BIC in Colombia DAY 3

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Fernando Aguiar
SENIOR ADVISOR ON CONFLICT AND EU FOREIGN AFFAIRS

BIC in Colombia DAY 3


 

Militarism is an ideology that values the military and its members over civilian society, and that privileges militarized over non-militarizing means of solving a conflict. In Colombia, as in many parts of the world, policies and societal expectations construct soldering as the natural domain of men. On the other hand, women`s participation in violence is understood to be exceptional or deviant.

On the third day of its mission in Colombia, the BIC attended several pertinent meeting with high-level experts from the fields of EU policy, gender and security. The first meeting took place at the EU Delegation in Colombia and included representatives from its Women, Peace and Security department. The conversation between the BIC and the EU Delegation focused on the role of the military in the Latin-American context. As discussed, gender and militarism must be understood as mutually constitutive. The goal of a few projects the EU is financing is to deconstruct this violent notion of militarism and redefine the dichotomous, hierarchical gender norms that operate within the security structures. Finally, the objective of some activities implemented in Colombia in coordination with the security sector is to delink soldering from violent and aggressive notions of masculinity.

Following this productive encounter, the BIC headed to a conversation with the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, which has been operating in the country since 2017. As part of its mandate, the UN Mission intends to verify the implementation of the Peace Accord signed between the Government and the FARCs. This includes the political, economic and social reintegration of FARC-EP and the implementation of personal and collective security guarantees. It also includes programmes on security and protection measures for communities and organizations in the territories previously occupied by the FARCs, as well as carrying out the required regional and local verification. During the meeting, the BIC made a few relevant recommendations for the mission, highlighting the importance of including a gender perspective as a strategic component of the mission. According to Fernando Aguiar, BIC`s Research Manager & Strategic Advisor on Conflict and Security, without a comprehensive inclusion of a gender perspective, the UN risks a conceptual vagueness on its initiatives, that undermines analysis, policy, cooperation and programming.

At the end of the day, the BIC, together with UN Women met with the representatives from the Colombian Armed Forces. On the security sector, especially in the armed forces, there is an urgent need to integrate gender analysis on its operational capacity. The Armed Forces highlighted that at the moment there is no single unity that would have a specific focus on issues related to gender. Rather, gender is put on the side together with human rights. Participants discussed ways in which the security sector could benefit from having such unity. The BIC made a few recommendations which included targeted training and capacity-building programmes on gender and security practices

Overall, the meetings provided an insightful understanding of the many interrelations between gender and security, and how both should be considered as relevant elements to analyzing causes of conflict and paths for solutions.