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Women's Participation and Social Provisions in Peace Agreements

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Women's Participation and Social Provisions in Peace Agreements Women’s Participation and Social Provisions in Peace Agreements ABDUL KARIM ISSIFU Master’s Thesis Spring 2020 Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University Supervisor: Professor Kristine Höglund Word count: 22.683 ABSTRACT Is the inclusion of social provisions in peace agreements influenced by the participation of women, and if so, why? It is suggested that if women participate in the negotiation, the agreement is likely to broaden with social provisions. But our understanding regarding why social provisions are shaped by the participation of women is still limited as previous research rarely looked at this phenomenon. By drawing on theories suggesting women’s participation will broaden the scope of the negotiation, and theories proposing women through the agency for being at the negotiation table would push for social provisions, this study hypothesizes that if women participate, the agreements are likely to broaden with more social provisions. A content analysis of the agreements reached on Liberia 2003, Sierra Leone 1999, Côte d’Ivoire 2003 and Niger 1995, and a supplementary in-depth comparative case study presents evidence suggesting women does influence peace agreements to become more holistic with more social provisions. At the same time, this study also highlights the essence of taking other factors that shape the scope of the agreements and the presence or absence of social provisions such as the context and duration of the conflicts and the belligerent actor’ will into consideration. Keywords: Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Niger, Peace Agreement; Sierra Leone, Social and Security Provisions, Women’s Participation 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research would not have been completed without the support and encouragement of many people to whom I am deeply grateful. First, I would like to thank my family, particularly my parent Memuna Issifu and K. C. George for their unconditional supports throughout my academic pursuits. Second, I am extremely grateful to the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International for awarding me a full scholarship to pursue this program. Third, I am thankful to all the teachers and non-teaching staff in the Department of Peace and Conflict Research (DPCR), particularly Professor Kristine Höglund for supervising this thesis. Fourth, a sincere appreciation goes to my lovely wife Abigail and son Chris- Andrew for their blessings throughout the program. Fifth, many thanks to my Swede host families (Ulrika, Staffan; Gro, Roine) for making me feel at home and the Rotary Peace Fellows (Class XVII) for their team support. Sixth, I am grateful to the entire students (Class 2018-2020) of the DPCR, especially Nathanael and Maikel for their wonderful love. Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to Felix Dade, Joseph Asante Jr., and Peter Baffour for their technical assistance. 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CSO Civil Society Organization DDR Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration DV Dependent Variable GNR Government of National Reconciliation IPTI Inclusive Peace and Transition Initiative IV Independent Variable LURD Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy MARWOPNET Mano River Women’s Peace Network MARWOPNET Women of the Mano River Women’s Peace Network MODEL Movement for Democracy in Liberia MPCI Mouvement patriotique de Côte d'Ivoire NHRC National Human Rights Commission NPFL National Patriotic Front of Liberia NPP National Patriotic Party ORA Organization of The Armed Resistance PAM Peace Accords Matrix RUF Revolutionary United Front SSR Security Sector Reform TRC Truth and Reconciliation Commission WIPNET Women in Peacebuilding Network WPS Women, Peace and Security LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Causal story explaining why peace agreements might include more social provisions if women participate in peace negotiations………………………………………19 Table 1: Summary of cases specifying variations in the cases’ characteristics………………………...23 Table 2: Outline to evaluate the provisions in peace agreements adopted in the PAM dataset………………………………………………………………………………………26 Table 3: The scope of peace agreements…………………………………………………………...33 Table 4: The scope of provisions in the four peace agreements…………………………………….34 4 Table of Contents Abstract ...............................................................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgments...............................................................................................................................................3 List of abbreviations...........................................................................................................................................4 List of figures and tables....................................................................................................................................4 Table of contents................................................................................................................................................5 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 7 2. PREVIOUS RESEARCH ............................................................................................................................ 9 2.1 Women’s Participation ................................................................................................................................ 9 2.2 Impact of Women’s Participation in Peace Processes ......................................................................... 10 2.3 Social Provisions in Peace Agreements .................................................................................................. 10 2.4 Identifying the Research Gap .................................................................................................................. 11 3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .......................................................................................................... 12 3.1 Conceptualizing Women’s Participation ................................................................................................ 12 3.1.1 Participation as Representation/Justice Argument ....................................................................................... 13 3.2 Conceptualizing Peace Agreement .......................................................................................................... 15 3.3 Conceptualizing Social Provisions .......................................................................................................... 15 3.4 Conceptualizing Agency ........................................................................................................................... 16 3.5 Main Theoretical Arguments ................................................................................................................... 17 3.6 Causal Story ................................................................................................................................................ 19 4. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHOD .............................................................................................. 20 4.1 Case Study Design ..................................................................................................................................... 20 4.2 Data Analysis .............................................................................................................................................. 21 4.3 Case Selection............................................................................................................................................. 22 4.4 Contextualizing Provisions in Peace Agreements................................................................................. 25 4.5 Sources ........................................................................................................................................................ 27 5. WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION AND THE SCOPE OF PEACE AGREEMENTS .................... 28 5.1 Liberia .......................................................................................................................................................... 28 5.2 Sierra Leone ................................................................................................................................................ 29 5.3 Côte d’Ivoire............................................................................................................................................... 31 5.4 Niger ............................................................................................................................................................ 32 5.5 The Scope of Peace Agreements ............................................................................................................. 33 5.6 Conclusion: Scope of Peace Agreements ............................................................................................... 38 6 IN-DEPTH CASE STUDY ....................................................................................................................... 39 5 6.1 Liberia: The Agency of Women at the Table ........................................................................................ 39 6.1.1 Conclusions: Case Analysis of Liberia ......................................................................................................... 41 6.2 Sierra Leone: The Agency of Women at the Table .............................................................................
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