UN’s 2025 Gender Advocate Award spotlights militarised peacekeeping: systemic barriers persist despite symbolic recognition of women’s roles in UNIFIL
Original framing: “Major Abhilasha Barak to receive 2025 UN military gender advocate award” — The Hindu
Studies show that militarised peacekeeping often exacerbates conflict by reinforcing state-centric security paradigms, as documented in *The International Peacekeeping* journal (2020). Research on gender in peacekeeping reveals that women’s participation in militarised roles does not necessarily translate to feminist peace outcomes, as their roles are often constrained by patriarchal military structures. The UN’s own data indicates that peacekeeping missions with higher military presence correlate with increased civilian casualties, contradicting the narrative of 'protection' through militarisation.
The UN’s 2025 award to Major Abhilasha Barak exemplifies how militarised institutions co-opt feminist narratives to legitimise their own power, framing women’s participation in peacekeeping as a 'gender advocate' role while ignoring the structural violence of militarism itself.
This performative gesture obscures the historical failures of UNIFIL in Lebanon, where militarised peacekeeping has repeatedly failed to address root causes of conflict, instead deepening sectarian divisions and civilian suffering. The award’s nationalist framing in Indian media reflects a broader pattern where post-colonial states use UN peacekeeping as a tool for geopolitical influence, masking the complicity of militarised institutions in perpetuating patriarchal and caste-based hierarchies. True systemic change requires dismantling the militarised peacekeeping paradigm entirely, centring instead Indigenous and feminist models that prioritise relational accountability and community-led conflict resolution. Without this, awards like Barak’s will remain hollow symbols, distracting from the urgent need to reimagine peace beyond the barrel of a gun.