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Key Text From Protection to Empowerment: Civilians as Stakeholders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Author: V Kent and A McIntyre
Date: 2004
Size: 16 pages (218 KB)

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Summary

The importance of civilians as actors in conflict and supporters of the peace process needs to be acknowledged and re-defined if there is to be long-term stability and economic recovery in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This paper by the Institute for Security Studies reveals the profound political importance of re-casting those perceived as 'victims' to understand and value their role as stakeholders, and suggests that the notion of mainstreaming must be broadened beyond the peacekeeping mandate to all aspects of the peace process.

Peacemaking and peacekeeping processes create opportunities to address long-standing human rights violations and the root causes of conflict. The significant challenge lies in bridging the current divide between ‘stakeholder’ and ‘victim’ discourses, one that requires an examination of the military, the political, the economic and the human rights conditions responsible for the creation of vulnerable groups.

The three main ‘victim’ groups in the DRC are examined, alongside their interaction with the United Nations (UN) system and the mechanisms by which they can strengthen prospects for a more comprehensive, durable and sustainable peace. The groups include women, refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), and children and youth. Important findings include:

Women are stakeholders in conflict, but also in peace, reconciliation and economic recovery. Their leadership capabilities and skills such as their knowledge of community and its needs are crucial to post-war recovery.
Displacement generates problems of access to healthcare, education and other necessities. Refugees and IDPs are thus cast in a humanitarian as well as in a political light, underscoring their centrality as conflict stakeholders in the DRC.
Brutal forced recruitment of children obscures the underlying political issue of the lack of life chances, education and opportunities. Redefining young people as stakeholders in peace-building calls for recognition of their importance in conflict.

Beyond the issues related to the DRC, the responses and standards of protection outlined by the international community require further development. To include civilians as major stakeholders, it is necessary to take different elements of peacekeeping into consideration in order to design responses that address the ‘stakeholdership’ of civilians as well as their immediate protection needs. Policy recommendations include:

Civilian protection needs to evolve into civilian empowerment. The mainstreaming imperative should be viewed as the key benchmark, the UN’s exit strategy and the cornerstone of peace-building.
The UN must continue to appeal to troop contributors to deploy women in peace operations, since teams of women and men are most effective. Future peacekeeping operations should include strong gender expertise.
Conflict analysts, policymakers and donor agencies should develop early warning mechanisms that incorporate indicators that pertain to groups generally not considered conflict stakeholders.
UN Member States must provide the UN with resources sufficient to undertake the dual approach of protection and empowerment of civilians.
UN must work with local human rights and women’s organisations to transform negative or harmful perceptions of women and children within political structures and society as a whole.
Further actions to address the issues of citizenship, nationality and natural resource exploitation in the DRC should be informed primarily by consultations with, and accountable to, the Congolese people.

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Source: Kent, V. and McIntyre, A., 2004, ‘From Protection to Empowerment: Civilians as Stakeholders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo', ISS Paper 84, Institute of Security Studies, South Africa