Building the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in the asean through Multi-Focal Norm Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Women, Peace and Security ( WPS ) as a global agenda has gained traction since it was institutionalized in the United Nations Security Council fifteen years ago. By December 2014, 46 out of 193 Member States of the United Nations have adopted their National Action Plans to systematically implement their respective country commitments to WPS . To date, 24 of the countries with National Action Plans are in Europe while 13 are in Africa; the Asia Pacific Region has 6 and the Americas have 3. In Southeast Asia, only the Philippines has developed a National Action Plan within the framework of the WPS while other countries integrated it in the existing broad policy and programmatic frames such as addressing violence against women. At the level of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN ), taking on the agenda of women, peace and security has yet to move beyond communicative rhetoric. This paper is an attempt to explore how WPS can be made part of the regional agenda on human protection and mass atrocities prevention, by mapping out discursive and institutional entry points within several ASEAN Member States and within ASEAN itself through the idea of multi-focal norm entrepreneurship.