Gender and the Programme of Action

The 2001 UN Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons (PoA) is the principal international instrument addressing the proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons (SALW) worldwide.

However, with its emphasis on technical detail, the Programme of Action loses sight of the human involvement in small arms use and control. The problems of small arms proliferation and misuse cannot be dealt with in the same way the international community deals with other categories of weapons because, unlike other weapons, SALW are so readily available to people outside the control of national security laws or crime control. They are held by civilians, private security companies, gangs, young people and a variety of other groups.. If the illicit trade in small arms is to be addressed, approaches to it must be multi-dimensional, based on an understanding of the local society, and not just come from the state.

The only reference to gender in the PoA comes in the Preamble: “Gravely concerned about… devastating consequences on children… as well as the negative impact on women and the elderly…”

However, this statement makes the common mistake of identifying women only as victims, whereas in reality women and girls play diverse and multiple roles as combatants, weapons carriers for traffickers and in a more positive sense as peacebuilders and agents of change. In fact the majority of SALW homicide victims are men. Men, women, boys and girls have different experiences of conflict because of the different roles, relationships, experiences and expectations that they have in society. They also have different roles to play in the proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons and are affected by it in different ways.

For example, 90 percent of those killed by small arms are men, but women often experience the longer lasting impacts of it as carers and health providers. Whilst perceptions of combatants tend to be of men and boys, women are also combatants or combatant associates – informers, wives, sex slaves or cooks. In some conflicts, for example, in Burundi, the role of women in encouraging their men to take up arms as protectors and defenders of the community is seen as key in the escalation of violence.

Understanding the gender dimensions of small arms proliferation and misuse is essential to help clarify the challenges and opportunities for disarmament and address specific issues such as supply and demand. At most levels, security is regarded as an issue that exclusively involves men and boys – and so as a result, security policy and practice debates rarely involve women in any significant way, but disarmament programmes that benefit only certain sectors of society will not be effective.

We recently published a paper that gives a background to the interrelationship between the PoA and gender as well as recommendations on how arms controls can be better implemented by taking into account the different roles of men, women, girls and boys in society. It also highlights the inconsistency of UN small arms policy with existing UN and international policies on gender, peace and security, which endorse and recommend the importance of integrating gender-specific protection needs into all policy and practice

The paper is intended to assist governments as they implement the PoA and practitioners in development and conflict contexts to make their analysis and practice more gender-aware. It is also specifically aimed at policy makers as they discuss new agreements that will complement the current PoA and potentially revise the text in late 2006.

We are now beginning follow-up work in partnership with the UN Department of Disarmament Affairs.

Links

• Click here to download our report, Putting a Human Face to the Problem of Small Arms Proliferation: Gender Implications for the Effective Implementation of the UN Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its Aspects
  
  
• Click here to find out more about our work on gender and peacebuilding

For more information contact Charlotte Watson

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Last updated: February 2006