| dc.description.abstract | The rise in armed conflicts in Africa has had enormous effects on women rangmg from widespread sexual violence, displacement to widowhood. Not to mention the fact that women shoulder additional social responsibilities held by men prior to conflicts. Despite the fact that women suffer disproportionately from armed conflict, they are rarely represented at decision making tables during peace processes.
The UN Security Council Resolution 1325 of 2000 recognizes the disproportionate effects of armed conflict on women and calls for deliberate measures to ensure women's participation in peace processes, including post conflict reconstruction. A few peace processes such as Somali peace process, due to internalization of the peace process, have in the recent years taken deliberate measures to ensure representation of women in decision making tables.
This thesis goes beyond representation and explores challenges faced by women in decision making tables of peace processes, with special focus on the Somali peace process held in Nairobi between 2003 and 2004. The first chapter introduces the research problem - minimal participation of women in peace processes. The second chapter gives an overview of women's participation in international relations and more specifically international negotiations in order to bring an understanding of the root causes of women's minimal participation in international processes. This chapter concludes that international relations, which largely a process of constant negotiation between states is based on masculine values. This effectively limits the participation of women as well as expression and inclusion of feminine values and ideals in the process of international negotiations.
The third chapter gives and overview of the Somali conflict from a gender perspective including the gender differentiated impacts of the conflict and the role women played in various peace processes that have been undertaken since the collapse of the Somali state. It leads to an understanding of the circumstances leading to the inclusion of women in the Somali peace process that is under review in this thesis.
chapter four makes an assessment of the participation of women in the peace process,beyond representation.it specifically looks at the role culture in the limiting women s capacity to negotiate behaviour was strongly influenced by culture. The chapter notes that the strong Somali culture that is centred on kinship bound women to the decisions of the clan, even when they were not in favour of women's agenda for emancipation.
The fifth and final chapter explores future prospects for women's participation in peace processes. It looks at short term measures such as an effective gender mainstreaming strategy. The chapter however notes that long term fundamental measures will be needed for sustainability of women's participation in decision making processes. These include but not limited to education of women and progressive eradication of cultural norms and practices which undermine the realization of women's human rights. | en_US |
