The 1999 DRC Cease-fire Agreement and the 1994 Lusaka Protocol from a Gender Perspective

Bokani Hart, EISA, June 2002

This article examines the extent to which gender-specific concerns have been integrated into two southern African peace agreements, namely the 1999 Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Cease-fire Agreement and the 1994 Lusaka Protocol. The term "gender" refers to those socially constructed differences between men and women which can change over time and which vary within and between cultures. Gender relations describe the social relationships between men and women and the way in which power is distributed between the sexes (March, et al 1999, 18).

The southern African region, which incorporates the post-colonial states of Angola, Botswana, the DRC, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, has had a long history of conflicts and is currently the scene of armed conflicts in Angola and the DRC. Angola has been wracked by 25 years of civil war, which has pitted the UNITA (União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola) rebel movement, led by Jonas Savimbi, against Jose Eduardo Dos Santos' MPLA (Movimento Popular da Libertacão de Angola) government (IRIN 1999a). Savimbi's rejection of United Nations (UN) monitored elections in September 1992, which were won by the MPLA, led to renewed fighting (IRIN 2000a). The two sides agreed to another cease-fire brokered by the UN in November 1994. Known as the Lusaka Protocol, it provided for the integration of UNITA insurgents into the Angolan army and led to the creation of a Government of National Unity and Reconciliation in April 1997. However, the peace agreement collapsed in December 1998 after months of sporadic fighting and government accusations that the UN had not done enough to demobilise and disarm UNITA (IRIN 1999a).

The armed conflict in the DRC, which broke out in August 1998, pitted the government of President Laurent-Désiré Kabila, backed by Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia, against a Congolese rebellion supported by Rwanda and Uganda. In an effort to end the war, a cease-fire agreement was signed in Lusaka on 10 July 1999 by the DRC, Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Rwanda and Uganda. However, cease-fire violations persisted despite efforts to resolve the conflict (IRIN 1999b) and a peace summit held in Lusaka in August 2000, which was aimed at salvaging the DRC peace process, ended in failure (IRIN 2000b). Following President Kabila's assassination in January 2001 (IRIN 2001a), his son, Joseph Kabila, who was sworn in as his successor, has pledged to revive the stalled DRC peace process in order to restore peace in the DRC and the Great Lakes region as a whole (IRIN 2001b).

On the one hand, the DRC Cease-fire Agreement is gender blind in that it recognises no distinction between the sexes. It mistakenly assumes that men and male norms represent the norm for all human beings. As a result, it incorporates biases in favour of existing gender relations and therefore tends to exclude women (March, et al, 1999, 21).

For example, Article III(10), which relates to the Principles of the Agreement, states:

The Parties shall facilitate humanitarian assistance through the opening up of humanitarian corridors and creation of conditions conducive to the provision of urgent humanitarian assistance to displaced persons, refugees and other affected persons (United States Institute of Peace 1999).

References

AGREEMENT FOR A CEASE-FIRE IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO 1999, [www] http://www.ieru.ugent.be/lusakaceasefire.pdf [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 21 Jan 2010).

IRIN 1999a, "Background Report on UNITA", 1 April 1999.

IRIN 1999b, "Briefing on the Lusaka Peace Process", Nairobi, 10 November 1999.

IRIN 2000a, "Angola: Focus on UNITA Leader Jonas Savimbi", Luanda, 25 August 2000.

IRIN 2000b, "Zimbabwe Says Lusaka a 'Success'", Johannesburg, 23 August 2000.

IRIN 2001a, "IRIN-CEA Update 1,096", 19 January 2001.

IRIN 2001b, "IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 58", 2 February 2001.

MARCH, C, SMYTH, I & MUKHOPADHYAY, M 1999, A Guide to Gender Analysis Frameworks, Oxfam GB, Oxford.