5.2. Women organizing for peace: the narratives and strategies
5.2.3. Women’s organizational roles and approaches in the post-conflict
5.2.3.1. Women and security sector reform in post-conflict Liberia
Security sector reform or transformation involves a diversity of activities, including genderized disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR); reinforcing civilian governed military that is inclusive of both men and women; professionalizing security and armed forces, and strengthening the rule of law in the implementation of all these programmes (Bastick and Whitman 2013:6). Basically, SSR encompasses the adoption and implementation of robust and clear-cut national defence and security policies, as well as firearm laws. Undertaking this security reform is pivotal to post-conflict recovery processes, and the failure of states, institutions, and societies to address these issues, especially the DDR of ex-combatants, often present a high risk of relapse into conflict and the elusiveness of peace (Gariba 2011).
The DDR as Bastick (2008:2) specifies, must be representative and inclusive of women in order to ensure operative and accountable security sector transformation that likewise address their needs and interests. Ultimately, civil society including non-profit organizations, movements, groups and associations are in the main considered as significant role players in the management SSR programmes. According to Bastick and Whitman (2013:7), civil society poses the potential to influence these security processes by undertaking a multiplicity of roles.
These may vary from assisting in the formulation of policies and new programme initiatives;
overseeing and monitoring the processes; contributing to information and training activities;
facilitating negotiations and the process of information flow between national security sector actors and the local communities; and offering security services to and within communities.
Literature encapsulating the period of Liberia’s first civil war up to its episodic resolution indicate that women were quite vocal on the issues of DDR (Anderlini 2000; Massaquoi 2007;
MacCarthy 2011; Tripp 2015). For example, LWI and its collaborating women’s groups implored stakeholders to keep to their part of the peace bargain and disarm before the 1997 elections. Employing anew the strategy of entreating rebels as an established exercise, they mobilized women from all over the country to engage rebels at the different arms collection
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outlets and entreat with them to hand over their weaponries. As a result, an approximated 80% of the weaponries had been collected by 1996 (Anderlini 2000); and further estimated 74% disarmed and demobilized by February 1997 (Jaye 2010:6). In light of this progress, Massaquoi (2007:69) expounds that the holding of the 1997 elections was possible because the transitional government of Ruth Sando Perry had to an extent succeeded in disarming some of the combatants.
Previewing the importance of women’s roles in SSR and mindful of the adverse consequences of their marginal representation in the DDR processes pre to post 1997 developments in Liberia, women, subsequent to the CPA in 2003 resolved to undertake the vital stance of ensuring the practicalization of the DDR processes. In the framework of women’s role in these processes, the women of WIPNET’s determinedly assumed the position of implementers of the Accra peace agreement (Bekoe and Parajon 2007). Despite this impetus to ensure stakeholders’ adherence to the terms of the agreement and their recorded abilities to persuade rebel commanders to convene for the peace dialogues, women remained unequally represented48 in the DDR processes. Undeterred and even more resolute in their position, women proceeded to set the scenes for facilitating and realizing the implementation of the agenda for arms control and disarmament, as recounted by Leymah Gbowee (2013) that:
“Not only were we mobilizing and empowering women to take upon the responsibility overseers of the DDR processes, but we were into the actual DDR, visiting the disarmament camps and communities, and supplicating and persuading fighters - child soldiers and adult combatants alike - to give up their weapons.”
Liberian women made vital contributions to the DDR programme by engaging UNMIL on matters of implementation strategies. They were particularly focused on the DDR of child soldiers, seeing as children constituted the vast majority of fighters (approximately number of 15,000 to 20,000, inclusive of girls) in the ranks and battle grounds of the rebel groups (Adebajo 2002). It is important to note that the operationalization of these in the DDR was still under the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace Campaign, which as highlighted by
48 Worth noting is the fact that the percentage of women’s involvement in 2003 following was far higher than in during and after the first civil war.
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Alaga (2011: 23), comprised of women from other pivotal organizations, including the like WIPNET-WANEP, LWI, MARWOPNET, the Muslim Women Association and the Christian Women Association, and the Association of Female Lawyers in Liberia (AFELL), among others. Some noticeable outcomes of the involvement of these women in the DDR was the recognition of their efforts by UNMIL, who officially accorded women the platform to lobby and enlighten communities about the arms control, disarmament and reintegration agenda (Alaga 2011; Bastick 2008). In taking up this role play, women were able to:
i. Gain the confidence of the combatants and communities as unbiased peacemakers and conciliators in the DDR programme; and
ii. Reintegrate many child soldiers back into their communities through organized cleansing ceremonies, where the ex-combatants were dressed in white as a symbol of peace and accompanied by their families back into their communities (Alaga 2011: 14).
iii. Succeed in demanding for the recruitment of more women into all security services, leading to the adoption of the 20 percent quota for their inclusion in police and military services sectors, with a significant component of Indian police women as an enhancement for more female recruits;
iv. Advocate for operative and efficient genderized SSR processes to be implemented in tandem with transformative training activities that provide trauma therapy for security forces, retributive reform programs that was/is considerate of the needs of men, women as well as young detainees, and non-monetary or sexually exploitative DDR of ex-combatants and communities (Bastick 2008:9-10).
According to Valasek (2008:19), a total of 22,370 women and 2,440 girls had undergone the disarmament and demobilization process by February 2005, and a collective of 13,223 of these women were reintegrated back into society and empowered in different self-sustaining and enabling sectors like agriculture, vocational training (including sewing and hairdressing), and formal education. By the end of the entire DDR process in October of 2007, a total of 90,000 former fighters (including men, women and children) had successfully undergone the
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DDR programme (McCarthy 2011:107). In line with reports by UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and UNMIL, some of the distinguished outcomes of the gendered-responsive SSR process adopted for Liberia are evidenced by the following developments:
i. The establishment a Women and Children Protection Section of the Liberian National Police (LNP) and a Women and Children’s unit in the Liberian prisons in 2005, with specially trained officers hose tasks involve the handling and management of cases of sexual and other forms of gender-based violence (Bastick 2008: 10).
ii. The graduation of 150 women recruits from the police school in 2009, a 12.6 percent plus representation of women in the police force, and the training of close to 3,000 police officers to be vest with dealing with criminal investigations, cases relating to protection of women and children, and issues pertaining to firearms (DCAF 2011:
9-10).
The overall conclusion gathered from field discussions with regards to Liberia’s security sector reformation is that it remains a working progress, and continuous efforts are being made to ensure the respect of the human’s rights and safety of women working in all security sectors of the state. This in particular was confirmed in the interview with the Liberian Female Law Enforcement Association (LIFLEA), whereby she elaborated on the work the organization thus:
“LIFLEA seeks to advocate for female security officers in all the security agencies (private and Public) in Liberia, and advance their training, seek redress when their rights are trampled upon, and for challenges they face as female officers on the job. When these challenges are brought to our attention, we contact the head of their agencies for speedy resolution. For example, a female officer was slapped by an assistant minister in government without major reasons. When the information reached us here at LIFLEA, we wrote the office of the president informing her of the action of a minister in her government, towards women. The president investigated the matter and that minister was dismissed from his job based on his actions. Also, given the ever-present challenge of women’s marginalization especially when it comes to job opportunities, LIFLEA always make efforts to advocate for the women to get the job where possible. However, this intervention only happens in situations where we are aware that the female applicant
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is equally capable and qualified for the job as her male counterpart, but stands the chance of not being offered the position because of her gender” (UI-6, July 2015).
Advocating equal opportunities for women in traditionally male-dominated professions, the security domain being one of such, is at an increase especially in post-conflict societies.
According to participants from the Ministry of Gender (UI-4 July 2015) and UNMIL (UI-7 July 2015), women are suitably and equally proficient to undertake and deliver on their responsibilities in the security sector, as does their male colleagues. Skills development, capacity building, and know-how through training are benchmarks in the security domain, UI-6 asserted. Remarkably, the interview with LIFLEA was conducted while some of its female members were undergoing training. The organization’s trainings and programs, are generally implemented in consultation and collaboration with other organizations (the Gender ministry, UNMIL, Immigration and Naturalization, which has the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization Women Association (BINWA), the Liberia’s National Police and Army sectors, AFELL, WONGOSOL, etc.), and are followed by graduation ceremonies of the trainees (UI-6, July 2015).
In a review of efforts towards security sector reform, this study observed that ensuring gender- inclusivity in the security pillar has been vital in setting the pace for relative realization and effectiveness of Liberia’s post-conflict agenda. This is in the sense that the politics of security as a predominantly men venture has transformed significantly, with women assuming different positions in the security sector and advocating for equal opportunities and participation. More so, women’s access to the security sector in Liberia has been indicative of their ability to plot a course around patriarchal structures and stereotypes that repress, marginalize, violate, and discriminate against women’s rights. With women organizations being progressively assertive, women empowerment becomes prominent in this window of access. Besides, the push for recognition of their human and civil rights as equal stakeholders in the reconstruction and development of Liberia, continue to undergird the essence of the country’s post-conflict agenda.
Narratives of women’s involvement in the security sector in Liberia also highlight the power in women’s organizational agency. Recapping the review of literature from the historical to the contemporary, this represents an important milestone for women’s leadership in
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peacebuilding that is reflected in the provisions of UNSCR1325 (2000). Further perspectives on women’s role in security sector programming in post-conflict Liberia is exemplified through WANEP/WIPNET’s early warning and response projects. The organization trains women to be early warning monitors of indicators of simmering tensions, which they report on in order to ensure decisive response and prevention mechanisms to be employed. This project entails a lot of collaboration across the various spheres of the society, including community leaders and chiefs, other civil society organizations, and private and public security sectors (UI-9, July 2015). In the framework of post-conflict environments, such activities often go beyond early warning monitoring, to provide women with the understanding and skills on how to address issues of women peace and security as it concerns and relates to them and their communities.