Gender and Peacekeeping: Some Facts

Women in Leadership | DPKO's Gender Advisor | Gender Units & Advisors | Gender Focal Points
Gender Balance - Women as Peacekeeping Personnel

WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP

Women as Special Representatives of the Secretary-General (SRSG) & Deputy Special Representatives of the Secretary-General (DSRSG)

Current women SRSGs & DSRSGs

Out of 30 peace operations (peacekeeping, political, and peacebuilding missions), there is currently 1 woman appointed as SRSG and 1 woman in the position of DSRSG:

• Liberia (UNMIL): SRSG Ellen Margrethe Løj (Denmark), appointed October 2007

• Liberia (UNMIL): DSRSG Henrietta Joy Abena Nyarko Mensa-Bonsu (Ghana), appointed August 2007

Former women SRSGs

• Angola (UNAVEM II), 1992-93: SRSG Margaret Joan Anstee (She has written about her experiences as a woman SRSG in Never Learn To Type: A Woman at the United Nations)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH), 1995-2001: Elizabeth Rehn
• Burundi (ONUB), 2004-2006: Carolyn McAskie
• Cyprus (UNFICYP), 1998-99: Gro Harlem Brundtland (Norway)
• Georgia (UNOMIG), 2002-2006:Heidi Tagliavini
• South Africa (UNOMSA), 1992-94: Angela King

In addition to the women serving as SRSGs and DSRSGs, listed above, there are a number of other women currently serving in other UN high-level appointments:
• UN Special Advisor on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women: Rachel N. Mayanja (Uganda)
• Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for HIV/AIDS in Asia/ Pacific: Nafis Sadik (Pakistan)
• Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for HIV/AIDS in Africa: Elizabeth Mataka (Botswana)
• Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders: Hina Jilani (Pakistan)
• Secretary-General’s Executive Coordinator for the Millennium Development Goals Campaign: Eveline Herfkens (Netherlands)
• Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations International School: Silvia Fuhrman (US)
• Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict: Radhika Coomaraswamy (Sri Lanka)
• Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Climate Change: Gro Harlem Brundtland (Norway)

For the full list of SRSGs, Special Envoys and other high-level appointments, visit: http://www.un.org/News/ossg/srsg/table.htm

DPKO'S GENDER ADVISOR

Gender Advisor in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) Headquarters: Comfort Lamptey. She is based in the Peacekeeping Best Practices Unit in DPKO Headquarters in New York, known as “the home for Advisors and Focal Points.”

This position was filled temporarily, from October 2003 to August 2004, by Anna Shotton as Acting Gender Advisor. With the arrival of the permanent Gender Advisor, Anna Shotton became DPKO’s Focal Point on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, based in the Peacekeeping Best Practices Unit.

A gender advisory capacity at DPKO Headquaters was originally envisioned by the Secretary-General in 2000 as a formalized gender unit with 3 staff, including a senior gender advisor at the D-1 level, and a gender advisor at the P-4 level. However, due to resistance from the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), among others, this capacity was gradually reduced to a single gender advisor post at the P-5 level with an administrative assistant, and then further reduced and demoted to a single gender advisor post at the P-4 level with no administrative assistance.

Building on an earlier compilation, the PeaceWomen Project has produced a detailed history of the development of this position, by compiling all relevant references from UN documents – reports of the Secretary-General, ACABQ, Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, and resolutions of the General Assembly. To view this compilation, CLICK HERE.

GENDER UNITS & ADVISORS

The role of gender advisors in gender units is to promote, facilitate, support and monitor the incorporation of gender perspectives peacekeeping operations.
(Secretary-General's Study on Women, Peace and Security, 2002)

Gender units and advisors in peacekeeping operations are working to provide technical guidance to the heads of operations, to ensure increased efforts to mainstream gender perspectives into all functional areas of peacekeeping and to increase the participation of women leaders and organizations in the implementation of the mandate of the operation.
Secretary-General's Report on Women, peace and security (13 October 2004)

In 2000, 2 gender advisors were assigned to peacekeeping operations...

As of May 2008, out of 20 current peacekeeping operations, 12 have a dedicated full-time gender advisory capacity- which could mean either a formalized unit with a number of staff working on gender issues, or a single gender advisor post:

• Chad and Central African Republic, MINURCAT
Gender Affairs Officer: Gladys Atinga (awaiting deployment)
Email: atinga@un.org

• Côte d'Ivoire, ONUCI
Senior Gender Advisor: Fernanda Taveres
Email: taveres1@un.org

• Darfur, UNAMID
Gender Affairs Officer: Isha Dyfan
dyfan@un.org

• Democratic Republic of the Congo, MONUC: Gender Unit (Established in 2000, 1 year after the Mission began)
Gender Advisor: Dominique Bassinga
Email: bassinga@un.org

MONUC Gender Affairs site: http://www.monuc.org/news.aspx?newsID=722&menuOpened=Activities

• Haiti, MINUSTAH: Gender Unit (Established in 2004, at the start of the peacekeeping operation)
Senior Gender Advisor: Nadine Puechguirbal
Email: puechguirbal@un.org

• Kosovo, UNMIK: Gender Unit (Established in 1999)
Gender Advisor: Vacant

• Liberia, UNMIL: Gender Unit (Established in 2003)
Gender Advisor: Vacant

UNMIL Gender site: http://www.unmil.org/content.asp?ccat=gender

• SUDAN, UNMIS
Senior Gender Advisor: Amina Adam
Email: adama@un.org

UNMIS Gender site: http://www.unmis.org/english/gender.htm

• Timor-Leste, UNMIT
Senior Gender Advisor: Rita Reddy
Email: reddyr@un.org

Additionally, the following are political missions are supported by the DPKO, and are thus also included in this list:

• Afghanistan, UNAMA
Gender Advisor: Vacant
Gender Affairs Officer: Stella Makanya
Email: makanya@un.org

UNAMA webpage on gender issues: http://www.unama-afg.org/about/gender/gender.html

• Burundi, BINUB
Gender Advisor: Pascaline Menono
Email: menono@un.org

• Sierra Leone, UNIOSIL
Gender Advisor: Enshrah Ahmed
Email: ahmed129@un.org

GENDER FOCAL POINTS

In addition to the above missions which have a dedicated gender advisory capacity, 6 peacekeeping missions have a Gender Focal Point (GFP).

What is a Gender Focal Point?
"To assist in improving gender balance in peacekeeping operations, a network of focal points for women was established in DPKO Headquarters and field missions in late 2000, similar to the network of departmental focal points for women in the UN Secretariat. This network was set up on the advice of the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women (OSAGI). In missions, these focal points are currently involved in personnel issues such as recruitment, promotions, employment discrimination and sexual harassment. The functions of the focal point for women should not be confused with those of the gender adviser." (See Gender Resources Package)

• CYPRUS, UNFICYP
Gender Focal Point: Maria Wilkins
Email: wilkinsm@un.org

• ETHIOPIA & ERITREA, UNMEE
Gender Focal Point: Musi Khumalo
Email: khumalo@un.org

• GEORGIA, UNOMIG
Gender Focal Point: Valerie Maugy
Email: maugy@un.org

• Golan Heights, UNDOF
Gender Focal Point: Susan AsomaningEmail: asomanings@un.org

• India and Pakistan, UNMOGIP
Gender Focal Point: Huma Shahid
Email: shahid@un.org

• Lebanon, UNIFIL
Gender Focal Point: Jacoba Genis
Email: genisj@un.org

• MIDDLE EAST, UNTSO
Gender Focal Point: Gertrude Mwendah
Email: mwendahg@un.org

•WESTERN SAHARA, MINURSO
Gender Focal Point: Gerlinde Kurzbach
Email: kurzbach@un.org

GENDER BALANCE - WOMEN AS PEACEKEEPERS

Women's presence [in peacekeeping missions] improves access and support for local women; it makes male peacekeepers more reflective and responsible; and it broadens the repertoire of skills and styles available within the mission, often with the effect of reducing conflict and confrontation.
(DPKO statement, 2000, in UNIFEM's Independent Experts Assessment on Women, War and Peace)

2007
• As of December 2007, women constitute only 1% of personnel in military functions.

2006
• As of December 2006, women constituted only 1% of personnel in military functions.

2005
• As of September 2005, women constituted only 1% of personnel in military functions and 4% of those in civilian police functions.

• Among civillian staff in peacekeeping operations, women constitute on average 30% of international personnel and 20% of nationally recruited staff

2004

• As of July 2004, women constituted 4.4% of Civilian Police (CivPol), out of a total of 6, 000 CivPol, and 1% of military personnel working in peacekeeping operations.

• As of June 2004, women constituted 27.5% of international civilian personnel serving in peacekeeping operations, up from 24% in 2002.

2003

• At the end of 2003, women represented 25% of civilian professional staff, 4% of CivPol and 1.5% of military personnel working in peacekeeping operations.

2002

• Women represented 3.8% of CivPol, out of a total of 8, 000 CivPol (only figures currently available)

Pre-2003

• In 2000, women represented 4% of CivPol and 3% of military personnel.

• Between 1957-1989, women represented 0.1% of field-based military personnel in peacekeeping operations.

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