Empowerment, Reintegration, and Female Ex
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Empowerment, Reintegration, and Female Ex-Combatants: A Critical Feminist Peacebuilding Analysis of UN-led Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration Programs in Liberia and Nepal A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2020 Michanne L Steenbergen School of Social Sciences Contents Figures ____________________________________________________ 4 Index ______________________________________________________ 5 Declaration _________________________________________________ 7 Acknowledgments ____________________________________________ 8 Introduction _________________________________________________ 9 Argument and Contributions _______________________________________________ 11 Why Liberia and Nepal?___________________________________________________ 12 Chapter outline _________________________________________________________ 14 What is DDR? __________________________________________________________ 17 Liberia and Nepal _______________________________________________________ 21 Chapter 1: Feminist Critiques of DDR ____________________________ 36 Feminist Critique 1: Female Ex-Combatants Are Excluded From DDR _________________ 38 Feminist Critique 2: Inclusion in DDR Reproduces Gendered Inequalities ______________ 42 Feminist Critique 3: The Concept of Reintegration is Problematic ____________________ 45 Economic, Social, and Political Reintegration ___________________________________ 50 Conclusions ____________________________________________________________ 66 Chapter 2: Critical Feminist Peacebuilding ________________________ 68 Experience ____________________________________________________________ 70 Narratives _____________________________________________________________ 79 Hybridities ____________________________________________________________ 91 Methodology __________________________________________________________ 97 Conclusions ___________________________________________________________ 114 Chapter 3: Empowerment_____________________________________ 116 What is Empowerment and why is it Useful? __________________________________ 118 Power Over ___________________________________________________________ 125 Power To ____________________________________________________________ 129 Power Within _________________________________________________________ 133 Power With ___________________________________________________________ 139 Conclusions ___________________________________________________________ 144 Chapter 4: Empowerment of Female Combatants in Liberia and Nepal __ 147 Negative Experiences of Conflict ___________________________________________ 148 Power Over ___________________________________________________________ 151 Power To ____________________________________________________________ 157 Power Within _________________________________________________________ 168 Power With ___________________________________________________________ 175 Conclusions ___________________________________________________________ 180 2 Chapter 5: Reintegration and Empowerment of Female Ex-Combatants in Liberia and Nepal __________________________________________ 183 Reintegration of Female Ex-Combatants _____________________________________ 184 Power Over ___________________________________________________________ 194 Power To ____________________________________________________________ 196 Power Within _________________________________________________________ 202 Power With ___________________________________________________________ 213 Conclusions ___________________________________________________________ 221 Chapter 6: Gendered Narratives in UN-led DDR ___________________ 224 Victims Narrative ______________________________________________________ 226 Threats Narrative ______________________________________________________ 233 Mothers Narrative______________________________________________________ 240 Wives Narrative _______________________________________________________ 246 Daughters Narrative ____________________________________________________ 251 Peacebuilders and Agents of Change Narrative?________________________________ 261 Hybridities Through Narratives ____________________________________________ 263 Conclusions ___________________________________________________________ 270 Conclusion ________________________________________________ 273 Reintegration and DDR __________________________________________________ 274 Empowerment ________________________________________________________ 275 Towards an Emancipatory Peace ___________________________________________ 276 Concluding Remarks ____________________________________________________ 284 Bibliography ______________________________________________ 285 Appendices ________________________________________________ 332 Appendix A: 40-Point Demands __________________________________________ 332 Appendix B: List of Interviews ___________________________________________ 335 Appendix C: Consent Form _____________________________________________ 337 Appendix D: Participant Information Sheet _________________________________ 338 Word Count: 80338 3 Figures FIGURE 1: MAP OF LIBERIA (NIC 2019) .......................................................................98 FIGURE 2: MAP OF NEPAL (RA ONLINE 2019)............................................................99 4 Index AFL Armed Forces of Liberia CPA Comprehensive Peace Agreement DDR Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration FAAFG Females associated with armed forces and groups FTR Family Tracing and Reunification GoL Government of Liberia GoN Government of Nepal IDDRS Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Standards ILO International Labor Organization LDDRR Liberian Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Programme LURD Liberians United for Democracy MODEL Movement for Democracy in Liberia MoPR Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction NA Nepal Army NCDDRR National Commission on Disarmament, Demobilization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration NGO Non-governmental organization NPFL National Patriotic Front of Liberia PLA People’s Liberation Army ULIMO-J United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy – Johnson faction ULIMO-K United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy – Kromah faction UN United Nations UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNDPKO United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations UNFPA United Nations Population Fund UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund UNIFEM United Nations Development Fund for Women UN-INSTRAW United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women UNIRP United Nations Interagency Rehabilitation Programme UNMIL United Nations Mission in Liberia UNMIN United Nations Mission in Nepal UNSCR United Nations Security Council Resolution VMLRs Verified Minor and Late Recruits VST Vocational Skills Training 5 Abstract The participation of female combatants in conflict has increasingly been recognized in feminist literatures and in policies and programs concerned with reintegrating ex- combatants and building peace. This has illustrated that female ex-combatants often experience ‘empowerment’ through their role as combatant; however, this empowerment is ‘lost’ upon reintegration. To make sense of this apparent disappearance of empowerment, I look at United Nations-led Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (UN-led DDR) programs, particularly the reintegration aspect. This is because DDR programs are often significant interventions in terms of scope and funding, and designed as ‘social engineering’ to turn combatants into peaceable civilians. This thesis addresses the following research question: “In what ways have UN-led DDR programs, particularly the reintegration aspect, supported or undermined female ex-combatants’ empowerment in Liberia and Nepal?” To address this research question, this thesis draws on what I consider critical feminist peacebuilding scholarship. Specifically, I draw on three analytical strategies commonly used in critical feminist peacebuilding scholarship to make sense of female ex- combatants’ empowerment in relation to reintegration and UN-led DDR. These strategies include female ex-combatants’ experiences and narratives of empowerment, gendered narratives and multiple local-international interactions producing hybridities in UN-led DDR. Drawing on 77 semi-structured interviews with female ex-combatants and DDR officials, conducted over five months of fieldwork in Liberia and Nepal, this thesis argues that female combatants experienced empowerment during conflict. With reintegration, much of this empowerment is subsequently lost. This thesis concludes that UN-led DDR largely undermines female ex-combatants’ empowerment through multiple gendered narratives and hybridities in UN-led DDR. This thesis has various implications. Firstly, this thesis builds on and contributes to feminist literatures on DDR, female ex-combatants, and empowerment through the case studies of Liberia and Nepal, by highlighting gendered narratives and hybridities in UN-led DDR have undermined female ex-combatants’ empowerment. In doing so, this thesis applies insights from critical feminist peacebuilding scholarship on experiences, narratives, and hybridities and extends these to DDR. Secondly, for UN-led DDR policy and programming, and liberal peacebuilding more broadly, this thesis underscores the need to rethink how female ex-combatants are supported in liberal peacebuilding, including UN- led DDR, to contribute to an emancipatory peace. 6 Declaration