Yemeni Women activists and the Security Council: A Discourse Analysis from a Women, Peace and Security lens

In 2020, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda celebrated its 20th anniversary. But amidst a global pushback on women´s rights and the continuation of violence and conflict, the realization of the agenda seems a far dream. In Yemen, women played leading roles in the 2011 uprising and the National Dialogue Conference in 2013-2014. Yet, they have increasingly been excluded from Yemen’s political processes and peace efforts. This thesis centers the voices of five Yemeni women, who briefed the United Nations Security Council on the situation in Yemen between 2017 and 2020. Using a postcolonial feminist lens, this thesis investigates how the statements of these women activists and those of the United Kingdom and the United States of America in UN Security Council meetings on Yemen compare, and how these discourses in turn relate to the Women, Peace and Security agenda. In particular, by building on the analytical framework of Laura Shepherd (2008), the thesis analyzes the...Show moreIn 2020, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda celebrated its 20th anniversary. But amidst a global pushback on women´s rights and the continuation of violence and conflict, the realization of the agenda seems a far dream. In Yemen, women played leading roles in the 2011 uprising and the National Dialogue Conference in 2013-2014. Yet, they have increasingly been excluded from Yemen’s political processes and peace efforts. This thesis centers the voices of five Yemeni women, who briefed the United Nations Security Council on the situation in Yemen between 2017 and 2020. Using a postcolonial feminist lens, this thesis investigates how the statements of these women activists and those of the United Kingdom and the United States of America in UN Security Council meetings on Yemen compare, and how these discourses in turn relate to the Women, Peace and Security agenda. In particular, by building on the analytical framework of Laura Shepherd (2008), the thesis analyzes the conceptualizations of gender, security, violence and the international sphere in the discourse. This dissertation argues that – despite their commitments to the WPS agenda – the UK and the US fail to take into account the gendered dimensions of the conflict in Yemen and to recognize the intersectional security threats women in Yemen face. As both states largely fail to engage with the opinions and recommendations of Women Civil Society Briefers from Yemen, they also fall short in reflecting on their own contributions to the continuing conflict in Yemen.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

Yemeni Women activists and the Security Council: A Discourse Analysis from a Women, Peace and Security lens