Re-thinking the ‘Normative’ in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325: Perspectives from Sri Lanka
| Date | 01 August 2017 |
| Published date | 01 August 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2347797017710749 |
| Author | Shweta Singh |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Re-thinking the ‘Normative’
in United Nations
Security Council Resolution
1325: Perspectives
from Sri Lanka
Shweta Singh1
Abstract
This article asserts the need to re-think the ‘normative’ in United Nations
Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) from the standpoint of
the ‘local’, in this case Sri Lanka. It argues that UNSCR 1325 needs to be
situated within the larger discourse on international norms, and challenges to
the implementation of UNSCR 1325 in varied ‘local’ contexts can be evaluated
through the theoretical frameworks provided by existing literature on norms
diffusion. I put forward three main arguments: First, the need to go beyond the
neat classification of contexts as ‘conflict’ and ‘post-conflict’; second, the need
to problematize gender as homogenous and women as coherent stable category
of analysis; and third, to look beyond women as victims or agents. I argue that
women in post-war Sri Lanka can more aptly be classified as controlled actors
as women’s agency is structurally and culturally controlled, which inhibits their
capacity to act or perform. In conclusion, I posit that Sri Lanka not only presents
a strong case for the localization of the ‘normative’ in UNSCR 1325 but also
provides justification for a three-level bottom-up analysis (local, regional and
international) to comprehensively understand why UNSCR 1325 fails or
succeeds to influence state behaviour.
Keywords
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, gender norms, norm diffusion,
post-war Sri Lanka, controlled actors
Article
1
Assistant Professor and Assistant Dean of Students, Department of International Relations,
Faculty of Social Sciences, South Asian University, New Delhi, India.
Corresponding author:
Shweta Singh, Department of International Relations, Faculty of Social Sciences, South Asian
University, New Delhi 110021, India.
E-mail: shwetasingh@sau.ac.in
Journal of Asian Security
and International Affairs
4(2) 219–238
2017 SAGE Publications India
Private Limited
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/2347797017710749
http://aia.sagepub.com
220 Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs 4(2)
Introduction
In Africa and Asia, though many acknowledged the need to deal firmly with impunity
and sexual violence, more often the conversation would turn to reparations, livelihoods
and economic empowerment. There was a belief that the normative framework had to
be localized and there should be greater attention to mapping what local communities
and women actually need. For many of these women, with these aspirations at the
local level, nothing really has taken place. For them, [UNSCR 1325] has been a failure
(UN Women, 2015, p. 28).
The above excerpt is drawn from the high-level global study on women, peace and
security that was launched in October 2015, which also marked the fifteenth
anniversary of the landmark United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR)
1325 (adopted in 2000) on women, peace and security. This special session (SC/12076,
13 October 2015) also marked the unanimous passing of UNSCR 2242 (adopted
in 2015), which reaffirmed the international community’s commitment to the women,
peace and security agenda (WPS). The WPS agenda was formally inaugurated by the
Security Council with the adoption of UNSCR 1325 in the year 2000. The UNSCR
1325 is a landmark resolution as it recognized for the first time that conflicts impact
men and women differently, and also reaffirmed the important role of women in the
prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peace-building, peace-
keeping, humanitarian response and post- conflict reconstruction. This pushed for a
radical re-imagination of peace and security architecture, and many argued that it was
a landmark resolution for the global feminist movement. With the adoption of
UNSCR 2242 in 2015, there are now eight1 resolutions that work to further the WPS
agenda, both normatively and in practice.
However, the implementation of UNSCR 1325 has been a slow process. Since
2004, the Security Council has called on member states to implement UNSCR
1325 through the development of National Action Plans (NAPs) or other national
level strategies (S/PRST/2004/40 and S/PRST/2005/52).2 As of January 2017,
only 63 nations have created an NAP to implement the normative agenda set
forth by UNSCR 1325. In South Asia, only Nepal and Afghanistan have adopted
an NAP. The NAP is a significant ‘implementation marker’ that points in the
direction of reconfiguration or realignment of state behaviour from the standpoint
of implementing UNSCR 1325.
This article attempts to situate the UN-led WPS discourse within the theo-
retical ambit of the constructivist framework in international politics where
ideas and norms gain salience in understanding state behaviour. It posits that
UNSCR 1325 needs to be situated within the larger discourse on international
norms, and challenges to the implementation of UNSCR 1325 in varied ‘local’
contexts can be evaluated through the theoretical framework provided by
the existing literature on norms diffusion. There is broad recognition that
UNSCR 1325 has played an important role in foregrounding norms on WPS,
which are difficult for member states to shun (Tryggestad, 2009, p. 504).
But whether these norms are transformative enough to bring about a strategic
change in the contours of WPS discourse remains a critical question.
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