In this episode of Interpreting India, Soumita Basu joins Shibani Mehta to discuss how the WPS agenda has evolved since its adoption in 2000. What is its significance, and how does it operate to achieve its goal of ensuring equitable gender participation in peace-building? How is the agenda being interpreted by countries with different contextual and political settings? And finally, what steps should India undertake to advance its approach toward the WPS agenda?
Ever since its adoption in October 2000, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has emerged as the landmark global framework promoting women’s participation in conflict resolution and achieving sustainable peace. Through its four pillars, participation, conflict prevention, protection, and relief and recovery, the WPS agenda aims to provide a holistic approach to international security. Since the adoption of the agenda, 103 countries have adopted National Action Plans (NAPs) to enhance women’s participation in the security domain at a domestic level. Regional Action Plans (RAPs) have also emerged as an effort to collaboratively implement the WPS agenda. However, despite the domestic and regional efforts to implement the WPS agenda, there are normative and institutional constraints that impede the full realisation of the agenda.
In this episode of Interpreting India, Soumita Basu joins Shibani Mehta to discuss how the WPS agenda has evolved since its adoption in 2000. What is its significance, and how does it operate to achieve its goal of ensuring equitable gender participation in peace-building? How is the agenda being interpreted by countries with different contextual and political settings? And finally, what steps should India undertake to advance its approach toward the WPS agenda?
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Episode Contributors
Soumita Basu is an associate professor at the Department of International Relations at the South Asian University. She holds a PhD in International Politics from University of Wales, Aberystwyth. She has worked extensively on feminist international relations and the UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security. Her recent publications include New Directions in Women, Peace and Security. She has also contributed to Gendered Dimensions of the United Nations Security Council: Some Notes in View of India's Eighth Term (2021-22)’and Routledge Handbook of Feminist Peace Research.
Shibani Mehta is a research analyst with the Security Studies Program at Carnegie India. Her research focuses on India’s security and foreign policies.
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Shibani
Hello and welcome back to Interpreting India!
Shibani
As the world looks hopefully to emerge from the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, the first few months of 2022 have been defined by another variant of COVID-19, precarious geopolitical relations, and a rapidly evolving technological landscape. This season, we at Carnegie India are examining many of the challenges and opportunities that India will confront in the coming decade.
Shibani
I'm your host, Shivani Mehta, and this week we're discussing the evolution of the women, peace, and security Agenda (WPS Agenda). Ever since its adoption at the UN Security Council in October 2000, the Women, Peace, and Security, also known as the WPS Agenda has emerged as the landmark global framework promoting women's role in conflict resolution and achieving sustainable peace.
Shibani
Through its four pillars, participation, conflict prevention, protection and relief and recovery, the WPS Agenda aims to provide a holistic approach to International Security. Since the adoption of the Agenda, 103 countries have adopted National Action Plans to enhance women participation in the security domain at a domestic level.
Shibani
Regional action plans have also emerged as an effort to collaboratively implement the WPS Agenda. However, despite the domestic and regional efforts to implement the WPS Agenda, there are normative and institutional constraints which impede the full realization of the Agenda.
Shibani
In this episode of Interpreting India, we discuss how the WPS Agenda has evolved since its adoption 22 years ago. What is the significance of the Agenda and how does it operate to achieve its goal? How is the WPS Agenda being interpreted by countries with different contextual and political settings? And finally, what steps should India undertake to advance its approach towards the WPS Agenda?
Shibani
Joining us today to discuss this topic is Dr. Soumita Basu.
Shibani
Dr. Saumita Basu is an Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations at the South Asian University in New Delhi. Dr. Basu holds a PhD in International Politics from the University of Wales. She has worked extensively on feminist international relations and the UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security (WPS). Her recent publications include ‘New Directions in Women, Peace and Security’. She has also contributed to gender dimensions of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Some Notes in View of India's 8th term, and Routledge Handbook of Feminist Peace Research.
Shibani
Professor Basu, thank you so much for joining us today!
Shibani
This episode is extremely special to me because we will be discussing the role of women in International Security. Dr. Basu, I'm very keen to understand (it), and I'm sure a lot of our listeners would also like to know, the sort of gender rules that apply in International Security.
Soumita Basu
Thank you very much for having me!
Shibani
So, I will begin with the hallmark of women's roles in security, the Women, Peace and Security Agenda (WPS Agenda), that was adopted in 2000 by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Shibani
If you could tell us a bit about how this exactly promotes the role of women in International Security and how the Agenda operate in order to accomplish the goal of equitable gender roles in international peace and security.
Soumita Basu
Thank you!
Soumita Basu
Thank you for inviting me to be a part of this conversation, which I certainly think is very important.
Soumita Basu
So, to begin with, I think it would be helpful for us to set out that the WPS Agenda recognizes that women are already present in matters of international peace and security. So, they haven't been brought in through Resolution 1325. And they are part of the Agenda, not just as civilian victims of war, as they were seen earlier, but also as peacemakers, negotiators, former combatants and so on.
Soumita Basu
I think it might be helpful to add here that Namibia, under whose Presidency Resolution 1325 was adopted, the Presidency of the Security Council that is, had a particular interest in this participation.
Soumita Basu
Along with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, which was called at that time, they had hosted a workshop on gender mainstreaming in peacekeeping in May 2000. So, this preceded the adoption of Resolution 1325 and it, actually, fed into the writing of 1425 as well.
Soumita Basu
And, Namibia’s interest was partly related to the role that women had played in the Event Transition Assistance Group, or UNTAGGED, which was deployed in Namibia in 1989-1990.
Soumita Basu
Now, in terms of the provisions of the resolution, of course, there are several resolutions, but just to keep the response brief, Resolution 1325 calls for increased number of female peacekeepers getting more women to the negotiating table and just generally ensure that women are represented at all levels of decision making. There's also a lot of focus on consulting with civil society, including women's organizations. You know, going back to the point that I started with, it is also about recognizing that women are already there.
Shibani
So, picking up where you left off, the UN Security Council resolution 1325 that you mentioned has been around for 22 years now. What is the progress that you have observed the Agenda has made in enhancing, like you said, women's participation in peacemaking and peacebuilding? And I ask you this because there is a study from 2016 that found that 36 UN Security Council resolutions pertaining to Iraq have been adopted since the year 2000, but only six of them contain language related to the WPS Agenda.
Soumita Basu
Okay, so, actually, because this is about data, I think, it would be very helpful if I could add to, you know, the study that you just cited to point our listeners today to some other sources that they could check in order to get more information on this.
Soumita Basu
So, there's, of course, the UN women website. There are pages relating to gender and peace support operations. Also, Peace Women Project of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and Peace Forceinvolved in the advocacy, which led to the passage of the resolution. That is a great resource as well. In terms of, kind of, more academic resources there are now Women, Peace and Security and Gender, Peace and Security centers at the London School of Economics in England, Monash University in Australia, and Georgetown University in the United States.
Soumita Basu
So, lots of places. Because there is a lot of data on this, you know, it would be somewhat overwhelming to capture everything possible. I'll now refer to some UN women data in terms of women in UN field operations.
Soumita Basu
So, for instance, a UN woman tells us that as of February 2021, women comprise 48% of all the heads and deputy heads of Mission, which is already an increase from 20% in 2015. So, that's impressive!
Soumita Basu
Then, taking on something which relates to uniform women in peace operations.
Soumita Basu
I know we'll return to this point. But I think it is still helpful because as part of Resolution 2242, the UN Security Council have actually called for greater number of uniformed women in peace operations, in fact, at different levels of decision-making as well. So, there is a target that is to be reached by 2028 and this particular data is from Action from Peacekeeping.
Soumita Basu
And, we see, again, I encourage the listeners to go and look at these really interesting infographics, but especially policing the numbers have, you know, the target appears to have been reached in the professional posts at the headquarters, professional posts in the field, and in the military part as well there has been an increase.
Soumita Basu
Of course, as far as these negotiators are concerned, I think here it is somewhat disappointing because they're...now going back to UN women between 1992 and 2019, women were just 13% on an average, 13% of negotiators. And, in fact a 7 out of 10 peace processes...every time this process...did not actually include women mediators or women signatories.
Soumita Basu
So, there is both the good (and bad), you know; something to celebrate but then quite a few disappointments as well.
Soumita Basu
I'll just end by saying, before we drown in all this data is that of course there are other pillars of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda as well, which are protection prevention, which relates to conflict prevention, relief and recovery.
Soumita Basu
In all of these pillars, you know, we can go one by one to the sources that I've mentioned would be useful. We see certain, you know, certain progress.
Shibani
So that was the next question I was coming to.
Shibani
Another sort of criticism leveled against the WPS is that it's very narrowly defined and all it does is promote female presence on the table but doesn't necessarily go beyond that. How would you measure progress when it comes to the WPS. And, also, when the problem statement, for instance, is so contextual, how is a resolution translated into various fields of practice?
Soumita Basu
Okay, so let me take the first part first, which relates to how do we sort of measure progress, and then we'll come to the context specific aspect.
Soumita Basu
So, Resolution 1889, which is one of the WPS resolutions, called for the development of global indicators, which would then tell us whether, you know, to what extent to measure the progress of the Agenda. So, there are 26 such quantitative and qualitative indicators which are, you know, again there's...you'd find lot of studies on this which have used theseindicators to then consider the progress of WPS in different parts of the world.
Soumita Basu
That said, I mean your point about it being narrow...ever since you started the question...yes, there's a lot of literature on this that, you know. For instance, certainly 1325 or even the later resolutions, they don't quite fundamentally challenge what international peace and security is about. Critics would also say that this is because, here we are, you know, the institutional home is the Security Council.
Soumita Basu
But then in the way the WPS Agenda has been locally adapted in many contexts, I think that gives us a room to, kind of, consider it more broadly.
Soumita Basu
There is a third point I want to make before I, you know, return to the question about context specific implementation which is that it is no longer about women, even though the title of the revolution is Women, Peace and Security, because there is reference to men and boys as well, and it started out so there are on both aspects that men and boys as kind of partners and allies in the WPS Agenda; also, to recognize that there is sexual violence against men and boys during armed conflicts as well.
Soumita Basu
Of course, we can add further and say that the intersectional perspective is missing here, to sort of, recognize that you know women, girls, men and boys are not just that; there are many identities associated with, you know, the experience that they have had in a conflict zone.
Soumita Basu
But I suppose it is a work in progress.
Soumita Basu
Now coming to the point about context specific implementation. I mean, as I said, they are open-ended enough so that they can be certainly in the national action plans or even the regional action plans. They can be adapted as per the kind of local requirements.
Soumita Basu
So, for instance, one of the things that we see is that in some of the maps in Africa that there is a link between security and development, which earlier did not really exist in the WPF Agenda because, of course, some of the more traditional Security Council members were really against expanding the scope of what peace and security might mean so countries like Russia and China were very clear that look, you know, (for) socio-economic issues it's the General Assembly or the ECOSOC that should be discussing this, and overall gender should be discussed there. But within the Security Council, in the later sister WPS resolutions and all various other contexts, the scope of the Agenda has really been broadened.
Soumita Basu
There has been a real attempt in different parts of the world to link issues of climate change and disaster management, whichever issue is pertinent in that part of the world.
Shibani
So, if I'm correct in understanding the national action plans are essentially toolkits for the government to bring about equal gender participation, if I can say that, in security matters. And, they have been, they're broad enough, like you said, open-ended enough to be adopted in a manner that is context specific.
Soumita Basu
So, I think this would be a good time to, now, move to South Asia.
Shibani
In just the last two years, there's been a coup in Myanmar and the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. And like you said, there is criticism that the WPS is institutionalized in the Security Council, which is sort of a Western approach to thinking about security or is more likely to be inclined to a Western perspective.
Shibani
So, what is the scope for the National Action Plans (NAPs) in South Asia as well as the WPS, broadly?
Soumita Basu
Okay, so if it's all right, I'll take a few minutes to, kind of, respond to the charge about the WPS Agenda being western-centric and then take another minute or two to just speak a little bit more on the National Action Plans and give us the global picture of what the national action plans look like and then, finally, move on to look at the salvation context.
Soumita Basu
I mean, you absolutely, rightly pointed out that there is a lot of this criticism of the WPS Agenda basically being something that is driven by countries in the global north, and also that it can even be used as an excuse for military interventions in different parts of the world. I mean, we saw that in Afghanistan, that when support for the military presence in Afghanistan started going down, we suddenly heard a lot about women rights and so on.
Soumita Basu
So, there are all these issues and, of course, the Security Council has its, you know, own image of being undemocratic, et cetera, et cetera.
Soumita Basu
But, I kind of get where the critics are coming from because they have the material power to really push the Agenda on issues that they would like to. So, it can become quite donor driven. Many of the headquarters and powerful NGOs are located in the global north as well.
Soumita Basu
Just to say that I really think it is a lot more complicated than that. Even when 1325 was adopted...so, if the civil society was very active, and this is not the civil society in the global north but civil society from across the world.
Soumita Basu
The learnings that we have about what the Women, Peace and Security Agenda even is, that we need to know, ask the question of where the women are. That comes from women's rights advocacy from across the world.
Soumita Basu
As Naoleen Heyzer of the United Nations had said, UN 1325 had a kind of global constituency even within the Security Council, in terms of the countries that were involved in the adoption of the of 1325 and the resolutions later as well.
Soumita Basu
In 2000, Jamaica, Namibia and Bangladesh were also on the UN Security Council and they were very involved. In fact, Jamaica had the only female permanent representative on the Council at that time. Later also we have Vietnam and Azerbaijan that have pushed for WPS Resolutions.
Soumita Basu
In fact, in 2020, the there was a resolution that was adopted during the Presidency of Indonesia which was not called, which is not a WPS Agenda but was a peacekeeping resolution. But it was on women in peacekeeping. So, we have countries from the global South also that have contributed.
Soumita Basu
And I know that I've gone on for a while in responding to this but I think it's important to recognize all that has gone into this Agenda. And I think while there are a whole lot of structural constraints, to say that it is western-centric, which is a very common kind of allegation against the WPS Agenda, doesn't fully capture the politics that underlines it
Soumita Basu
Now coming to the National Action Plans (NAP). Let me use some data from “The Peace Women” website, which is my favorite, I confess.
Soumita Basu
So as per the recent update, 103 UN member states now have National Action Plans. That is 53%. Again, I mean, on the one hand, that's you know that's just little more than 50%, but it's still pretty impressive.
Soumita Basu
When we see this move toward the adoption of National Action Plans, which started in 2005, we find that there are two types of countries that adopted National Action Plans. One that were usually countries in the global north that provided international assistance in conflict zones. Then there were those countries that were emerging out of conflicts. We would usually find that the first set of countries in the global North. Their National Action Plans were about what they should be doing internationally in you know particular areas that they had identified whereas those in the conflict affected countries, which were usually in the global South, were more inward-oriented
Soumita Basu
As I said, some of these countries linked WPS with issues of development because that was very important to them at that point of time now. Of course, since then there has been a real proliferation of national action plans, considering their 103 now.
Soumita Basu
They do not necessarily fall in either of these categories. What we find is that overall, just to wrap this this part up that national action plans have been a very, as you mentioned as well, they have been very important tool kits, not necessarily successful always, but they are seen as these important tool kits for implementation.
Soumita Basu
The UN Security Council has been quite clear that the Member States have to really take ownership of the WPS Agenda, and the National Action Plans are a part of this.
Soumita Basu
So, coming to the National Action Plans that we have in South Asia, there are three countries that have adopted National Action Plans in the region. Nepal in 2011. The Afghan National Action Plan was adopted in 2015. The Bangladesh one is fairly recent, and this was in 2019.
Soumita Basu
The Nepalese National Action Plan and the Bangladeshi National Action Plan involved a lot of civil society participation, and the process were generally participatory. In fact, the Nepal one except, especially because it has been around for a fair while, so there are quite a few studies on that as well.
Soumita Basu
So, the whole process by which the Nepalese National Action Plan came about is really celebrated. Another point to note here is that the Nepalese National Action Plan was the second one in Asia, very soon after Philippines. So, they really took a lead on this.
Soumita Basu
The Afghan National Action Plan, based on the reports is understood, have had more of a top-down approach, as far as the writing of the resolution is concerned.
Soumita Basu
As far as the implementation of the national action plans are concerned, it is perhaps too soon to speak on Bangladesh, but as far as Nepal and Afghanistan, unfortunately, both are concerned, there is a lot of criticism in this regard. That is unfortunate.
Shibani
While you were speaking, I was also thinking about how this would be the time to essentially test the Afghan National Action plan, to see whether structurally it can be implemented to actually bring about an improvement. Like you said, I think, it's too soon to call it one way or another or another, and there's just no evidence at this point to suggest an outcome.
Shibani
You spoke at length about Nepal, about it, sort of, in essence, being a torchbearer of the National Action Plans in South Asia. Did any of that, sort of, overflow into India. What is India's response to the WPS been so far.
Soumita Basu
Right! Let me take the second question first. With regard to India's response to the WPS Agenda, I think it is safe to say that it is being somewhat outward-oriented in (a sense) that India has been reasonably active in its own areas of interest when it comes to engaging with WPF. So, of course, the most well-known example of this is when India sent the all-female formed police unit to Liberia in 2007. So, this is the first time that an all-female front police unit had been sent. They had a very contingent badge in Liberia as part of the UN mission in Liberia. Their work was very well appreciated, not only by the international community, but by the government and the people of Liberia. And I think that is very, very important.
Soumita Basu
So, that's first and relatedly, India has also provided Agenda training for peacekeepers at the Centre for UN peacekeeping in New Delhi.
Soumita Basu
As you can see there is a common theme to all of this, that one of the key areas of focus has been peacekeeping.
Soumita Basu
Further on this, India in 2016 contributed 100,000 U.S. dollars to a UN Trust fund for victims of sexual exploitation and abuse. A couple of years later, it made a donation of about 300,000 USD to the UN Department of Field Support, which is for the pipeline to peacekeeping command program. This related to issues of conduct and discipline, which included issues relating to sexual exploitation and abuse.
Soumita Basu
India has also, within the Security Council cosponsored three Women, Peace and Security resolutions during the period 2009-10. I don't think it's a coincidence that this was just prior to its 7th term as an elected Council member in 2011-12 term.
Soumita Basu
During this term it also hosted an open meeting on WPS, which is quite notable, right? Because, of course, when you hold the Presidency of the Security Council the member states get to decide which things to focus on, and the fact that one of those things was Women, Peace and Security is notable.
Soumita Basu
The other area in which India has made some contributions as far as the discourse at the Security Council is concerned relates to counterterrorism. There also India has been part of those who have talked about bringing together the WPS Agenda and the Countering Violent Extremism Agenda.
Soumita Basu
We can see that even though we don't hear about it very much, India has in fact made some contributions, so it's very clear that it is outward oriented. India does not really speak of the of WPS in its domestic context. And again, on that count, the government is quite clear because it doesn't recognize any armed conflicts within the country because the Ministry of Home Affairs refers to certain areas in the country as disturbed areas.
Soumita Basu
So officially, there are no armed conflicts and therefore the WPS Agenda seemingly does not apply.
Soumita Basu
There is procedural or general recommendation number 30 which suggests that well, you could still talk about, you know, procedural or related issues in areas of armed conflicts. That is one way of bringing the WPS in spirit, if not in words, into the country.
Soumita Basu
Going back to something you said earlier about whether, you know, Nepal's torch bearing role has shown some light in the Indian context as well. I think on that, those of us who follow women and their role in advocacy for peace or the critique of militarization in the region, we know that there is a lot of solidarity between these actors in the region at the level of their society, so it is not so much.
Soumita Basu
You know, it's not a sort of one-way street there is a lot of solidarity between all the advocates in different countries because they recognize that there are certain shared issues relating to peace and security, and in fact, a number of advocates from the region have also contributed to the global discourse on the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.They learn from each other, so I'm sure that advocates in India would learn from the Nepal case and vice versa.
Soumita Basu
But as far as the Indian Civil Society is concerned, I mean, I mentioned earlier that the government really does not speak of the WPS Agenda and the domestic context. There's a lot of difference within civil society in this regard as well and I can follow up on that later.
Shibani
I'm really glad that the WPS is part of India's narrative to the international community, even though we don't hear much about it within the country. But like you said, there is some kind of...within the advocacy and civil society groups...there is a difference in how they approach these issues. What is the scope for India to formulate, build and implement a National Action Plan.
Soumita Basu
Right, so to be honest, I myself, I'm quite ambivalent about India having a National Action Plan because while NAPs are, of course, useful these do not guarantee effective implementation of the WPS Agenda, as we have seen in our own region as well. There is evidence from other parts of the world that suggests the same.
Soumita Basu
This is not taking away from the importance of NAPs or, indeed, Regional Action Plans, but this is to say that there are failures as well. So, a National Action Plan doesn't necessarily need to be the way forward in all cases.
Soumita Basu
Going back to one of the sort of data points that I mentioned that, you know, 53% of total UN member states having NAPs also mean that 47% of UN member states don't have it.
Soumita Basu
While India is in minority, it's a pretty large minority.
Soumita Basu
As far as the WPS Agenda, more broadly, is concerned, in terms of using the WPS Agenda to talk about issues of participation, protection, and, very importantly, conflict prevention as well, we need some recovery, we find that even within civil society there are as I, you know, mentioned in response to your previous question.
Soumita Basu
There's a lot of difference and I can build on that. I've been studying this for a while and I find that there are three broad categories of engagement with the WPS Agenda within the Indian feminist peace community.
Soumita Basu
There are those who have primarily being critical of the Agenda, because of course they're critical of the UN Security Council and the kind of militarized policies that it upholds and the dominance of the global north countries as well. Then there are those who have sought to really highlight the association of the WPS Agenda with the with transnational feminist peace advocacy. They have called for a bottom-up approach to the implementation of the WPS Agenda.
Soumita Basu
Set aside the National Action Plan, could we have a Transnational People Action Plan. Because it's a very specific term, I should really attribute this to those who came up with this, which would be Prof. Asha Hans and Prof. Betty Reardon.
Soumita Basu
Then there is a very small section of this community which has also called upon the government to adopt a National Action Plan. So, they had put together a draft National Action Plan and submitted it to the government, but as we know, nothing much came of it.
Soumita Basu
So, I think, it's kind of interesting to note that within those who actually take the gender dimensions of peace and security quite seriously, there are a lot of differences as well. I think they would all agree, generally speaking, that we need more women participation at all levels of decision making or that women's rights need to be upheld; or that we need to work towards demilitarization; or that if we are considering in parts of the country where there needs to be some demobilization and reintegration of former soldiers then we need to bring in a gender perspective to that, so we don't necessarily need to call it Women, Peace and Security.
Soumita Basu
And again, though you know, many of the feminist peace advocates would say that all this is already supported by what's in the Indian Constitution and that we have more inclusive policies which can be used for the same purposes.
Soumita Basu
So, our focus really needs to be...we don't necessarily need to be caught up talking about NAPs, but make sure that the kind of issues that come up in the WPS Agenda, those are addressed at the domestic level as well.
Soumita Basu
And if I may add one more point to this in the last couple of years there's been this emerging discussion on the possibility of India developing feminist...because sometimes the “F” word is not very welcomed for possibly a gender sensitive foreign policy. Something like that might also give impetus in pushing forward the provisions of the WPS Agenda.
Soumita Basu
Because, again, when we study, or the feminists who study, who are talking about a gender sensitive foreign policy...one of the issues that has come up is that, well that time the foreign policy also needs to be aligned with domestic policies.
Soumita Basu
So, that would be another arena in which the provisions of the WPS Agenda could be considered.
Shibani
Thank you so much!
Shibani
I hope that the people who can make this happen have heard you and taken some of your advice. This was a very insightful conversation, so thank you for taking the time.
Shibani
Thank you so much Prof. Basu for joining us!
Soumita Basu
Thank you very much for having me here!
Shibani
We'll be back in two weeks with a new episode.
Shibani
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Thank you for listening, and see you next time!