Kvinnors väg till fred och säkerhet : en feministisk kritisk diskursanalys av Sierra Leones nationella handlingsplan för implementeringen av resolution 1325 och 1820

Sammanfattning: Through the use of feminist critical discourse analysis this study examines Sierra Leone’s National Action Plan in its implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820. The aim is to investigate whether gendered discourses in resolution 1325 have been included in the national action plan and provide an assessment of the impact this has had on the perception of women and gender within the sector of peace and security. The analysis shows that the Sierra Leone’s National Action Plan consistently portrays women as passive victims in need of protection, as they are incapable of this themselves. While women are included in the objectives and strategies, they are excluded as primary stakeholders. Responsibility for the execution of the transformative process and implementation of the action plan falls on higher political and governmental institutions. It also fails to address the patriarchal destructive power structures that form the basis for the low representation of women in this institutional decisionmaking and the ever-prevalent sexual- and genderbased violence. The findings prove that Sierra Leone's national action plan adheres to a gendered discourse that reinforces and reproduces gender hierarchy, while marginalizing female actors and trapping them in a permanent state of victimhood. Thus, the action plan fails in achieving its goal to strengthen women’s position in peace building and security. Sierra Leone, a country still struggling with its past, is fated to fail in its work to improve women's rights if the transferal of such a discourse remains prevalent.