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2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

10. Canada’s Feminist Foreign Policy Promises: An Ambitious Agenda for Gender Equality, Human Rights, Peace, and Security

Authors : Rebecca Tiessen, Emma Swan

Published in: Justin Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

In June 2017, the Liberal government launched its first Feminist International Assistance Policy, setting a course for an ambitious agenda for the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment. A renewed commitment to human rights and gender equality became evident in the early days of the Trudeau government with a series of events that placed gender equality at the center of national and international commitments. This chapter traces the numerous steps toward a feminist foreign policy between 2015 and 2017, with attention to how this strategy diverges from previous Canadian governments. Civil society organization (CSO) reactions to these early promises of improved gender equality programming are examined, particularly in relation to peace and security efforts abroad. Feminist international relations and foreign policy scholarships have long argued for a feminist foreign policy. In this chapter, the contributions of this feminist scholarship are analyzed in relation to the discursive, rhetorical, and feminist policy commitments observed to date.

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previous chapter A Promise Too Far? The Justin Trudeau Government and Indigenous Rights
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Footnotes
1
See Smith and Cornut (2016), Tiessen and Carrier (2015), and Turenne-Sjolander (2005).
 
2
For full interview, see Trudeau and Mlambo-Ngcuka (2016).
 
3
For full statement, see Trudeau (2017b).
 
4
For full statement, see Trudeau (2017a).
 
5
National Defence (2017, 55).
 
6
To read the full Feminist International Assistance Policy, see Government of Canada (2017).
 
7
Zilio (2017).
 
8
To read the full article, see Canadian Press (2017).
 
9
Laverdière (2017).
 
10
Woroniuk (2016).
 
11
See Global Affairs Canada (2017), official news release on redirecting existing development funding to sexual and reproductive health here.
 
12
Woroniuk (2016).
 
13
Rieger (2017).
 
14
For a deeper discussion, see Smith (2017).
 
15
Canadian Council for International Cooperation (2017, 2).
 
16
Ibid., 3.
 
17
For full report, see Global Affairs Canada (2016).
 
18
Tiessen and Carrier (2015).
 
19
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2013).
 
20
Parpart (2014), Willett (2010), Valasek and Nelson (2006).
 
21
Parpart (2017).
 
22
An indication of the inconsistent application of UNSCR 1325+ is evident in UN member countries’ NAPs, which vary greatly in quality between countries. Some NAPs are 14 page “highly generalist” documents, while others are more comprehensive documents consisting of 80+ pages of text. They also vary greatly in regard to the level of engagement and integration of civil society; proposed financing mechanisms; and plans on monitoring, reporting, and feedback processes (Fritz et al. 2011, 5–6). Many NAPs, such as Canada’s, have been criticized for consisting of “loose promised and vague reporting.” (Tiessen and Tuckey 2014, 14).
 
23
Villellas et al. (2016), Puechguirbal (2010), Valasek and Nelson (2006).
 
24
Cohn (2004, 2), Willett (2010). Cohn et al. (2004, 135), draw attention to a similar frustration with the human security agenda. They argue that a rhetorical commitment to “human security” in the UN will not translate into changed priorities and practices without a member state network devoted to raising the issue again and again, and infusing it throughout the institution of the UN. There is a clear parallel to UNSCR 1325.
 
25
Parpart (2017).
 
26
Such as the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, the Millennium Development Goals, and the Sustainable Development Goals.
 
27
Cohn et al. (2004).
 
28
Turenne-Sjolander et al. (2003).
 
29
Smith and Turenne-Sjolander (2012).
 
30
Tiessen and Baranyi (2017).
 
31
For a discussion on indigenous communities, see Chap. 11 Smith (2017).
 
32
Tiessen and Baranyi (2017).
 
33
Butler (2017).
 
34
Stienstra (2017).
 
35
Smith (2017).
 
36
Swiss (2012), Tuckey (2017).
 
37
Tiessen and Carrier (2015).
 
38
Petrasek and Tiessen (2016).
 
39
Connell (2001), Wright (2014).
 
40
Warden (2016).
 
41
For an in-depth reflection of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development (the Committee) report, An opportunity for global leadership: Canada and the women, peace and security agenda by WPSN-C, see WPSNCANADA (2016).
 
Literature
Butler, Paula. 2017. Gold and girls: Why Canada weds gender equality with mining capitalism in Burkina Faso. In Obligations and omissions Canada’s ambiguous actions on gender equality, ed. Rebcca Tiessen and Stephen Baranyi, 141–164. Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Cohn, Carole. 2004. Feminist peacemaking: In resolution 1325, the United Nations requires the inclusion of women in all peace planning and negotiation. The Women’s Review of Books 21 (5): 8–9. CrossRef
Cohn, Carole, Helen Kinsella, and Sheri Gibbings. 2004. Women, peace and security resolution 1325. International Feminist Journal of Politics 6 (1): 130–140. CrossRef
Fritz, Jan Marie, Sharon Doering, and Belgin Gumru. 2011. Women, peace, security and the national action plans. Journal of Applied Social Science 5 (1): 1–23. CrossRef
House of Commons Standing Committee. 2016. An opportunity for global leadership: Canada and the women, peace and security agenda. Report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. 42nd Parliament, 1st Session.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 2013. Gender and statebuilding in fragile and conflict-affected states, conflict and fragility. Paris: OECD Publishing.
Parpart, Jane. 2014. Exploring the transformative potential of gender mainstreaming in international development institutions. Journal of International Development 26 (3): 382–395. CrossRef
———. 2017. Rethinking women, peace and security: Incorporating masculinities, gender relations and conflict. Paper presented at the International Studies Association (ISA), Baltimore, USA, February 24.
Petrasek, David, and Rebecca Tiessen. 2016. The shaping of a conservative human rights policy in the Harper era. In The Harper era in Canadian foreign policy: Parliament, politics, and Canada’s global posture, ed. Adam Chapnick and Christopher J. Kukucha, 181–195. Vancouver: University of British Colombia Press.
Puechguirbal, Nadine. 2010. Discourses on gender, patriarchy and resolution 1325: A textual analysis of UN documents. International Peacekeeping 17 (2): 172–187. CrossRef
Smith, Heather. 2017. Not high on our radar? The Harper government missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada. In Obligations and omissions Canada’s ambiguous actions on gender equality, ed. Rebecca Tiessen and Stephen Baranyi, 261–282. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Smith, Heather, and Jérémie Cornut. 2016. The status of women in Canadian foreign policy analysis. Journal of Women, Politics & Policy 37 (2): 217–233. CrossRef
Smith, Heather, and Claire Turenne-Sjolander. 2012. Canada in the world: Internationalism in Canadian foreign policy. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Stienstra, Deborah. 2017. Lost without wayfinders? Disability, gender and Canadian foreign and development policy. In Obligations and omissions Canada’s ambiguous actions on gender equality, ed. Rebecca Tiessen and Stephen Baranyi, 115–140. Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Swiss, Liam. 2012. Gender, security and instrumentalism: Canada’s foreign aid in support of national interest? In Struggling for effectiveness: CIDA and Canadian foreign aid, ed. Stephen Brown, 135–158. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Tiessen, Rebecca, and Stephen Baranyi, eds. 2017. Obligations and omissions Canada’s ambiguous actions on gender equality. Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Tiessen, Rebecca, and Krystel Carrier. 2015. The erasure of ‘gender’ in Canadian foreign policy under the Harper conservatives: The significance of the discursive shift from ‘gender equality’ to ‘equality between women and men. Canadian Foreign Policy Journal 21 (2): 95–111. CrossRef
Tuckey, Sarah. 2017. Discourse and whole-of-government: The instrumentalization of gender in the Kandahar provincial reconstruction team. Paper presented at the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development (CASID), Conference, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.
Turenne-Sjolander, Claire. 2005. Canadian foreign policy: Does gender matter? Canadian Foreign Policy Journal 12 (1): 19–31. CrossRef
Turenne-Sjolander, Claire, Heather Smith, and Deborah Stienstra. 2003. Feminist perspectives on Canadian foreign policy. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Willett, Susan. 2010. Introduction: Security council resolution 1325: Assessing the impact on Women, Peace and Security. International Peacekeeping 17 (2): 142–158. CrossRef
Wright, Hannah. 2014. Masculinities, conflict and peacebuilding: Perspectives on men through a gender lens. Saferworld. UK Department for International Development.
Metadata
Title
Canada’s Feminist Foreign Policy Promises: An Ambitious Agenda for Gender Equality, Human Rights, Peace, and Security
Authors
Rebecca Tiessen
Emma Swan
Copyright Year
2018
Book
Justin Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73859-8

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-73860-4

Copyright Year: 2018

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73860-4_10

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