gender sensitive work environment. These issues are taken care of by the Departmental Focal Points for Women. For a full description of these positions see:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/gmfpdrafttors.htm
23One acute ongoing discussion linked to the theme outlined above related to the prospects for having a gender adviser position assigned to the Peacebuilding Commission (PC). The PC is a new UN body whose major function will be to coordinate the various UN bodies involved in peacebuilding efforts both on the military and the civilian level. The PC had it inaugural meeting on 23 June 2006,
emphasized by several of our interviewees that there needs to be international stern focus on increasing the number of women in peacekeeping missions. Counting heads is one way of defining benchmarks for success.
But, counting heads as a benchmark of success is a devious endeavour. If a given national military has up to 15% women within its ranks, but they all cook and clean, this cannot be seen as being in line with the intentions of UNSCR 1325. The number of women in a given national military, as well as within an international military operation, must be weighed against the positions and ranks these women hold. In the interviews with UN officials, there was much discussion about women in uniform and leadership positions within UN missions. A clear consensus emerged that it was hard to recruit women to leadership positions for a variety of reasons. What many of the interviewees reiterated to us was the following:
• The number of female applicants to high-rank military positions within the UN system is alarmingly low.
• Member-states do not have enough female military personnel to nominate.
• Member-states might need their female high-rank personnel at home for symbolic and political reasons.
• Women of high rank within national militaries are also attractive for the private sector, where they might be offered better salaries and benefits than at the UN.
• The ways in which advertisements for vacant high-rank military positions are crafted within the UN system might value masculine qualities at the expense of female capacities.
Increasing the number of high-rank female military personnel therefore needs to be considered in vertical and horizontal terms. In order for military systems to create an environment where women can exercise influence, there needs to be a level of women of up to about 30%. The 30% figure represents what is known as a critical mass,24 that is, the number needed in order for a minority to have a realistic chance of having influence over the majority group. If the intention is to include women in the military in order to make change, there needs to be an organizational structure in place that allows for these changes to appear and take form.
and in its work it is mandated to monitor gender issues and ensure gender mainstreaming in all peacebuilding activities. Among our interviewees, however, there was a fear that this way of focusing on gender issues within the commission might not give gender issues the necessary emphasis they deserve. Those concerned would have preferred to see a gender adviser post within the PC in addition to the mainstreaming activities. Several NGOs, as along with resource people within the established UN bodies, are therefore lobbying for such a position to be established.
24 For a discussion on the notion of critical mass, see Dahlerup (2001).
Skjelsbæk, PRIO 2007 Page 32 Increasing the number of women within military forces is part of an international political agenda aiming to gender-mainstream peacemaking efforts, of which military troops constitute an important part. This means that an increase in the numbers of women within any given military system is seen only as a first step towards creating a possibility for a peace in which gender equity is an integral part.
Counting heads is therefore only a first step in an accountability process, and it should therefore not be regarded as an end-result in itself.
In the interview with Ms Rachel Mayanja, Assistant Secretary-General, Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, who also heads the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (OSAGI), she outlined the following three challenges for UN member-states if they are to meet the requirements set out in UNSCR 1325:
• UNSCR 1325 needs to be implemented at the national level. It needs to be explained, translated and transformed into national action plans.
• UNSCR 1325 requires capacity development on the local level. Good intentions do not get far without capacity that again can be broken up into
• UNSCR 1325 requires capacity development on the local level. Good intentions do not get far without capacity that again can be broken up into