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Theme: Gender equality

Reframing the debate around women, peace, and security

Posted on by Shreen Saroor

When a peace deal is struck between warring factions, it is widely understood that peace has been achieved. However, when key sections of society—in most cases all women—are kept from the negotiating table, is that peace agreement likely to meet the needs of all citizens? As an individual who has lived through conflict from a young age, I know I have a different perspective on peacebuilding than those who have sat at the negotiating table on my behalf.

‘Unless a society treats its citizens equally, national security does not guarantee security for all’

Trying to address this problem two decades ago, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security. Recognising that women bear unique burdens during conflict and can offer critical insights on peacebuilding, UNSCR 1325 stressed the importance of ensuring that women participate in greater numbers at all stages of conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction. Since its passage, Resolution 1325 has become the organising framework for thinking about women, peace, and security and is touted by the U.N. Security Council, U.N. Women, and other powerful international organisations.

But while the impetus behind UNSCR 1325 may be sound, does its approach actually make things worse? Unfortunately, yes.

The problem is conceptual. UNSCR 1325 defines security in terms of national security. But national security is not the same as individual security: unless a society treats its citizens equally, national security does not guarantee security for all. If we can agree that women bear a disproportionate burden of hardship and injustice in conflict, our priority should be reforming the structures that create those inequalities in the first place.

Last month, Shreen Saroor (third from right) joined peace advocates from around the world for a roundtable discussion exploring how women could achieve greater representation in peace processes. The event took place in Penang, Malaysia, and was convened by the Commonwealth Foundation.

We know that women face sexual violence in conflict and untold hardships in post-conflict reconstruction.  When lands and resources are grabbed or access to them restricted in the name of post-conflict security, war-affected women can find themselves with no means of livelihood. As a consequence, women can find themselves in unskilled factory labour with no pathway for advancement. The same women who were uniquely vulnerable during the war remain uniquely exploited after it. Recognising their voices in conflict resolution and peacebuilding requires that we look at the broader context. That context includes not just physical security from violence but a transformation of their role in relation to the state.

‘The answer to war’s disproportionate impact on women should not be to deputise women as agents of war’

The drive for greater female representation in the armed forces—although ostensibly about female empowerment—works against women in the longer term, undermining arguments against violence. Indeed, the women’s peace agenda is best served by a reduction of arms and security personnel. The answer to war’s disproportionate impact on women should not be to deputise women as agents of war, but instead to solicit women’s views to reduce violence and reshape the structures facilitating it.

By defining the debate in terms of national security and working for greater participation of women in the security sector, UNSCR 1325’s influence is leading governments and international organisations, including U.N. Women, astray. It is incumbent on civil society stakeholders to argue for an alternative framing.

What women need is not a token seat at the table, but rather a chance to offer real input in peacebuilding and conflict resolution. We need our values and experiences to be heard to dismantle the structures of oppression and violence that leave us uniquely vulnerable. This means a commitment to disarmament, demilitarisation, war crimes accountability, human rights and dignity, livelihood assistance, land rights, cultural rights, inheritance and divorce reforms, and lasting efforts to repair war-torn societies and elevate them to a place better than before. It is in shaping this process that women need to be heard.

How do I know I’m right? Twenty years after UNSCR 1325, impunity persists for sexual and gender-based violence. Even as women have joined peacekeeping ranks in greater numbers, reports of rape and sexual violence against U.N. peacekeeping forces and state security personnel persist. Well-qualified women are encouraged to enter politics, but when they do, they are mocked, their good intentions questioned, and they are distracted in the fight against the same patriarchal, discriminatory, and sometimes militarised structures their presence in politics seeks to change.

What gains are we making in addressing the problems that UNSCR 1325 sought to correct? If we take an honest assessment, it is clear we need a better path forward, one that actually considers women’s perspectives in peacebuilding rather than treating them as placeholders in the same flawed approach.

Shreen Saroor is a human rights activist.

From commitment to action: inclusion of women’s voices in Commonwealth priorities for gender equality

Posted on by Myn Garcia

Women from across the Commonwealth met in advance of the 12 Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting (12WAMM) on 16 and 17 September to discuss policy recommendations to accelerate national, regional, and global action to implement the Commonwealth commitments on gender equality in support of Beijing+25 Platform for Action. The Commonwealth Foundation offered a platform to 50 women’s rights and women-led organisations from across the Commonwealth. 

Delegates to the civil society roundtable in advance of 12WAMM called on member countries of the Commonwealth to support four priorities: ending violence against women and girls, women in leadership, women’s economic empowerment, and women’s land rights and climate change. These priorities reinforce the commitments made in Beijing 25 years ago, which despite progress remain unfinished business globally. The discussion also included an interrogation of the intersectionality of gender and how it is finding its way (or not) to the analysis of policy, particularly with regard to commitments made in Beijing on gender equality and women’s rights. 

Anne Pakoa (pictured right) Founder and CEO of the Human Rights Coalition of Vanuatu and Founder of Vanuatu Young Women for Change, addressed the Senior Officials Meeting in the days following the roundtable.

One of the things that the Foundation has been committed to in the last seven years is to promote ways by which civic voices are able to not only access spaces of policy making, but meaningfully engage with policy makers in the Commonwealth and beyond. The efforts have had uneven results. But on 18 September 2019 in Nairobi, the Foundation and its partners celebrated the inclusion of civic voices in the Senior Officials Meeting of 12WAMM, a milestone for the Commonwealth.  

Delegates of the roundtable called on member countries to take action as follows:  

  • commit to ensuring that women and gender affairs ministries track compliance to international commitments and accelerate implementation at the national level 
  • invest in research to collect disaggregated data relating to the four pillars to ensure better planning, effective implementation, monitoring and evaluation 
  • address gender-based violence for the promotion of social and economic justice for women and girls, and document all women’s rights violations  
  • allocate significant funds: 15% of all sectoral budgets to women’s economic empowerment and 30% of national budgets to women machineries, in support of women, girls, and vulnerable groups in the margins 
  • allocate 50% of parliamentary seats for women leaders 
  • address the gender impact of climate change through meaningful international climate financing and prioritisation of mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage strategies in the most vulnerable countries in the global south, particularly in the small island developing states and the large ocean nations. 

Anne Pakoa, Founder and CEO of the Human Rights Coalition of Vanuatu and Founder of Vanuatu Young Women for Change, addressed the Senior Officials Meeting in the days following the roundtable. She concluded her delivery of the core messages from civil society with these words:  

‘We hope that as you return to your respective countries, you will continue with the same spirit of constructively engaging with women’s rights and women-led organisations in support of the Commonwealth priorities for the advancement of the Beijing +25 Platform for Action.’

Indeed, accelerating the implementation of the Commonwealth’s priorities in support of the Beijing+25 Platform for Action requires national action. The key to accelerating these commitments lies at the national level. That’s one of the lessons the Millennium Development Goals gave us. Let’s take heed.  

Myn Garcia is a former Deputy Director-General of the Commonwealth Foundation.  

Involve me and I learn

Posted on by Elzeever Odhiambo

When I received an email from the Commonwealth Foundation inviting me to a roundtable on women and peace—I was ecstatic. Finally, I was going to have my say on peacebuilding at an international forum. On reviewing the profiles of the attendees, however, I soon became anxious; parliamentarians, presidential advisors, and international peace activists were set to attend, and I thought it best to keep my mouth shut, and resolve to listen and learn. But the meeting’s strength was drawn from its diversity: there were women from over 11 countries who had worked at very different levels of peace advocacy. The dialogue turned out to be one of the most important moments in my career as a peacebuilder.

I am involved in community policing in Kenya, where I do my best to bring communities and police together to cooperate and maintain peace and security. My work is primarily focused on the ‘forgotten’ parts of rural Kenya, where violent cattle theft and revenge attacks are the order of the day. I never suspected that my efforts would be recognised at the international level.

‘I noticed how the role of colour in conflict serves as an illuminating metaphor for the seeming vacuity of group differences’

My views and opinions were keenly listened to and acknowledged and I was asked many questions about my line of work. I explained that peace is impossible without the presence of independent security forces in the areas of Kenya considered to be violent conflict zones. This is why we must enlist the help of security agencies and cooperate closely with the police in our peace efforts and mediation strategies. In Baringo, for example, the establishment of Community Policing Committees and Forums has enabled locals to give the police crucial intelligence information. Plans to steal from or mete out revenge on communities have been thwarted as the police are able to swing into action without delay.

‘… our collective aim is to have women present at the negotiating table, and I now feel confident that young women should be accorded a seat’

The rich knowledge and wisdom in the room accounted for more than I can write about here, but one thing that struck me was that wherever you are in the world, conflict is similar—it is always one community of identity or ideology against another. I noticed how the role of colour in conflict serves as an illuminating metaphor for the seeming vacuity of group differences: in Kenya, during the 2007/2008 deadly post-election violence, the colours blue and orange were used to identify what side a person was on; in Northern Ireland, colour codes were used to identify Catholics and Protestants; and in Sierra Leone, the situation was so dire that you could not access services from government offices while adorning clothes of the ‘wrong’ colour.

As peacebuilders, young women are often alone in the field, so I am pleased to say that I made meaningful intergenerational connections during the meeting, including with a seasoned peace activist who has since become my mentor in the field. I decided to set aside the African rule of keeping distance from your elders and instead focus on creating reciprocal friendships regardless of title and age: for our collective aim is to have women present at the negotiating table, and I now feel confident that young women should be accorded a seat.

‘Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.’ ⁠— Benjamin Franklin

Elzeever Odhiambo is a community peace activist in Kenya.