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DECEMBER 22-23, 2001 - CONFERENCE ROOM |
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ABSTRACT THE ROLEOF GENDER, WATER AND ENVIRONMENT IN THE PROCESS OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION SHARMINA NASRIN * The protracted conflicts between and within the states of South Asia have resulted in a sharp rise in the number of refugees and displaced persons over the years. Almost 70 percent of these refugees are women and children. But the existing conflict resolution mechanism remains woefully inadequate in dealing with refugee issues-specially when it comes to refugee women who represent the most marginalised of a marginalised section of population. Most approaches to conflict resolution and peacebuilding have either ignored or marginalised issues of women. Women, let alone refugee women, are hardly seen in "conflict resolutionary groups" as playing a vital and different role in the peace negotiation, which might have come out with an alternative solution from their experience.
This invisibility of refugee women in public sphere/negotiation table is mainly because
of the fact that refugee women are commonly labelled as 'helpless' and 'vulnerable groups' of population ignoring their extraordinary coping abilities as compared to those of men. These images traditionally denied women
to have any political influences over security management issues. As a result, conflict resolution becomes highly gender biased. The present paper is an attempt to explore how far issues like 'refugees' and 'gender'
influence the process of conflict resolution and peacemaking in the context of South Asia. How have women become the primary victims of refugeehood and displacement, were there any gender-specific causes? What were the
vulnerabilities of women in such settings? How they coped with the changed situation? Is there any scope to represent the refugee women from victimised one to female actors so that they can move out of their
vulnerabilities and insecurity? Could women's differential experience yield alternative perspective on conflict resolution and peace? These are some of the questions the present study attempted to seek answers.
Main argument of my paper is that given the changing dynamics of conflicts and the notion of security from state centricism to human security, any sustainable solution to the protracted intra-state conflict in South
Asia calls for a comprehensive and inclusive framework of conflict resolution where apart from state's dominant role, perspective and participation of individuals who are the real victims and affected citizenry of
conflict needs to have a decisive entry into the process of conflict resolution and subsequent transformation of conflict. * Research Officer, Bangladesh Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Dhaka.
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