UN Security Council Urges Full Participation of Women in Conflict Resolution
Women must play full part in peace-building, Security Council declares
Courtesy of UN News Centre. Rachel Mayanja, Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women
UN News Centre – The Security Council today unanimously urged all countries and international bodies to take further steps to ensure full participation of women in all stages of conflict resolution and peace-building, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling it “a top priority for the United Nations.”
The 15-member body voiced deep concern about the under-representation of women at all stages of peace processes, particularly the very low numbers in formal roles in mediation processes, nearly nine years after it passed an earlier resolution calling for increased female representation at all decision-making levels in preventing, managing and resolving conflict.
“A growing body of evidence suggests that bringing women to the peace table improves the quality of agreements reached, and increases the chances of successful implementation,” Mr. Ban told the Council in a message to a day-long open session on Women, Peace and Security delivered by Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro.
“Women are likely to put gender issues on the agenda, set different priorities and possibly bridge the political divide more effectively. Experience also suggests that women’s contributions in post–conflict situations can make a critical difference to community survival and reconstruction.”
He noted that in nine years since the adoption of the earlier resolution, only 16 countries had adopted National Action Plans for its implementation, and he called on all Member States to take action before the 10th anniversary.
Today’s resolution likewise highlighted deep concern at the violence and intimidation, lack of security and lack of rule of law, cultural discrimination and stigmatization, including the rise of extremist or fanatical views on women, all of which hinder full female involvement in conflict resolution.
It reiterated the call for all parties in armed conflicts to immediately cease all violations of international law regarding the rights and protection of women and girls and emphasized the responsibility of all States to put an end to impunity and prosecute those responsible for all forms of violence, including rape and other sexual violence.
“Women face appalling violence – especially sexual violence – in the anarchy generated by conflict and its aftermath,” Mr. Ban said in his statement. “Yet post-conflict gender-based violence often remains below the radar screen, since a cessation of conflict is often mistaken for the full return of peace.”
The Council called on Mr. Ban to develop a strategy, including through appropriate training, to increase the number of women appointed to pursue good offices on his behalf, and to submit within six months a set of indicators to track implementation of the resolution. It also said it intended to include provisions on promoting gender equality when establishing or renewing UN peacekeeping missions.
And it encouraged Member States to address such female needs and priorities as greater physical security, better socio-economic conditions through education, income generating activities, access to health services, including sexual and reproductive health, and access to justice.
Presenting Mr. Ban most recent report on the issue, Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women Rachel Mayanja warned that it was not enough simply to adopt National Action Plans – these plans must be implemented to achieve their goals and be backed by resources. “The Council must be relentless in its insistence on women as peacekeepers, peace builders and decision-makers,” she said.
UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Ines Alberdi noted that women average less than 10 per cent of members of official negotiating teams at peace talks. “Their striking absence at this stage means they lack voice in everything that follows,” she said.
“In post-conflict planning, women must participate in needs assessments, priority-setting and monitoring public expenditure. Civil society groups representing women’s interests must be invited to donor conferences,” she added, stressing that economic recovery usually means job creation for young men, often at the expense of adequate investment in women’s employment and livelihood needs.
“Securing women’s land and property rights must be a major focus of recovery efforts and should be addressed in peace negotiations,” she declared.
Over 50 Member States were scheduled to speak during the debate.
For more information, read original article and check out our previous blog on the role of gender in peacebuilding
By Juontel White
The word “peace” is used to connote calmness and serenity. Whether used by frenzied individuals seeking relaxation or by military commanders, is there a universal definition for the word?
Merriam Webster uses the following definitions:
1: a state of tranquility or quiet
2: freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions
3: harmony in personal relations
4 a: a state or period of mutual concord between governments
b: a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity
Do you agree? How do you define peace?
By Juontel White
“Mainstreaming Gender Equality in Peacebuilding” was one of many workshops held at the Alliance for Peacebuilding Conference.
Led by Patricia T. Morris, PhD, executive director of Peace X Peace, an international women’s organization dedicated to peacebuilding, this workshop addressed the importance of incorporating a gender framework within the peacebuilding process.
Morris began with a simple phrase: “Men and women respond to conflict differently.”
She went on to explain that the roles, activities, needs, constraints and opportunities associated with being male or female directly impact the policies and process of peacebuilding.
As such, Morris argues, it is important to mainstream gender equality within peacebuilding.
Unlike gender sensitivity, which calls for individuals to simply understand the differences between men and women, gender mainstreaming is the active transformation “of unequal social and institutional structures into equal and just structures” for both genders, says Morris.
“Mainstreaming is not about adding a ‘woman’s component’ or even a ‘gender equality component’,” she continues. “It means bringing the experience, knowledge and interests of women and men to bear on the peacebuilding agenda.”
Some of the leading gender issues in peace and security are the inclusion of women in negotiations and peace processes, integrating human rights and women’s security into the security sector program, and ending conflict related sexual and gender-based violence, such as war rape.
InterAction’s Commission on the Advancement of Women developed the gender integration framework to help organizations implement a process to address such gender issues.
This framework consists of four key components: political will, in which leaders communicate their organization’s commitment to gender equality; technical capacity, the skills necessary to institutionalize gender equitable processed in an organization; accountability, ways to identify the extent to which an organization is practicing the gender equality it says it is; and finally organizational culture, assessing the norms, beliefs and codes of behavior within an organization that support or undermine gender equality.
By using this framework, organizations can better mainstream gender equality internally as well as in their practices and by this, a more sustainable peace can be attained.
The Alliance for Peacebuilding Conference 2009
By Juontel White
The Alliance for Peacebuiliding (AFP) is a network of organizations dedicated to international conflict resolution. Search for Common Ground is one of its many members, which are located throughout the U.S. and abroad.
During this week, AFP held its 2009 annual conference in Boston, MA. I attended this meeting as a representative for Search for Common Ground and was able to gain insight from the shared experiences of other peacebuilding organizations.
The conference consisted of several workshops on a variety of topics. SFCG’s Executive Vice President Sandra Melone was a panelist for a workshop titled, “The Relationship between Conflict and Media” in which she addressed the close connection between the role of the media and conflict.
Other workshops addressed the concept of teaching conflict resolution, the holistic approach to peacebuilding and the interface between peacebuilding organizations and government agencies.
The holistic approach to conflict resolution suggests that all players in the peacebuilding field—community leaders, government agencies and NGOs—should develop a collaborative process in order to achieve greater and more effective results.
Rob Ricigliano, Director of Institute of World Affairs and the Peace Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, cited the Interagency Conflict Assessment Framework (ICAF)—a method recently adopted by several U.S. agencies—as the guide to this holistic approach.
“Collaborations between NGOs, government agencies and the United Nations can make the process more effective. The most important lesson, however, is that it is possible,” writes AFP President and CEO Chic Dambach, in his foreword to Building Peace: Practical Reflections from the Field.
An underlying theme of the conference was that the complexity of peacebuilding, in its efforts to establish long term stability by addressing several systemic levels within a country, can be a seemingly daunting but it is certainly possible, particularly when organization successful leverage their resources.
Those resources are available in several forms. For instance, support groups consisting of organizations bound by a similar purpose (typified by the AFP network) can serve as spaces for organizations to seek advice and words of encouragement from other groups in their field.
Resources can also be found within other systems and agencies. For peacebuilders, who often work at a community level, partnerships with government(s) and military forces can be valuable.
In his workshop on the relationship between peacebuilding groups and government agencies, Dambach explained how such partnerships are of mutual benefit.
He says peacebuilding often plays a role in foreign policy and international development and as such, peacebuilders can leverage their expertise to assist government officials in shaping policy. Conversely, sponsorships from government agencies are vital to the success of peacebuilding operations.
The media can also serve as a key resource for peacebuilders. As seen through the use of cell phones and twitter in broadcasting news surrounding the recent elections in Iran as well as violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the media can be a helpful tool in identifying areas of conflict.
With the creation of social media sites, the potential for viral communication has greatly expanded and peacebuilders can use these platforms to further publicize their message and also learn where their help is needed.
Overall, the conference was a gathering of scholars, practitioners and evaluators sharing and analyzing their experiences within their respective organizations while also gaining helpful information and resources for improvement and progress.
Melissa Etheridge and Salman Ahmad
We are grateful to Salman Ahmad and Melissa Etheridge for dedicating the music video of their song to Search for Common Ground; and to Participant Media for creating an inspiring music video using images from several of the countries where SFCG works.
Ring the Bells, released on Melissa’s Christmas 2008 CD (“A New Thought for Christmas”), is a duet between Grammy and Academy Award winning Melissa Etheridge and Pakistani rock superstar Salman Ahmad (of Junoon fame).
Melissa and Salman met in Norway where they performed at the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, at which Al Gore received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change. Melissa recorded I Need to Wake Up for Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth,” for which she received an Academy Award for Best Song of the Year.
That meeting turned into a friendship and that led to music sessions at Melissa’s house in Los Angeles. Ring the Bells was born.
Ring the Bells music video was produced by Participant Media, the company responsible for great films such as An Inconvenient Truth, The Soloist, The Visitor, and many more films that entertain, inform, and move audiences to action.
Watch. Listen. Act.
http://www.sfcg.org/ring-the-bells.html
Susan Koscis
Search for Common Ground
Washington DC
Aggression and Violence: Vital to Conflict Resolution?
By Juontel White
For many, the word ‘conflict’ most immediately triggers images of chronic violence and war. Conflict is a dispute in a situation as defined by a party’s underlying goals and beliefs.
It arises at varying degrees—from civil disputes to acts of genocide. At any level, conflict involves aggression and/or violence, whether exhibited passively or actively.
Aggression and violence can certainly fuel a conflict, but what role do the two play in the process of conflict resolution? Do they strictly impede peace-building efforts or are they an integral component to solving a dispute in a situation?
In light of the recent outburst by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-South Carolina) during President Barack Obama’s healthcare speech to Congress, a few colleagues and I engaged in a discussion comparing the U.S. legislative branch to that of Great Britain. Whereas Wilson’s actions were indecorous in any setting according to U.S. customs, had he been a member of the British Parliament the move would have been more apropos.
It was then argued that heated debates are necessary because it gives the party an opportunity to vent frustrations, serving as a detoxifier of sorts, cleansing the body from its pent up aggression. My colleague suggested that after tempers flare and abrasive words (and sometimes objects) fly a cool down period would begin, wherein the conflicting parties, having expressed their sentiments, could begin to resolve their differences and find a common ground.
I wondered if this theory could be applied to the resolution process of conflicts of all degrees.
In Understanding Conflict and War: The Just Peace, author R.J. Rummel writes, “Resolving conflict is partially empathizing with the other, understanding his frame of reference, and sensing this reading of one’s field of expression.”
You certainly cannot begin to understand the other side’s “frame of reference” until you know what that frame is. This comes from hearing, in full, the other side’s story.
The space in which the other explains that story may become aggressively heated and I agree that this is healthy toward resolving conflict for the same reasons noted by my colleague. But there is a thin line between healthy and unhealthy aggression and it is when a party begins to involve disparagement and violence in their expression that the peace-building process is impeded.
Muckraking and violent behavior cause parties to focus on their differences rather than their similarities. In this way, serving as a road block to compromise and conflict resolution.
As such, for parties to be ready to arrive at the space of healthy debate, they must be open and also introspective—prepared to quench any inclination of violence or reviling they may feel and commit to wholly listening to the other side.
In his recent speech to Congress, President Obama expressed that he is willing to hear all sides of the healthcare debate. This is the kind of openness which parties in conflict should adopt in hopes of settling their differences and resolving their conflict by finding common ground.
