Rhetoric Versus Reality: Examining South Africa’s Commitment to UNSCR 1820, 1888 and 1889 on Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict

Abstract

The use of brute force and sexually motivated attacks on civilians has been a feature within armed conflicts for millennia. With the rise and popularity of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in the early 2000s, greater attention has been demanded to address issues of conflict- related sexual violence. Various robust and groundbreaking resolutions have been adopted and ratified by the UN Security Council to combat the use of rape as a weapon of war. These include but are not limited to UNSCR 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009) and 1889 (2009). Through these resolutions the international community has called for individual nation states to action the mandates outlined within the broader WPS Agenda in relation to conflict-related sexual violence. South Africa, having occupied a leading role in the peace process of various states within the African continent, has been one such nation tasked with fulfilling this mandate through its peace diplomacy and foreign policy. This study examines the degree to which South Africa has adopted and implemented the normative obligations contained within UNSCR 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), and 1889 (2009), within its peace diplomacy on the African continent. The study employs a case-study analysis of South Africa’s peace deployments in two African states, namely, the DRC and South Sudan. Process-tracing is used to analyse and ascertain the key junctures within its peace diplomacy to determine how the norms underpinning the WPS agenda, in relation to CRSV, have emerged, been adopted, and implemented within South Africa’s peace diplomacy. The study examines these developments through the theoretical framework of norm evolution and norm life cycle theory.