Sarah Boyd - Final Thesis (1)

Women Building Peace

Locating agency and empowerment in rights-based approaches to women’s community peacebuilding in Nepal

Sarah Boyd B.Com

Under the supervision of Dr Violeta Schubert

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts (Development Studies)

School of Social and Environmental Enquiry, Faculty of Arts

The University of Melbourne, November 2007

Figure 3: Women campaigning for their representation in Nepal’s peace process at a Mass Rally in Gorkha District headquarters, April 2007.

‘The opportunity created by conflict by merging women’s private and public

spheres, has not only raised women’s consciousness, self-esteem and

involvement in securing livelihoods, conflict resolution and peace building

processes, but has also opened up previously closed spaces and domains for

women. The challenge remains in capturing these opportunities, spaces,

experiences and knowledge at the local level and linking them to the broader

national level efforts for peacebuilding’ (Sharma and Neupane 2007: 23). Front page: Figure 1: Women for Peace (Shanti Malika) office headquarters in Kathmandu;

Figure 2: Women gathered at Mass Meeting on women’s representation in the peace process, Gorkha District headquarters, Nepal, April 2007.

Declaration

This thesis is a presentation of my original research work. Wherever contributions of

others are involved, every effort is made to indicate this clearly, with due reference to the

literature, and acknowledgement of collaborative research and discussions. The work

was completed under the guidance of Dr. Violeta Schubert, at the School of Social and

Environmental Enquiry, University of Melbourne.

Date:

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Table of Contents Signed Declaration i Table of Contents ii List of Acronyms / List of Figures iii Acknowledgements iv Abstract v Introduction: “We want to see a ‘New Nepal’!” 1 Aims and objectives 6

Conceptual Framework: Responding to the call for a discourse 8 of women and peacebuilding The emergence of rights in the discourse of women and peacebuilding 9

Chapter One: The social and political context of post-conflict Nepal 12

The People’s War and the peace process 12 Emergence of rights as a discourse of peacebuilding 13 Nepalese women: Navigating through conflict and closed spaces 15 International actors in Nepal 19

Chapter Two: Methodological approach 22 Selecting a case study in Nepal 22

Negotiating the field 23 Analytical and methodological scope of research 26

Chapter Three: Constructing a Nepalese discourse of peacebuilding 32 No peace if ‘Mother still weeps’: Defining peace and peacebuilding 32 External visions of a peaceful New Nepal 39 Chapter Four: Nepalese women: agents of their own empowerment 42 Narratives of empowerment: Recognising ‘power within’ 43 Women’s Peace Groups: Exercising ‘power with’ 45 From grassroots to the public sphere: Gaining ‘power to’ act as agents 46 Chapter Five: Negotiating mahnib adhikar and universal human rights 49 Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security 50

Rights awareness: Turning on a light bulb! 53 Negotiating a Nepali language of human rights 56

Concluding Remarks: Agency to build peace 58 References 61 Appendices 71 Appendix 1: Literature Review: Gender and Peacebuilding: A Review of 72 Emerging literature in Development Appendix 2: UN Security Council Resolution 1325-Women, Peace and Security 104 Appendix 3: Map: Report of Bandhs/Blockades - 1 January - 30 September 2007 109 Appendix 4: Map: Topography (Study areas) 111 Appendix 5: Training Program on ‘Constituent Assembly, Human Rights, Good 113 Governance and News Reporting’, Gorkha District - Schedule.

Appendix 6: Training Program on ‘Gender Monitoring around Cantonment’, 115 Sindhuli District - Schedule.

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List of Acronyms ADB Asian Development Bank CA Constituent Assembly CBO Community Based Organisations CCO Canadian Cooperation Office CECI Canadian Centre for International Studies and Cooperation-Nepal CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women CIDA Canadian International Development Agency CPA Comprehensive Peace Accord CPN-M Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) CPN-UML Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) CPV Community Peace Volunteer DFID Department for International Development (UK) GTZ German Technical Cooperation HDI Human Development Index HMGN His Majesty's Government of Nepal IA International Alert ICG International Crisis Group IDP Internally Displaced Person IDRC International Development Research Centre IHRICON Institute of Human Rights Communication Nepal ILO International Labour Organisation INGO International Non-Governmental Organization INSEC Informal Sector Service Centre NGO Non-Governmental Organization NGOWG Non-Governmental Organization Working Group NHRC National Human Rights Commission OHCHR Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights PLA People’s Liberation Army (Maoist) RBA Rights Based Approach SPA Seven-Party Alliance UN United Nations USAID United States Agency for International Development UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNFPA United Nations Population Fund for Women UNMIN United Nations Mission In Nepal VDC Village Development Committee List of Figures Figure 1: Shanti Malika (Women for Peace) Office Figure 2: Women campaigning in Mass Rally, Gorkha District Headquarters Figure 3: Women gathered at Mass Meeting, Gorkha District Headquarters Figure 4: Highway Roadblock in Sindhuli District (Page 14) Figure 5: Visioning exercise for a New Nepal (Page 37) Figure 6: The Human Rights ‘Training Room’ (Gorkha District) (Page 49) Figure 7: Training session on CEDAW (Gorkha Training) (0)

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Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Violeta Schubert - for so generously giving of her time, expertise, advice and wisdom. By imparting the mantra to ‘critically examine’, you have instilled so many valuable lessons. Indeed, many of these lessons are life-long and I will hear your voice in years to come urging me to think critically and to act with integrity. My sincere thanks are extended to Shobha Gautam for providing both insight and inspiration, who works tirelessly for women’s rights in Nepal. Without the support of IHRICON I could not have gained access, nor had the privilege, to meet the women of Kailali, Dang, Gorkha and Sindhuli. Further, to Meena Sharma and Anita Bista for their endless support, guidance and particularly translations, without which I would have missed so much. And to Kapil Kafle and Debika Timilsina for sharing your insights, time and knowledge, as well as John Macaulay and the rest of IHRICON in Kathmandu. My thanks are also extended to Ramesh Adhikari, for challenging my thinking on our every meeting. Dheri dheri dhunyabad, saathi haru. I owe particular gratitude to Jaya ji for her invaluable sharing of field-based knowledge, providing advice, facilitating key contacts and being an inspiration for this thesis. To Sunil dai, for your humour, advice, chats, translations and continuing insights into the Nepali psyche. The support, advice and guidance from mero Aama (my Mum) throughout my journeys to Nepal, and what has followed, has been precious. I am also grateful for the continual and abundant support from mero Didi (by big Sister) on the opposite side of the globe, whose determination in following dreams provides continual inspiration. Further, the support, friendship and constructive criticism provided by another sister, saathi Siv, has been invaluable. I cannot thank you enough for everything that has followed since Cussonia Court. And finally, to the Peace Volunteers from Gorkha, Sindhuli, Kailali and Dang, who shared so much, directly or indirectly, with me during my fieldwork. Your enthusiasm, determination and activism have given me inspiration. Thank you for providing me with an opportunity to listen to your stories, which I aim to bring to light in this thesis.

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Abstract The end of armed conflict and the project to create a ‘New Nepal’ has paved the way for new spaces in which women can be recognised as active agents in building peace. This thesis explores the nature of Nepalese women’s engagement in peacebuilding, the relationships between women’s participation and their empowerment, and the influence of international actors in this process. The narrative in this thesis is informed by four months of fieldwork in early 2007 with a Nepalese human rights organisation, the Institute of Human Rights Communication in Nepal (IHRICON). The key argument presented in this thesis is that prescriptive international approaches to peacebuilding overlook the local realities of gender roles and identities and the cultural context that inform women’s understandings of peace. This results in an unnecessary dichotomy between local and international meanings and approaches to women’s peacebuilding. This dichotomy is further accentuated by the assumption that raising women’s awareness of human rights constitutes their empowerment. This assumption neglects women’s own understandings of empowerment and their agency in that process. However, rather than passively adopting external meanings, Nepalese women strategically appropriate and reinterpret human rights language according to their own needs, values and aspirations. In short, Nepalese women construct meanings as part of an ongoing process of engagement in peacebuilding and human rights activities and it is through this process that empowerment can be located. It is difficult, therefore, to consider notions such as ‘peace’, ‘peacebuilding’, ‘human rights’ and ‘empowerment’ as anything but fluid and difficult to categorically define or situate entirely within the confines of template international programs that are transported into the local context. That is, there is an unexpected and positive outcome in this process of engagement which has enabled Nepalese women to assert their agency and negotiate an ‘opening of space’ for themselves in the New Nepal at both formal and informal levels of society.

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Introduction: “We Want to See a New Nepal!”

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One April afternoon during a human rights training program for women peacebuilders in

the remote headquarters of Gorkha District at the foothills of the Himalayas, our session

was interrupted by the chanting of a large crowd which could be heard drawing closer

and closer. The excitement amongst the women in the training program became clear as

we hastily abandoned our session and hurried outside to join the rally on the main street

below. There was a hive of activity and energy as hundreds of women marched along

chanting and shouting slogans such as “inclusion in the elections” and “women’s

representation in the New Nepal”. One man actively led the chanting, but most men

watched on from the sidelines and looked a little bemused as they peered out of their

shops and tea houses. One male shopkeeper even said to me, “this is new”. Because,

even though women had been involved in protests against the King’s absolute rule in

2006, gathering together as women on women’s issues, was indeed new. Even after

returning to our original location and continuing with the training program, excitement

over the day’s events continued to affect the mood of participants. Indeed, we concluded

our program by enthusiastically singing the chorus of “We want to see a New Nepal’- a

contemporary folk song emanating from teahouses around the country in the lead up to

the Constituent Assembly elections.

The above incident is only one of many which are indicative of a new form of activism

currently being constructed by Nepalese women. Since the cessation of armed conflict in

2006, women’s activism is being reoriented towards, and becoming incorporative of, new

elements and ideas relating to human rights and empowerment. Further, the growing

aspirations of women to not only voice their concerns about their ‘rights’, but also to

challenge and refashion their broader societal and familial roles and identities, has meant

that they have formed groups and associations comprised entirely of women. These

associations reveal an increasing vigour that reflects both continuities and discontinuities

with previous activism by Nepalese women. As Sharma and Neupane noted at a


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Conference in Kathmandu earlier in 20071, the conflict has ‘opened spaces’ and domains

previously closed for women and an ‘opportunity’ for transformation through a merging

of the private and public spheres in Nepalese society. Yet as they emphasised in their

paper, despite this emergent activism, especially through women’s Peace Groups, the

grassroots community peacebuilding work of women remains largely invisible and often

overlooked in studies of peacebuilding. The knowledge and experiences of women

peacebuilders, as well as the so-called ‘opened spaces’, need to be better understood in

order to strengthen and support women’s roles in shaping a ‘New Nepal’ (c/f Sharma and

Neupane 2007). Feminist scholar Rita Manchanda also asserts that the involvement of

international development agencies in today’s conflicts (with particular reference to

South Asia) provides a further ‘opportunity for consolidating the empowering spaces that

may open up for women in the midst of loss’ (2005: 4744).

That is, the current social and political context of Nepal is not solely viewed in terms of

the processes, challenges and limits of post-conflict reconstruction, but also one in which

there is an enabling process for the empowerment of women. This may be facilitated

through women’s engagement not only with reconstructing their own society, but also

through developing an awareness of the broader international context within which

discourses relating to rights and peacebuilding abound. Indeed, the end of armed conflict

and the emergence of a ‘post-conflict peacebuilding agenda’ have seen a vast array of

international actors entering Nepal. Each of these external actors bring their own notions

of contributing, supporting or ‘educating’ the local people on how they can be

empowered to reshape their roles and assert their rights in a New Nepal. At a conceptual

level, a focus on women’s rights seems to assume a ‘neat fit’ between raising their

awareness of rights and empowerment. In the Nepalese context, this natural or easy ‘fit’

of rights and peacebuilding also seems intuitive given that the broader conflict and peace

process is centered on issues of rights. In this way, there is a notion that international

1 Jaya Sharma and Ramji Neupane. Women in Peace Building: A Community Approach to Peace Building in Nepal. Paper presented at the International Conference on Sustainable Development in Conflict Environments: Challenges and Opportunities, 16-18th January 2007. Kathmandu, Nepal. Conference organised by the Canadian Centre for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI).


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support itself has an ‘opportunity’ to consolidate the ‘empowering spaces’ (c/f

Manchanda 2005: 4744) that the conflict may have opened up for women.

From another perspective, Denskus’ (2007) puts into question the ability of the

internationally driven peacebuilding agenda in Nepal to support the empowerment of

Nepalese people. In fact, Denskus (2007) warns that the ‘concept of peacebuilding’

provides a comforting notion for donors that peace can be built and measured without

challenging Western understandings of governance or social aspirations of people. This

inherent discord between the notions of ‘post-conflict peacebuilding’ and social

aspirations of local people is particularly evident when international approaches are

contrasted with the interests, needs and desires of local women in building peace. Whilst

there is no concise or ‘neat’ process for achieving peace, through the course of

conducting fieldwork for this thesis one thing became quite clear - the conceptualisations

of Nepalese women on how to build peace, and what peacebuilding constitutes, is

remarkably different from that of international actors. The approaches of Nepalese

women are grounded in meeting everyday needs of survival and addressing social

conflicts in their own communities. At the same time, they are also influenced by the

formal reform processes promoted by foreign peacebuilding actors that are introducing

‘enlightened’ discourses of democracy, participation and ‘rights’ into institutions and

societal structures. Yet, women and local women’s organisations were not observed to

wholeheartedly or passively adopt external approaches and discourses of peacebuilding.

Rather, they seem to strategically translate these into concepts and language that are

relevant to building peace at the local level. This process of negotiation between the

‘local’ and ‘external’ is indicative of an ongoing process of constructing meanings of

peace and rights by women at the grassroots and is a key theme addressed in this thesis.

The ability of internationally funded women’s peacebuilding initiatives to empower

women has also been questioned in a recent study in Africa: the study concluding that

such initiatives were ‘designed less to empower women than as a sop to donors,

international observers and, all too frequently, local women themselves’ (ICG 2006: 16).

Indeed, while there has been greater attention in recent years to engaging women in the


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peacebuilding process, often women’s meaningful participation in internationally

designed programs has been questioned (Cockburn 2001; Mertus 2004; Pankhurst 2005).

Not the least of which because of the exorbitant attention awarded, such as in the use of

UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women Peace and Security (UN 2000), to

increase women’s participation in peacebuilding and empower them through raising their

awareness of their rights. At a conceptual level, the introduction of rights-based

instruments2 to empower women in peacebuilding remains largely unproblematic for

most organisations and scholars. In particular, the relationship between ‘raising

awareness’ and actual empowerment has not been critically examined and most often

assumed to be one and the same thing. That is, linkages between ‘rights-based

approaches’ and peacebuilding are often taken for granted which results in no

consideration beyond women’s ‘participation’ in activities that ‘raise awareness’ about

their rights.

In Nepal, this is a particularly salient issue in the context of a merging of development

practice by international, government and civil society actors to incorporate rights

alongside a ‘gender perspective’ in the broader peacebuilding project. Stemming largely

from the general accord that human rights are a central issue underlying both the conflict

(i.e., lack of rights or violation of rights) and the peace process (i.e., instigating or

consolidating rights to assure democracy and equity), the discourse of rights is

hegemonic – from the parties to the conflict, the United Nations (UN), international

actors and civil society organisations (Hannum 2006; Pant 2007). This growing

convergence of activities on rights in Nepal with the peacebuilding project, argues

Green3, requires a vigilance of sorts by development agencies and practitioners, as well

as academics. Indeed, the use of a ‘rights-based approach’ has influenced many aspects

of project design and implementation within development practice in Nepal, including in

peacebuilding initiatives. Yet the rights-based approach as an evolving and emerging 2 ‘Rights-based instruments’ are here defined as human rights conventions, declarations, resolutions and other documents created by the United Nations. These define particular sets of rights enshrined in international law, or particular commitments on rights which parties to an instrument must fulfill. 3 Paula Green, 2007. Fostering the Ties that Bind: Practicing Peacebuilding and Development in Conflict Sensitive Environments. Keynote address at the International Conference on Sustainable Development in Conflict Environments: Challenges and Opportunities, 16-18th January 2007, Kathmandu, Nepal. Available at: http://www.karunacenter.org/documents/Nepalkeynote.doc


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technique of development is in its infancy and yet to be scrutinised in depth, particularly

in relation to the universal sets of women’s rights promoted through human rights

instruments (Bracke 2004; Bradshaw 2006; Dzodzi 2004). At the same time, an

emergent consciousness of Nepalese women and women’s organisations that is becoming

evident also reveals a strategic borrowing and ‘appropriation’ of ideas, approaches and

values on rights which are being introduced by international actors. The constructions of

meanings attached to rights as promoted by international development actors, and the

way these are being reinterpreted and appropriated by local women and women’s

organisations, differ in significant ways and is one of the key themes explored in this

thesis.

Within the seemingly ‘neat fit’ assumed between rights, women and peacebuilding, the

assumption that women are lacking empowerment and require their consciousness to be

raised also needs to be more critically examined. In particular, what ‘empowerment’

actually constitutes, and how its meaning is constructed for women and those actors who

aim to empower them, is rarely understood and typically, taken for granted. In short, the

implicit denial of women’s own agency within this assumption remains largely ignored in

the discourses and practices of development agencies. This continues in many countries

despite a significant body of feminist literature addressing issues of women’s agency in

conflict and post-conflict as activists and peacebuilders (Afshar 2003; Jacobs et al 2001;

Karam 2001; Manchanda 2001; 2005). Indeed, development projects and academic

discourses in Nepal most often focus on the lack of empowerment of women who are

constructed as ‘agency-less subjects in need of assistance in order to fulfill their

potential’ (Tamang 2002: 166). However, during the course of fieldwork for this thesis,

it was clear that these assumptions and beliefs may indeed be unfounded.

Nonetheless, Nepalese women are observed to be emerging as agents of change in the so-

called ‘New Nepal’. An emergent consciousness about their roles and rights was evident

in a range of activities in which women participated. The increasing engagement and

participation by women in activities aimed at bringing about fundamental societal

changes thus suggests a significant rupture with their past roles and identities. Indeed,


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the current reshaping of women’s roles and identities mirrors the broader process of

reform being touted by political leaders and civil society activists in the visioning of a

New Nepal. While it is difficult to identify the longer term impacts of the Maoist

‘People’s War’ on gender roles and relationships, there is evidence to suggest that a

number of private and public spaces are merging in the ‘aftermath’ that is allowing new

spaces to be occupied by women (Manchanda 2006; Sharma and Neupane 2007). This

supports the notion that there is indeed a rupture with the past taking place. As the

participants in the human rights training program revealed when they passionately sang

the chorus to close the day’s program, dynamic changes are taking place that appear to

have brought with them a sense of hopefulness and enthusiasm about their roles in a

peaceful society. That is, the end of the conflict and the project to create a New Nepal

has paved the way for new spaces in which the marginalised and socially excluded,

particularly women, can be recognised as active agents in building peace.

Aims and objectives

This thesis aims to better understand the forms of engagement by Nepalese women in the

broader peacebuilding project in order to explore the relationship between participation

and empowerment. It will contribute to the emergent body of knowledge on women and

peacebuilding as called for recently by a number of scholars (Manchanda 2005;

Pankhurst 2005; Sharma 2007; Strickland and Duvvury 2003)4. It especially seeks to

better understand the influence of international actors in supporting or promoting the use

of rights-based approaches by focusing on presenting the case of Nepalese women’s

engagement in peace activism. In this way, the relationship between external and internal

processes of engagement will be drawn out. One of the primary objectives of the thesis is

therefore to present the case of everyday practices of Nepalese women involved in peace

and human rights activities in order to highlight the ongoing construction of meanings

that occur through the process of engagement itself. It will also provide an understanding

of the broader practices in relation to peacebuilding in Nepal and the role that human

rights discourses and instruments are playing in this process.

4 A comprehensive account of the current literature on gender, peacebuilding and development is included in Appendix 1: Gender and Peacebuilding: A Review of emerging literature in Development.


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The main research question in this thesis is, ‘Do international peacebuilding initiatives

and instruments ‘empower’ local women?’

In order to answer this question, a number of secondary questions posed are as follows:

1. What are the forms of engagement by Nepalese women in peacebuilding processes?

2. How do women define ‘peace’, ‘peacebuilding’ and ‘empowerment’? How are these

concepts defined and understood by international actors and collaborators involved

with local women?

3. What influence do international rights-based instruments such as Resolution 1325 and

‘rights-based approaches’ have on the peacebuilding activities of women?

4. What factors hinder or support women’s empowerment?

One of the key arguments in this thesis is that prescriptive international approaches to

peacebuilding overlook the local realities of gender roles and identities and the cultural

context within which women’s empowerment is facilitated or hindered. This often

results in an unnecessary dichotomy between local and international meanings and

approaches to women’s peacebuilding, precisely because local women’s perceptions and

meanings of empowerment are omitted from consideration. In particular, the assumption

held by international actors and donors that raising women’s awareness of human rights

is a means to empower them is limited and in fact denies the agency of women

themselves in their own empowerment. This leads to the second key argument, that

Nepalese women construct meaning as part of an ongoing process of engagement in

peacebuilding and human rights activities and it is through this process that

empowerment can be located. It is difficult, therefore, to consider notions such as

‘peace’, ‘peacebuilding’, ‘human rights’ and ‘empowerment’ as anything but fluid and

difficult to categorically define or situate entirely within the confines of template

international programs that are transported into the local context. Indeed, local women

and women’s organisations do not passively adopt the peacebuilding and human rights

concepts being imposed in society. Rather, they strategically appropriate and reinterpret

them according to their own needs, values and aspirations. By participating in

peacebuilding in their own unique ways, and translating rights into their own ‘language’


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at the community level, women have created a platform on which to collectively voice

their concerns and thus foster collective strategies for empowerment. In short, there is an

unexpected and positive outcome in this process of engagement which has enabled

Nepalese women to assert their agency and negotiate an opening of space for themselves

at both formal and informal levels of society.

Conceptual Framework: Responding to the call for a discourse of women and

peacebuilding

The need to critically examine the meanings and understandings of peacebuilding is

based on the findings of a number of scholars who argue that these may differ

significantly between various actors (Cutter 2005; Llamazares 2005). In particular, the

need to explore how women’s understandings of peacebuilding are mediated by gender

and their cultural context is well documented (Mazurana and McKay 1999; De la Rey

and McKay 2006). In contrast to ‘peacebuilding’, the concepts of ‘participation’,

‘empowerment’ and ‘gender’ have attracted much scholarly critique within development

studies over the last decade5. As a concept, ‘participation’ in development is ideally

aimed at ‘giving voice’ to those otherwise excluded from decision-making and thus

empower them by placing them at the centre of the development process (Chambers

1997; Rowlands 1997). In this participatory approach, development scholars and

anthropologists have questioned ‘whose voices’ are actually heard and ‘whose reality

counts’ as being significant issues (Chambers 1997; Cornwall 2003). Likewise,

alongside ‘participation’, the term ‘empowerment’ is a highly contested concept as is

often assumes power needs to be ‘granted’ from the ‘outside’ (Batliwala 2007; Kabeer

2001; Rowlands 1997). Further, within development studies there remains much critique

of the widening use of ‘empowerment’ and the limits on addressing issues of gender and

5 For instance, ‘participatory development’ has been critiqued for focusing on the ‘local’ as a means to empower individuals, as if there were no inequalities of power, particularly in relation to gender (Mohan, G., and K. Stokke, 2000. Participatory development and empowerment: the dangers of localism. Third World Quarterly, 21 (2): 247 – 268). For further critiques of the use of ‘participation, ‘empowerment’ and ‘gender’ see Batliwala, S., 2007. Taking the power out of empowerment – an experiential account. Development in Practice, 17 (4-5): 577-565; Cornwall, A., 2003. Whose voices? Whose choices? Reflections in gender and participatory development. World Development, 31(8): 1325-1342);


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power6. Despite such detailed critiques within development studies, however, only a few

scholars (Mullholland 2001; Pankhurst 2000) address the difficulty of assuming that

women’s participation in peacebuilding will lead to their empowerment - this is a key

theme explored in this thesis.

The emergence of rights in the discourse of women and peacebuilding

From a different perspective, the surge of rights-based development has also significantly

reshaped the landscape. For instance, empowerment is now almost synonymous with

human rights and human rights education at the grassroots level (Brouwer et al 2005;

Ensor 2005; Mertus 2004). This has meant that the connection between women’s

participation in peacebuilding and their empowerment with respect to rights has

infiltrated project design and implementation. In this approach, women’s empowerment

is often assumed to be constituted not only through their participation, but through raising

their awareness on issues of rights. Unpacking such assumptions and exploring how

rights ‘instruments’ impact upon women’s empowerment in Nepal in fact suggests that

this assumption cannot be taken for granted.

Indeed, human rights has assumed a central position in the discourse surrounding

international development evidenced in the emergence of ‘Rights-Based Approaches’

(RBAs) (Eyben 2003; Gready and Ensor 2005; Sengupta 2000; Uvin 2007) 7. This

approach aims to empower ‘rights-holders’ to exercise their rights as active agents to

demand justice by assigning roles and responsibilities for ‘duty-bearers’ (Gready and

Ensor 2005b: 44)8. In this process, International Non-Government Organisations

(INGOs) are increasingly identifying their organisations as ‘duty-bearers’ of rights and

thus practitioners serve and are accountable to them (Gready and Ensor 2005b). From

6 For instance, Cornwall argues that empowerment is one of ‘the most corrupted terms’ (2007: 581) in development, which Batliwala (2007) argues the wide use of the term serves to overlook power relations. 7 Rights discourses have entered development within a framework defined by the UN. For a study on the movement of rights into development see Nguyen, F., 2002. Emerging Features of a Rights-Based Development Policy of UN, Development Cooperation and NGO Agencies. Bangkok, OHCHR. 8 At the core of the discussion on the utility of rights-based approaches are the duties and accountabilities which it raises. See Gready, P., and Ensor, J., 2005. Introduction. In P. Gready and J. Ensor (eds.), Reinventing Development: Translating Rights-Based Approaches from theory into practice. London and New York, Zed Books: 1-44.


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one perspective, rights-based approaches have been embraced by organisations in the

field of women’s rights given the potential of this approach to address gender inequalities

and enhance women’s agency (Cornwall and Molyneux 2006: 1178; Strickland and

Duvvury 2003: 20; WÖlte 2002). Yet from another perspective, a more critical

evaluation of rights-based approaches suggests these have not improved outcomes for

women’s rights or empowerment (Dzodzi 2004; Jonsson 2005). A number of scholars

argue that this is due in large part to restrictive UN frameworks that neutralise women’s

rights into ‘a basic set of universal needs’ (Bracke 2004; Bradshaw 2006: 1334). One

such framework is UN Resolution 13259, which has promoted scholarly analysis of

women’s participation in formal peace processes (Anderlini 2007; Porter 2007), as well

as informal or community peacebuilding (Pankhurst 2005; Cockburn 2007)10. In Nepal,

this Resolution is also used by development actors to empower women engaged in

community peacebuilding (Sharma 2007). Yet as Strickland and Duvvury (2003)

highlight, the potential for human rights instruments such as Resolution 1325 to empower

women in peacebuilding requires further examination.

As a result of these analytical and methodological imperatives, I undertook research in

Nepal in early 2007. The fortuity of being able to conduct research in Nepal at this time

meant I was a participant observer to the processes of women engaging in the peace

process and Nepalese citizens demanding their rights in a society undergoing rapid post-

conflict transformation. A case study of the ‘Women's Empowerment for Sustainable

Peace and Human Rights’ program implemented by the Institute of Human Rights

Communication in Nepal (IHRICON), which aims to empower women as ‘Community

Peace Volunteers’(CPVs), was undertaken. This provided a particularly useful starting

point from which to explore the main research question. My observations and analysis of

this program allows for a discussion of findings on the broader issues of women’s rights,

empowerment and agency in peacebuilding.

9 Resolution 1325 does not grant rights of itself, but it reaffirms ‘the need to implement fully international and humanitarian and human rights law that protects the rights of women and girls during and after conflicts’ (UN, 2000: Paragraph 9), and calls on parties to fulfill obligations under various UN Conventions such as CEDAW. The full text is in Appendix 2. 10 Three books released in October 2007 by Sanam Anderlini (2007) Cynthia Cockburn (2007) and Lis Porter (2007) on women’s roles in peacebuilding are testament to increasing scholarly engagement.


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Thesis Overview

This thesis is divided into seven Chapters including the Introduction and the Concluding

remarks. The Introduction provides a broad context within which to situate the key

literature, outlines the aims and objectives of the study and introduces the conceptual

framework governing the thesis. This framework informs the choice and interpretation of

data. Chapter One then provides a context of the current social and political changes

taking place in Nepal during transition from armed conflict. It provides an overview of

rights and social inclusion in the peace process, explores women’s roles in post-conflict

transition and the engagement of international actors in Nepal. The second Chapter

describes the methodological approach taken in field research which is of critical

importance in understanding how the research findings evolved and were derived. The

findings and analysis of the research have been divided into three discussion Chapters.

The first of these is Chapter Three which explores how the meanings of peace and

peacebuilding are constructed and defined by women in contrast to international actors.

In Chapter Four, the understandings of empowerment held by women and local and

international organisations are explored. Women’s engagement in Peace Groups is also

discussed as a means of enabling women’s collective empowerment. Chapter Five

explores the process of disseminating and raising awareness on human rights information

through Resolution 1325. Further, it examines the relationship between rights awareness

and empowerment, and the process of universal human rights language being

appropriated and reinterpreted by local actors. The Concluding Chapter brings together

the findings of the thesis and summarises that women’s active agency in the process of

their own empowerment is a central element currently missing in the discourses

surrounding women, peacebuilding and human rights. Finally, I pose some questions

about the broader implications of the thesis for understanding the roles and

responsibilities of international actors engaging with women in peacebuilding.

Chapter One: The social and political context of post-conflict Nepal

12

Chapter One The social and political context of post-conflict Nepal The ‘People’s War’ and the Peace Process

The civil armed conflict in Nepal, often termed the ‘People’s War’, came to an official

end on 21 November 2006 when the Government of Nepal and the Communist Party of

Nepal - Maoist (CPN-Maoist or ‘Maoists’), signed the Comprehensive Peace Accord

(CPA). The Maoists launched the People’s War in 1996 which aimed to overthrow the

constitutional monarchy and establish a socialist republic. There have been numerous

analyses of the causes and history of the conflict (Hutt 2004; Karki and Seddon 2003;

Onesto 2005; Uprety 2005)1. In summary, causes of the conflict have been identified as

stemming from underdevelopment that is reinforced by various inequalities, that an abject

government has been unable to effectively address. The conflict claimed the lives of over

13,000 Nepalese (INSEC 2006b), forced displacement of over 150,000 people (Terre Des

Hommes 2006), and led to widespread human rights violations. Such violations have

been committed by both government security forces and the Maoists - including unlawful

killings, ‘disappearances’ and abductions, all forms of sexual violence, arbitrary arrests

and torture (ICG 2007a; INSEC 2007). Despite State commitments on human rights

made in the Peace Accord, such as ending impunity through a truth and reconciliation

commission, there remains little progress2. Further, it led to the deterioration of the

already low levels of human development3.

The Peace Accord resulted in the Maoist leadership returning into the political

mainstream by entering the Interim Parliament, and agreeing for their Maoist Army - the

People’s Liberation Army (PLA) - to be held in seven main cantonment camps around

the country under the supervision of UNMIN4. The Peace Accord also provided for the

1 For further list of studies see Simkhaka et al, 2005. The Maoist Insurgency in Nepal: A Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography. Geneva/Kathmandu: Program for the Study of International Organisations (PSIO). 2 For instance, a draft parliamentary bill to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission is argued to serve political leaders’ interests by offering general amnesties has been widely condemned (ICG 2007b). 3 Nepal is ranked at a very low UN Human Development Indicator Index of 140 out of 177 countries. See http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/cty/cty_f_NPL.html (Accessed 12 October 2007). 4 Prior to launching the People’s War in 1996, the CPN-M (Maoists) were a mainstream political party before breaking away. Tensions between the CPN-Maoist, the Seven Party Alliance and UNMIN continue


13

election of a Constituent Assembly (CA) which is to be held in April 2008 following two

postponed dates in June and November of 2007. The new governance structure of a

Constituent Assembly aims to build a more ‘inclusive’ democratic system able to address

the persistent problems of exclusion by promoting ‘social inclusion’5. It is hoped that by

being inclusive of gender, caste, class, ethnic, linguistic and regional differences, the

election of a Constituent Assembly will enable greater social, economic, political

participation (International Alert 2007).

Emergence of ‘rights’ as a central discourse of peacebuilding

The vision of a more socially inclusive society - that recognises the rights of all groups -

lies at the heart of the demands being made by various groups around the country in the

post-conflict period. Indeed, Nepal is a multiethnic and multi-linguistic country with

over sixty ethnic and caste groups6. Further, discrimination based caste, class, ethnicity,

geography and other divisions remain deeply embedded in social institutions and

traditions in Nepal (World Bank 2006)7. The assertion of long-standing grievances and

demanding of rights by various discriminated and traditionally marginalised groups is

mounting, which is being witnessed in both peaceful, and increasingly violent, protests

and demonstrations (see Appendix 3)8. In particular, agitating Madhesi groups in the

Terai have emerged and their violent protests have intensified following the end of armed

conflict. This has been a major factor in worsening the security situation, de-stabilising

the peace process and thus the postponement of elections9.

over the conditions inside the cantonment camps. UNMIN has led the disarming and registering of Maoists and their weapons, and their fate of the PLA remains in question until after the elections. 5 ‘Social inclusion’ refers to the removal of institutional barriers and the enhancement of incentives to increase the access of diverse individuals and groups to development opportunities (World Bank 2006). 6 A comprehensive account of gender, caste and ethnic exclusion, see World Bank, 2006. Unequal Citizens - Gender, Caste and Ethnic Exclusion in Nepal. Kathmandu: World Bank. 7 The presence of Dalit , Madhesi and Janajati in state apparatus is negligible. Only three Caste groups - Brahmin, Chhetri, Newar (Kathmandu) are economically and politically dominant (McGrew 2006: 1). 8 See Appendix 3 – Map of Bandhs/Blockades 1 Jan 2007 - 30 September 2007. Bandh is Nepalese for ‘strike’. This map identifies 31 ‘categories’ of agitating groups or organisations. 9. The Terai is the southern plain region of Nepal adjacent to India. The Madhesi people who inhabit the Terai are often discriminated by the Nepali State yet comprise over 30 per cent of the population. For a full report of issues surrounding the demands and context of the Madhesi groups and Terai region, see International Crisis Group (ICG), 2007. Nepal's Troubled Tarai Region. Kathmandu, ICG.


14

Without discounting the human rights violations committed during the conflict and the

fragile peace process, the Maoist movement has served to bring the rights of marginalised

and minority groups to the foreground. As one human right activist explained,

“many problems were under the surface which are now over the surface, like janajati, dalit, Madhesi, women…the issue has come up because of the Maoists. I do not believe in armed conflict …but I cannot ignore this fact.” 10 (Personal communication, Gorkha District, 19 April 2007).

Following participation of many of these marginalised groups in the Jana Andolaan II

(People’s Movement) in April 200611, there are high expectations of ‘peace dividends’

(International Alert 2007: 8). In Nepal, the notion of a ‘peace dividend’ is being used to

describe the benefits that peace and democracy will bring to people (Sharma 2007)12. As

Raj (2007) asserts, the nation and identity-building project of ‘New Nepal’ is seeing

many marginalised groups active in calling for their inclusion. That is, the momentum

from the Maoist movement and end of the People’s War has seen the underlying root

causes of the conflict becoming the centerpiece of the demands by various groups to end

discrimination and to claim their rights. This was demonstrated during fieldwork when

encountering one disenfranchised group who were using this new ‘space’ in the post-

conflict period to demand rights (Figure 4).

10 Janajati is the Nepali term for ‘Indigenous’ and denotes denotes being part of an ethnic group. Dalit is the term preferred term in Nepal for “Untouchables”, the lowest groups in the traditional Caste hierarchy. 11 The Jana Andolaan II (People’s Movement) saw hundreds of thousands of Nepalese taking to the streets for weeks in nationwide demonstrations against the Monarchy during April 2006. The movement brought brought an end to the previous period of the King’s autocratic rule and was historic in spurring peace negotiations. Jana Andolaan I took place in 1990 when people demonstrated to end the Panchayat (party-less system) era and brought the multi-party democracy. 12 This notion of a peace dividend differs from the post-Cold War international relations discourse of the ‘peace dividend’ that describe economic benefits of decreased defence spending.


15

Figure 4: Highway roadblock in Sindhuli District13

Nepalese women: Navigating through conflict and closed ‘spaces’

"Women are weaker in our society. They are not weaker, but the society and culture has bounded them, their hands and legs." (Personal correspondence with human rights activist, Gorkha District, 20th April 2007).

Impacts of the armed conflict on women

During the armed conflict, women were often ‘caught in the middle’ of Maoist insurgents

and security forces and faced increasing insecurity and deepening poverty (Bennett 2003:

2; Thapa 2004). The emergence of female-headed households and widows has been

significant as a result of many men joining, or fleeing, security forces and the Maoists or

migrating in search of work (Adhikari 2005; Gautam 2001). Further, women’s care 13 On completion of a human rights training program in Sindhuli, our group encountered the Chure Bhawan Ekar Sames, a protesting group blockading the Highway to Kathmandu. This group was demanding their rights to autonomy and identity in their region. Despite carrying a ‘Human Rights Defenders’ banner (a common practice that grants amnesty through strikes), our passage had to be negotiated. This was undertaken by the female Director of IHRICON, following numerous attempts by any of the men present. The group became irate, arguing that Nepalese human rights workers funded by international agencies were “corrupt” and not working for the interests of Nepalese people. Their strike lasted 7 days, crippling life in region.


16

giving roles often limited their mobility and discriminatory property laws often left many

women without land or a source of income - producing the phenomenon of the ‘internally

stuck’ (Gautam et al 2001; Martinez 2002). Protection issues also worsened in terms of

increased sexual violence and exploitation, including torture, rape and trafficking

(Gautam 2003; IHRICON 2007b). Impacts of the conflict have also varied depending on

the various other ‘groups’ which women identify with or belong (so-called ‘cross cutting

divides’), such as class, caste, ethnicity and religion that generally serve as further forms

of exclusion (Bennett 2003; World Bank 2006)14. Whilst women have indeed endured

great suffering during the armed conflict15, moving beyond a ‘victim lens’ also provides

an opportunity to recognise women’s agency in taking on diverse roles. For instance,

with expertise in grassroots activism, investigative journalism, human rights law and

local peace activism, women have maintained social stability and reduced violence in

community peacebuilding processes (McGrew 2006; Sharma 2007).

Women in the peace process

As a result of negative impacts of conflict on women, and perhaps the greater recognition

by international agencies, the national peace process has more recently given greater

recognition to ‘women’s issues’ (ICG 2007a). For instance, the Interim Constitution of

2007 recognises the existing problems of class, caste, region and gender and separately

lists a number ‘women’s rights’16. However, given that women’s involvement in the

Constitution drafting process was negligible17, doubts remains over how women’s rights

will be prioritised (Sharma 2007). Further, women were virtually absent during the

14 ‘Cross-cutting divides’ are often described as the ‘double burden of caste and gender discrimination’ for Dalit women (Sob 2004), or the ‘multiple barriers’ for women of Madhesi origin (Sharma 2007: 5). 15 Despite the recognition of the overwhelming impact of conflict on women in reports of international development agencies, only a few in depth-studies of the impacts on women in rural Nepal are available (Gautam et al 2001; Gautam 2003; Manchanda 2004). Further research on this issue is most timely. 16 The Interim Constitution reads: “20. Right of Woman: (1) No one shall be discriminated in any form merely for being a woman; (2) Every woman shall have the right to reproductive health and other reproductive matters; (3) No physical, mental or any other form of violence shall be inflicted to any woman, and such an act shall be punishable by law; (4) Son and daughter shall have equal rights to their ancestral property”. His Majesty’s Government of Nepal (HMGN) , 2007. Interim Constitution 2063. Kathmandu, HMGN. 17 The all-male Interim Constitution Drafting Committee was expanded to include four women and a Dalit representative only after widespread protests (McGrew 2006).


17

formal peace negotiations in 2006 (Sharma 2007)18. Indeed, the ‘Agreement on

Monitoring of the Management of Arms and Armies’ (AMA)19 that followed the Peace

Accord contained no provisions for women or gender despite a significant proportion (up

to 30 per cent) of the Maoists being female (Manchanda 2004; Pettigrew and

Schneiderman 2004)20. While amended electoral laws now guarantee increased women’s

candidacies and quotas in the Constituent Assembly polls, significant challenges remain

for greater representation of women’s issues (Sharma 2007)21. Indeed, political

participation of women, and women’s representation, are two separate issues as the

presence of women in decision-making roles cannot be assumed to promote women’s

rights or gender equality (Nelson and Chaudhary 1994).

Opening previously closed spaces

Sharma and Neupane (2007) argue that conflict has created an ‘opportunity’ by initiating

some ‘merging’ of the private and public spheres and opening up previously closed

spaces for women22. At the community level, there are also reports of a change in the

perceptions of gender roles and social structures (ICG 2007b; Manchanda 2006). For

instance, the absence of men was reported to have opened new opportunities for women

in Rolpa District to step into public life (Gautam et al 2001). Further, in the absence of

men, women ‘have crossed the gendered divisions of labour to take on taboo areas -

ploughing and thatching of roofs’ (Manchanda 2005: 4739). On a collective or national

level, women are becoming more actively engaged in rallies and peaceful protests on

18 There were no women in peace negotiation teams of the SPA government or the CPN (Maoist), neither in the 32-member peace committee (McGrew 2006). Despite the Maoists ‘seeing itself as the vanguard on women’s issues’ women were not included in the peace teams in 2004 and 2006 (ICG 2007a: 3), 19 The CPA-related Agreement on Monitoring of the Management of Arms and Armies (AMA) was signed by the UN and Government in November 2006 and outlined the process whereby Maoist combatants and an equivalent number of Nepal Army troops were to be confined to cantonments and barracks. UNMIN has demobilised over 30,000 of their militia and handed in over 2,500 weapons. 20 A detailed account of women’s involvement in the Maoist insurgency see Yami, H. (2007). People's War and Women's Liberation in Nepal. Kathmandu: Janadhwani Publications. 21 The Constituent Assembly Members’ Election Act (2007) provides for women to have 50 per cent of the 240 seats from the proportional representation system and to make up 33 per cent of total candidates. In practice, this in effect means that final representation could be as low as 22 per cent (ICG 2007a). 22 A description of the public and private spheres, and gender roles and relations within these, in Yuval-Davis, N., 1997. Gender and Nation. London: Sage.


18

issues of women’s and human rights, such as trafficking and domestic violence23. In the

public sphere, national Non Government Organisation (NGO) coalitions and alliances,

such as Shanti Malika (Women for Peace), and the All Nepal Women’s Association

(ANWA), are more actively pressuring the government on women’s issues. Sharma and

Neupane (2007) assert that these opening spaces and ‘unexpected gains’ from the conflict

need to be consolidated24. While these changes may be challenging the disempowering

construction of Nepalese women as uniformly ‘backward, illiterate, and tradition-bound’

(World Bank 2006: 50), it may also be too early to assert whether these examples are

indeed ‘gains’.

Apart from the conflict itself, the significant participation of women as Maoist insurgents

has been identified as a key impetus for raising the prominence of ‘women’s issues’

(Sharma 2007). Indeed, women have accounted for up to 30 percent of the Maoist Army

(Yami 2007). From one perspective, women’s participation is also argued to have

challenged gender relations at the local level in many rural areas (Manchanda, 2001;

2005; Pettigrew and Schneiderman, 2004). For instance, in terms of gender roles, Thapa

quotes a Maoist women saying “you see, there used to be only sickles and grass in the

hands of girls like us. Now there are automatic rifles’ (2005: 2). From another

perspective, whether taking up arms is a demonstration of women’s agency is a complex

issue that warrants further research25. This issue was also raised during the research, as

one participant in IHRICON’s program had been part of the Maoist movement during the

conflict and had now taken up peace activism.26 Nevertheless, it is important to observe

Manchanda’s assertion that ‘the massive presence of women has produced a social

23 During the April 2006 People’s movement, many women’s groups or organisations not previously in the public arena protested for the first time against the King’s absolute rule. 24 The notion of ‘unexpected gains’ from conflict is addressed by a number of scholars (Manchanda, 2001; Utas, 2005), yet is also problematic, as gains in the immediate post-conflict period are often not sustained when women must take on greater responsibilities (Manchanda, 2001: 4739; Rehn and Sirleaf, 2002.) 25 A lack of detailed research means the question of whether women joining the Maoists is a demonstration of their own agency is as yet unanswered and is grounds for further research. A growing number of scholars are exploring women’s experience as combatants in attempting to answer this question (Manchanda 2001; Moser and Clark 2001; Utas 2005). 26 This was a particularly interesting finding, however I am unable to explore it further in this thesis. The identification by informants and NGO workers interviewed that women continue to join the Maoist movement, even after the signing of the Peace Accord, warrants further investigation. Indeed, exploring the motivations behind women’s continued involvement in the Maoist movement is salient (Yami 2007).


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radicalisation as evinced in ground level actions’ (2005: 4742). According to Yami

(2007), many women in rural areas have had their ‘consciousness raised’ by Maoist

ideology to assert their agency and demand their rights.

State commitments to Women

At an international level, Nepal is signatory to eight different conventions, protocols and

agreements related to the rights of women and children27. Yet these instruments have

been limited in promoting or protecting women’s rights (INSEC 2006a). While Nepal

ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women

(CEDAW) in 199128, the subsequent requirement to change 85 discriminatory laws (such

as family and property laws) remains incomplete (ADB 1999; World Bank 2006: 52).

This weak enforcement of legislation and policies continues in the context of a lack of

political will, patriarchal structures resistant to change and deficient government capacity

(Banerjee 2005: 280)29.

International actors in Nepal

In the absence of a well-functioning State to uphold its obligations as a ‘duty-bearer’ of

rights, international actors such as The United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN),

various UN agencies (particularly OHCHR), donors (including country governments),

financial institutions, INGOs, NGOs and other civil society organisations are playing

greater roles to fill this void (Sharma 2007)30. International presence significantly

increased following the restoration of peace and the entry UNMIN in January 2007 (Lal

2007). The subsequent ‘post-conflict reconstruction31’ donor funding has seen the

27 For a list of these, see INSEC (2006) at http://www.inseconline.org/download/Nepal_treaties.pdf. 28 The country has however only signed, but not ratified, the CEDAW Optional Protocol or the two Optional Protocols on Children. 29 For instance, the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare lacks adequate financial and human resources and the National Women’s Commission (NWC) formed in 2002 lacks a legal basis, and has been accused of its membership being dominated by High Caste women and thus not ‘representative’. 30 The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has limited capacity to uphold rights (ICG 2007b). 31 The World Bank (1998) define post-conflict reconstruction as encompassing not only short-term rebuilding of physical infrastructure, but also the creation of peace through rebuilding economic and political institutions and promoting social reintegration. Peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction are


20

number of INGOs increase from 149 to 185 during the 12 months to June 2007, and the

number of local NGOs (26,670 in July 2007) continues to rise in response32. In addition

to providing support to the Peace Trust Fund33, one major donor priority is the funding of

awareness raising campaigns on human rights.

UNMIN is a special political mission which began operation in January 2007 in Nepal to

help oversee the peace process to lead into the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections34. In

addition to arms monitoring, ceasefire monitoring and electoral assistance, UNMIN is

involved in mine action, child protection, social inclusion, gender and human rights

activities35. On rights issues, parties to the Peace Accord expressly requested the Office

of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to take responsibility for

monitoring human rights during the peace process. The strong rights focus of

international engagement is having a significant influence on how human rights issues are

being presented and disseminated.

‘Speaking on behalf of women’: Relationships between women and peacebuilding

actors

It is often through local NGOs and other women’s civil society organisations that women

participate in community peacebuilding initiatives in Nepal (CCO 2006). These

organisations often act as the implementing partners for INGOs and other funding bodies

and are thus often bound in terms of the funds they can apply for or projects they can

implement (UNIFEM 2006). Women’s peacebuilding in Nepal is also promoted through

the donor coordination mechanism of the Peace Support Working Group (PSWG) on

thus often considered analogous. However, in this thesis peacebuilding is considered one component of a longer term process of post-conflict reconstruction (Barakat 2004). 32 ‘Foreign aid to INGOs increased to Rs 12 billion’. The Rising Nepal, 19 June 2007, p4. 33 The Peace Trust Fund is managed by the UNDP and mainly supports the management of camps and reintegration of former combatants; rehabilitation of Internally Displaced People (IDPs); preparation for elections and strengthening law and order (UNDP 2005). 34 UNMIN was established by UN Security Council Resolution 1740 at the request of the Nepalese government (UN 2007). It is a political mission without prior military, policing or peacekeeping functions. 35 UNMIN’s mandate includes monitoring arms and armed personnel of the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) and Maoist Army, assisting parties to implement the AMA, providing technical assistance to the Election committee to conduct the elections in a free and fair atmosphere.


21

Resolution 132536. This is mainly used to inform policy whilst also engaging in various

advocacy and dissemination activities37. Resolution 1325 is being promoted by many

INGOs and increasingly being utilised as a training tool in women’s peacebuilding

initiatives (UNIFEM 2006).

To conclude, this discussion has demonstrated that in the current social and political

context of post-conflict Nepal, a significant ‘space’ has been opened for women to

actively engage and participate in constructing new roles and identities. These

opportunities are due on one level to the greater prominence of ‘women’s issues’ in the

post-conflict environment and the spaces this has created to be more active. On another

level, this is also a result of the national and international focus on the peacebuilding

project that encompasses human rights and women’s empowerment. That is, since the

end of the armed conflict in late 2006, increasing numbers of women have become

engaged in peace activism and in asserting their rights in various ways. Documenting the

experiences and perceptions of women activists forms the key approach assumed in this

research.

36 The Resolution 1325 Peace Support Working Group (PSWG) was set up in early 2007. It is co-chaired by UNFPA and the Norwegian Embassy, and one of the most active of the four working groups – the other three forums are on Transitional Justice, Reintegration and Constitutional Reform and the Elections. 37 These activities include a workshop on Resolution 1325 for UN agencies, donors and NGOs, conducting advocacy with decision making bodies and publishing and disseminating 1325 materials at both grassroots and national levels.

Chapter Two: Methodological approach

Chapter Two Methodological approach This Chapter aims to provide an insight into the social and research processes involved in

producing this thesis. The broader narrative of this thesis is informed by four months of

fieldwork in Nepal from February to June 2007. Most time was spent with a Nepalese

human rights NGO, the Institute of Human Rights Communication in Nepal (IHRICON).

Amongst other organisational activities in IHRICON’s Kathmandu headquarters, I was a

participant observer in two human rights trainings workshops in the Districts of Gorkha

and Sindhuli (See Appendix 4 for Districts of Nepal and Study Areas). These human

rights trainings were attended by women from Four Districts (Gorkha, Sindhuli, Kailali

and Dang) as part of IHRICON’s Community Peace Volunteer (CPV) initiative. During

this time, a number of semi-structured interviews were conducted with the Peace

Volunteers, NGO staff and trainers. As such, the research sites varied from participation

in formal or semi-formal institutional processes, to informal discussions with individuals.

In order to explore shared understandings of meanings of ‘peace’, ‘rights’ and

‘empowerment’, I also conducted a focus group consisting of 12 participants from the

Sindhuli District Peace Group.

Selecting a case study in Nepal

The selection of Nepal as a focus of study was influenced by a number of considerations.

First and foremost, scholarly and policy debates on women, peace and security are rarely

applied to Nepal. Secondly, previous volunteer work by the author with various

Nepalese NGOs has enabled an ongoing interest and exposure to women’s roles and

identities in Nepalese society1. Furthermore, during previous work and travel, the author

strongly associated with Pigg’s ‘inability to escape involvement in the discourse of

development wherever I went in Nepal’ (1992: 493).

1 Such exposure has included observation of Mothers Groups (Aama Samuha) providing community support in the absence of men during the conflict, observing many social impacts of the conflict at the local level, and being a participant observer to the process of local NGOs engaging women at the same time as those organisations being engaged by the international community.

22


An in-depth case study of a program enables the collection of extensive data on the

individuals and the program itself, including observations, interviews, documents and

audiovisual materials, while interacting regularly with the people being studied (Leedy

1997). Whilst the efficacy of case studies often lies in their ability to help others draw

conclusions on whether the findings may be applied to other situations or practices

(Leedy 1997: 136), the ability to draw conclusions and apply findings over a wide range

of situations can also be a weakness. The intention in this thesis, therefore, is not to

suggest that the findings are necessarily generalisable to other women’s peacebuilding

programmes in Nepal or elsewhere, nor that one case study could be representative. My

choice of case study was based on one which would fulfill the criteria of a ‘telling’ rather

than a ‘typical’ case (Mitchell 1984: 203). Further, although my theoretical stance on

women’s peacebuilding and rights-based approaches influenced the choice of

methodology, practical issues also shaped my approach. In particular, the security

situation in Nepal limited access to certain areas which precluded extensive ethnographic

research with Peace Groups at the village level. A multi-sited case study thus presented

the most appropriate and realistic means to undertake an in-depth exploration of women’s

participation in community peacebuilding initiatives2.

Negotiating the field

Following arrival in Nepal I gained an overall sense of the current social and political

post-conflict context for women and peacebuilding programs by means of a ‘big net

approach’ (Fetterman 1989). Working from an initial network of key informants in

Kathmandu (most of whom I knew previously), I employed a ‘holistic’ snowballing

technique, using word of mouth and drawing on people’s individual networks. Key

informants provided information that facilitated further contacts. In a similar way to

2 A number of studies of women’s peace initiatives in other countries produced by feminist scholars have also used multi-sited in-depth case studies of organisational initiatives as starting points from which to explore issues of women’s participation and their engagement by international actors. Some examples drawn from are: Cockburn, C., 1998. The Space Between Us: Negotiating Gender and National Identities in Conflict. London and New York, Zed Books; De la Rey, C., and McKay, S., 2006. Peacebuilding as a Gendered process. Journal of Social Issues, 62 (1):141-153; and Moghadam, V., 2005. Peacebuilding and Reconstruction with Women: Reflections of Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. Development, 48 (3): 63-72.

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conducting ethnographic fieldwork, I needed to gain access to an organisation on which

to base a case study in order to answer the general research problem. This usually

involves going through a ‘gatekeeper’ - a ‘person who can provide smooth entrance into

the site’ (Leedy 1997: 137). Discussions with key informants and organisations led to

finding a suitable host organsiation. This arrangement took place by means of

negotiating and entering an ‘exchange relationship’ with the Institute of Human Rights

Communication in Nepal (‘IHRICON’), who’s Director became my ‘gatekeeper’.

Contribution to a research publication on sexual violence (IHRICON 2007b) was the

primary component of my exchange, in return for which I was granted access to

organisational resources events and trainings in Kathmandu, and enabled safe passage,

access and support to undertake research at two separate field sites in Gorkha and

Sindhuli.

Host organisation: The Institute of Human Rights Communication in Nepal

(IHRICON)

IHRICON is a non-profit, non-political human rights and communication NGO

established in 2001 by a group of human rights, peace and media professionals. It

receives funding from a wide range of donors including the Canadian Cooperation Office

(CCO) 3, the British Embassy, Save the Children-Norway, UNDP, UNIFEM and USAID.

It has a permanent project staff of four in Kathmandu, a VSO4 volunteer, three office

staff, a pool of training consultants and Peace Volunteers in four Districts. IHRICON

serves as the Secretariat of Shanti Malika (Women for Peace) Network and is an active

member of numerous others5.

3 The CCO is the implementing office for the Canadian Agency for International Development (CIDA) in Nepal. 4 The Voluntary Service Organisation (VSO) is a volunteer sending scheme coordinated by the British government. In most cases, the role of skilled/professional VSO volunteers is to build the capacity of the local organisation. 5 These networks include the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), the Beyond Beijing Committee, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Women for Peace (Shanti Malika), IANSA, the Collective Campaign for Peace (COCAP), amongst others. IHRICON is a also a networking and advisory member of Human Rights Treaty Monitoring Coordinating Committee (HRTMCC).

24


IHRICON has implemented the ‘Women's Empowerment for Sustainable Peace and

Human Rights’ program from 2003 to 2006 with funding from the CCO. This program

aimed to ‘increase women’s visibility and meaningful participation in peacebuilding and

community decision-making processes’, that focuses on ‘the empowerment of women,

reducing existing conflict prevailing in the society and forming women’s groups for

income generation’(CCO 2006: 13). The central component of the program is the

training of ‘Community Peace Volunteers’ (CPVs). Twenty five to thirty Peace

Volunteers have been trained in each of the four target Districts. Each Volunteer

manages a Women’s Peace Group (Mahila Shanti Samuha) which has anywhere from 15-

40 women, in their respective communities at the Village District Committee (VDC),

ward and village level6. Women were selected and encouraged to participate in the

program from urban and rural backgrounds, from Dalit and other caste groups, various

ethnic groups, from Hindu and Buddhist religions, various political backgrounds and

range from around 17 to 50 years of age7.

Despite official program funding ending in 2006, the Peace Volunteers continue their

community work and two recent initiatives have been funded by international donors to

further their work. The first of these, funded by the British Embassy, was a ‘Training

program on human rights, good governance, constituent assembly and community

journalism for community rights activists of Kailali, Dang, Gorkha and Sindhuli’

conducted in Gorkha District headquarters from 6-13 April 2007 for eight days8. The

second program on ‘Gender monitoring around cantonment camps’, was initiated by a

training held in Sindhuli District headquarters from 17-23 April 20079. This training was

attended by 12 Peace Volunteers from Sindhuli District to become ‘human rights

6 Nepal has 75 Districts, each divided into many Village District Committees (VDC’s). The VDC is the lowest level of government administration in Nepal, which are further divided into wards then villages (Pigg 1992). Also See Appendix 4 for Districts. 7 All major political parties, including CPN (Maoist), were ‘represented’ amongst the 48 participants in Gorkha. The ‘selection criteria’ for the women to participate was the completion of their Senior Leaving Certificate (SLC), equivalent to Year 10 in Australian Standards, to ensure minimum literacy levels. 8 This training was attended by 48 Peace Volunteers, 12 from each District. (See Appendix 5). 9 This program was conducted in two Districts of Kailali and Sindhuli. The initial training sessions were conducted simultaneously and the security situation in Southern Nepal limited my access to that site and upon recommendation from informants and IHRICON I accompanied staff to the training in Sindhuli District. The program for the Sindhuli training is attached in Appendix 7.

25


defenders’ as part of a six month program to monitor and report on the human rights

situation around cantonments in Sindhuli District. One day of this period in Sindhuli

District was also spent at the main Sindhuli cantonment site. The rights-based approach

of the organisation, and trainings that aim to empower women as peacebuilders, meant

this case study was a particularly useful starting point to explore the research question

and thus address a number of gaps identified in the literature.

Analytical and methodological scope of research

The analytical and methodological approach taken in this thesis is eclectic and draws on

various disciplines and fields of study - from development studies, peace studies, conflict

resolution, peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction, human rights and

anthropology. Further, it is strongly influenced by a number of conceptual and

methodological approaches from feminist studies. Firstly, feminist anti-essentialist

critiques which argue against the portrayal of ‘women as victims’ in post-conflict and

promote an approach which focuses on women’s agency informed the methodological

approach10. Secondly, employing methods informed by both scholarly and practitioner-

based experience and research was also one means of ensuring the research could bridge

gaps between wide-ranging theory and practice11. For instance, the action research of a

number of scholar-practitioners such as Cynthia Cockburn (1998; 2007) and Donna

Pankhurst (2000; 2005), amongst women’s organisations in conflict and post-conflict

situation, provide a theoretical grounding for adopting the ‘lens’ of a local human rights

NGO. Further, the findings of a number of recent organisational studies on

peacebuilding practice with women in Nepal noted their major limitation as being

structured interviews with Kathmandu-based organisational representatives (McGrew

2006; UNIFEM 2006). These latter reports recommended that further action research in

10 In particular, the contributions in the following edited collection; Manchanda, R.(ed), 2001. Women, War and Peace in South Asia: Beyond Victimhood to Agency. New Delhi, Sage Publications. 11 In addition to academic scholarship, literature which engages with peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction draws heavily on organisational and practitioner contributions. It is therefore the ‘scholar-practitioner’ who provides a critical link between industry-based research and academia. In fact, Pankhurst argues that it is ‘scholar-practitioners’ who offer insight into the potential for ‘gender and peacebuilding’ as a distinct field of academic enquiry (2005: 3).

26


field-based initiatives would be beneficial which also informed the approach to seek

women’s own experiences.

Further, the depth of understanding required in order to explore women’s own

experiences and perceptions informed the use of anthropological methods. Schneiderman

stresses that anthropological methods in Nepal are ‘more necessary than ever’ (2005: 31),

in order to contribute to the understandings of the conflict and how local people are

building peace. Further anthropological studies, such as Pigg’s (1992) exploration of

women’s understandings of bikas (development) 12 demonstrate their value in exploring

women’s perceptions and thus provide a theoretical grounding for development

interventions.

Field Methods

A qualitative approach is particularly appropriate for this study as it allows for a wide

range of perspectives and experiences to be heard (Leedy 2005: 133; Smith 2001: 29). In

particular, a central component of action research undertaken in Nepal involved ongoing

participant observation. Throughout my fieldwork, I attempted to record potentially

useful data thoroughly, accurately and systematically through taking extensive fieldnotes,

as well as through photographs and audio files. In addition, I employed a semi-structured

but thematic approach to interviews appropriate to such qualitative work. In Gorkha,

once rapport and trust had been established, nine women were interviewed in depth.

Interviews were from 1 - 2 hours long, often conducted in two sessions due to time

limitations. In Sindhuli, six women were interviewed in depth for 1-2 hours13. Interviews

with Peace Volunteers were conducted in Nepali with the aide of a translator14. These

allowed participants to narrate their experiences while also allowing enough space for me

to probe their responses (Smith 2001: 29). Further interviews with IHRICON staff, 12 Bikas is Nepalese for ‘development’. The ‘project’ of bikas has been promoted by the State since the introduction of a multi-party democracy in 1990. 13 Many interviews were conducted in pairs where each participant responded separately to questions, which the women often preferred as it allowed them to share their experiences whilst also learning from other women. 14 In this thesis, ‘Nepali’ is used to denote the language that is spoken by ‘Nepalese’ people. The choice of translator for interviews (female members of IHRICON staff ) was critical in order to create a supportive environment which allowed for honest and open responses.

27


trainers and other NGO representatives were conducted in English15. A great deal of my

research also involved informal interactions and conversations with local people.

Participants were selected for in-depth interviews through a snowballing technique often

after spending four to five days observing and building relationships. In order to address

the issue of ‘representation’, IHRICON staff and the District Coordinators assisted in

suggesting interviewees who were representative of different social categories of caste,

class and ethnicity. Further, other ‘markers of difference’ were taken into consideration

such as the participant’s urban or rural background, age and political affiliations. Whilst

some women were shy, most were open about sharing their stories and grateful for the

rare opportunity to share with an ‘outsider’16.

A focus group with nine Peace Volunteers and three males was conducted in Sindhuli,

held in two sessions of one hour17. This allowed a greater understanding of the

participants’ perceptions of peacebuilding and human rights. With the permission of

participants, all interviews and focus group proceedings were recorded using a digital

voice recorder and notes were also taken18. Interviews and focus groups were fully

transcribed and analysed using a qualitative methodology through a thematic analysis.

Data analysis began during the collection process, and my preliminary conclusions of the

data also influenced the kinds of data I later collected. The various steps outlined by

Creswell (1998) and Stake (1995) for data analysis of a case study provided a loose

framework within which to analyse the data.

15 Pseudonyms are used in this thesis in order to maintain anonymity. However, the ‘category’ of interview is indicated (e.g. Peace Volunteer, NGO staff member, Trainer, Human Rights Activist, Informant). In the text, quotations of direct speech are presented in italics, unless cited in the body of the text. Direct quotations are taken from the translations from Nepali into English, unless otherwise indicated. I have made every effort to ensure the correctness of these quotations. 16 For instance, despite their voluntary participation the focus group participants often stressed how thankful they were for the ‘opportunity’ to share their thoughts and experiences. 17 Three males were also included in the ‘Gender Monitoring around Cantonments’ program and training. The low education levels of women in this rural area meant that the minimum requirement for the Senior Leaving Certificate (SLC) was not fulfilled. The often different perceptions of the males was an issue I began to explore during the research, however I am unable to further explore in this thesis. This is an interesting area for further research. 18 A Plain Language Statement and Consent Form for recording interviews (translated into Nepali), were explained and signed prior to undertaking interviews and the focus groups.

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Content analysis of translated written responses of the Peace Volunteers and NGO staff

provided a greater understanding of their perceptions of peace, peacebuilding,

empowerment and human rights, as well as the benefits of trainings19. These methods

also provided a means for the research to directly feed into program evaluation.

Additional documentation, including donor proposals, program briefings, program

monitoring and evaluation reports, training plans and worksheets, participants’ songs,

role plays and informal conversations provided additional data. Further insights and

ideas were gained through follow-up research in Kathmandu, informal meetings with a

variety of stakeholders (donor representatives, INGOs, NGOs and academics) and

ongoing discussions with key informants. In addition, the broader context of women’s

roles in society was studied through monitoring media representation of women and

gender issues20.

Reflexivity

The concept of ‘reflexivity’ enables the researcher to reflect on their role and influence

on data, not just during the fieldwork process but also during the writing of the text

(Robinson-Pant 2000). Indeed, there is a need for critical reflection on how I personally

influenced and impacted upon the process of gaining access to a case study and field

sites, negotiated and managed relationships formed during fieldwork and how data was

collected. Firstly, the choice of working with a local NGO influenced the kinds of

relationships I formed in Kathmandu and in the field which is reflected in this thesis.

Secondly, in terms of negotiating and managing relationships, my previous experience in

Nepal with women in rural areas, as a volunteer as well as tourist, informed how I

approached forming them. Although I had played differing roles in Nepal, the role of

19 McKay and de le Rey (2006) note the efficacy of participants engaging in experiential activities, such as being given cards to write down words that describe their understanding of peacebuilding. 20 Throughout the study period, how women and gender issues were represented in three national English-edition newspapers, online news sources and magazines, was observed and monitored. In comparison to the English-language press - that often revealed new roles women are taking on - there was a tendency in Nepali-language press for women to be depicted as what Tamang (2002) describes as the ‘fictive Nepali mahila (woman)’, as uniformly poor and illiterate. Indeed, Bop asserts that images conveyed by the media in conflict or post-conflict societies often ‘impedes the recognition of endogenous solutions that women propose’ (2002:19).

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academic field researcher was completely new and I was aware when setting up my

research of having to adopt a ‘new persona’. In particular, I was mindful of the often

negative perception of bideshis (foreigners) engaged in development work in Nepal21.

This resulted in detailed attention being paid to respecting cultural norms, such as

appropriate dress and language. Social interactions with the Peace Volunteers and NGO

staff during training, mealtimes, and chyaa22 breaks were essential elements in forming

relationships prior to undertaking interviews and focus groups.

Further, the need to gain trust, respect and build rapport amongst NGO staff and the

Peace Volunteers was a critical part of managing relationships in the field. From the

beginning of my entry into each field site, I ensured people understood my research

motivations and aims through introduction by my ‘gatekeeper’. In addition, as I was

unable to provide financial or in-kind incentives for participation in interviews or focus

groups, interviewees and informants were involved on a voluntary basis. This influenced

the need to spend time listening and observing before ‘asking’ in order to build trust,

rapport and thus allow space for participants to feel comfortable and open to share.

Thirdly, a number of challenges presented themselves when collecting data. The tension

inherent in participant observation - when being a participant yourself - was particularly

challenging. For instance, when asked to contribute to a training session on ‘research

methods’ I needed to assess the extent of my role as an observer and as a researcher. In

addition, I was acutely aware of my privileged position as a foreign researcher. For

instance, it is common to be asked “will you take me to Australia?” whilst in Nepal, and

such questions during fieldwork were often challenging to answer. Indeed, no matter

how hard one tries, the researcher can never be invisible and will alter the nature of a

scene by their presence.

21 For instance, Denskus (2007) is highly critical of the sheltered lifestyles of expatriates in Kathmandu and uses various examples to demonstrates the negative perception of bideshis. For instance, he cites an aid official’s account of the impact of hostilities, described in terms of its influence on the supermarket baskets of ‘expatriate peacebuilders’ removed from field realities. 22 Chyaa is Nepali for tea, the Indian version of sweet milk tea, or ‘chai’. When meeting with Nepalese, particularly when business or work-oriented, it is common practice to share Chyaa before engaging in any substantive discussion.

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Another important practical consideration was the safety of my informants and myself.

In reference to research in Nepal, Pettigrew describes the need to ‘rethink old data

collection techniques’ (1999: 24). As Pettigrew explains, remembering interviews,

scenes or particular events in detail, rather than committing them to paper, avoids

drawing attention to yourself or the person. This was also an approach adopted in my

research, for instance often writing field notes at night.

Whilst subjective, the observations presented in this thesis are resonant with, and firmly

grounded in, many of the recent systematic observations by researchers, international

organisations and Nepalese people themselves which have identified emerging patterns

and trends in relation to women, peacebuilding and rights. In particular, these

observations reflect the shifting roles of women in the peace process and their

constructions of meanings in this process, which is explored in Chapters Three and Four,

and the negotiation of human rights norms which is addressed in Chapter Five.

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Chapter Three: Constructing a Nepalese discourse of peacebuilding

Chapter Three Constructing a Nepalese discourse of peacebuilding

‘institutional and practical arrangements for peacebuilding, never actively include those whose experience might help …the field staff and development and peace workers of aid organisations, nor the people in (post-) conflict situations that should ‘benefit’ from the projects’ (Denskus, 2007: 658).

In this Chapter, one of the key themes explored is the disparate conceptualisations of

what peacebuilding entails at the local level in comparison with mainstream international

‘post-conflict peacebuilding’ discourses and approaches. As the above quote from

Denskus (2007) notes, institutional arrangements for peacebuilding often do not actively

seek to include the experiences of those directly involved. Responding to this call, this

Chapter pays close attention to the understandings of peace (shanti) and peacebuilding of

both ‘practitioners’ and ‘beneficiaries’ within the broader discourse of a New Nepal.

Indeed, these stand out as significantly different from those constructed by international

actors such as UNMIN and donor organisations. Yet it was observed that there is an

exchange between foreign and indigenous actors which means that the concepts of peace

and peacebuilding constructed by the various actors are neither exclusively adopted, nor

rejected, and there is perhaps even some convergence, which is indicative of an ongoing

process of construction of meaning.

No peace if ‘Mother still weeps’: Defining peace and peacebuilding

“Mother don’t weep, your eldest son also tells you, mother don’t weep, your younger son has put down his arms, no need for conflict and disputes now, but mother still weeps…” ‘Indra’s song’ (As performed in training session, Gorkha District, 20th April 2007)

Indra’s original composition, which she performed during a break in a human rights

session, highlights one of the key aspects of what peace means for Nepalese women.

That is, peace is not just about ‘putting down arms’, but rather the ability to provide or

fulfill the needs and desires of one’s family and community. Various glimpses of

women’s ongoing concerns were apparent in the daily narratives and semi-ritualised

performances of song, dance and poetry. These narratives were typically grounded in

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everyday realities, such as the societal preference for male children, problems posed by

alcoholism, the need to conserve water and to rebuild schools. The women themselves

identified these issues as constituting a peaceful society. In short, ‘peace’ means many

things and encompasses much more than ‘putting down arms.’

Women defining peace

However, for the women interviewed, the importance of removing fear and threats in

everyday life as a starting point to create an enabling environment for achieving ‘peace’

was a recurring pattern. The notion of peace as being the absence of violence or threats

closely approximates the concept of a ‘negative peace’ (Galtung 1969) 1. The need to

remove threats, fear and intimidation was described by a number of Sindhuli Peace

Volunteers as follows:

“Peace is a situation where family to government, all aspects of the society, there is no violence or blood shedding.”

Peace is “being a human being and having the opportunity to live without

threats.”

“Peace is a situation where people can stay without threat, without any kind of fear, intimidation…without such disturbances.”

Further to eradicating violence and threats, peace was also articulated as an ability to

fulfil the needs of living through everyday life in a safe environment. As one Peace

Volunteer from Kailali commented, “peace is the basic needs of the human”. Sharma

(2007) confirms that the perceived ‘peace dividend’ in rural areas of Nepal is strongly

connected to fulfilling basic human needs such as the provision of water, food, education,

health services as well as irrigation. The women’s narratives described above were

grounded in everyday realities and draw out the importance of fulfilling basic needs in

order to achieve peace at the local level.

1 While ‘negative peace’ entails the absence of violence and conflict, ‘positive peace’ involves removing underlying causes of violence to prevent the recurrence of violent conflict. The vast majority of peacebuilding literature assumes Galtung’s (1969; 1996) notion of ‘positive peace’ as the principle concept on which peacebuilding strategies should be built.

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Further to eradicating violence and meeting basic needs, in many of the human rights

trainings and informal discussions with individual women, it became apparent that peace

is also when “all the rights of human beings, all kinds of necessities of human beings are

fulfilled without any disturbances” (Samita, Sindhuli focus group). The notion that

realising rights is part of achieving peace corresponds more closely to Galtung’s (1996)

notion of ‘positive peace’ that involves removing underlying causes of violence to

prevent the recurrence of conflict. Indeed, Sharma asserts that in Nepal, ‘for grassroots

women, ‘peace’ is not just an absence of war and demilitarisation, it is a

process…addressing their priorities and needs grounded on human rights principles’

(2007: 2). As revealed in Chapter One, the notion of realising rights is fundamentally

related to the reshaping of a New Nepal.

From a feminist perspective, the articulation of ‘peace’ as encompassing aspects of both

needs and rights may also be perceived as a situation in which both practical gender

needs and strategic gender interests are addressed (Moser 1993; Vainio-Mattila 1999)2.

This was also reflected in the discourses of the contributors to peace activities. For

instance, Kudra described her vision of peace as being "to have gender equality first,

human rights and…in Cabinet same women as well". In a subsequent personal interview,

Kudra emphasised her desire to have the same freedoms as her own brother and to be

able to make and control her own decisions, independent of her father. This notion of

control over one’s life and challenging gender roles corresponds to the achievement of

strategic gender interests. Interestingly, describing peace in a way that related to

freedoms and choices was also similar to how many women defined empowerment. For

instance, Balika described empowerment as being:

“free from all kinds of violence, and able to be independent, when a woman can move on her own, that sort of thing. Freedom to speak, to walk, talk and freedom to preach what they had learnt.”

2 Practical Gender Needs are identified by women within their socially defined roles as a response to an immediate perceived necessity (e.g. water provision or health care). In contrast, Strategic Gender Interests are identified as a result of women’s subordinate social status and tend to challenge traditionally defined norms and gender roles and gender divisions of labour, such as legal rights, domestic violence or the control over women’s bodies (Vainio-Mattila 1999).

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Indeed, from a feminist perspective, empowerment often assumes a situation where

women are enabled to take control over decisions that affect their lives by setting their

own agendas, are able to increase self-confidence and develop self-reliance (IDRC 1998;

ILO 2000). Further, Enloe argues that feminists are more likely to define peace as

women's achievement of control over their lives (1993: 65). In this way, it was also clear

that Nepalese women closely associated the achievement of peace with their own

empowerment.

Further, the notion of peace being defined in terms of freedoms was also a recurring

theme amongst women. For instance, one Kailali Peace Volunteer expressed her vision

of peace as a situation where she had an “open environment, no obstruction, freedom”.

Lila also described peace as being when:

“every person thinks freely, is mentally free, everybody is free for their intentions…different kinds of things develop, like every child continues reading at school".

Lila’s conceptualisation of peace is also one that identifies the enabling conditions for

development to proceed - in this case, the ability for children to return to school. The

notion of freedom is a central element of Amartya Sen’s (1999) concept of human

development. This is considered a process of expanding the real freedoms (enhancing

capabilities) that people enjoy and overcoming the ‘unfreedoms’ that leave people with

little choices (Sen 1999). Indeed, armed conflict often restricts these ‘freedoms’ and is

thus considered ‘development in reverse’ (Hoeffler and Reynal-Querol 2003: 22). In

Nepal, the armed conflict increased insecurity that limited choices of ordinary Nepalese

(Bennett and Bannon 2004), which deprived their capabilities and has limited their

capacity to be agents of change (Pant 2001)3. According to Sen (1999), the development

objective should therefore be the enhancement of people’s capabilities to enable them to

become agents of change to achieve the life they would like to lead. With respect to 3 The provision of freedoms in conflict situations by institutions is heavily restricted and individual capabilities therefore rely heavily on their endowments (Pant 2001). While endowments refer to an ownership bundle, entitlements represent those things that a person is in control of, or has command over, in life (Sen 1981). Entitlements are acquired by virtue of the attainment of rights which may allow an individual to have ‘the capacity to lead the kind of life he or she has reason to value’ (Sen 1999: 87).

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women peacebuilders, Mazurana and McKay (1999) suggest that gaining an

understanding, and building upon, women’s innovative skills and strengths allows them

to be agents in the process of building peace that allows communities to lead the life they

would otherwise chose.

Interestingly, many women described joining the program not in terms of a desire to

‘build peace’, but rather to address concerns over human rights and gender inequalities.

For instance, two women from Kailali said they joined:

“for leadership in human rights.”

"because I hope all women save human rights and I will try to improve the women and men situation…always girls to government school, boys to boarding school."

In terms of the activities that constitute peacebuilding itself, women’s understandings

were most often grounded in addressing what were described as ‘traditional’ or ‘social’

conflicts at the community level through informal activities. These ‘traditional conflicts’

were summarised by a coordinator of the Peace Volunteer initiative as being:

"husband and wife, landlord and landless, haves and have not, two types of education boarding and normal - many rich people with tie pants and Tiffin box4, in public school no Tiffin box, so this is the problem...village and urban." (In English)

Notably, the so-called traditional conflicts characterised as ‘husband and wife’ were

discussed by the women through identifying domestic violence as an issue at the local

level. According to one Sindhuli Peace Volunteer, if she was aware of a situation of

domestic violence, “we will go to that place and mediate the issues, if not the women will

come searching for us, it can be both”. Many positive outcomes of Peace Group

mediations in issues of domestic violence were reported5. The inclusion of these

activities as part of peacebuilding initiatives was an interesting and unexpected finding

4 A Tiffin (snack) box is generally translated as ‘lunch box’ which originates from South India and is a term commonly used in Nepal. 5 Domestic violence is a widespread but largely unreported problem in Nepal (UNDP, 2004. Nepal Human Development Report 2004. Kathmandu: UNDP). Whether these are priorities for women in other contexts, or if Peace Groups are an effective means for addressing them, are topics for future research.

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and perhaps also an indication of the desire for women to address strategic gender

interests through such programs. On the whole, these various conceptualisations of what

peacebuilding entails reveal an ongoing process of women constructing the meaning of

peace in ways that relate to their own immediate environments.

Intermediaries in peacebuilding: Local NGOs defining peace

From an analogous perspective, local NGOs as organisations are also engaged in this

process of construction and deconstruction of meanings. However in the case of NGOs,

the strategic relationships formed with foreign actors and the adoption of foreign

concepts is slightly different than for women themselves. Indeed, the constructions of

meanings by local NGOs and their staff often reflect the particular space they occupy in

between local women and international actors. In some ways, they act as ‘brokers’ or

‘intermediaries’ of knowledge and information. This unique role was highlighted in a

‘visioning exercise’ at an IHRICON strategic planning meeting6. In this meeting, a

‘peaceful New Nepal’ was envisaged as an environment that enabled issues of rights to

be communicated to the broader population and social inequalities addressed. As one

NGO staff member said in his presentation, their future vision was for “people to become

aware of their rights”.

6 IHRICON’s strategic planning meeting was held in May 2007. It was attended by 7 NGO staff, 10 volunteer representatives from the Four Districts, and 5 Board Members (professional journalists).

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Figure 5: Visioning exercise for a New Nepal

Indeed, NGO staff often described peacebuilding as an approach that addresses issues of

participation and rights. For instance, one staff member defined peacebuilding as a

situation in which “all groups have political participation and space”. The features of a

‘peaceful society’ in the group presentations included boys and girls going to school in

equal numbers, the elimination of income and class inequalities, ‘green spaces’ in which

children could play, free public hospital services and community buildings running

training sessions on rights, Resolution 1325, good governance and politics (Figure 5). A

number of these examples related to broader development challenges (such as

infrastructure), which may have been due to their roles in the development sector that

expose them to these challenges. Yet at the same time, many of their examples and

discussions were grounded in the same needs, rights and opportunities for women in

everyday life that were expressed by the women. These observations highlight the role of

the NGO as an intermediary in constructing meanings of peace, whose staff often create

new understandings through their exposure to broader development concepts and

terminology while at the same time remaining grounded in the local community issues

and context.

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External Visions of a peaceful New Nepal

‘Arms management, ‘security sector reform’, ‘transitional justice’ - the Fall 2006 collection arrived in Kathmandu straight from the peacebuilding catwalks in Europe without looking outside the ‘bubble’, or searching for stories in the remote villages of Nepal, asking local people about the future direction of their country’ (Denskus 2007: 659).

In contrast to the constructions of peace and peacebuilding by women and NGO staff, the

notions of peace constructed by UNMIN, donors and other international actors often

focus on formal approaches at a national level such as ‘arms management’ and ‘security

sector reform’. At the national level, assert Sharma and Neupane (2007), peacebuilding

encompasses formal processes that address broad political, security as well as

humanitarian agendas, including the election of a Constituent Assembly and managing

cantonments. Indeed, the notion of ‘post-conflict peacebuilding’ that focuses on formal

processes is perpetuated by the discourse of UN intervention and donor ‘reconstruction

funding’. Such funding currently prioritises activities that support ‘good governance’ and

building an ‘inclusive democracy’.

In Nepal, loktantra (democracy) is a concept which has a fluid meaning and has actually

taken on new meanings as a result of the conflict. In fact, after the April 2006 People’s

Movement the actual Nepali word for democracy changed7. This new notion of

loktantra, as the ‘people’s rule’, places the role of citizens in the centre of society. The

current and increasing protests and demands for citizens to be granted rights by the State

is one demonstration of this ‘people’s rule’ being expressed. This idea is articulated by

Shrestha, who asserts that in Nepal ‘peace, human rights and democracy belong

exclusively to the domains of the people’ (2005: 149). In a critical examination of the

way international actors are engaging with the local context of democracy, Denskus

argues that ‘Nepal is doomed to be a success-story of how a violent conflict can be

transformed through peaceful, democratic means and adoption of the latest fashion in

‘peacebuilding’ (2007: 600). This identifies the urgent need to better understand what

7 Prior to the 2006 People’s Movement, the concept of democracy was envisaged as ‘prajatantra’. In Nepali, lok is people, tantra is law, commonly translated as the ‘people’s rule’.

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democracy means, how local people see it being achieved, and how connections can be

drawn between Western notions of democracy and loktantra in Nepal’s peacebuilding

process.

Indeed, the aspirations for how to achieve a New Nepal also differ at the national to the

community level. Further to national aspirations for reforming governance structures and

undertaking reconstruction tasks through international assistance, many women identified

their own individual actions as central in shaping a New Nepal and building peace in

their own communities. For instance, Sujata believed that “peace will be brought by only

ourselves to transform society and create a New Nepal.” Further, the need for civil

society and the government to work together by sharing responsibilities was often noted.

For instance:

“the government…they have the responsibility to bring peace, but we the civil society cannot give up our responsibility, we have to support them” (Male Peace Volunteer, Sindhuli Focus Group)8

The notions of both individual responsibility and collective action in building peace

correspond most notably with the emerging discourse of ‘peacebuilding from below’,

which is a process initiated and sustained by local actors (Harcourt 2005; Pearce 2005).

It is also consistent with ideas expressed in John Paul Lederach’s (1997) human agency

perspective of peacebuilding as a process that begins with individuals to initiate and

develop solutions themselves9. Indeed, a growing consensus within peace studies and

conflict resolution concur that ‘multi-track’ diplomacy that involves ‘strategies to “build

bridges” to address both the grassroots and elite levels' (Ryan 1995: 224) is more likely to

be sustainable (Kelman 2002; Miall et al 2005). An understanding of how individuals

and local communities perceive who should undertake these tasks is thus of critical

importance. In this case, local perceptions of responsibility were contrast with those

expressed by both national and international actors. On this issue, Porter (2007) asserts

8 The data collected from three male volunteers is insufficient to allow a comparison between the men and the women present. Whether their perceptions of peacebuilding are ‘gendered’ is a useful topic for further research. 9 Lederach’s (1997) leadership pyramid for conflict resolution argues for a ‘middle-out’ approach whereby outsiders work with mid-level leaders to facilitate constructive involvement with those at the grassroots (‘Track III’) while reaching out to others at the top (‘Track I’) - termed ‘Track II diplomacy’.

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that peacebuilding can, and needs to be, understood at all levels in more broader terms

than current UN and orthodox usages as this would allow for women’s informal activities

to be valued in the peacebuilding process.

In summary, women’s understandings and meanings of peace are grounded in addressing

everyday social conflict issues at the community level and are described with reference to

their immediate necessity to eradicate violence and fulfill basic needs. Peace was thus

envisaged for women as a situation in which strategic gender interests (Vaino-Mattila

1999) are able to be addressed alongside the more pressing immediate issues of resolving

ongoing violence and conflict. In terms of rights, women’s motivations for building

peace were described in terms of realising their rights. These understandings of peace

and peacebuilding lay in stark contrast to those of international actors. What the case of

Nepalese women’s engagement with peacebuilding and gender activism suggests,

therefore, is that closer scrutiny of the international prescriptions and conceptualisations

used in peacebuilding practice are critical.

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Chapter Four: Nepalese women: agents of their own empowerment

Chapter Four Nepalese women: agents of their own empowerment

‘Feminists have long argued that empowerment is not something that can be done to or for women. Feminists have long recognised that it is when women recognise their ‘power within’ and act together with other women to exercise ‘power with’, that they gain ‘power to’ act as agents’ (Cornwall 2007b: 3).

In a similar way to the various constructions of peace, the way women define

empowerment is often in discord with the notion of empowerment promoted by donors

and other international actors. This issue was brought into sharp focus whilst in

Kathmandu when I came across a donor template for evaluating ‘empowerment’. This

reporting template was provided to measure pre and post-training awareness levels on

human rights which asked, “did your understanding of human rights improve?”. At the

time, it seemed obvious that something was missing from this template which measured

empowerment as a project objective and seemingly, a means to an end. An IHRICON

staff member helped to explore the issue, by asserting that donors simply “want easy

projects, easy targets and easy results”. As time passed, the issues surrounding donor

priorities were revealed as a recurring pattern within development practice throughout the

fieldwork. Most often, women’s empowerment was presented as a ‘taken for granted’

concept in project design and implementation. What became apparent as missing from

the donor template was in fact an understanding of what constituted empowerment, the

process by which it may take place, and women’s own role in that process.

In unpacking the notion of empowerment, this Chapter explores how women themselves

define empowerment (shashaktikaran). This discussion reveals a discord between

women’s perceptions and understandings of empowerment as an internal process, in

contrast to the construction of empowerment as a project outcome by various

development actors. Lastly, whilst paying particular attention to the processes of Nepali

women’s engagement in peace activities with Peace Groups and local NGOs, this

Chapter will draw out the extent to which these engagements serve as a means of

women’s collective empowerment.

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Narratives of empowerment: Recognising power ‘within’

‘A gender sensitive approach to the empowerment of women requires more than a simple checklist of actions to be taken within any particular programme. It requires the questioning of the basic axioms underlying the planning process itself’ (Rana-Deuba 1996: 11).

In development practice in Nepal, the concepts of ‘participation’ and ‘empowerment’ are

widely used in relation to women. As Tamang identifies, ‘the project ‘to empower’ the

traditionally patriarchally based, agenda-less, Hindu Nepali woman’ (2002: 164) has been

a central component of bikas. Indeed, shashaktikaran (empowerment) is promoted as an

objective or overall aim of many development projects and is the topic of most Nepalese

academic research on women and gender1. In this case, the Peace Volunteers were part

of the funded program on ‘Women's Empowerment for Sustainable Peace and Human

Rights’. As Devaki noted, on the wall where her village Peace Group meets, the slogan

reads ‘IHRICON for women’s empowerment’.

In feminist scholarship, women’s empowerment generally refers to an expansion of

women's ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was

previously denied to them (Kabeer 2001). In Nepal, Rana-Deuba describes

empowerment as ‘women’s freedom of choice and power to control their own lives’

(1996: 8). In a similar way, the women often described their own empowerment in terms

of their ability to make life choices and gain control when this was not previously

possible. Indeed, Nisha revealed that the empowerment of women is in fact:

“increasing in our society, with women wanting to be involved in work, wanting

ability to do different kinds of things, for opportunities in every sector, education,

politically, in every sector”.

1 For instance, the subjects and research undertaken within ‘women’s and gender studies’ programs within higher education institutions in Nepal most often focus on empowerment (particularly economic and social aspects), while there is minimal attention on women’s political participation, their role in the peace process or in the Maoist movement. Studies on these latter topics have largely been taken up by foreign scholars, often anthropologists, and a number of female Nepali scholars studying in foreign Universities (Interviews with Tribhuvan University, Pokhara University, National College of Development Studies, informants).

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In a similar way to expanding choices and gaining control, empowerment was also

described as a process of women ‘moving forward’. For instance, a number of women

from Kailali described empowerment as being a situation in which:

“we move women forward and strengthen them.”

“women are being brought forward in every sector.”

“we are able to do the same work as men.”

The notion of women moving forward and taking on the same work as men in various

sectors may perhaps be considered part of the current reshaping of gender roles in the

post-conflict society. Further, the common reference to “we” when explaining

empowerment, revealed an underlying perception that women were part of a collective

process of empowering other women.

Empowerment as a process

Empowerment is also conceived of as both a process and an outcome (IDRC 1998; ILO

2000). As revealed in the donor template for measuring empowerment, development

practice and discourses often construct and perpetuate the notion of empowerment as an

outcome, or a means to and end which satisfies a project objective. In contrast, women

most often expressed empowerment as being a process that allowed them to take on new

roles and exercise their rights. For instance, women identified empowerment as being

when “women are helped to raise their own voices for their own rights”, and a situation

in which “you have your own rights.”

Elija also described empowerment as an internally driven process when commenting that:

“before the training … (I) had the concept of human rights, but actually after the training it was like an eye-opener, and now I somehow feel I have the capacity to educate and give advice to other people, somehow I feel empowered internally.”

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The commonly expressed notion of empowerment as an internal process revealed the role

of women themselves in driving this process through their individual actions. For

instance, empowerment was described as being “when we are active” and when we are

“making women strong economically, politically and socially”. That is, women’s

empowerment was defined in relation to their own decisions and raising their own voices

as part of an internally driven process. This was linked to empowering women through

collection action - as one woman from Dang said, empowerment is “to be able to raise

your voice together with other women”.

Women’s Peace Groups: Exercising ‘power with’

In Nepal, Women’s Groups are often mobilised as the means through which to carry out

community peacebuilding initiatives (Brand-Jacobsen 2002; CCO 2006). As Rana-

Deuba asserts, ‘the formation of women into groups is basic to the empowerment and

special mobilisation process’ (1996: 12). Indeed, a recent study in Nepal found that

women were ‘most empowered’ when amongst their peers in women-focussed groups

(Biggs et al 2004: 10). From one perspective, the creation of women’s Peace Groups by

international organisations is often considered an ‘essentialist’ approach (Cockburn 1998;

ICG 2006). As Appleford asserts, often ‘these “spaces for women” have been used, in a

sense, as spaces to confine’ (2000: 87). Yet from another perspective, the formation of

women into women-only groups in Nepal is not a mere construction of development

practice as women regularly come together forming Aama Samuha (Mothers Groups)

(Biggs et al 2004). These Mothers Groups also serve as a unit for delivering numerous

programs and services2.

Many women were comfortable discussing ‘women’s issues’ and issues of rights in

women-only groups as it enabled them to collectively ‘raise their voices’. The sentiment

that women alone can speak on women’s issues was reinforced by one male NGO staff

member who said:

2 Aama Samuha (Mothers Groups) are prevalent nationwide in Nepal, often involved in micro-credit, savings and other health and education related activities (Biggs et al 2004).

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“when we talk about women’s rights, male can raise this issue, but it is only speech just theoretical things. By heart, women are able to disclose these things, to convince one lady to another… one lady’s problem can be transported one to another” (In English)

During the conflict, the formation of Women’s Peace Groups (Mahila Shanti Samuha)

was observed in the practice of many local and international organisations (Sharma

2007). In IHRICON’s program, the Peace Volunteers coordinate meetings of the Peace

Groups, organise interaction programs to raise awareness on human rights, peace,

domestic violence, Resolution 1325 and the elections. They also produce community

wall newspapers displayed in public places to raise awareness on various issues, organise

folk song competitions and perform street dramas.

Despite the end of official funding, many women noted that their Groups continue to

address various ‘social conflicts’ and in fact are continuing to make the situation more

peaceful at the grassroots level3. Two women from different Districts concurred that

“getting the women together is easy”. However, one of these women noted that “women

are happy to become involved but household work is not finished in time”. Indeed,

familial and household commitments were key constraints that limited the women’s

ability to participate4.

From grassroots to the public sphere: Gaining ‘power to’ act as agents

The critical role of grassroots NGOs in facilitating women’s empowerment has long been

recognised by feminist theorists (Kabeer 1994). As the Director of IHRICON

emphasised early on during fieldwork, her vision was to “raise women up from the

grassroots to District and national levels”. Their aim is to empower women in a

collective way by enabling a high degree of ownership of Peace Group activities at the

local level. Indeed, when returning from a field trip to meet with the Peace Groups, one

3 During the conflict the Peace Groups were involved in negotiation and mediation with the conflicting parties on rights violations and monitoring various events, which ceased after the signing of the CPA. 4 A number of women identified that they also faced challenges as a result of the negative perceptions of men in their work, whilst others emphasised support from their husbands or fathers was positive. The influence of men, and gender roles, in supporting or hindering women’s activism at the community level is a salient issue for further research to explore.

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staff member made the comment that “these women are empowered” as evidenced by the

ownership they displayed in organising activities. For instance, the continued savings

and income generating activities of the Peace Group, even after donor funding has ended,

is a reflection of this ownership5. The importance attached to ownership of activities at

the local level is supported by a recent study which found that the women’s peace

movement in Uganda was the most advanced, articulate and organised of the three

countries studied largely as a result of the autonomy at the local level (ICG 2006).

In following the NGO’s vision to rise up from the grassroots to the national level, a

number of women identified how they aimed to use their skills gained from human rights

trainings to make their ‘voices’ heard in the public sphere, often through greater political

activism. For instance, a number of the Peace Volunteers in Gorkha were involved in

IHRICON’s training program at the same time as organising the mass rally that we all

joined on the street in Gorkha District6. The notion of joining collectively with other

women, and the act of doing so, was most often perceived and described as empowering.

The simultaneous involvement of the women in Gorkha in the training program and in

political activism, and indeed the women’s mass rally itself, are indicative of a growing

trend amongst the women’s movement of raising women’s voices on a collective

platform to address and demand their rights. As Manchanda (2005) asserts, women’s

peace activism at the community level tends to be obscured as the language and strategies

they use often flows from their cultural experience of being disempowered. However,

‘by taking them into the public arena, women politicise and transform them’ (Manchanda

2005: 4740). Whether the Peace Groups enable women to be empowered through a

collective process to raise their voices, is difficult to assert at this early stage. Indeed, as

one NGO staff members commented, “IHRICON activities are inside, politics is outside”.

However, there does appear to be movement of a number of women between these

spaces. 5 Seed grants were originally provided by the donor, which was built on by women contributing savings of 5 to 20 rupees each month (one Australian dollar is approximately 59 rupees in November 2007). Small repayable loans are then lent out for starting businesses or dealing with health emergencies, for instance. Many success stories were reported, such as loans providing greater economic freedom to ‘conflict widows’. 6 The rally was organised by the women’s arm of the Communist Party of Nepal - United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), not to be confused with the Maoists (CPN-Maoist).

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In short, there are processes taking place that are enabling women to negotiate at both

formal and informal levels, a space for themselves. The spaces women create for

themselves are not static and do not necessarily point to a fundamental shift in the social

positioning of women in Nepal. Yet, through women’s engagement in Peace Groups

there is an empowerment of sorts for a number of women. That is, to return to the key

research question of whether women’s participation in peacebuilding leads to their

empowerment, it is too early in the process of engagement to draw meaningful

conclusions. However, there is indication that some women are using their experience in

Peace Groups to exercise ‘power with’ other women, in order to gain ‘power to’ act as

agents in the process of their own empowerment. Of course, the very fact that women

themselves feel empowered by the process of engagement, is worthy of note.

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Chapter Five: Negotiating mahnib adhikar and universal human rights

Chapter Five Negotiating mahnib adhikar and universal human rights

Whilst the language of human rights is not ‘new’ in Nepal, there appears to be a more

recent association and connection of human rights (mahnib adhikar) language and

practice with universal notions of rights. Indeed, when mahnib adhikar was mentioned

during fieldwork, the term was synonymous with ‘UNMIN’ and I often heard comments

such as “yes, this human rights is a good thing, the UN stands for human rights!” At the

same time, an ongoing process of constructing and deconstructing meanings of human

rights language and norms was observed by women and local NGOs in human rights

trainings and other activities.

This Chapter explores the process of disseminating human rights information in

peacebuilding programs and how greater awareness of rights impacted upon women’s

empowerment. Firstly, the use of Resolution 1325 in human rights trainings is explored

that reveals a number of qualitative complexities between international discourses on

rights and the reality of Nepal. Secondly, the assumption that women are ‘empowered’

by virtue of being made aware of their rights is found to be complex and also limited in

explaining women’s empowerment. Women identify that gaining greater awareness on

rights through the trainings allows them to gain skills and confidence to share this

knowledge in their communities. These actions themselves are identified as enabling

their own empowerment. Yet at the same time, the ability to realise rights is a major

factor limiting women’s empowerment. The process of appropriating, reinterpreting and

renegotiating human rights language and norms by local actors is revealed as a means of

allowing universal norms to ‘speak’ to local realities and enable women to use these

concepts and processes for their own empowerment. What the case of women and

women’s organisations engagement in human rights trainings suggests therefore, is that

closer scrutiny of how the meanings of human rights norms are negotiated, internalised

and appropriated is critical.

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Security Council Resolution 1325

The Human Rights Training

The use of Resolution 1325 shaped both the content as well as the implementation of

both the trainings conducted in Gorkha and Sindhuli. In the first training in Gorkha, the

Resolution was used as a training tool alongside other international as well as national

human rights conventions and instruments (Appendix 5)1. In the second training, the

Resolution was also used alongside national and international rights documents which

together comprised the majority of the training schedule (Appendix 6)2. The national

agreements were most often studied from booklets produced in Nepali by the

government, and the international instruments were most often referred to through

manuals produced by the NGO.

Figure 6: The Human Rights ‘Training Room’ (Gorkha District)

1 The three major national documents in the peace process were referred to in both trainings – the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA), the Interim Constitution (IC) and the Agreement on Monitoring of the Management of Arms and Armies (AMA). 2 The Sindhuli training addressed rights within various international instruments - The UN Charter (Article 6); CEDAW and Resolution 1325. National instruments beyond the three major peace process documents were domestic Acts and legal provisions on women’s rights, gender-based violence, gender violations by Armed Forces and Armed groups and reproductive health rights.

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Figure 7: Training session on CEDAW (Gorkha Training)

A number of group exercises in the training sessions were aimed at studying the text of

Resolution 1325 and CEDAW to identify the various provisions relevant to women’s

rights, children’s rights or women’s informal peacebuilding (Figure 6 and 7). These

activities aimed to raise women’s awareness of the rights specific to women within these

various instruments. The task as ‘Peace Volunteers’ was then to take this new

information to share in their Peace Groups and within their local communities. Many

women spoke of the eagerness displayed by local women at the village and ward level to

learn new information about women’s rights. For instance, Sumita noted that “the

women very much like to hear the information on 1325 and the Constituent Assembly.”

Further, Anita asserted that the local women “are much interested in these things these

days, and they also want to empower other women with the information”.

As commented by the Director of IHRICON, “the real work, or the real effect of it, is to

validate what the women are already doing”. Indeed, a number of women noted that they

had greater confidence after knowing that the community peacebuilding work they were

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doing was recognised in international documents. Further, when asked “do you think the

Resolution makes a difference in your community?” one woman responded that “yes, it

makes a difference, a little change.”

However, the overall use of Resolution 1325 remains limited at the local level. The

women and NGO staff reported that this was often a result of the Resolution “not being

well understood”. This finding is supported by studies which suggest that even when

peace organisations or activists are aware of the Resolution, their understanding of it

remains limited (Lynnes and Torry 2005: 99). Indeed, complex language within

international resolutions often limits the ability of UN Resolutions and documents to be

understood and thus have an impact at the local level (Bradshaw 2006). Further, the text

of the Resolution is not widely available3. As Lynnes and Torry suggest, the Resolution

needs to be translated ‘literally into local languages, and metaphorically in making the

Resolution speak to the conditions of existence at the local level’ (2005: 99).

In this regard, the Peace Volunteers play an important role in making the Resolution

‘speak’ to the realities of women’s lives at the local level by shaping how the meaning of

‘rights’ is communicated. This takes place in a number of ways, for instance through

community wall newspapers displayed in public areas that address issues of women’s

rights and through the performance of street dramas. One example of the ‘street drama’

was described by Devaki, whose Peace Group had recently performed role play scenarios

on issues of domestic violence, the suffering of ‘conflict widows’ and issues on women’s

property rights. This street drama had attracted hundreds of people in Devaki’s VDC

headquarters and led to some ongoing community discussions, between men and women,

on these issues. Communicating issues of community peacebuilding and women’s rights

in this way allowed the issues to be understood in locally relevant ways. In short, while

the Resolution serves to validate the work of the women and raise awareness of their

rights, it is limited by a number of factors at the local level. At the same time, the women

3 Translations of the Resolution are available in Nepali electronically from UNFPA’s website and in hard copy from UNFPA and various INGOs. However the use of Nepali itself is often limited beyond the Kathmandu valley, particularly in written form given low levels of literacy among women.

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find creative and expressive ways, such as street dramas, to convey the meanings and

concepts of various rights to reflect the local context.

Resolution 1325 as a funding tool

In addition to the use of the Resolution within training sessions, it was also utilised as a

funding tool. IHRICON recognised a discord between the ‘gender requirements’ for UN

missions set out in Resolution 1325 and the national AMA agreement which did not

provide for gender trained monitors at cantonment sites when UNMIN entered Nepal4.

In this way, the Resolution enabled the creation of a program that reflected a locally

identified need. Indeed, IHRICON stressed that there was an urgent need to monitor the

situation for women and children around the cantonments. The result was creation of a

project to train women as civilian human rights monitors around two cantonment sites in

Sindhuli and Kailali. As Lynnes and Torry argue, the Resolution can only address

women’s needs if local actors ‘know how to make it work for them…in calling upon

national and international bodies to attend to the obligations laid out' (2005: 99). In this

instance, IHRICON demonstrated how they were able to negotiate between national and

international instruments and commitments and thereby make the Resolution ‘work for

them’ by creating a project that served the needs of the local community.

Rights Awareness: Turning on a light bulb!

Resolution 1325 “helps women to enlarge their mind concepts - what is our work and what the society should do to deal with the issues - so it is very important. If the general people and general women read this document, then it’s like the light bulb turns on” (Sweesa, Kailali District).

After examining the donor template for measuring empowerment in Kathmandu, I

realised a number of further questions needed to be asked in order to explore the notion

that rights awareness would lead to empowerment. Firstly, what is the impact of the

trainings in terms of raising awareness? Secondly, how do the women translate this

4 The project proposal stated that Resolution 1325 ‘strongly recommended full involvement of women and gender trained people from the UN who come to monitor the arms in cantonments, whilst the UN has also not sent people in such a way to Nepal’ (IHRICON 2007a).

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awareness into action in the field? And lastly, are women even able to realise these

rights? These questions are now addressed in turn to explore the relationship between

rights awareness and empowerment.

Raising Voices

According to donor documents, the Community Peace Volunteer (CPV) program ‘has

focused on raising awareness of women on human rights, women and children’s rights,

civil rights, constituent assembly and the States commitments on human rights, and

empowerment’ (CCO 2006: 12). Women reported that learning about rights instruments,

particularly Resolution 1325 and CEDAW, positively raised an awareness of their rights.

As Sweesa suggested, it was like ‘turning on a lightbulb’ to illuminate new ideas. Yet the

impact of the trainings themselves was also articulated as being much more than greater

awareness. Rather, it helped to build women’s confidence and provided “skills to raise

our voice” on issues of rights. For instance, Jaya suggested that after the training “I have

more skills to become part of a movement of empowering women and raising up their

voices and helping to act against the inequality of women”.

The importance that women placed on this ability to ‘raise their voices’ was revealed in

the titles of two community newspapers produced during one training exercise - “Awaaz”

(Voice) and “Hammro Awaaz” (Our Voice). Further, many women identified that the

practical skills they acquired during training sessions on community journalism,

including interviewing methods, reporting and producing community wall newspapers,

provided a means to communicate various issues at the local level while also reporting

back to IHRICON. These skills also enabled those from excluded caste or ethnic groups

to be able to voice their concerns. As one Peace Volunteer from Dang noted, who was

also from a Dalit community, “I enjoyed this training. It helps in our empowerment

because it provides a platform for shy and illiterate women from remote villages who

don’t have a voice”.

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Translating awareness into action

“After the training, I will try to describe all these things in my community and will empower them. I will educate women about their role in the constituent assembly and what has to be known before voting.” (Sindhuli Peace Volunteer, Gorkha training)

Amongst the women there was a strong emphasis placed on the importance of using what

they had learnt in the trainings in their own communities. This was in line with the

NGO’s philosophy as revealed in a program document - ‘by learning about and using

Resolution 1325 and other rights-based documents, they are able to create change within

their villages’ (IHRICON 2006: 2). In this way, it was not only their learning that was

important, but also how this was used to create change. Indeed, one main aim of the

Gorkha training was to enable women to ‘advocate for women’s issues and participation

in the Constituent Assembly’ (IHRICON 2007c: 2). In this way, awareness of rights was

not seen as a means to an end of itself. As the women themselves often identified, how

they translated their awareness into action, by teaching and informing other women on

new concepts of rights, was central to their own empowerment.

To reiterate, how women use their awareness and how communities use and interpret this

information, was found to be a critical part of women’s own empowerment. These

findings identified the ‘missing’ element in the donor template for evaluating

empowerment - the role women themselves play in the process.

Realising rights

As discussed in Chapter Three, women’s motivations for building peace were often

described in terms of their aspirations for realising rights and addressing strategic gender

interests. At the same time, the potential for women’s rights and their empowerment to

remain unrealised without an enabling environment was also a recurring theme of

discourse amongst women. Indeed, UNFPA (2007) in Nepal suggest that the efficacy of

Resolution 1325 is highly dependent on an enabling environment in which women can

realise their rights. Further, Acharya (2003) also suggests that creating ‘enabling

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conditions’ to realise rights in Nepal is far more important than just asserting that equal

rights for citizens are necessary for democracy and development. The absence of an

‘enabling environment’ was often found to be the case for many women. In particular, as

one IHRICON staff member emphasised, “the Resolution will only be fruitful if the

century long discrimination of men over women is ended….if women are allowed to

participate in the peace process like men”.

On this issue, Cornwall and Molyneux (2006) assert that the intersection of formal rights

(in international human rights conventions, constitutional rights or national legislation)

with ‘everyday realities’ of women in settings characterised by entrenched gender

inequalities or diverse cultural norms, constitute formidable obstacles to realising rights.

Indeed, there is a large gap between national laws that recognise women’s rights in Nepal

and their enforcement or implementation. That is, despite the central tenet of a rights-

based approach as enabling ‘rights-holders’ to exercise their rights (Gready and Ensor,

2005), applying such approaches in contexts of entrenched gender inequalities or diverse

cultural norms may limit women’s ability to act on these rights.

Negotiating a Nepali language of human rights

‘the application, interpretation and realization of rights and justice are negotiable within the context of specific political, historical and cultural conditions’ (Gready and Ensor 2005b: 11).

A central element of human rights education and dissemination was found to depend on

the role played by local ‘intermediaries’ delivering the training - who determine how

human rights discourses are used and employed, and how these are interpreted and

communicated. During one training session, one staff member commented on the trainer

during a session on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “he is a good presenter,

he knows how to make language understood by the grassroots activists”. Indeed, the

need for making language understood was evident in the numerous manuals, documents

and training tools produced by IHRICON which translate both national and international

rights conventions, resolutions and principles into useful working documents and tools

for Peace Groups and local communities. These publications are also used by a number

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of other local and international organisations. This process of appropriating language in

different settings is also similar to the various ways that ‘gender’ terminology was used

throughout fieldwork by local NGOs, mostly used to correspond with donors (as a

‘password’ for funding) and then communicated in a different way at the local level given

that ‘gender’ was not a term or concept well understood.

The notion that human rights norms are ‘appropriated’ by local actors is addressed by

Mertus (2004) in the post-conflict context of Kosovo, which she suggests is part of a

process of constructing a ‘human rights culture’. According to Mertus:

‘the adoption of a human rights culture is not one of simply embracing purely universal interpretations of human rights, but rather consists of the reconceptualisation of culture itself through a struggle to interpret human rights norms in a cultural context’ (2004: 334).

The notion that the interpretation of human rights norms leads to a reconceptualisation of

culture is indeed a complex issue and one that is unable to be addressed in this thesis.

However, the notion that local actors do not simply embrace and adopt universal

interpretations of rights is salient in the case of Nepal as revealed by the various

interpretations of rights by women and local NGOs. On the notion of a ‘human rights

culture’, Rosaldo describes this as existing when human rights are one of ‘the forms

through which people make sense of their lives’ (1993, 26). Indeed, the current social

inclusion agenda and nature of the demands of disenfranchised groups asserting their

rights is evidence of how rights discourses are influencing the way Nepalese are making

sense of their own lives and roles in a New Nepal.

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Concluding Remarks: Agency to build peace


With particular reference to women, Jolly (2002) provides a hopeful view that discourses

of human rights may be incorporated into societies in participatory ways that allow them

to merge with culturally relevant values. Further, she asserts that women are able to find

the tools needed to change their own realities, from within themselves, and from within

their own cultural context. In this process, Jolly (2002) argues that women may chose to

use and internalise the concepts of ‘universal rights’ from external sources in a way that

holds meaning for them in their own context. From this perspective, women are not

‘passive victims’ in the process of being ‘educated about their rights’ and thus their

agency is recognised in appropriating human rights concepts in meaningful ways. That

is, taking this perspective considers women as active agents who are able to use the rights

embedded within human rights instruments as ‘tools’ to serve their own empowerment.

Throughout this thesis, women’s substantive engagement and participation in the

peacebuilding process in Nepal - through human rights trainings, activities in Peace

Groups and growing involvement in political activism, was clearly evident. Nepalese

women are clearly active agents who are not only capable of contributing to building

peace in a New Nepal, but are also active in constructing and deconstructing meanings

and approaches by strategically borrowing or discounting ideas and approaches being

introduced by international actors. The ‘empowering spaces’ (c/f Manchanda 2005) may

well have opened up as a result of the conflict but they may only serve to empower if

women are able to become engaged in the peace process in meaningful ways.

Throughout this thesis, the engagement of Nepalese women in various forms of activism

demonstrates how this is enabling women to recognise their ‘power within’, that helps in

exercising ‘power with’ other women, and through this process gain ‘power to’ act as

agents to navigate these spaces (c/f Cornwall 2007b).

A key theme identified in this thesis is the fluid and ongoing construction of the

meanings of ‘peace’ and ‘peacebuilding’ by women themselves which is often in contrast

to various development actors. In Chapter Three, exploring the case of everyday

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practices of Nepalese women helped to gain an understanding of their perceptions of

peace. This revealed that these perceptions were grounded in everyday realities and drew

out the importance of fulfilling women’s needs and interests at the local level in order to

achieve peace. This is indicative of an ongoing process of construction of meaning

relating to empowerment, rights and peace. Whilst local NGOs as organisations are also

engaged in this process of construction and deconstruction of meanings, it is the women

themselves who have provided the greatest impetus for shaping the directions of how

‘foreign’ concepts and instruments are to be used at the so-called ‘grass-roots’ level. In

short, there is an ongoing exchange between foreign and indigenous notions and

meanings of peace, and neither is exclusively foreign nor exclusively indigenous.

However, through the process of blending, convergence, rejection and even elevation of

certain ideas to a higher priority, it is indeed the local (women) actors that have made the

greatest inroads to challenging taken for granted or hegemonic international ‘rights-

based’ ideologies and approaches.

It is for this reason also that this thesis highlighted the problematic nature of donor

templates for measuring empowerment as being constituted solely in terms of raising

women’s awareness of their rights. As demonstrated clearly in Chapter Four, there could

be no achievement of peace for Nepalese women without themselves feeling more

empowered. This is an important point which as yet has not been considered in the

numerous initiatives of international organisations which engage women as

peacebuilders. Further to a donor template that asserts empowerment as an outcome of

greater rights awareness, a more useful approach may be to ask the women themselves

what empowerment means for them.

As demonstrated in Chapter Five, there is a need to create a symbiotic relationship

between universal rights - as constructed and utilised in international instruments - and

the Nepalese discourse of mahnib adhikar. This balancing act between universal norms

and cultural particularities in the promotion of human rights was demonstrated through

the use of Resolution 1325 in the cultural context of Nepal. The key strategy employed

by international actors for empowering women by focusing on ‘raising women’s

59


awareness of rights’, is both insufficient and naive. Importantly, this strategy is itself not

a neutral act and carries with it both responsibilities and duties directly born of creating

false hope - that is, that knowing your rights is equivalent to exercising your rights and

thus equivalent to empowerment. Indeed, as Gready and Ensor (2005b) assert, expanding

the range of actors considered as rights-holders and duty-bearers, in relationships in

which the latter are accountable, is not a neutral act. When rights are unable to be

realised, which was often found to be the case for Nepalese women, the implications of

this were often not felt by the international actors who could evaluate their performance

solely against the outcome of providing this awareness. The need for ongoing scrutiny of

the roles of international actors as ‘duty-bearers’, as promoters of ‘rights awareness’ and

as experts implementing a ‘Rights-Based Approach’, will become increasingly necessary.

This is particularly important given the experiences of post-conflict societies such as

Nepal.

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Appendices

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Appendix 1

Gender and Peacebuilding:

A Review of emerging literature in Development

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Table of Contents I. Introduction………………………………………………………………………..........73

Peacebuilding Scholarship…………………………………………………………...76 II. Emergent discourses of post-conflict peacebuilding in development

The (expanding) Agenda for peace ……………………………………………...….77 The politics of peacebuilding ‘from above’…………………………………………79

The Peacebuilding and Development nexus………………………………………....80 Peacebuilding and INGOs………………………………………………………...…81 Peacebuilding ‘from below’………………………………….……………………...83 Whose responsibility for peacebuilding? ...................................................................85 III. Gender, Women and Peacebuilding

Abuse of ‘Gender’……....................... .......................................................................87 Gender = women? .......................................................................................................88

Post-conflict: Empowering or disempowering for women and gender relations? ....89 Woman as Category: Victim or Agent? .....................................................................90 Women and Peace: The dangers of essentialism.........................................................91

IV. Concluding remarks: Peacebuilding and development for Women or ‘Gender’? ......................................93

V. References………………………………………………………………………………95

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I. Introduction

A recent study of peacebuilding groups in Sudan, Congo and Uganda concluded that

inappropriate ‘women’s peacebuilding projects’ supported by international donors were

‘designed less to empower women than as a sop to donors, international observers and,

all too frequently, local women themselves’ (International Crisis Group, 2006: 16).

Although the authors of this report have development practitioners in mind as their main

audience, the conclusion they reach points to a critical gap in practice that is also evident

in most scholarship from development studies and related fields. That is, critical analysis

of the role and influence of the development sector in peacebuilding as it relates to and

engages with issues of ‘gender’ and women. It is rare to find scholars, or practitioners for

that matter, willing to bridge the gap between the peacebuilding and development nexus,

and the incorporation of gender perspectives into peacebuilding. The focus of this review

is thus of two inter-related and yet often disparate bodies of literature; firstly, the

emergent discourses of peacebuilding in development studies, and secondly, the

emerging problematic discourses of ‘gender’ and women in peacebuilding. In doing so,

the aim of this review is to draw connections between these discourses in order to

highlight the need for building synergies across them and to identify gaps for further

research.

The mounting importance ascribed to peacebuilding was demonstrated in early 2006 by

establishment of the UN Inter-Governmental Peacebuilding Commission1. Whilst

peacebuilding is a relatively new orientation in development studies, it is now firmly

positioned in the mainstream of development lexicon and practice. Yet the relatively

short history of the development sector’s engagement has seen scholars only recently

taking up issues in the critical peacebuilding and development ‘nexus’ (Busumtwi-Sam,

2004; Junne and Verkoren, 2005; Paffenholz et al, 2005; Uvin, 2002). Paffenholz et al

précis the major argument posed by these scholars by asserting that ‘there remains a lack

1 The Peacebuilding Commission aims to provide ‘all that is needed to help a country move from war to peace’ by bringing together ‘all actors at the table’ - political, military, humanitarian and development (Annan, 2005). Despite a plea for modesty in its ambitions (Cutter, 2005: 784) emerging literature generally accepts the Commission’s motives without questioning that ‘all actors at the table’ in this context is likely to exclude the voices of local actors or incorporate a gender perspective.

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of systematic integrated debate about the experiences of both the peacebuilding and

development communities in order to contribute to learning about their nexus’ (2005: 2).

It is therefore timely to critically examine the engagement of the international

development community2 in peacebuilding.

Whilst the Peacebuilding Commission has situated peacebuilding as a high priority on the

often divergent agendas of all members of development community, the UN Security

Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (UN, 2000) provided formal

recognition at a global level of the importance of women and a gender perspective in all

stages of the peace process. This landmark Resolution stimulated both policy research

and academic enquiry which explores the linkages between women, gender,

development, human rights, peace and security. A vast number of influential studies

which draw on the significance of this Resolution build on the consensus that women

remain largely excluded from the politics of the public sphere and require inclusion in

formal peace processes3. Yet within the peacebuilding and development nexus only a few

scholars have taken up issues of gender (Moghadam, 2005; Pankhurst, 2004; 2005;

Pearce, 2005). In effect, gender is perhaps a key division between the peacebuilding and

development discourses. Whereas development is a field that has thoroughly explored

gender (even if not to anyone’s satisfaction), a review of peacebuilding literature reveals

that the terminology of ‘gender’ and ‘women’ is often confused or conflated. As scholars

2 The ‘international development community’ engaged in peacebuilding is taken in this review to comprise various UN agencies, Inter-Governmental Organisations (IGOs), multilateral and bilateral funding institutions, International Non-Government Organisations (INGOs), local NGOs including grassroots community organisations, and beneficiaries. A comprehensive definition of all actors engaged in peacebuilding must be treated with caution, however, as the actors in this field vary in power, goals and values and each bring their own distinct perspectives and practices. 3 Without discounting the importance of women’s inclusion in formal peace processes, as well as the common conflation of formal peacemaking processes as ‘peacebuilding’, the focus of this review is on the incorporation peacebuilding which is defined in distinction from peacemaking – See Note 7. (Anderlini, S., 2000. Women at the Peace Table: Making a Difference. New York, UNIFEM; Hunt, S., and C. Posa, 2001. Women Waging Peace. Foriegn Policy, 124: 38-47; Porter, E., 2003. Women, Political Decision-Making and Peace-Building. Global Change, Peace & Security, 15(3): 245-262; United Nations (UN), 2002, Women, Peace and Security. Study submitted by the Secretary-General pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1325, New York, UN. .

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call for greater integration of the peacebuilding and development discourses, it is thus

timely to explore the problematic inclusion of ‘gender’ from development studies within

peacebuilding in order to identify directions for future research.

In addressing these issues, the first section of this review provides a critical overview of

emerging discourses of post-conflict peacebuilding within development. The evolution

and expansion of the peacebuilding concept is first explored which arrives at two broad

approaches to peacebuilding discerned on the basis of praxis. Whereas the first has

largely emerged from conflict resolution studies to engage with the politics of

peacebuilding as a project imposed ‘from above’, the second, and main subject of this

review, sees peacebuilding as a technique within development studies and related fields.

Emerging discourses within the peacebuilding and development ‘nexus’ are analysed,

including the role of International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) in

peacebuilding. The ‘development inflections’ which have influenced the counter-

discourse of ‘peacebuilding from below’ is then analysed. The review then draws

together these analyses in a critical examination of the debate over the role of ‘external’

and ‘local’ actors within peacebuilding in order to address issues for further research.

The second part of this review will provide a critical overview of problematic discourses

emerging from peacebuilding which incorporate women and ‘gender’. Academic

discourses on women and gender in conflict, post-conflict and peace will be critically

examined in order to understand how development literature has become embedded

within peacebuilding. Discourses which categorise women as ‘victims’ in post-conflict

and employ essentialist assumptions of ‘women and peace’ are argued as perpetuating

inaccurate assumptions about women’s contributions to war and peace which can

undermine women’s contribution to informal and formal peacebuilding (Karam, 2001;

Vincent, 2001; Strickland and Duvvury, 2003). The final section draws synergies

between the peacebuilding and development discourses, specifically those which include

gender, to identify future directions for research.

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Peacebuilding Scholarship

Peacebuilding scholarship draws on many fields of enquiry; predominantly peace and

conflict studies and conflict resolution, as well as security studies, political science,

international relations, peace psychology, anthropology, and increasingly development

studies and feminist theory. In addition to academic scholarship, literature which

engages with peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction4 draws on organisational and

practitioner contributions. Furthermore, ‘scholar-practitioners’ provide a link between

industry-based research and academia who Pankhurst argues offer insight into the

potential for ‘gender and peacebuilding’ as a distinct field of academic enquiry (2005: 3).

Ruth Jacobson (2001) is concerned, however, that the potential to further academic

debates surrounding women and peacebuilding is limited by the large volume of ‘grey

literature’ which is entering peace and conflict studies from outside of academia5.

Jacobson (2001) argues this material often constructs women and their organisations as

axiomatically ‘pro-peace’ and thereby influences what is prioritised as fundable research.

Whilst this paper does not review ‘grey literature’, a critical analysis of emerging

discourses on women, gender and peacebuilding within development studies must

necessarily recognise the potential influence it has on academic scholarship. ‘Grey

literature’ provides both a context for current debates within the practitioner community

and may either be reflective of, or provide stimulus to, discourses being taken up within

academic scholarship.

3 Peacebuilding discourses are often considered analogous to those of post-conflict reconstruction. The World Bank define post-conflict reconstruction as encompassing not only short-term rebuilding of physical infrastructure, but also the creation of peace and stability through rebuilding economic and political institutions and promoting social reintegration. Without neglecting the broader context within which peacebuilding takes place and the developmental nature of reconstruction, this review focuses on peacebuilding as one component of a long-term process of post-conflict reconstruction. See World Bank, 1998. Post-conflict reconstruction: The role of the World Bank. Washington: IBRD; for a study of the developmental aspects of reconstruction, see Barakat, S., (ed.), 2004. Reconstructing War-torn Societies: Afghanistan. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan. 5 Such ‘grey literature’ includes material (e.g. research reports and evaluations) published by development and aid organisations and research institutions primarily concerned with policy or advocacy.

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II. Emergent discourses of post-conflict peacebuilding in development

The (expanding) Agenda for Peace

The evolution and expansion of the peacebuilding concept provides both an insight into

its political origins as a project imposed ‘from above’ and a context within which to

frame the counter-discourses of peacebuilding ‘from below’ which have emerged within

development. The ‘post-conflict peacebuilding’ field of scholarship became

internationalised following the end of the Cold War which provided impetus for the UN

Secretary-General’s manifesto, Agenda for Peace (Boutros-Ghali, 1992)6. The concept

of peacebuilding was presented as ‘actions to identify and support structures to strengthen

and solidify peace in order to avoid a relapse into conflict’ (Boutros-Ghali,1992: 11).

This seminal definition prevailed during the 1990s in the discourses advanced by

governments, institutions and the scholarly community and explicitly defined

peacebuilding as actions distinct from peacemaking and peacekeeping7. However,

Bendãna has observed that the ‘excessive optimism’ (2005: 5) which greeted the Agenda

for Peace began to give way to skepticism when, in the wake of events in the Balkans

and other crisis as Rwanda, the notion of peacebuilding in practice began to encompass,

and be entwined with, peacekeeping operations.

Labonte (2003) and Llamazares (2005) are among a number of scholars who argue that

an inherent contradiction was embedded in the UN concept of peacebuilding from the

outset. This ambiguity relates to the UN expounding the pursuit of ‘positive peace’ 6 Much of the scholarly peacebuilding literature builds upon the vision expounded in the UN Agenda for Peace and is therefore included in this review. This UN vision was also furthered in the 1995 follow-up report (United Nations (UN), 1995. Supplement to an agenda for peace: Position paper of the Secretary-General on the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations. New York, United Nations). 7 The UN came to recognise that traditional peacemaking negotiations and peacekeeping operations were limited in their ability to resolve conflicts without incorporating an aspect of rebuilding civilian institutions. Whereas peacemaking involves bringing parties to agreement through methods of mediation, conciliation, and negotiation, peacekeeping primarily involves deployment of UN and multinational forces of armed soldiers and police authorised to use weapons only in self-defence. The relationship of peacekeeping and peacebuilding in the literature is raised as problematic. Further to their separation in Agenda for Peace, the Brahimi Report on Peace Operations (Brahimi, 2000) conceived peacekeeping and peacebuilding as mutually supporting whereas more recent conceptions identify a continuum that spans preventive diplomacy, peacemaking, peacekeeping in recognition that these tasks necessarily overlap. For discussion of these trends, see Hannum, H, 2006. Human Rights in Conflict Resolution: The Role of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in UN Peacemaking and Peacebuilding. Human Rights Quarterly, 28(1): 1-85.

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whilst the activities listed as constituting peacebuilding were short-term in nature and

more closely approximated a ‘negative peace.’8 Furthering this argument, Cutter (2005)

and Jeong (2005) contend that divergent understandings of peacebuilding at the level of

discourse across various UN agencies led to an expansion of the concept not wholly

consistent with its original definition9. In addition, a number of conflict resolution and

development scholars have argued the expanding range of activities and actors at the

policy level and in practice contributes to a lack of terminological and conceptual

precision and lends support to the term becoming meaningless (Cocknell, 2000; 780;

Fisher, 1997; Llamazares, 2005).

The incorporation of a gender perspective on peacebuilding provides further definitional

and conceptual confusion. In contrast to organisational definitions, Mazurana and

McKay in Women and Peacebuilding identify that women often envision peacebuilding

‘as a process, not a product, through which psychosocial, relational and spiritual needs

were addressed’ (1999: 92). Furthermore, de la Rey and Mackay (2006) argue that

understandings of peacebuilding are often strongly mediated by gender and cultural

context. Indeed, a number of conflict and peace scholars theorise peacebuilding itself as

a gendered construction with mirrors the militarised masculinities characteristic of the

conflict situations being addressed (Jacobs et al, 2000; Mazurana et al, 2005; Skjelsbæk

and Smith 2001). On the whole, a paucity of literature which incorporate a gender

8 The vast majority of peacebuilding literature assumes Johan Galtung’s (1969, 1996) notion of ‘positive peace’ as the principle concept on which peacebuilding strategies should be built. While ‘negative peace’ entails the absence of violence, ‘positive peace’ involves removing underlying causes of violence to prevent the recurrence of violent conflict. (Galtung, J., 1969. Violence, Peace and Peace Research. Journal of Peace Research, 6: 167-191; Galtung, J., 1996. Peace by Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilization. London, Sage). 9 To an original list of short-term activities that included restoring order, disarmament, repatriating refugees, training security forces, monitoring elections and promoting political participation (Boutros-Ghali, 1992: 55), the Brahimi Report on Peace Operations (Brahimi, 2000) and the UN Security Council added longer-term political, developmental and humanitarian programmes including reintegration of former combatants, strengthening legal institutions and investigating human rights abuses, along with mechanisms to foster sustainable institutions and processes (United Nations (UN), 2001. Peace-building: towards a comprehensive approach: Statement by the President of the Security Council. S/PRST/2001/5. New York, United Nations).

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perspective of peacebuilding is compounded by these gendered notions remaining

separate considerations from formal definitions.

The politics of peacebuilding ‘from above’

An extensive literature from conflict resolution and peace studies existed decades before

the advent of contemporary ‘post-conflict peacebuilding’ scholarship. Conflict resolution

literature largely conceives peacebuilding as an inherently political project of structural

interventions by external state actors (governmental, political, military) who act as

brokers in formal peace processes (Fisher, 1997; Miall et al, 1999; Pugh, 2000; Steifel,

1999). Cousens and Kumar in Peacebuilding as Politics: Cultivating Peace in Fragile

Societies further assert the aim of peacebuilding should be to promote ‘vibrant,

responsible political life in societies where politics have been supplanted by military

contest and violence’ (2001: 12). A focus on the political motives behind peacebuilding

has more recently taken this discourse into the field of political state-building10.

Eschewing politics for the technique of peacebuilding, Lederach captures a view held by

many development scholars that politics is repeatedly ‘placed centre stage to the

detriment of more comprehensive approaches’ (2005, 182).

Following from Lederach’s (2005) critique, peacebuilding as a political project is not

without critique from outside of development. For instance, Smith provides an

international relations analysis of European Union (EU) peacebuilding ‘failures’ with

regards to the ‘moral and legal question of whether there is a right or a duty to intervene’

(2002: 443). It is the development of international law, not the moral questions, which

10 Post-conflict state-building is generally understood as international intervention directed at (re-) building institutions of the state which extends beyond traditional peace-keeping missions and peacebuilding mandates that aim to build institutions of civil society. Many scholars question the legitimacy of UN-led multi-national interventions, the presumption of expanded military and political mandates inherent in creating transitional administrations and also challenge the imposition of Western norms of liberal and market-oriented governance. For a review of state-building critiques see: Chesterman, S., 2004. You, the People: The United Nations, Transitional Administration, and State-building. Oxford, OUP; Laitin, D., and J. Fearon, 2004. Neotrusteeship and the Problem of Weak States. International Security, 28 (4): 5-43; Soesastro, H. and L. Subianto (eds.), 2002. Peacebuilding and state building in East Timor. Jakarta, Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

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Smith (2002) argues will define future EU engagement in peacebuilding. In relation to

UN intervention, Ramsbotham (2000) and Richmond (2004) examine whether the nature

of peace instilled via ‘external governance’ is appropriate. Despite such questioning,

Roland Paris (2002, 2004) observes a lack of scholarly attention paid to the ideological

assumptions upon which external actors (including the development sector) engage in

peacebuilding. Paris’ (2002) contributes a critique of development sector engagement in

peacebuilding by suggesting recent contributions to the peacebuilding literature, such as

Reychler and Paffenholz’s (2002) Peacebuilding: A Field Guide, focus too heavily on the

practical challenges of peacebuilding without questioning the external intervention.

Paris’ (2002) perspective from international relations further likens the promotion of a

‘liberal democracy’ as representing an updated version of the colonial-era mission

civilisatrice11. In this way, Paris presents a unique perspective within the literature that

considers the political project of peacebuilding ‘from above’ as analogous to the

development sector taking up the ‘White Man’s Burden’ - a concept which still resonates

in the development world today as a euphemism for imperialism12.

The peacebuilding and development nexus

‘The development community has adapted numerous concepts, frameworks and methods

from peacebuilding, the peacebuilding community has not done the same’

(Paffenholz et al, 2005: 2).

That a discord between development and peacebuilding theory and practice needs to be

reconciled, is an emerging issue in these respective fields. A number of scholars have

begun to call for a closer integration between peacebuilding and development by arguing

development literature could provide sound advice on many post-conflict issues which

include peacebuilding (Bush, 2004; Junne and Verkoren, 2005; Paffenholz et al, 2005).

11 The mission civilisatrice is based on the notion that the ‘advanced states of Europe had a moral responsibility to “civilise” the indigenous societies’ (Paris, 2002: 651). 12 Easterly, W., 2006. The White Man's Burden: Why the West's efforts to aid the rest have done so much ill and so little good. New York, Penguin Press.

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A number of advances in the development sector demonstrate the assertion made by

Paffenholz et al (2005) above that development has been more successful at incorporating

concepts, frameworks and methods of peacebuilding than the reverse. Initial recognition

by the donor community during the 1990s that armed conflict, and particularly its

aftermath, were development issues saw a proliferation of specialised ‘transition’ units,

conflict and peacebuilding INGOs and with them development practitioners who ‘do

peacebuilding’13. More recently, the incorporation of peacebuilding into mainstream

development lexicon has been confirmed by establishment of a Journal of Peacebuilding

and Development in 2002 and further demonstrated in the November 2005 issues of

Development in Practice and Development devoted to peacebuilding. These issues

addressed, respectively, how the security agenda is intertwined with the development

agenda through peacebuilding, and how power politics underlies post-conflict situations.

The latter also demonstrated emergence of a ‘counter-discourse’ to the political project of

peacebuilding - ‘peacebuilding from below’ - which is based on the reality of how local

communities attempt to maintain a ‘sustainable peace’ (Harcourt, 2005: 3). This

emerging literature from within the development field reveals how ‘development

inflections’ are beginning to influence peacebuilding scholarship.

Peacebuilding and INGOs

According to Richmond (2005), the opening of space for non-state actors in the late

1990s led to an emergence of development INGOs working in conflict resolution and

peacebuilding. The emergence of development INGOs as a locus of study also clearly

demonstrates the ‘development inflections’ within the broader peacebuilding scholarship.

Fitzduff’s (2004) review of the causes and process of greater INGO engagement in

peacebuilding describes them as agents acting as conduits between donors and

international observers on the one hand, and local actors and beneficiaries on the other.

Two approaches are taken in emerging literature with regards to INGOs which parallel

Fitzduff’s (2004) distinction; in the first, both the ideological and practical challenges of

13 Lederach and Jenner’s (2002) Handbook of International Peacebuilding provides one example of numerous publications aimed at providing guidance for INGO staff and independent consultants on ‘how to do peacebuilding’.

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INGOs engaging with state and international actors are examined; while in the second,

INGOs are commonly positioned as positive civil society actors contributing to local

peacebuilding efforts.

Richmond and Carey’s (2005) Subcontracting Peace: The Challenges of NGO

Peacebuilding goes further than other edited volumes to problematise both ideological

and practical challenges INGOs face in the field. In particular, the ‘subcontracting’ of

peacebuilding activities by political and military actors is being raised as problematic and

addressed by a number of scholars (Bhatia, 2003; Duffield, 2001; Richmond, 2005).

Duffield (2001) has argued that ‘subcontracting’ to NGOs and private companies leads

international agencies to play ‘network wars’ and takes their focus away from the field.

Furthermore, Richmond contends that the requirement of INGOs to deliver a ‘liberal

peace’ necessitates their actions to conform to the international community’s

constructions of what form this peace should take (2005: 20). In regards to a perceived

conformity of INGOs, Smillie points to a ‘homogenisation of INGOs’ (1997, 23)

resulting from convergent approaches in the post-conflict period. Ken Bush sharpens

criticism of this issue by emphasising the ‘commodification of peacebuilding’ which has

resulted from initiatives being forced to conform to a ‘Northern blueprint’ (2004, 25).

While the issues of conformity and subcontracting are likely to attract increasing

attention as the role of INGOs in peacebuilding develops, the potentially officious role

and power of the donors who influence INGO engagement in peacebuilding remains

largely unaddressed.

For development theorists, however, it is the level of civil society which has become a

locus of discussion, particularly for a number of ‘scholar-practitioners’ involved in

peacebuilding at the community level (Atmar and Goodhand, 2001; Goodhand, 2002).

Pearce contends that the movement of peacebuilding discourses towards the community

level has mirrored the rise of civil society as an ‘imagined agent of development’ (2005:

42). Using a case study of community peacebuilding in Somalia, Paffenholz (2005)

concluded INGOs often have a comparative advantage which enables them to bypass

state sovereignty at the community level and thus improve outcomes for beneficiaries. In

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this way, Richmond has observed that INGOs have the capacity to create ‘the most

intimate forms of intervention in civil society’ (2005: 32). Apart from a few

development scholar-practitioners who urge NGOs working in civil society to recognise

their impact on internal situations is limited (Goodhand and Hulme, 1997), often

unconstructive (Lederach and Jenner, 2002) or even harmful (Anderson, M., 1999), most

critiques of peacebuilding interventions focus more broadly on ‘external actors’ (both

state and non-state) (Abiew and Keating, 1999; Ball and Halevy, 1996; Richmond, 2004;

Smith, 2002).

Peacebuilding from below

The ‘peacebuilding from below’ discourse is influenced on the one hand by conflict

resolution studies which emphasise a third party intervention approach as enabling local

peacebuilding to take place, whilst on the other hand a discourse which brings the focus

towards a local ownership approach of the peace process. In the first approach, a number

of scholars (Curle, 1994; Lederach, 1995; Nordstrom and Martin, 1992) championed

third-party intervention in the 1990s as a means to facilitate locally owned paths to peace.

The ability of outsiders (particularly Western) to influence and secure peace processes by

negotiation and agreement, however, has been widely critiqued (Berdal, 2005; Clapham,

1998; Duffield, 1995). This approach has been heavily influenced by the work of two

scholar-practitioners, Adam Curle (1995) and John Paul Lederach (1995, 1997). In

Woodhouse’s (1999) view, the respective Quaker and Menonite perspectives of these two

scholars provided alternative views on building peace which have transcended traditional

modes of thinking about the categories of ‘external’ and ‘internal’ actors. Lederach’s

(1997) Building Peace provided a unique human agency perspective of the procedural

elements of peacebuilding, which began with the individual to develop solutions

themselves.14 Building upon Lederach’s theories, a growing consensus within peace

studies and conflict resolution concur that ‘multi-track’ diplomacy that brings together

both official diplomacy of governments and unofficial involvement of citizens is more

14 Lederach’s (1997) leadership pyramid argued for a ‘middle-out’ approach whereby outsiders work with mid-level leaders to facilitate constructive involvement with those at the grassroots (‘Track III’) while reaching out to others at the top (‘Track I’) - termed ‘Track II diplomacy’.

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likely to result in a sustainable peace (Diamond and McDonald, 1996; Kelman, 2002;

Miall et al, 1999; Ryan, 1995).

In contrast, a number of scholars play down the importance of third-party intervention to

highlight an approach which emphasises the role of local actors and their ownership of

the peacebuilding process. This approach conceives peacebuilding as long-term efforts to

build local capacity, ownership and promote political, economic and social aspects of

reconstruction (Ball, 2001; Gawerc, 2000; Jeong, 2005; Keating and Knight, 2004).

From a development practitioner perspective, solutions in this paradigm are seen as being

derived and built from local resources (Goodhand and Lewer, 1998; Goodhand and

Hulme, 1997). Furthermore, a number of scholars emphasise the emergence of local

NGOs as central to this ‘bottom up’ peacebuilding process (Cordero, 2001: 161;

McDonald, 1997; Pearce, 2005; Sussman and Muliro, 2000). The notion of local

ownership in peacebuilding is expressed by scholars from conflict resolution and peace

studies using terms such as ‘grassroots peacebuilding’ (Ryan, 1995; Richmond, 2005),

‘participatory peacebuilding’ (Chopra and Hohe, 2004) and ‘indigenous empowerment’

(Lederach, 1995: 212), which have the aim of ‘giving voice’ to private citizens (Gawerc,

2000: 435).

Within development studies the concepts of ‘participation’, ‘empowerment’ and

‘grassroots’ are terms which have attracted a large volume of academic critique over the

last decade, particularly in relation to women15. Apart from a few scholars (Mullholland,

2001; Pankhurst, 2000) who address the difficulty of assuming that women’s

15 In development studies, ‘participation’ of beneficiaries aims to ‘give voice’ to those otherwise divorced from decision-making and potentially empower people by placing them at the centre of decision-making. ‘Participatory development’ requires thorough critique, however, as focusing on the ‘local’ can often underplay inequalities of power particularly in relation to gender. Empowerment is also a highly contested concept as it often assumes power needs to be granted from ’outside’. Development scholars and anthropologists have questioned ‘whose voices’ are heard and ‘whose reality counts’ (Chambers, R., 1997. Whose Reality Counts? Putting the Last First. London: Intermediate Technology Publications; Cornwall, A., 2003. Whose voices? Whose choices? Reflections in gender and participatory development. World Development, 31(8): 1325-1342; Mohan, G., and K. Stokke, 2000. Participatory development and empowerment: the dangers of localism. Third World Quarterly, 21 (2): 247 – 268).

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participation in peacebuilding will lead to empowerment, the use of these terms and

concepts within the peacebuilding field remain largely unquestioned.

A neglect of local power inequalities that discriminate against women forms the basis of

criticism directed towards the ‘peacebuilding from below’ approach when traditional

conflict resolution methods are engaged (Pankhurst, 2004; Reimann, 2001). Whilst

Lederach (1997) is an advocate of traditional and indigenous techniques of conflict

resolution to support peacebuilding, Pankhurst’s critique exposes the term ‘local actors’

as problematic in masking inequalities between men and women (2004: 30). In addition,

according to Reimann ‘traditional’ customs represent ‘peacebuilding among men’ and

supporting them may reinforce a status quo that marginalises women from peace

processes (2001:15).

Whose responsibility for peacebuilding?

‘There is little reflection in the peacebuilding field…on who should be the agents for

change in the relationships between external agents and internal ones’

(Pearce, 2005: 46).

According to Orjuela, the greater emphasis being placed on the necessity for civilian

involvement in peacebuilding raises an important ‘question of representation’ (2004: 18).

Yet only a few development scholars hitherto reflect on the interactions of the local and

international NGOs who claim to represent or ‘give voice’ to individuals in civil society

through their peacebuilding programs; the issue which Pearce (2005) alludes to in the

above quotation. Peter Uvin (2002), however, is one maverick scholar in this field who

observes that a trend towards greater coherence and coordination amongst peacebuilding

INGOs has challenged the capacity of local actors to take ownership of the process.

Furthermore, according to Pearce the kinds of organisations UN and INGOs support tend

to be mirror images of western organisations, ‘or effort was made to turn them into that’

(2005: 42). In addition to the issue of donor influence on INGOs previously outlined, the

officious role of INGOs which Uvin (2002) and Pearce (2005) point to appears a critical

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issue warranting further exploration. It is notable that in these debates over

representation, neither Uvin nor Pearce pay particular attention to the potential gendered

impacts of external intervention in civil society or gender perspectives of external agents.

In this line of thinking, Strickland and Duvvury (2003) suggest a full review of the effect

of INGO presence and influence on local processes in the peacebuilding field constitutes

significant grounds for future research.

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III. Gender, Women and Peacebuilding

Abuse of ‘gender’

A cursory review of recent peacebuilding literature from policy perspectives within the

‘grey literature’ and post-conflict reconstruction studies reveals a clear recognition that

the concept of ‘gender’ is an important concern in policy and program formation. One

notable scholar-practitioner, Donna Pankhurst (2005), has formally brought together the

terms ‘gender and peacebuilding’ as a distinct field of study (see also Rodríguez and

Natukunda-Togboa, 2005).

Scholars situated within the nexus of peacebuilding and development increasingly apply

‘gender’ terminology derived from the Gender and Development (GAD) discourse.

However, Strickland and Duvvury (2003) have argued that very few studies question the

use of ‘gender terms’ in the peacebuilding literature and indeed most take it for granted.

For instance, Sharapov (2005) and likewise Stiehm (2001) make use of the reference to

‘gender mainstreaming’ within UN peace operations to suggest that the concept is useful

and furthermore should be applied to assess whether ‘gender perspectives’ are

incorporated. In a similar way, a Commonwealth Secretariat publication (Baksh et al,

2005) applies the concept of ‘gender mainstreaming’ in a ‘how to’ handbook for

development practitioners, yet largely refers only to women rather than gender per se.

Donna Pankhurst (2004) has recognised the ‘mainstreaming’ of women and their

demands into peacebuilding cannot be simply remedied by the use of politically correct

language. In fact, Jackson and Pearson (1998) suggest that in most development

literature and documents, practitioners freely use the term gender as if it were

unproblematic. For Baden and Goetz, it is vital that development practitioners gain a

familiarity with key literature, concepts and methods of feminist research (1998: 22). As

Pankhurst (2004) contends, peacebuilding would do well to further recognise the

problematic usage of ‘gender terms’ which have long been critiqued from within

development studies.

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According to Strickland and Duvvury (2003), peacebuilding efforts can often ‘give

inadequate attention to the construction of gender norms’ and thus result in inappropriate

interventions which aim to redress inequitable gender relations. Sørensen (1998) notes

this problem by arguing new discourses of ‘gender equality’ espoused in the post-conflict

context may in fact run counter to existing social norms that construct gender roles.

Within peacebuilding literature, however, there is in fact little recognition that the

concept of gender equality itself can be problematic. Drawing on conflict analysis,

Reimann points to a key problem in this new discourse that if you neglect gender ‘as both

constituting and being constituted by conflict’, you ‘valorize and leave unexamined the

existing power structures’ (1999: 18). In short, whilst there is recognition that gender

and gender relations contribute an essential element of the peacebuilding as technique

approach, there remains hitherto very little scholastic or analytical engagement with the

concept of ‘gender equality’ which necessarily involves working with unequal power

structures.

Gender = Women? One of the key issues which a more informed peacebuilding discourse needs to take into

account is the body of well established literature within development which

problematises the conflation of ‘women’ and ‘gender’. Within the peacebuilding and

development nexus, a few scholars separate these terms by emphasising the need to

‘mainstream gender’ perspectives in peacebuilding efforts alongside efforts to include

women (Moghadam, 2005; Nakaya, 2003; Pankhurst, 2004). Within development, there

remains a well established argument that for all the talk about gender relations and the

conceptual shift from Women in Development (WID) to Gender and Development

(GAD), gender issues still tend to get distilled down to ‘the woman project’ as a target to

be brought into development (Jackson and Pearson, 1998; White 1996). Donna

Pankhurst (2005) argues that there remains a gaping hole within post-conflict

peacebuilding of nuanced studies addressing the problematic of gender disadvantage

rather than focusing on the behaviour and experience of women. Such studies would

attend to the division between the peacebuilding and development discourses based on

their attention paid to gender.

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Post-Conflict: Empowering or disempowering for women and gender relations?

Critical analysis of the evolution of literature on women and gender in relation to conflict

and peace provides a context for understanding the ways in which development literature

has become embedded within peacebuilding. Scholars remain in agreement that violent

conflict and its ‘aftermath’ affect the lives of women and girls in ways that differ from

the impact on men and boys (Byrne, 1996; El-Bushra, 2000; Large, 1995; Meintjes et al,

2001; Rehn and Sirleaf, 2002). There is also consensus that the different needs and

experiences of women as compared with men in conflict and post-conflict settings reflect

their gender roles and relations (Gardam and Jarvis 2001; Sørensen 1998; U.N., 2002;

Rehn and Sirleaf, 2002). The point of departure in these discourses is within the post-

conflict literature. Two divergent schools of thought explore a debate on whether women

potentially gain from conflict through an empowering expansion of gender roles, against

an argument that women become disempowered as any ‘gains’ women may experience

are often reversed in the aftermath of conflict.

On the one hand, scholars recognise that in most internal conflicts, traditional divisions of

civilian space - private as women’s space and public as men’s space - often collapses

(Afshar, 2003b; Cockburn, 1998). A number of scholars argue that the opportunities for

women to take on roles and responsibilities traditionally assigned to men offers the

potential for empowerment through a challenging of gender relations (Bop, 2001; El-

Bushra, 2000; Eade, 2003; Karam, 2001; Manchanda, 2001; Meintjes et al, 2001;

Turshen, 1998). On the other hand, Jacobs et al (2000) and Vincent (2001) criticise the

notion that women ‘gain’ from conflict by arguing that any changes in gender relations

are temporary as women return to the private sphere in the post-conflict period. A

number of scholars further argue that greater responsibilities in addition to motherhood

and domesticity are unlikely to allow an advancement of gender equality (El-Bushra and

Mukarubuga, 1995; Rehn and Sirleaf, 2002). In addition, there is recognition that sexual

and gender-based violence is not only a strategy of war (Duffield, 2001), but also

continues or even intensifies in the post-conflict period which serves to disempower

women (Cockburn, 2004; Goldbatt and Meintjes, 1998; Reimann, 2001). In societies

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where women have actively participated in revolutionary movements women’s social

position, most scholars also conclude that gender roles and gender relations often remains

unchanged or unchallenged (Afshar, 2003b; Enloe, 1988; Hale, 2001; Yuval-Davis,

1997). Despite this significant body of literature recognising the complexity of changes

to gender roles and relations in the post-conflict period which influences the opportunities

for women to engage in peacebuilding, the connections remain limited within

peacebuilding scholarship (Bennett et al, 1995) and within the ‘grey literature’ of

international agencies.

Woman as Category: Victim or Agent?

To feminist theorists, the tendency to construct women as subordinate and powerless

victims fails to recognise any alternative forms of power and agency that women employ

during transition (Afshar, 2003b; Jacobs et al, 2000; Karam, 2001; Mohanty, 1991;

Reimann, 2001). According to Lentin, viewing women as powerless victims also denies

the ability to theorise women as ‘benefactors of oppression or perpetrators of violence’

(1997: 12). Addressing Lentin’s concern, a growing number of scholars explore the

variety of women’s experience as perpetrators and collaborators of violence (Afshar,

2003b; Eade and Afshar, 2004; Manchanda, 2001; Moser and Clark, 2001; Yuval-Davis,

1997). Addressing the complexity of these constructions, Afshar argues that

generalisations about women, conflict and peace conceal ‘the reality that women seldom

have a choice about whether they are indeed victims of active participants’ (2003a: 150).

Once more, the peacebuilding literature is yet to explore the complex experience of

women in post-conflict that transcends the limiting categories of ‘victim’ or ‘agent’.

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‘Women and peace’: The dangers of essentialism

‘The association of femininity with peace lends support to an idealized masculinity that

depends on constructing women as passive victims in need of protection’

(Tickner, 1992: 59).

In a similar way to the portrayal of women as ‘victims’, Ann Tickner (1992) and Elshtain

(1996) present a view held by many feminists that essentialist myths which portray

women and pacifism in a ‘natural’ relationship serves to reproduce unequal power

hierarchies. Gamble (2001) describes Tickner’s anti-essentialist position as one in which

gender identities and roles are shaped by social and cultural expectations rather than

innate or ‘natural differences’ between men and women. In contrast, a number of

scholars argue it is commonplace for essentialist notions to be incorporated into

scholarship where femininity is associated with nurturing, pacifism and compassion, and

masculinity with aggression, violence and heroism (Byrne, 1996; Jacobs et al, 2000; El-

Bushra, 2000). A small number of scholars in the peacebuilding field argue that

essentialist approaches that disproportionately portray women as victims perpetuates

inaccurate assumptions about their potential contributions to peacebuilding at the local

level (Karam, 2001; Vincent, 2001; Strickland and Duvvury, 2003).

A number of feminist scholars also transcend essentialist notions of women by

recognising their social agency during both conflict and post-conflict periods (Byrne,

1996; Manchanda, 2005; Mertus, 2000). Within the peacebuilding and development

nexus, Moghadam (2005) and Pankhurst (2004) are some of the few scholars who

consider women’s peacebuilding groups and emphasise the need for a gender perspective

alongside a focus on women. In contrast, and perhaps understandably, anthropologists

(Appleford, 2000; Cockburn, 1998), sociologists (de la Rey and Mackay, 2006), feminists

(Cordero, 2001; Mazurana and Mackay, 1999; Moser and Clark, 2001) and a number of

maverick development scholars (Anderson, S., 2000) have emphasised the social,

communal and local arena in which women’s engagement is significant, particularly

‘women’s peacebuilding groups’. Despite a few exceptions (ICG, 2006; Corrin, 2001),

these studies predominantly focus on grassroots women’s groups who have formed in the

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absence of international funding. In response, Mazurana and McKay (1999) have urged

scholars to attend to this gap in the literature by documenting and evaluate women’s

community-based peacebuilding initiatives and interactions with the international

community to enable Western funding organizations to incorporate approaches to women

and peacebuilding that are grounded in research.

Analysis of post-conflict discourse on women and gender in relation to conflict and peace

contributes to the understanding of how development literature has become embedded

within peacebuilding. For instance, the influence of development scholar-practitioner

contributions are demonstrated in publications such as the World Bank’s Gender,

Conflict and Development (Bouta and Frerks, 2004), Oxfam’s Gender, Peacebuilding,

and Reconstruction (Sweetman, 2004) and International Alert’s Mainstreaming Gender

in Peacebuilding (Pankhurst, 2005), which all promote gender perspectives in the

analysis of conflict and post-conflict reconstruction. However, a recent study by

Zuckerman and Greenberg’s (2006) of post-conflict initiatives funded by World Bank

and other international donors questioned the influence of such research from within the

development field, on peacebuilding practice. Despite extensive World Bank research

recognising gender equality as central to both development and peace16, the authors

concluded that funding priorities and projects hardly reflected this research (Zuckerman

and Greenberg, 2006). This finding demonstrates a lagged incorporation of development

studies research into peacebuilding and may help to explain why a divide remains

between the peacebuilding and development discourses based on gender.

Furthermore, Whitworth (2003) and Väyrynen (2004) separately argue that UN

discourses on women, conflict and peace perpetuate essentialist ideals. Whitworth

(2003) argues that the existing critiques of essentialism in relation to women and peace

are limited as they fail to address the critical issue of how the UN constructs

contemporary debates on gender and peacebuilding. In Whitworth’s view, criticism

should be directed at ‘liberal assumptions’ of the UN which ‘undermine the arguments

16 World Bank, 2001. Engendering Development: Enhancing Development Through Attention to Gender. New York, Oxford University Press; Bouta, T. and G. Frerks, (eds.), 2004. Gender, Conflict, and Development. Washington, D.C., The World Bank.

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that require (nonessentialised) discussions of difference’ (Whitworth, 2003: 1330).

Without directly acknowledging Whitworth’s argument, Väyrynen (2004) addresses the

same issue in a nuanced analysis of UN discourse on gender, peace and war. Väyrynen

argues that it is modernity which ‘confines the [UN] discourse to pre-given binary

categories of agency and identity to produce neoliberal modes of masculinity and

femininity’ (2004: 125). Certainly, both the UN’s Agenda for Peace and the Resolution

1325 on Women, Peace and Security demonstrate the significant and enduring influence

of UN discourse on shifting global policy as well as providing impetus to the direction of

academic enquiry. Recognising this influence, Väyrynen suggests that the ‘unchallenged

acceptance of binary categories’ (2004: 140) inherent in essentialist notions of women of

peace embedded in UN discourse will continue to influence policy and programming of

international agencies, unless critiques can allow a space to discuss difference (c/f

Whitworth, 2003: 1330).

IV. Concluding Remarks: Peacebuilding and Development for women or gender’?

The intersection between peacebuilding, development and gender is critical and yet

remains a relatively unproblematised and unexplored area. This may be a result of the

development sector coming late into peacebuilding which delayed the evolution of ideas,

debates and critiques which are only now taking place. Or, this may be a result of

peacebuilding coming late to existing discourses on women and gender in relation to

conflict and peace. The various contributions that development and related fields have

made towards unpackaging ‘gender’ and ‘women’, as well as critiquing the constructions

of women as victims and essentialist notions of ‘women and peace’, remain largely

unaddressed or applied within a peacebuilding perspective. In either case, there is a clear

recognition that the peacebuilding and development discourses require further

integration, particularly in relation to gender.

This review has highlighted a number of gaps in understanding which warrant further

research, particularly in relation to the development sector’s engagement in

peacebuilding and the problematic incorporation of gender within this. My research will

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address the gaps that surround the ‘development inflections’ within peacebuilding that

influence discourse, policies and programs of INGOs when incorporating gender into

peacebuilding. This perspective will be explored in my thesis research with reference to

INGOs in Nepal. This research aims to contribute to the body of knowledge of

development sector engagement in peacebuilding, particularly the influence of INGOs on

local processes. The research will also aim to address the related issues of the role of

‘external’ actors who claim to represent individuals in civil society, and more specifically

how these external actors engage with women and address the issue of gender.

As implied by the ICG Report (2006) outlined in the introduction, the persistence of

essentialist assumptions regarding women and gender that inform ‘women’s

peacebuilding projects’ designed by the international community is a vital issue, yet

remains largely unexplored in the scholarly literature. Only through critical examination

of development sector engagement in ‘gender and peacebuilding’ can we be assured that

the potential for peacebuilding to ‘learn from development’ takes place, and the

complexities of building peace are approached from the perspective of ‘gender’ - not just

from ‘women’.

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Appendix 2 UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security

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United Nations S/RES/1325 (2000)

Security Council Distr.: General31 October 2000

00-72018 (E)`````````

Resolution 1325 (2000)

Adopted by the Security Council at its 4213th meeting, on31 October 2000

The Security Council,

Recalling its resolutions 1261 (1999) of 25 August 1999, 1265 (1999) of 17September 1999, 1296 (2000) of 19 April 2000 and 1314 (2000) of 11 August 2000,as well as relevant statements of its President, and recalling also the statement of itsPresident to the press on the occasion of the United Nations Day for Women’sRights and International Peace (International Women’s Day) of 8 March 2000(SC/6816),

Recalling also the commitments of the Beijing Declaration and Platform forAction (A/52/231) as well as those contained in the outcome document of thetwenty-third Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly entitled“Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-FirstCentury” (A/S-23/10/Rev.1), in particular those concerning women and armedconflict,

Bearing in mind the purposes and principles of the Charter of the UnitedNations and the primary responsibility of the Security Council under the Charter forthe maintenance of international peace and security,

Expressing concern that civilians, particularly women and children, accountfor the vast majority of those adversely affected by armed conflict, including asrefugees and internally displaced persons, and increasingly are targeted bycombatants and armed elements, and recognizing the consequent impact this has ondurable peace and reconciliation,

Reaffirming the important role of women in the prevention and resolution ofconflicts and in peace-building, and stressing the importance of their equalparticipation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotionof peace and security, and the need to increase their role in decision-making withregard to conflict prevention and resolution,

Reaffirming also the need to implement fully international humanitarian andhuman rights law that protects the rights of women and girls during and afterconflicts,

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S/RES/1325 (2000)

Emphasizing the need for all parties to ensure that mine clearance and mineawareness programmes take into account the special needs of women and girls,

Recognizing the urgent need to mainstream a gender perspective intopeacekeeping operations, and in this regard noting the Windhoek Declaration andthe Namibia Plan of Action on Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective inMultidimensional Peace Support Operations (S/2000/693),

Recognizing also the importance of the recommendation contained in thestatement of its President to the press of 8 March 2000 for specialized training forall peacekeeping personnel on the protection, special needs and human rights ofwomen and children in conflict situations,

Recognizing that an understanding of the impact of armed conflict on womenand girls, effective institutional arrangements to guarantee their protection and fullparticipation in the peace process can significantly contribute to the maintenanceand promotion of international peace and security,

Noting the need to consolidate data on the impact of armed conflict on womenand girls,

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

2. Encourages the Secretary-General to implement his strategic plan ofaction (A/49/587) calling for an increase in the participation of women at decision-making levels in conflict resolution and peace processes;

3. Urges the Secretary-General to appoint more women as specialrepresentatives and envoys to pursue good offices on his behalf, and in this regardcalls on Member States to provide candidates to the Secretary-General, for inclusionin a regularly updated centralized roster;

4. Further urges the Secretary-General to seek to expand the role andcontribution of women in United Nations field-based operations, and especiallyamong military observers, civilian police, human rights and humanitarian personnel;

5. Expresses its willingness to incorporate a gender perspective intopeacekeeping operations, and urges the Secretary-General to ensure that, whereappropriate, field operations include a gender component;

6. Requests the Secretary-General to provide to Member States trainingguidelines 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 asHIV/AIDS awareness training into their national training programmes for militaryand civilian police personnel in preparation for deployment, and further requests theSecretary-General to ensure that civilian personnel of peacekeeping operationsreceive similar training;

7. Urges Member States to increase their voluntary financial, technical andlogistical support for gender-sensitive training efforts, including those undertakenby relevant funds and programmes, inter alia, the United Nations Fund for Womenand United Nations Children’s Fund, and by the Office of the United Nations HighCommissioner for Refugees and other relevant bodies;

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S/RES/1325 (2000)

8. Calls on all actors involved, when negotiating and implementing peaceagreements, to adopt a gender perspective, including, inter alia:

(a) The special needs of women and girls during repatriation andresettlement and for rehabilitation, reintegration and post-conflict reconstruction;

(b) Measures that support local women’s peace initiatives and indigenousprocesses for conflict resolution, and that involve women in all of theimplementation mechanisms of the peace agreements;

(c) Measures that ensure the protection of and respect for human rights ofwomen and girls, particularly as they relate to the constitution, the electoral system,the police and the judiciary;

9. Calls upon all parties to armed conflict to respect fully international lawapplicable to the rights and protection of women and girls, especially as civilians, inparticular the obligations applicable to them under the Geneva Conventions of 1949and the Additional Protocols thereto of 1977, the Refugee Convention of 1951 andthe Protocol thereto of 1967, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination against Women of 1979 and the Optional Protocol thereto of 1999and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 and the twoOptional Protocols thereto of 25 May 2000, and to bear in mind the relevantprovisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court;

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

11. Emphasizes the responsibility of all States to put an end to impunity andto prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, and warcrimes including those relating to sexual and other violence against women andgirls, and in this regard stresses the need to exclude these crimes, where feasiblefrom amnesty provisions;

12. Calls upon all parties to armed conflict to respect the civilian andhumanitarian character of refugee camps and settlements, and to take into accountthe particular needs of women and girls, including in their design, and recalls itsresolutions 1208 (1998) of 19 November 1998 and 1296 (2000) of 19 April 2000;

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

14. Reaffirms its readiness, whenever measures are adopted under Article 41of the Charter of the United Nations, to give consideration to their potential impacton the civilian population, bearing in mind the special needs of women and girls, inorder to consider appropriate humanitarian exemptions;

15. Expresses its willingness to ensure that Security Council missions takeinto account gender considerations and the rights of women, including throughconsultation with local and international women’s groups;

16. Invites the Secretary-General to carry out a study on the impact of armedconflict on women and girls, the role of women in peace-building and the genderdimensions of peace processes and conflict resolution, and further invites him to

4

S/RES/1325 (2000)

submit a report to the Security Council on the results of this study and to make thisavailable to all Member States of the United Nations;

17. Requests the Secretary-General, where appropriate, to include in hisreporting to the Security Council progress on gender mainstreaming throughoutpeacekeeping missions and all other aspects relating to women and girls;

18. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter.

Appendix 3 Map: Report of Bandhs/Blockades: 1 January - 30 September 2007 (OCHA 2007a)

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Appendix 4 Map: Topography (Study areas) (OCHA 2007b)

111

NEPAL Topography and Access

50 0 50 100 Kilometers

Dolpa

Humla

Mugu

Dang

Kailali

Doti

Gorkha

Jumla

Bajhang

Ilam

Mustang

Rukum

Kaski

Taplejung

Bajura

RolpaMyagdiSurkhet

Banke

Sindhuli

Manang

Salyan

Bara

Jajarkot

Chitwan

Solukhumbu

Dolakha

Bardiya

Jhapa

Darchula

Palpa

Kavre

Parsa

Udaypur

Morang

Kalikot

Dhading

Baglung

Baitadi

Sankhuwasabha

Achham

Makwanpur

Dailekh

Saptari

Lamjung

Siraha

Rasuwa

BhojpurKhotang

GulmiTanahun

Sarlahi

Nawalparasi

Sindhupalchok

Sunsari

Kapilbastu

Pyuthan

Dhanusa

Kanchanpur

NuwakotSyangja

Dadeldhura

RamechhapRupandehi

Panchthar

Rautahat

Mahottar i

Dhankuta

Parbat

Okhaldhunga

Arghakhanchi

Terhathum

Lalitpur

Dipayal

DhangadiBirendranagar

Nepalgunj

Butwal

Pokhara

Birgunj

Janakpur

Bharatpur

Hetauda

Biratnagar

DamakhLahan

Mt. Everest

Kathmandu

TerrainMountains (High Himalayas)HillsTerai (Southern Plain Belt)

DistrictDevelopment Region

BoundariesInternational

Other Roads

Major RoadsHighway

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)United Nations, Nepal

Eastern

Central

Western

Mid-Western

Far-Western

Data Source: CBS (Census 2001)

Major Towns

Appendix 5 Training Program on ‘Constituent Assembly, Human Rights, Good Governance and News Reporting’, Gorkha District – Schedule

Training Program on

Constituent Assembly, Human Rights, Good Governance and News Reporting. Training for the community workers of Kailali, Dang, Sindhuli

and Gorkha1. 7th-12th April 2007

Gorkha District Headquarters Objectives of Training 1. Produce wall newspapers 2. Define mass media, news and its elements 3. Raise awareness on Constituent Assembly (CA), take leading role to advocate for

women’s issues and participation. 4. Raise awareness on electoral process, able to guide both community on it. 5. Prepare to cast vote with confidential mentality and encourage community to do the

same. 6. Define good governance and its elements and advocate for transparency. 7. Raise awareness on corruption, advocate for fairness of all agencies. Topics Covered News in community Outlets of violence Journalism and news sources Community journalism (Practical exercise) Field Reporting (Practical exercise) Wall Newspaper (Practical exercise) Human Rights Definition, history, background Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) Civil and political rights Convention 1966 Economic, Social and Cultural rights Convention, 1966 Role of Human Rights Activists Improving Human Rights CEDAW 1 This document has taken the information contained in the training plan document prepared by IHRICON and presented in a different format. The actual wording of training objectives, topics covered or specific topic items have not been altered in any way.

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Security Council Resolution 1325 Introduction and importance Role of women on reconciliation Transforming society post-conflict (as addressed by Resolution 1325) Transitional justice Constitution CA, election of CA Government provisions for “inclusiveness”. Reconstruction of state Mix system Close/open list systems Electoral Education Advocating for Women’s inclusion in CA Women’s issues raised in CA Good governance What is corruption, agencies to control Democracy and Good governance Judicial Freedom Transparency

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Appendix 6 Training Program on ‘Gender Monitoring around Cantonment’, Sindhuli District - Schedule

Training Program on Gender violence, Women and Child Rights, AMA, Documentation and Monitoring around the Cantonment

18th-22nd April 2007, Sindhuli 1st day - 18th April

Item Subject/Topics Time 1. Tea/Registration 8.00-8.30 2. Opening/Dealing with objectives

Introduction 8.30-9.00

3. Expectation collections and Responsibility allocated

9.00-9.30

4. Pre-test 9-30-9.45 Tea 9.45-10.00 5. Right issues in 12, 8, 5, 25 point agreements

Peace accord and IC 10.00-12.15

Lunch break 12.15-1.00 6 Arms Mgmt provisions in Interim constitution 1.00-2.00 7. UN Charter Article 6 2.00-2.30 8. Reproductive health 2.30-3.30 Tea break 3.30-3.45 9. CRC and its optional protocol 3.45-4.45 10. Evaluation of the day 4.45-5.00

2nd day - 19th April

Item Subject/Topics Time 1. Tea 8.00-8.30 2. Review of the previous day 8.30-9.00 3. Research

Definition, Importance and Use 9.00-10.00

Tea break 10.00-10.15 4. Nepali Acts on WR and CEDAW 10.15-11.45 5. Domestic Acts on CR 11.45-12.45 Lunch break 12.15-1.00 6 Domestic violence

Law provisions to eliminate gender violence 1.00-2.00

7. Conflict Women in conflict

2.00-2.30

8. Tea break 2.30-2.45 Gender violations by Armed armed groups 2.45-4.30 9. Review of the day 4.45-5.00

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3rd day - 20th April

Item Subject/Topics Time 1. Tea 8.00-8.30 2. Review of the previous day 8.30-9.00 3. Research

Women rights and violence against women Data collection; Data analysis Documentation and its process

9.00-10.30

Tea break 10.00-10.15 4. Documentation on sexual violence 10.15-11.45 5. Local hurdles to documenting events 11.45-12.45 Lunch break 12.45-1.30 6 UN Resolution 1325 1.30-2.00 7. Documentation of displaced and

migrated people 2.00-2.30

8. Tea break 2.30-2.45 9 Discussion on field visit/Question set 2.45-4.45 10. Review of the day 4.45-5.00

4th day - 21st April

Item Subject/Topics Time 1. Tea 7.00-7.30 2. Proceed to the cantonment site 7.30-9.30 Lunch 9.30-10.15 3. Field visit/Interview/Observation/Discussion

Data collection 10.15-5.00

4. Return back to the center 5.00-7.00

5th day - 22nd April

Item Subject/Topics Time 1. Tea 8.00-8.30 2. Review of the previous days 8.30-9.00 3. Report writing; Refining the data 9.00-10.30 Tea break 10.00-10.15 4. Journalistic Report 10.15-11.45 5. Writing Practice 11.45-12.45 Lunch break 12.15-1.00 6 Presentation 1.00-2.30 7. Rewriting the report 2.00-2.30 8. Tea break 2.30-2.45 Project feature 2.45-4.00 9. Work plan 4.00-4.45 10 Evaluation/ Posts test/Closing 4.45-5.30

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Sarah Boyd - Final Thesis (1)

Documents

Transcript of Sarah Boyd - Final Thesis (1)