Women's equal rights and training for sustainable peace in failed states

Learner's name.

Title of the proposed Major Research Project

Overview of the proposed Major Research Project

The need for research

Scope of the study and its significance

Central research question and sub-questions

Relationship between proposed topic and completed academic portion of the program

Overview of Failed States

Recent Peacekeeping Initiatives in Failed States

The Role of Women as Peacekeepers in Failed States

Methodological design

Research Ethics

Major project timetable

Learner's Name:

Learner Name Here

Title of the proposed Major Research Project:

The provision of equal rights and training for women in order to maintain a sustainable peace for failed states.

Overview of the proposed Major Research Project:

Introduction

Throughout history, most of the wars were started by men, who were expected to expand their land for their kingdom and protect their honour. Women were the victims of these wars, along with children and the elderly. It make senses, then, that women now serve as peacekeepers. In fact, the idea of women as peacekeepers has spread throughout the international community because of this history and evidence that women have the capacity to do it right. "To build peace requires visioning what constitutes peace and security across cultures, nationalities, ethnicities, and between genders" (Mazurana 1999:2). However, while women and children are often the primary victims of violet conflicts, they are rarely recognized as major stakeholders in the peace processes. As Mazurana states, gender should be incorporated as a key dimension of human security discourses. Instead, the potential roles and actual contribution of women to peacebuilding have gone underutilized and unrecognized at community, national and international levels. It is time to give women higher status by empowering them through the provision equal rights and appropriate training to help them succeed in peacebuilding missions in failed and failing states around the world.

Central research question and sub-questions

The primary research question to be addressed by this study is: "What kind of right or training should be provided for women in failed states in order to help them maintain a sustainable peace?" To develop a comprehensive answer to this primary research question, the following sub-questions will also guide the study:

Sub-Questions:

1. How can NGOs help in promoting women as peacekeeping in failed states?

2. What can governments do in promoting the social status and equal rights of women in these regions?

3. What kind of training should women in failed states receive to help them in a peacekeeping role?

Definition of terms

Failed state: According to the definition provided by Schoiswohl (2004), "A state 'fails' when the government is unable to discharge its basic governmental function with respect to its populace and territory. This failure might have different reasons, such as incapacity or even unwillingness of the government and relates to the relationship between the government as an organ endowed with governmental duties and responsibilities and the receiving population" (26-27). Therefore, a failed state is one that fails to provide the six fundamental functions of statehood, to-wit: (a) to exercise sovereign control over territory; (b) to have sovereign oversight and supervision of the country's resources; (c) to exercise the effective and rational collection of revenue; (d) to maintain an adequate national infrastructure such as roads and telephone service; (e) to have the capacity to govern and (f) to maintain law and order (Schoiswohl 2004).

Section 4: Relationship between proposed topic and completed academic portion of the program:

HSPB academic content emphasizes the need for cultural sensitivity and appropriateness when searching for sustainable solutions to human security issues. The study proposed herein represents a model example of practical application of the key themes and concepts presented in HSPB academic content.

Section #5: Overview of existing literature on the proposed topic:

The review of the body of knowledge concerning the role of women as peacekeepers in failed states was divided into three parts. The first part provides an overview of failed states and what types of problems are characteristic of these countries. The second part provides a discussion concerning recent peacekeeping efforts by the international community in various failed states and the third part provides an assessment of how women have been used as peacekeepers in these regions. A summary of the research concludes this section.

Overview of Failed States

Failed states are characterized by two basic constraints in their political systems:

1. Their territorial jurisdiction is deeply divided and is often marked by internal conflict and in some cases even by civil war; and,

2. Their governments are generally illegitimate and relatively incapable, and ruling elites are usually dedicated to their own political survival and personal enrichment and little else (Jackson 2003:209).

The notion of a failed state does not include countries that have been adversely affected by natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanoes; even though these events can have a profound impact on the country, the results of these events are typically temporary and the nation recovers over time (Jackson 2003). The concept of failed states directly relates to those countries that have imploded from within: "Failed states have not collapsed under external military pressure -- as Germany and Japan collapsed in 1945 but soon recovered. They have self-destructed by armed anarchy from within. Their adverse condition is self-inflicted. They are political failures: the government has failed the citizens and maybe the citizens have failed the government too" (Jackson 2003:295). Indeed, when a state fails, the concepts of government and citizen as understood by the international community are no longer appropriate because, as Jackson emphasizes, "These roles scarcely exist in any meaningful sense" (2003:295). Finally, although the reasons that states fail differ, their outcomes are almost always marked by an inordinately adverse impact on the women and children of the states and its surrounding regions (Kramarae & Spender 2000).

Recent Peacekeeping Initiatives in Failed States

To date, the international community has intervened in the failed states of Somalia, Haiti, Cambodia, Rwanda, Sudan and the former Yugoslavia among others; however, the results of these peacekeeping interventions have been mixed and have been plagued by a lack of legitimacy of their efforts (Manwaring & Joes 2000). According to these authors, "The focus of legitimacy in these interventions is on the legality of the intervention and the conduct of intervening forces. The study of international interventions during the later part of the twentieth century suggests that legitimacy is the critical dimension, determining the success or failure of such interventions" (Manwaring & Joes 2000:41). In order to be viewed as truly "legitimate," a peacekeeping force must be comprised of individuals who are viewed by the populace of a failed state as being appropriate to the role and having a proper authority to conduct such operations (Cockburn & Zarkov 2002). In this regard, Cockburn and Zarkov report that, "International humanitarian and human rights law provides the legal foundation for all peacekeeping operations. And a solid basis exists within this body of laws and instruments for mandating a gender perspective into those operations" (44). This observation is a reference to the role of women as peacekeepers in general and in failed states in particular, and these issues are discussed further below.

The Role of Women as Peacekeepers in Failed States

According to Cockburn and Zarkov (2002), the basic international treaty concerning the rights of women is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979) which, together with its Article 1, is generally cited in support of integrating women in peacekeeping operations. There are other internal legal precedents for the use of women in a peacekeeping role, though. In this regard, Cockburn and Zarkov add that, "The precedent for mainstreaming gender into peacekeeping operations is established by the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action that followed from the United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995" (44). The "Platform for Action" included, among other issues affected women and children following armed conflicts, a call for "a greater involvement of women in decision-making after war and in international peacekeeping interventions" (Cockburn & Zarkov 2002:44). Indeed, the increased use of women in international peacekeeping operations is also advocated by women's rights proponents. As Kramarae and Spender (2000) emphasize, "The hope that peacekeeping might serve as an important alternative to the traditional use of military force is one shared by some feminists. The form of military force that is inspiring perhaps the greatest hope is the United Nations peacekeeping force. It inspires optimism because it seems to perform military duties without being militaristic" (1500).

Summary

The research showed that the latter half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century have been marked by an increasing number of failing and failed states that have required a response from the international community to restore order and the provision of basic human needs. Failed states collapse from within for a variety of reasons, but the research also showed that when they do, time is of the essence because violence is an inevitable consequence of these events and that history has shown time and again that such outbreaks inordinately affect women and children to a greater degree. The research also showed that the international peacekeeping efforts to date have met with mixed results, with one of the major glaring issues being the perception of a lack of legitimacy on the part of the peacekeeping efforts. In order to improve this perception, the research was consistent in emphasizing the need to integrate more women into the peacekeeping effort and there are international legal precedents to support this effort.

Section 6: Relevance of the Proposed Topic:

In the wake of the ongoing global economic downturn, it is reasonable to posit that the number of failed states around the world will continue to increase in the years to come. Today, many states are on the verge of failing and it is only a matter of time before the dual pressures of rising energy costs and depleted resources cause these states to fail. In order to prepare for the violence that is characteristic of failed states in a timely and meaningful fashion, it is essential to identify effective interventions and to provide the peacekeepers that will be tasked with implementing them with the training they need to achieve their peacekeeping mission.

Section 7: Table of Contents

Final table of contents to be added during residency two.

Section 8: Sources of Information

In order to develop a comprehensive and informed series of case studies of the role of women as peacekeepers in failed states, the study proposed herein will consult resources from both public and university libraries, reliable online research sources such as EBCSOHost and Questia, as well as information provided by international organizations and agencies including the United Nations.

Section 9: Research Methodology

Methodological Approach and Design

In order to answer the above-stated research questions in an informed and complete fashion, this study will use a qualitative case study methodology to identify and examine the role played by women as peacekeepers in countries such as Rwanda as well as others that are considered to be failed states. According to Zikmund, the case study method is "an exploratory research technique that intensively investigates one or a few situations similar to the researcher's problem situation" (2000:722). One of the main advantages of using a qualitative case study approach is that a subject area can be investigated in depth and with great attention to detail (Leedy 1997).