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Women, Peacebuilding and United Nations Resolution 1325 in Azerbaijan

Women, Peacebuilding and United Nations Resolution 1325 in Azerbaijan. Sinéad Walsh Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholar Trinity College Dublin Supported by the Irish Research Council CRRC Public Lecture Series 14 th June 2013.

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Women, Peacebuilding and United Nations Resolution 1325 in Azerbaijan

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  1. Women, Peacebuilding and United Nations Resolution 1325 in Azerbaijan Sinéad Walsh Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholar Trinity College Dublin Supported by the Irish Research Council CRRC Public Lecture Series 14th June 2013

  2. UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security(October 2000) • UN World Conference on Women, Beijing 1995 • International civil society advocacy campaign • Protection of women and girls in armed conflict • Participation of women in peacebuilding and conflict resolution (www.peacewomen.org)

  3. Critical perspectives on 1325 • Poor implementation • Lack of accountability mechanisms (states) • Lack of local awareness (civil society) • International advocacy campaign • Reflects global power inequalities • Overlooks local cultural context • Promotes gender stereotypes (victims/peacemakers) (http://wpsac.wordpress.com/research-on-the-wps-agenda/)

  4. Case study: Azerbaijan Previous studies: • Women active in civil society • Focus on women’s rights, post-Soviet transition Developing a women’s peace agenda? • Donor interest in WPS • Regional NGO activity • Peacebuilding discourse • Strategic use of 1325 agenda?

  5. 1. A tool for political influence? • “The day after tomorrow we're going with these women [the IDP women] to Tbilisi, and Armenian women are coming there too, they'll be with us. It's not only so that they'll know about 1325, so that they'll know about tolerance and so forth, it's also about empowerment, about leadership, about working actively in their communities…”

  6. 2. A framework for national interests? “An enormous number of women don’t have the right to live on their own territory. (…) On that territory there were schools, hospitals, there were businesses where they worked. That means their right to work was taken away, their rights were taken away. That’s why we absolutely don’t distinguish [between women’s rights and peacebuilding]; they’re one and the same. We’re taking practical steps towards regaining their rights.”

  7. 3. Transforming gender relations? “...there are radical feminists who are totally against men, and for our society this is something not acceptable, people, if you are against men, they think that you are crazy, that you are stupid, and that you don’t know what you are talking about...But I think that this is like – liberal feminism is more like: you say the same that radical feminismsays but in a more softly way, fluffy way. And I think that this is the way, this is something that can change…”

  8. Conclusions • Donor interest in 1325 has consolidated local activity around Women, Peace and Security • Action more oriented towards gradual social transformation than direct political impact • No easy answers to conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh • OSCE and international organisations should support women’s initiatives and call for more inclusive, multi-level peace process

  9. Recommended reading Cohn, Carol. “Mainstreaming Gender in UN Security Policy: A Path to Political Transformation?” In Global Governance: Feminist Perspectives, edited by Shirin M. Rai and Georgina Waylen, 185-206. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008 El Bushra, Judy. “Feminism, Gender and Women's Peace Activism,” Development and Change 38(1): 2007, 131–147 Gureyeva, Yuliya. “Natsionalnii 'Gender': Made in Azerbaijan.” Tbilisi: Heinrich Boell Stiftung, 2006 Heyat, Farideh. Azeri Women in Transition: Women in Soviet and post-Soviet Azerbaijan. London: Routledge Curzon, 2002 Kronsell, Annica and Erika Svedberg, eds. Making Gender, Making War: Wiolence, Military and Peacekeeping Practices. London: Routledge, 2012 Najafizadeh, Mehrangiz. “Women’s Empowering Carework in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan.” Gender and Society, Vol. 17, No. 2 (2003): 293-304 Ni Aolain, Fionnuala, Dina Francesca Haynes and Naomi Cahn. On the Frontlines: Gender, War and the Post-Conflict Process. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011 Pankhurst, Donna, ed. Gendered Peace: Women’s Struggles for Post-War Justice and Reconciliation. London: Routledge, 2008 Tohidi, Nayereh. “Women, Building Civil Society, and Democratization in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan.” In Post-Soviet Women Encountering Transition: Nation Building, Economic Survival, and Civic Activism, ed. Kathleen Kuehnast and Carol Nechemias, 149-171. Washington DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2004

  10. For a draft version of this paper, please contact walshs7@tcd.ie

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