Haiti: Putting Gender and Peacekeeping Into Practice
Nadine Puechguirbal
February 2004: President Aristide is forced to leave Haiti after weeks of
riots and violent confrontations. A Transitional Government is formed and the
UN Security Council votes Resolution 1542 (2004) that authorizes the deployment
of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). Among other things, the
peacekeeping mission has the mandate to accompany the Transitional Government
throughout an electoral process expected to bring back a certain political
stability.
Today’s multidimensional peacekeeping operations encompass a wide range of
activities such as civil affairs, human rights, elections, child protection,
disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, in addition to more visible
military and police operations. Furthermore, the UN Security Council, in its
adoption of Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (2000), “expresses its
willingness to incorporate a gender perspective into peacekeeping operations,
and urges the Secretary-General to ensure that, where appropriate, field
operations include a gender component.”
But what does this resolution mean in practice?
Peacekeepers are often deployed in a post-conflict environment where there is no law and order, where the local men and women live in precarious economic and political conditions, and where women and girls are at risk of sexual violence. Because conflict is a profoundly gendered experience, it is of high importance that peacekeepers understand the differing effects of armed violence on women, men, boys and girls so that they do not further marginalize groups of the society that have already been made vulnerable by war. Without the collection of sex-disaggregated data, it is very difficult for the mission to clearly identify the different needs of women, men, boys and girls and to target its assistance programs accordingly. Since Haitian women and girls have been the most affected because of pre-existing gender inequalities that have been reinforced by violent social upheaval, special attention should be placed on the creation of an environment conducive to the promotion of their rights. The so-called “gender-blind” approach, irrespective of the different needs of women, men, boy and girls does not create conditions of gender equality. On the contrary, it consolidates the position of male actors who traditionally hold the official and visible power.
MINUSTAH’s Senior Gender Advisor endeavors to implement a two-fold mandate: first, she works with the entire mission’s components to ensure that they have a plan to integrate a gender perspective into their respective policies, programs and activities. Second, she works on capacity building with civil society groups to help them to becomemore autonomous, thus involving local men and women in the transformation of their society so that they maintain ownership of the process.
Currently, MINUSTAH’s Gender Unit is implementing three main projects: 1) promoting the participation of women in the electoral and political processes as candidates and voters; 2) working on a strategy to enable women and girls to leave the endless cycle of armed violence in the slums; and 3) contributing to a national strategy on eradicating violence against women with the participation of both men and women as actors of change. For example, a pilot project in the south of the country is currently supporting a group of men who decided to become peer educators within their own community to advocate for a society that respects women.
Today, Haiti enjoys a relatively stable security situation that allows the development of myriad projects to assist the Haitian men and women in rebuilding the social fabric of their society. However, significant challenges remain. While men can walk freely in the slums of Port-au-Prince now that the main gangs have been overpowered, this does not mean that it is also safe for women. Security for peacekeepers very often means the cessation of hostilities, of fighting between armed gangs or groups, whereas for local women it means being able to carry out their daily activities in the neighborhood without the fear of being sexually assaulted. In Haiti, violence created by male-dominated armed gangs has receded, but domestic violence still prevails because of gender roles entrenched in the culture and traditions. Because the police and justice systems are dysfunctional, male perpetrators of violence against women still enjoy impunity.
As the Haitian feminist Danièle Magloire wrote in the Revue Haïtianno-Caraïbéenne (Vol. V, No. 2, October 2004): “Violence against women, or even the threat of violence, maintains women in a state of fear or constant vulnerability and limits their movements (particularly in the evening or at night), their access to public spaces where they would feel safe, their social participation, their autonomy. Their access to a full citizenship is denied.”
Peace will only be sustainable in Haiti when women feel safe in their own environment and when, as citizens with rights, they are able to raise their voices on the path to democracy. The involvement of women is particularly important as we slowly move from peacekeeping to peace building, and this peace building must be an all-inclusive process for the successful consolidation of a precarious stability.
Nadine Puechguirbal is the Senior Gender Advisor for MINUSTAH - United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, and can be reached at puechguirbal@un.org. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations.