Naming and Shaming: Human Rights Accountability in Security Council Resolution 1960 (2010) on Women, Peace and Security

This paper provides a critical analysis of the United Nations (UN) Security Council’s ‘naming and shaming’ provision in operative paragraph 3 of Security Council resolution 1960 (2010), arguing this is a counterproductive development in the contemporary collective security approach to women, peace and security. Resolution 1960, the fifth Security Council resolution on women, peace and security, significantly extends the Council’s approach to challenging sexual violence in armed conflict through the development of global indicators and accountability mechanisms. This article offers an explanation of the terminology and context of resolution 1960 with a particular focus on operative paragraph 3. The article then shifts to review the value of the operative paragraph 3 naming and shaming provision. I argue against feminist activism that seeks to develop accountability mechanisms for non-state actors in isolation from strategies to prevent violence and suggest the need to promote, instead, strategies that increase women’s participation in the delivery of justice mechanisms locally and globally. Additionally, the effectiveness of any list produced in the context of such naming and shaming will be undermined by the combination of a potential conflict of interests for humanitarian workers and the potential for mislabelling non-state actors, particularly members of armed groups, as responsible for sexual violence in armed conflict without paying appropriate attention to established due process and the rule of law. As such, the Security Council’s current shift towards global indicators and accountability mechanisms will be unable to end sexual violence and gender-based human rights abuses by non-state actors in situations on the Council’s agenda. I conclude that the impact of resolution 1960 operative paragraph 3 will be minimal: promoting neither women’s rights nor peace nor security and with the potential to reduce incentives for armed groups to be active participants in the creation of peace.