Gender mainstreaming in peacekeeping operations: a case study of UNMIL (2003-2007)

Abstract

The view of the international community on gender issues has gone through several changes - from ignorance to ignoring, from ignoring to separate treatment, from separate treatment to equality and, eventually, to attempting to involve women and gender issues into the mainstream.

Gender mainstreaming has been promoted as a key strategy in efforts to mainstream gender perspectives into United Nations peacekeeping operations. Since the Beijing Platform for Action (1995) that advocates for women's rights and the Security Council passed its Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security in 2000. Important gains have been made during the past seven years in the integration of gender awareness training into pre-deployment as well as in-mission training programmes. Gaps still remain, however, as the implementation of gender mainstreaming varies considerably from one troop-contributing country or peacekeeping mission to another and the reach and impact are not well documented.

This project discusses gender mainstreaming in peacekeeping and taking an example of UNMIL Liberia as a case study during the year 2003-2007. The study discusses the institutional and political contexts with in which gender mainstreaming has been implemented in peace missions and presents recommendations for future mainstreaming of peacekeepers globally.