Can Canada Come to the Rescue? The Fall of Afghanistan and the WPS agenda

The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda is more important than ever as the global spotlight has moved away from Afghanistan and onto the next military engagement in Ukraine. Afghan women have been left to suffer under the Taliban regime despite promises from western powers, such as Canada, to protect their human rights and civil liberties. Canada is in a unique position to champion the WPS agenda and remake peace processes according to the principles of participation, prevention, protection and relief and recovery. It is imperative that Canada delivers on these promises by supporting their Ambassador for Women, Peace and Security and utilising their role in the UN WPS Focal Point Network.

In November 2021, those who attended the Halifax International Security Forum’s plenary session ‘After the Fall’ saw women at the front and centre of the debate over how to move forward from the disastrous withdrawal of the US military from Afghanistan. The all-female panel was a refreshing sight and hinted towards a conversation on the role of women in peace processes and diplomacy. What myself and the rest of the audience heard was very different. The acute suffering of the women in Afghanistan was sidelined by the archetypal conversation of military failings and high level economic concerns.

US Senator, and member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Jeanne Shaheen emphasized the need to provide humanitarian assistance that circumvented the Taliban in a balancing act between protecting a fragile political system and ensuring the dignity of Afghan people. Despite urging world leaders and the UN to ‘continue to speak out about what’s happening to women in Afghanistan’, Senator Shaheen’s pivot towards the economics of humanitarian aid clearly showed that the acute vulnerability of women and girls in Afghanistan was of secondary importance to US political and economic interests in the wider region. At the time of this conversation, girls’ schools across Afghanistan had been closed for more than two months, a fact that was brought up by Former Member of Parliament in Afghanistan Sabrina Saqeb. From her lived experience, Ms. Saqeb emphasized that the protracted failure of US led war and peace missions in Afghanistan had led to a total lack of trust on the ground.

Despite promises from the Taliban to reinstate secondary education for girls, the situation on the ground for Afghani women and girls continues to be one of precarity. Female government employees, as well as female higher education teachers have been dismissed by the Taliban. The enforcement of gender segregated teaching has led to a de facto denial of access to female education. The Ministry for Women’s Affairs was also closed, and the building now houses the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, an institution charged with regulating the clothing and behaviour of women in public. These changes target the individuals, groups and the institutions that were installed to safeguard the rights of women and girls.

The question is, how is the rest of the world responding? The widespread economic sanctions levied against Afghanistan have caused a humanitarian disaster. According to a recent analysis, the sanctions imposed are anticipated to claim more civilians lives this year than the last twenty years of war combined. 22 million people, more than half of Afghanistan’s population, are facing crisis-levels of hunger. These often overlooked enduring aspects of war, such as disease, loss, trauma, and hunger are the primary concern for feminist international relations scholars and activists. Thus the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan is clear evidence of the critical need to enforce the WPS agenda in peacebuilding processes.

The four pillars of the WPS agenda were formalised at the UN with the introduction of Resolution 1325 in 2000. 1325 extended global commitments to participation, prevention, protection, and relief and recovery in conflict zones. As of August 2021, 50% of UN member states (98 countries and territories) adopted National Action Plans (NAPs) that showed their commitments to increased protection of women and girls during war, the appointment of more women to UN peacekeeping operations and field missions and the increased participation of women in decision-making processes at all levels. While the global achievements of the WPS agenda are laudable, Canada stands uniquely to eschew the economically driven humanitarianism of the US, and to champion the WPS agenda.

It is no secret that in the past Canada’s international presence has been that of an ambiguous middle power, being a member of many international organisations, but a leader in none. However, Canada is currently co-chair of the Women Peace and Security Focal Point Network at the UN and is the only UN member state to have appointed an Ambassador for Women, Peace and Security. If there were ever an opportunity for Canada to show meaningful leadership on the international stage and carve a distinct path for its feminist foreign policy, it is now.

At an event held by the CIC in January 2022, I had the opportunity to ask Canada’s Ambassador for WPS Jaqueline O’Neill what it was like to be an ambassador of a concept, and what the fall of Afghanistan meant for her role. A clear advantage of Ambassador O’Neill’s position is that it is innately international. This is because Ambassador O’Neill is not tied to one specific country or region but is able to work with civil society groups and government actors from all over the world in the pursuit of the realisation of the WPS agenda. In her response, she highlighted these advantages by underlining the importance of learning from women around the world and bringing these good practices back home to expand the WPS agenda in Canada. When I asked if the events in Afghanistan had any consequences for the implementation of the WPS agenda, she bluntly replied: “No”. She highlighted that long before the fall of Afghanistan, Afghan women had sounded the alarm warning that the Taliban were merely waiting out the US and the weak institutions that had been put in place. Enforcing the WPS principles were now more important than ever. Ambassador O’Neill insisted that more women directly affected by the issues on the ground in Afghanistan needed to be engaged and involved in addressing these problems. In these ways, the Ambassador’s vision for the role of the WPS Agenda has not been checked or limited by the events of last fall.

With the next conflict well under way in Ukraine, the journey towards the realisation of the WPS agenda seems long, but Canada ought to lead the way. Time will be the test of whether Canada will indeed be able to capitalise on their unique position by supporting the ambitions of their WPS ambassador and carving out a distinct role for itself on the international stage.