CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Fröhlich, Marieke Jule |
|---|---|
| Title | "Half a Loaf is Better Than Nothing" - Conceptualization and Implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in the South African National Defence Force |
| Summary | United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR1325) has dominated the international Women, Peace and Security (WPS) debate since its unanimous adoption in 2000. Despite its inherent flaws and widespread criticism, the resolution remains a crucial tool in feminist lobbying for gender sensitive peacekeeping. While South Africa deploys one of the highest proportion of female peacekeepers, highlighting its supposed success of implementing the mandate of UNSCR1325, questions remain about the implications beyond the ‘number's game’. This thesis aims to fill this gap by investigating the ways that UNSCR1325 and its problems, has been conceptualized and put into practice by members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). I engage with the organizational and individual level of conceptualization and implementation through in-depth interviews with members of the force, and pay specific attention to the unique case of South Africa’s history and present. Considering South Africa’s accomplishment in sending female peacekeepers to missions, I approach this project affirmatively, while keeping in mind postcolonial critiques of peacekeeping. I discuss how the shortcomings of UNSCR1325, specifically related to gender essentialisms, have affected discourses within SANDF, leading to contradictions and contestations around degendering and regendering of peacekeepers, related to the contradictions of South Africa’s national transformation based on human rights and WPS discourses based on gender essentialisms. Despite reiteration and reifying of problematic gender essentialisms, I found tendencies of SANDF members within the organisation’s gender structures, showing in-depth critical engagements with gender, pointing towards a surpassing of the limited premise of UNSCR1325. |
| Supervisor | Helms, Elissa |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/frohlich_marieke-jule.pdf |
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