WOMEN, PEACEBUILDING AND
UNITED NATIONS RESOLUTION 1325
IN AZERBAIJAN
Sinéad Walsh
Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholar
Trinity College Dublin
Supported by the Irish Research Council
CRRC Public Lecture Series 14th June 2013
UN SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION 1325
ON
WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY
(OCTOBER 2000)

UN World Conference on Women, Beijing 1995

International civil society advocacy campaign
–
Protection of women and girls in armed conflict
–
Participation of women in peacebuilding and conflict
resolution
(www.peacewomen.org)
CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON 1325


Poor implementation

Lack of accountability mechanisms (states)

Lack of local awareness (civil society)
International advocacy campaign

Reflects global power inequalities

Overlooks local cultural context

Promotes gender stereotypes (victims/peacemakers)
(http://wpsac.wordpress.com/research-on-the-wps-agenda/)
CASE STUDY: AZERBAIJAN
Previous studies:
Women active in civil society
- Focus on women’s rights, post-Soviet transition
-
Developing a women’s peace agenda?
Donor interest in WPS
• Regional NGO activity
• Peacebuilding discourse
•

Strategic use of 1325 agenda?
1. A TOOL FOR POLITICAL INFLUENCE?
-
“The day after tomorrow we're going with these women
[the IDP women] to Tbilisi, and Armenian women are
coming there too, they'll be with us. It's not only so
that they'll know about 1325, so that they'll know
about tolerance and so forth, it's also about
empowerment, about leadership, about working
actively in their communities…”
2. A FRAMEWORK FOR NATIONAL INTERESTS?
“An enormous number of women don’t have the right to
live on their own territory. (…) On that territory there
were schools, hospitals, there were businesses where
they worked. That means their right to work was taken
away, their rights were taken away. That’s why we
absolutely don’t distinguish [between women’s rights
and peacebuilding]; they’re one and the same. We’re
taking practical steps towards regaining their rights.”
3. TRANSFORMING GENDER RELATIONS?
“...there are radical feminists who are totally against
men, and for our society this is something not
acceptable, people, if you are against men, they think
that you are crazy, that you are stupid, and that you
don’t know what you are talking about...But I think that
this is like – liberal feminism is more like: you say the
same that radical feminism says but in a more softly
way, fluffy way. And I think that this is the way, this is
something that can change…”
CONCLUSIONS

Donor interest in 1325 has consolidated local activity
around Women, Peace and Security

Action more oriented towards gradual social
transformation than direct political impact

No easy answers to conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh

OSCE and international organisations should support
women’s initiatives and call for more inclusive, multilevel peace process
RECOMMENDED READING
Cohn, Carol. “Mainstreaming Gender in UN Security Policy: A Path to Political
Transformation?” In Global Governance: Feminist Perspectives, edited by Shirin M. Rai and
Georgina Waylen, 185-206. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008
El Bushra, Judy. “Feminism, Gender and Women's Peace Activism,” Development and Change
38(1): 2007, 131–147
Gureyeva, Yuliya. “Natsionalnii 'Gender': Made in Azerbaijan.” Tbilisi: Heinrich Boell Stiftung,
2006
Heyat, Farideh. Azeri Women in Transition: Women in Soviet and post-Soviet Azerbaijan.
London: Routledge Curzon, 2002
Kronsell, Annica and Erika Svedberg, eds. Making Gender, Making War: Wiolence, Military
and Peacekeeping Practices. London: Routledge, 2012
Najafizadeh, Mehrangiz. “Women’s Empowering Carework in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan.” Gender
and Society, Vol. 17, No. 2 (2003): 293-304
Ni Aolain, Fionnuala, Dina Francesca Haynes and Naomi Cahn. On the Frontlines: Gender,
War and the Post-Conflict Process. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011
Pankhurst, Donna, ed. Gendered Peace: Women’s Struggles for Post-War Justice and
Reconciliation. London: Routledge, 2008
Tohidi, Nayereh. “Women, Building Civil Society, and Democratization in Post-Soviet
Azerbaijan.” In Post-Soviet Women Encountering Transition: Nation Building, Economic
Survival, and Civic Activism, ed. Kathleen Kuehnast and Carol Nechemias, 149-171.
Washington DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2004
For a draft version of this paper, please contact
walshs7@tcd.ie