Mercy Global Concern - 2002
Mercy Global Concern Briefing; December, 2002 Number 2
Women at the Peace Table
Two years ago the UN Security Council took an unprecedented
step towards global peace, which is needed more than ever. The
Security Council passed
Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, which
insists on the full inclusion of women in peace processes. Women's
peace-building and reconstruction efforts must be supported, not
only because it is the right thing to do, but also because most
nations consumed by conflict need the strength of their women.
'The women are the ones who held their families together and
communities together during the worst of the fighting, even while
on the run from armies. They keep a measure of stability during
times of chaos and during displacement. Now as peace accords are
negotiated and countries are rebuilt, those contributions must
be recognized.'
Noeleen Heyzer, executive Director, UNIFEM
The Tension of opposites:
Why Women? Around the world in conflict zones women are already
working to wage peace instead of war and just as President Bush
of the United States of America talked at the United Nations in
New York of the necessity of war, at the United Nations in Geneva,
for the first time ever, women were talking about new initiatives
aimed at the promotion of world peace.
Women need to be at Peace tables around the world because more
clearly than ever, the twentieth century has confirmed that the
nature of war has changed. War is being fought on women's bodies
in the name of ethnicity and religion. Women as weapons of war,
is a strategy to break and humiliate women, men, families, communities,
no matter which side they are on. Women have become the worst
victims of war and so their voices need to be heard when men decide
to go to war.
At the other UN, in Switzerland, "The Global Peace Initiative
of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders", more than 500
women gathered from across the globe to discuss international
politics. As Sr. Joan Chittester pointed out to the gathering..
"Violence on the scale it is practised now and by us -
250 wars in the twentieth century alone, 23 of them raging right
now, each of them with a religious component - is clearly a sin
against the sacrament of life. We stand on the brink of human
extinction boasting that we seek the God of Life. Millions are
dead, trillions used for destruction rather than human development,
thousands of civilian refugees roaming the world, --give lie to
the claim that we really are religious people."
Joan Chittister, UN speech, Geneva Conference, October 6-10, 2002
The Geneva conference coincides with the launch of the Independent
Expert's Assessment of Armed Conflict on Women and Women's role
in Peace-building.
In this new report, Independent Experts find women singled out
for atrocities during armed conflict and left out of peace negotiations.
Examining the international community's progress in implementing
Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, peace and security,
two Independent Experts appointed by UNIFEM found compelling new
evidence that while women are effective agents of peace, they
still have little access to power and peace negotiations. At the
same time, the shift in the nature of warfare causes massive suffering:
women and girls are singled out for atrocities with few consequences
for perpetrators. The experts, Elizabeth Rehn and Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf in their report Progress of the World's Women 2002,
Vol. 1: The Independent Experts' Assessment on the Impact of Armed
Conflict on Women and Women's Role in Peace-building also
concludes that it is the women who are keeping the ideals of justice
and peace alive.
"First and foremost, we must redefine global security focusing
on the human dimensions", says UNIFEM director Noeleen Heyzer.
"In the Experts report, we see that security has been almost
exclusively defined in military terms. Women insist on a broader
vision, one that puts human life and human rights at the forefront
and includes lives free of violence, including violence against
women and HIV/AIDS. And one that fully recognizes women's participation
and leadership in peace processes and reconstruction."
Noeleen
Heyzer Press Release, October 31st 2003
In recent years, civilian causalities have increased to more
than 70 percent of the deaths in armed conflicts. All civilians
are targeted, but gender based violence that has characterized
ethnic and internal conflicts in the past decade have overwhelmingly
hit women and girls. In the Independent Experts report, women
from conflict areas speak out, insisting that military security
had done little to protect them. Rather, the presence of arms
as well as the psychological impact of war has caused conflicts
to escalate, resulting in massive suffering and shattered states
and communities.
'Women's bodies have become the battleground over which opposing
forces struggle," the Experts write. "Women are raped
as a way to humiliate male relatives, who often are forced to
watch the assault. In societies where ethnicity is inherited through
the male line, 'enemy' women are raped and forced to bear children.
Women who are already pregnant are forced to miscarry through
violent attacks. Women are kidnapped and used as sexual slaves
to service troops."
The Independent Experts' Assessment is published on the second
anniversary of the United Nations Security Resolution 1325, a
watershed for the protection of women in armed conflict. Themes
addressed in the report are:
Violence against women: The magnitude of violence suffered
by women before, during and after conflicts is overwhelming. The
glaring gaps in women's protection must be addressed. Without
dedicating resources specifically for women's protection and without
mobilizing the requisite technical and operational capacity, the
neglect of women will continue.
Displacement: The gender dimensions of displacement are
overwhelmingly neglected. The international community has a responsibility
to protect women who are forced to flee their homes. It must help
women to rebuild their lives, protect them and their children,
and prevent the violence and exploitation often associated with
displacement.
Health: Sometimes even basic health care is lacking for
women in conflict situations. Attention to reproductive health
in emergencies has to be institutionalized as part of the response.
The knowledge and skills already exist, and experience shows what
can be achieved with sufficient resources and political will,
especially when women have participated in the planning.
HIV/AIDS: Whenever women live with conflict and upheaval,
the threat of HIV/AIDS and its effects are multiplied. Women are
more susceptible to infection than men, yet often have little
control over their sexuality, and at the same time are forced
by conflict conditions to trade sex for money, food, shelter and
any other number of necessities. Education, protection and access
to treatment are essential for people in conflict zones if the
rates of infection are to be reduced.
Organizing for peace: Women organize for peace in their
communities and at the national and regional level, but they are
rarely part of the official peace process. Formal negotiations
that exclude half the population from the political process have
little hope of popular support. Women's activism must be supported
and their political demands acknowledged at every step, from peace
negotiations to post conflict elections and the restructuring
of society.
Peace Operations: A gender perspective must inform all
aspects of mission planning and operation, beginning with the
very concept of the operation. Currently, gender concerns are
often isolated in the form of a single staff person or small unit
lacking sufficient seniority and resources. Women in the local
community may have little contact with missions and believe that
their needs are not taken into account. Violations committed by
peacekeepers, United Nations and humanitarian personnel are inexcusable.
The Secretary-General's call for zero tolerance for those who
commit such crimes must be honored and stronger investigative
and disciplinary mechanisms must be put in place.
Justice and Accountability: The impunity that prevails
for widespread crimes against women in war must be redressed.
Accountability means being answerable to women for crimes committed
against then and punishing those responsible. In addition, from
the International Criminal court to regional, national and traditional
justice systems, gender must be taken into account and women must
have access to the rule of law.
Media and communications: The media supplies information
for good or ill; it presents images of women that resound throughout
communities in complex ways, especially during conflict and post
-conflict periods, when tensions are high. Post-conflict reconstruction
depends on honest and truthful reporting about all parties and
communities. In order to achieve this, women must be involved
in creating media, and stories about them must go beyond stereotypes
of women as victims or sexual objects.
Reconstruction: In the aftermath of conflict, when nations
begin to rebuild, they must recognize and provide for women's
specific needs. Water, food and energy must be provided in a safe
environment. Training and education are essential. Access to land,
resources and jobs must be guaranteed.
Prevention: Information from and about women in conflict
situations has not informed preventive action. This is as much
a problem of expertise as one of organizational shortcomings.
Information from and about women must be collected, analyzed and
made available in a way that is politically meaningful. The beneficiaries
of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes must
not be limited to male combatants. Female combatants, the wives,
widows, and other dependents of ex-fighters must be included explicitly
so that they are invested in rebuilding a new society and ending
the cycle of violence.
The purpose of this report is to expose women's invisibility
- as victims, as survivors and as peacemakers and leaders.
Deirdre Mullan RSM
Representing the Sisters of Mercy at the United Nations
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