ENGAGING WOMEN IN PEACE KEEPING: AN ALTERNATIVE WAY TO CURBING SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN WOMEN

Abstract

The main intention of this paper is to critically show the relevance of women in peace keeping operations. Since women are the worst hit and have been called the chief sufferers of violence, the need to engage female personnel in tackling sexual violence is not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing because women peace keepers are more effective, less aggressive, tend to have a better approach to dealing with conflicting parties, more effective in communication and are more trusted than men because it is almost always men who have perpetrated the violence against them. This paper engages the descriptive and analytic methods of philosophic research to examine the role women play in dealing with sexual violence. The paper argues that failure to take women into account can impact on reconciliation and peace building efforts. The paper concludes that there is need to eliminate cultural obstacles and polices that hamper the recruitment and deployment of female peace keepers if sexual violence should be reduced drastically