Women’s rights and female security is a growing concern in several conflicts around the world. In Congo, conflict-related violence has long been used as weapon and Congo has today become known as the “rape capital” beacuse of these war rapes. Further more, reports from South Sudan states that UN troops has ignored pleas for help by women being raped. United Nation Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 was implemented by the UN Security Council to combat conflict-related violence and add a gender perspective in UN Peacekeeping operations.  The aim of this thesis is to analyze the impact of UNSCR 1325 by comparing UN Peacekeeping operations’ mandates and actions before and after the resolution was implemented. The thesis will also analyse the UN’s action to eliminate conflict-based sexual violence and war rape. The peacekeeping operations that will be discussed are MINURSO (West Sahara) MONUSCO (Congo) and UNMISS (South Sudan). In order to do so, the theory of Female Security Studies [FSS] and Militarized Masculinity will be applied. In our thesis, the UN’s actions were found to be insufficient. The main factors resulting in this insufficiency was found to be the systematic failure to take the actions needed to implement UNSCR 1325, such as the increasing the number of female involvement in peacekeeping and peacebuilding processes. In large, the impact of UNSCR 1325 could have been bigger if the resolution had been implemented more efficiently. While the written changes were significant with the implementation of the resolution, these changes were not as visible among the actual actions taken in the peacekeeping operations in West Sahara, Congo and South Sudan.

This thesis examines how the use of children specifically as soldiers could affect the likelihood of rebel-inflicted conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). Previous scholars have examined the relationship between rebel groups’ overall recruitment of children and violence against civilians or CRSV, making this a previously unexplored area. The hypotheses of this paper are (1) that the rebel use of children as soldiers will increase the probability of rebel-inflicted CRSV, and (2) that the rebel use of children as soldiers will increase the probability of rebel-inflicted CRSV among groups who have child members, not otherwise. The theoretical argument is in short that groups using children as fighters have lower group cohesion than other groups, increasing the incentive for rebel leadership to promote or tolerate CRSV, and that the lower cognitive ability of child combatants compared to adults is exploited as they are subjected to intense social pressure to fit into the role of a strong and masculine fighter. The hypotheses were tested in a quantitative analysis, the results of which were inconclusive, mainly due to limitations in the data used. Despite this, the analysis further strengthens the support for the relationship between child members and CRSV that has been theorized only recently, and by few scholars. This paper contributes to our understanding about rebel targeting of children and use of CRSV. It also provides avenues for future research, highly recommending future studies disaggregating the roles of children in armed groups with more suitable data.

This thesis examines how women's participation in peace negotiations impacts the gender inclusivity of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) in Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, and Colombia. It explores whether higher degrees of women's involvement led to more gender-inclusive TRCs, hypothesising that increased participation results in better integration of gender considerations. Using secondary data and primary interviews from Colombia, the study highlights political pressure as a key causal mechanism. Findings reveal that in Côte d'Ivoire, significant grassroots activism by women without formal negotiation roles led to moderate gender inclusivity in the TRC. In Liberia, limited formal participation in peace negotiations, combined with strong grassroots advocacy and post-conflict decision-making roles for women, resulted in a highly gender-inclusive TRC. In Colombia, women's formal involvement in peace negotiations, alongside continuous advocacy by women’s organisations, led to over 100 gender-specific provisions in the peace agreement, fostering a robust gender-inclusive TRC. These results partially support the hypothesis, showing that higher women's participation generally leads to more gender-inclusive TRCs. The research underscores the importance of institutionalising gender perspectives, leveraging political pressure, and ensuring international support to achieve inclusive and sustainable peace processes. It offers practical insights for enhancing gender inclusivity in transitional justice mechanisms like TRCs.

Notre étude s’intéresse au travail des fonctionnaires internationaux du Bureau du Représentant spécial du Secrétaire général de l’ONU chargé de la question des violences sexuelles commises en période de conflit (RSSG-VSC) en République démocratique du Congo (RDC) sous le prisme de l’idéal type wébérien de la bureaucratie. À partir de six entretiens semi-directifs et de l’analyse de sources publiques onusiennes, cette étude vise à mettre en perspectives les points de vue des fonctionnaires du Bureau au regard de leurs missions et des moyens dont ils disposent pour les remplir. Ce travail s’intéresse aussi à la portée de l’action du Bureau du RSSG-VSC en RDC, du point de vue de ces fonctionnaires internationaux basé au siège. Aucune étude qualitative n’a été menée sur le travail des fonctionnaires du Bureau du RSSG-VSC par le passé. De plus, les rapports annuels du Secrétaire général disponibles au grand public ne permettent pas de comprendre l’intégralité de son action en RDC. Ainsi, ce projet de recherche cherche précisément à combler cette lacune. L’analyse des données recueillies montre que la création du mandat aurait été préméditée : en effet, malgré plusieurs résolutions du Conseil de sécurité et appels à la cessation de ces violences, la perpétration de ces crimes perdurait. Ainsi, le mandat du Représentant spécial du Secrétaire général pour les Enfants et les conflits armés aurait permis, grâce à un travail de plaidoyer combiné avec les appels de la communauté internationale, à la création du mandat du RSSG-VSC. Les objectifs du mandat, à savoir mettre fin aux violences sexuelles liées aux conflits à travers le monde en contribuant à libérer la parole des victimes, assurer leur réintégration dans les communautés, comblant les lacunes et renforçant les connaissances sur ces crimes sont partagés par tous les répondants, de manière identique. De plus, la vision de leur travail au sein du Bureau est unanimement partagée. Toutefois, les points de vue des répondants divergent davantage lorsqu'ils abordent le thème de la portée des actions du Bureau. Les défis à relever par le mandat sont encore nombreux afin d’éradiquer de la surface de la planète les violences sexuelles liées aux conflits. / Our study focuses on the work achieved by international civil servants at the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC), regarding the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) through the prism of the Weberian bureaucracy. Based on six semi-directive interviews and the analysis of United Nations public sources, this study aims to providing perspectives on the views of the Office’s officials in relation to their missions and the means at their disposal to carry them out. This academic work also focuses on the scope of the work of the RSSG-VSC Office in the DRC, from the point of view of these international officials based in headquarters. So far, no qualitative studies had been conducted on the topic of the work of these civil servants. In addition to that, the Secretary-General’s annual reports drafted by this Office do not provide an understanding of the full scope of the work done in the DRC. Thus, this research project seeks to fill this gap. The analysis of the data collected shows that the creation of the mandate would have been premeditated: indeed, despite several Security Council resolutions and call for the end to conflict-related sexual violence, these crimes continue to be perpetrated. Thus, the mandate of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict would have enabled the creation of the mandate of the SRSG-SVC, through advocacy work combined with multiple calls from the international community. The mandate’s goals which are ending conflict-related sexual violence around the world by helping to free victims’ voices, ensuring their reintegration into communities, filling gaps and strengthening knowledge about these crimes are shared by all respondents. In addition, the vision of their work within the Office is unanimously shared. However, respondents’ views differ when addressing the scope of the Office’s actions. The mandate still faces many challenges to end rape in war.

This paper sets out to evaluate the influence of Russia’s increasing levels of hegemonic masculinity upon the erosion of the nuclear taboo in relation to increased threatening rhetoric, military preparedness, targeting of nuclear facilities, and withdrawal from existing arms control legislation which indicates potential first-use employment of nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Utilizing a dual research methodology of comparative process tracing and critical discourse analysis, gender theory is applied to assess various critical junctures and political focal points that contributed to a dual-partite path dependency of increasing hegemonic masculinity, coupled with the feminized securitization of Ukraine, and retaliatory masculinity as performed via state-sponsored employment of conflict-related sexual violence and nuclear posturing against Ukraine. The alternative explanation of “Escalate to De-escalate” is critically investigated; however, the empirical analysis provided by this paper suggests that the lack of gender-sensitive evaluation within this explanation fails to adequately account for the effect of increasing domestic hegemonic masculinity within Russia. Increased perception of an existential threat against Russian masculinity was found to contribute to an increased dependency on nuclear weapons. Ultimately, this paper forwards a novel explanatory causal mechanism, providing one of the first analyses of the nuclear taboo in relation to a gender-sensitive lens.