MALE DOMINATED LEGAL PLORALISM AND NEGOTIATION OF GENDERED PROTECTION IN BORDER AREAS

Around eighty percent of personal security, gender related and other family issues are resolved through local or semi formal traditional justice bodies in border and adjacent frontier areas of KP, Pakistan. In these areas state judicial system remains short of resources or locally controversial. International Relations (IR) theories related to peacekeeping and human rights mostly consider these male-dominated traditional systems as hurdles to gender safety and security. Focusing on the theoretical landscape of multiple Legal Systems (Legal Pluralism) and Norms Localization, the paper examines the logic of male leaders when they go through genders safety & protection domain. The paper introduces the idea of Institutionalized Norms Mediation. It moves beyond the simple binary model that pitch international norms vs local customs. The research work is based on semi-structured key informant interviews (N = 45. These informants include individuals for legal practices, judges, local elders/ Mashrans and human rights/ International NGOs employees. The research work indicates that local male custodians of justice most oftenly mould or reinterpret external mandates/ law requirements when those are framed around local’s concepts of stability and honor (H-1). Moreover, systematic hybrid concourses such as legal aid coordinators/ liaisons and law/ judicial monitoring, increases the Deference of gender-based security related cases to formal state’s courts (H-2). Findings of the paper advances critical security and peacebuilding studies by framing local/ informal judicial actors as strategic norm-localizers within the landscapes of legal pluralism. Keywords: Norms Localization, Justice, Gender Protection, Border Areas Governance, Legal Pluralism, Hybrid Governance, International Relations