Gendering Peace PROPOSAL FOR A POSITION PAPER OF EWL ON WOMEN, CONFLICT AND UN SC RESOLUTION 1325 Rada Boric, European Women

1
Gendering PeacePROPOSAL FOR A POSITION
PAPER OF EWL ON WOMEN, CONFLICT AND UN SC
RESOLUTION 1325 Rada Boric, European Womens
Lobby

2
KEY POINTS

• Conflicts and wars are GENDERED processes
• Conflicts and wars have disproportional impact on
  women and children, particularly the girl child.
• Women are not seen as equal in contributing to
  the democratic development and creating human
  security for all.

3
Gender, Peace and Security Policy within
EUDocuments to Refer to

• Participation of women in peaceful conflict
  resolution (EP Resolution, 2000)
• Resolution 1385 of the Council of Europe on
  Conflict Prevention and Resolution the Role of
  Women (2004)
• Council operational paper on the
  implementation of SCR 1325 in the ESDP (2005)
• A roadmap for equality between women and
  men 2006-2010 (2006)
• Report on the situation of women in armed
  conflicts and their role in the reconstruction
  and democratic process in post-conflict countries
  (2006)
• Checklist to ensure gender mainstreaming and
  implementation of UNSCR 1325 in the planning and
  conduct of ESDP Operations (2006)
• Report on women in international politics (2006)
• Council conclusions on promoting gender equality
  and gender mainstreaming in crisis management
  (2006)

The EU was created to ensure lasting peace in
Europe
4
UN SC Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and
Security (2000)

• Principal international instrument which
  incorporates and mandates a gender perspective in
  all aspects of peacebuilding.
• A Gender perspective must be mainstreamed
  throughout the peace processes, peace
  accords/agreements and peacekeeping operations

5
The UN Resolution 1325 stresses four main areas
of concern

• The participation of women in peacebuilding
• The inclusion of a gender perspective in peace
  processes and training to promote gender
  perspective in peace building
• The protection of women from violence in crisis
  and war areas, especially from rape
• The inclusion of gender perspective in UN reports
  and mechanisms for the implementation of peace
  agreements

6
How can the UN SC Resolution 1325 be effective?

• Increasing womens involvement in peacebuilding/
  promotion measures
• Recognizing the ways in which women and men are
  affected differently by conflict
• Preventing gender-specific violence against women
  and girls and protecting the rights and needs of
  women and girls in armed conflict
• Developing and implementing National Action
  Plans
• Assuring gender budgeting
• Setting identifiable benchmark and time lines for
  implementation

7
National Action Plans

• The UN system has developed a 1325 Action Plan as
  the best way to translate objectives of the
  Resolution 1325 into reality. 
• Only six EU countries have develop NAPs UK,
  Denmark, Sweden, Austria, The Netherlands and
  Spain, and two non-EU countries Switzerland and
  Norway. Canada is the only country outside
  Europe.
• The majority of these national action plans fail
  to include gender budgeting, identifiable
  benchmarks and/or timelines for the
  implementation
• legal instruments are in place, including
  developed national action plans, the mechanisms
  for implementing still needs to be developed.

8
The role of womens NGOs

• To disseminate information about Resolution 1325
  to national and regional stake holders involved
  in decision-making
• To publish shadow reports on gender perspectives
  on conflicts
• To offer gender specific training for UN and
  other international and national personnel
• To offer training to build womens capacities to
  participate in decision-making at all levels
• To encourage womens organizations at all levels
  to prepare and support candidates for
  decision-making positions, including refugee
  women
• To lobby that the General Assembly prioritize the
  budget for gender mainstreaming in peace
  operations and engage personnel with gender
  expertise
• To lobby for establishing gender focal
  points/gender units and utilize gender experts in
  all peacebuilding missions

9
Preconditions for sustainable peace and human
security

• Gender Equality Platform for Action, CEDAW and SC
  Resolution 1325 articulated that equality and
  peace cannot be achieved without the equal
  participation of women and full integration of
  gender perspectives. Commitment to combat
  violence against women, increase girls access to
  education, ensure womens equal participation in
  decision-making and access to reproductive
  rights, with firm benchmarks for action.
• Gender Mainstreaming UN system has to strengthen
  gender mainstreaming, as mandated, ensuring that
  the structural changes and financial and human
  resources within the UN promote gender equality.
• Development Peace, development and human rights
  are inextricably linked. Link between
  conflict/war and poverty, as well as conflict
  prevention and development has to be considered
  and conditions tackled. Sustainable development
  should be reinforced by the political and
  financial commitments as a form of prevention.
• Human Rights Need to strengthen human rights
  mechanisms in the member states as well as within
  the UN and EU/CoE. Legal reform process must be
  based on gender mainstreaming human rights.

10

• Disarmament In the framework of human security,
  decisions on the disarmament of all weapons,
  including small arms and light weapons and
  nuclear weapons, should be carried out.
• Demilitarisation does not only mean reduction of
  military expenditure and control of availability
  of armaments, but the shift in the politics
  promotion of non-violent forms of conflict
  transformation and promotion of the respect of
  human rights.
• Civil Society Womens NGos proved to perform
  important role in peacebuilding processes and
  they role must be re-enforced. The states and the
  UN cannot be effective in their commitments
  toward sustainable peace without meaningful
  engagement from civil society organizations and
  strong partnership between member states and
  civil society. Consistent with the provisions of
  UNSC Resolution 1325, gender analysis of all
  situations off armed conflict should be
  performed.

11
EWL Recommendations

• Re-affirm commitment for the implementation of
  UNSC Resolution 1325 and European Parliaments
  resolution 2000/2025 on the Participation of
  Women in Peaceful Conflict Resolution.
  Development of an EU-wide Action Plan on SCR 1325
  and development of NAPs by all EU members is of
  urgent matter. SUGGESTION National action plans
  in conflict-affected areas are crucial for the
  process of peace building. Support for their
  creation and implementation by national and
  international NGOs is recommended.
• Call upon Governments, relevant UN agencies and
  other intergovernmental bodies to provide full
  financial support for implementation of
  Resolution 1325, as well as adequate and
  sustainable funding for womens equal
  participation in peace building, conflict
  prevention and conflict resolution processes. 
  Strict benchmarks for the implementation needed,
  including gender budgeting and time lines for
  implementation

12

• Conduct a mapping and review of gender issues
  within EU peace and security policy and
  programming assess gaps and identify areas of EU
  strategic priority related to SCR 1325 and EP
  resolution 2000/2025. Evaluate implementation of
  SCR 1325/national action plans.
• Actively promote the equal participation of women
  in conflict prevention, management and conflict
  resolution and in post-conflict peace building,
  by developing the capacity of the EU within the
  common security and defence policy to respond to
  conflict prevention and to promote the concept of
  human security.
• Place womens human rights at the core of donor
  policies for reconstruction and development by
  building support systems and investment in
  specialised services for the victims of rape and
  trauma in the wake of gender-based violence
  perpetrated during conflict/war periods

13

• Provide a mandate within the common security and
  defence policy to, inter alia co-ordinate the EU
  with a focus on non-military crisis management
  ensure the drafting, implementation and
  monitoring of codes of conduct for military and
  civilian factions intervening on behalf of the EU
  in areas of armed conflict and ensure that at
  least 40 of women are included in all
  reconciliation, peacekeeping, peace-enforcement,
  peace building and conflict prevention posts
• Provide clear gender focused Code of Conducton
  the standards of conduct of military and civilian
  peacekeeping and humanitarian staff while on
  mission in areas of armed conflict.
• Make funds available to women so they can seek
  redress through the mechanisms of international
  law in the aftermath of armed conflicts.
• Make funds available to women to participate and
  take leadership in reconstructing community life
  and access to infrastructure such as water
  supply, electricity, schools, hospitals, roads as
  well as (re) building legal and administrative
  structures of the State

14

• Condemn all forms of violence of gender-based
  violence in situations of armed conflicts and
  post-conflict societies. Women and girls should
  have access to redress through the mechanism of
  international law in the aftermath of the
  conflict. Support to the Tribunal for the cases
  of gendered war violence.
• Grant protection to women who flee their
  countries grant women asylum by recognising
  gender-based violence adopt the United Nations
  High Commissioner for Refugees guidelines on
  Sexual and gender-based violence against
  refugees, returnees and internally displaced
  persons Guide for Prevention and Response adopt
  within the process of EU harmonisation of asylum
  policies, the UN guidelines on International
  Protection Gender Related Persecution within
  the context of Article 1A(2)provide annual
  disaggregated data

15

• Support The International Criminal Court (ICC) to
  pursue perpetrators of crimes committed against
  women as crimes against humanity.
• Invest in civil society, by supporting womens
  organisations, as a means of conflict prevention.
• Appoint EU Rapporteur on womens rights to
  monitor implementation of gender policies in
  Europe, including the implementation of the
  policies on resolution 1325.
• Develop and support alternative National Action
  Plans and alternative/parallel Womens Security
  Councils to promote women in peace-building.

16

• www.womenlobby.org