25 Years of UNSCR 1325: India’s Women, Peace, and Security Paradox

The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda is the first of its kind at the global level to address the effects of armed conflict on women and to ensure their active involvement in peace processes. On 31 October 2000, the United Nations Security Council launched it through Resolution 1325.

Illustration by The Geostrata

This momentous resolution stressed the importance of women's involvement in conflict prevention, resolution, and peacebuilding with a link to gender equality and the preservation of international peace and security.

The agenda is learned from the realisation that women suffer disproportionate impacts of war and are largely excluded from the peace process and decision-making. It is a radical approach in that it includes gender perspectives in peace and security frameworks. WPS is achieving truly inclusive and lasting peace because it can only happen through the full participation of women at all levels of decision-making.

As a good international actor, India has integrated into the fold of the WPS Agenda by being active in the global community. India has showcased its commitment globally by sending an all-women police contingent to the United Nations Mission in Liberia in 2007. However, despite such international commitments, the domestic implementation of WPS principles is still uneven. As the WPS Agenda approaches its 25th anniversary, India's role between its international position and local issues must be seriously re-evaluated.

BACKGROUND 

A Global engagement for the incorporation of gender perspectives into peace and security was initiated with the approval of UNSCR 1325. The WPS framework has evolved through the addition of nine other resolutions specifying various aspects, such as conflict-related sexual assault (UNSCR 1820), discussion of the importance of leadership and accountability (UNSCR 1888), and survivor-centred initiatives (UNSCR 2467).

Prevent: Underlines how deep it is to address the root causes of conflict and stop violence against women and girls, especially gender-based and sexual violence.

Protection: Safeguards the security and dignity of women and girls during emergencies from violence associated with conflicts.

Participation: Calls for women's involvement at all levels of political processes, peace negotiations, and decision-making. This pillar illustrates how women's participation results in a more comprehensive and longer-lasting peace.

Relief and Recovery: This aspect aims to address the specific needs of women and girls during the post-war context, especially in the areas of access to justice and economic empowerment.

To make conditions for sustainable peace strategies, it is imperative to involve women in the processes of peace. Women bring varied perspectives and strategies into conflict resolution and are thus able to promote capacity building and sustainability at the community level. Thus, the agenda being put forward is one of the most important global frameworks to ensure gender equality in peace and security situations.

INDIA’S GLOBAL POSITION AND THE INPUT ON WPS AGENDA 

In the global space, India has supported the WPS agenda strongly, taking an active role in peacekeeping operations and UN forums. The 2007 deployment of the first all-female Formed Police Unit (FPU) to the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was among the proudest achievements of the country. This unit of more than 100 Indian women police officers operated in Liberia for almost ten years, where they were instrumental in upholding the rule of law and preserving peace in a nation still rebuilding from two civil wars.  

It fostered gender-sensitive community policing, encouraged Liberian women to enlist in the national police force, and increased local women's faith in law enforcement. The team conducted outreach on gender-based violence, supported survivors, and actively participated in crowd control, anti-riot operations, and local police capacity building.

India has consistently raised the importance of gender equality in peacebuilding and conflict resolution in various forums, including the UN Security Council. In the UNSC Open Debate on WPS in 2020, India reiterated its commitment to promoting gender-sensitive conflict analysis and increasing women's participation in peacekeeping missions. Moreover, India serves in the UN Peacebuilding Commission, which shows its commitment to facilitating women's outlooks in the planning of long-term peace. 

GAPS IN DOMESTIC POLICIES

While India has made many contributions to the global WPS, increasing scrutiny is emerging regarding discrepancies between domestic and international commitments. The ongoing tensions in Manipur have exposed age-old gendered vulnerabilities in India's internal conflict resolution. Several reports have raised major issues on the implementation of the WPS agenda - issues like displacement, denial of justice, and sexual violence against women. 

The ongoing ethnic conflict in Manipur, marked by bouts of extreme violence and forced displacement, has vividly highlighted the gender-specific consequences of internal conflict. The testimonies reveal the lack of a gender-sensitive approach in crisis response from incidents of rape, displacement of women and children, and the perceived inability of the local administration.

This SHG program was launched under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) and supported by the J&K Rural Livelihoods Mission (JKRLM) to get women affected by the violence economically and socially empowered through group participation in local governance and economic recovery. 

Women's groups were formed in regions ravaged by insurgency for some time to allow people to access micro-credit, skill development, and entrepreneurship. Besides providing an opportunity for earning income, the program provided opportunities for women to manage common resources, jointly resolve local conflicts, and exercise agency in decision-making.

While it is not directly linked to the WPS agenda, in the spirit of UNSCR 1325, this project aims to promote women's involvement in peacebuilding and socioeconomic resilience after conflict. By informally mediating disputes at the family and village levels, women involved with SHGs were able to promote social cohesion.

However, with no national WPS strategy in place, these initiatives remain scattered and poorly integrated despite their effectiveness. India must nurture these examples, establish their sustainability, and bring them formally into its wider framework for peace and security.

The sustained violence disproportionately targeting women has been a way of life in certain regions of India. During the past insurgency, women have been affected by conflict in Jammu & Kashmir,  facing sexual violence, displacement, and disruption of their livelihoods. These are also similar to the Naxalite insurgencies, in which tribal and rural women have been facing rape, detention, and denial of access to essential services by the extremists in central and eastern India. 

The political violence in West Bengal, gender-based atrocities, human trafficking, and disruption of family ties have also formed part of the issue. In some of these instances, such experiences aren’t considered at all through official, gender-sensitive mechanisms of dispute redressal. Though the National Commission for Women (NCW) takes commendable actions against these atrocities, there is a perceived lack of women-centric perspectives and contributions in conflict resolution and building sustainable peace.

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Develop and implement a National Action Plan on WPS, ensuring women's participation in conflict prevention, mediation, and post-conflict reconciliation on internal and international peacekeeping.

2. Further train the self-help groups to be deployed in gender response teams trained in trauma care, psychological support, and sexual violence in zones vulnerable to conflict.

3. Women's bodies are increasingly becoming battlefields in domestic political conflicts. India should strengthen the legal institutions and fast-track courts for addressing sexual violence in conflict situations and ensure accountability and survivor-centred justice. 

4. The government should entitle women to membership in local peacebuilding committees, especially those overseeing post-conflict reconstruction initiatives in Manipur and other areas that face constant threats of violence, such as Jammu and Kashmir. 

India needs to consider past domestic conflicts and insurgencies as wake-up calls to align its foreign advocacy with its internal administration. Both sustainable peace in conflict areas and a wedge in favour of India's reputation as a global leader for the WPS agenda require a broader gender-inclusive and rights-based approach.

CONCLUSION

As the 25th anniversary of this historical framework approach, it is time for India to move beyond impressive world leadership to systematic domestic implementation of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda.

While India has been the leader in international peacekeeping missions, it must now be supported by a tangible institutional infrastructure at home. The current Manipur crisis reminds us that India's internal methods of conflict resolution can be improved vis-à-vis gender sensitivity. Conflict brings out the incapacity of a state to provide protection, justice, and participation, all of which are pillars of the WPS agenda.

India will have to establish sustainable and gender-inclusive peacebuilding mechanisms for effective support of the agenda in WPS beyond international gestures. Domestic WPS frameworks, on the other hand, should get timely support from survivor-centred justice procedures, gender-sensitive training, peacebuilding, and legal reforms. Only then would India truly start leading in the promotion of inclusive, sustainable peace both nationally and internationally.

BY MALAVIKA

TEAM GEOSTRATA

info@thegeostrata.com