On the 5th anniversary of the 1325 UN Resolution, calling for women's equal participation and full involvement in all efforts to maintain and promote peace and security, it has been hugely important to debate actual improvements and changes. Highlighting enduring obstacles has served as a reminder of the need to continue fighting for the participation of women in peace-building.

One obstacle this blog has not yet covered in detail is the phenomenon of trafficking in human beings. As victims of trafficking are mainly women, the silence around the issue could be seen as an expression of a lack of gender sensitivity in some quarters.

Adding to this concern is the fact that not only ‘gender-insensitive’ studies and analyses leave out the issue. Critical assessments being voiced from a gender perspective, e.g. Boge & Spelten’s chapter on the lack of gender sensitivity in ‘war economy’ studies focus on drugs and weapons trafficking at the expense of addressing the phenomenon of human trafficking (see Daily Links - 4 November).

Breaking this silence would highlight yet another obstacle to the achievement of the gender awareness which the 1325 Resolution calls.

Moreover, debating the issue of human trafficking could act as a way of shedding light on otherwise unchallenged assumptions about gender, war and peace.