Lena Ag på Commission on the Status of Women Mars 2010

Women, Peace and Security – Nordic side event at the CSW , 5 March, 2010

Tal av Kvinna till Kvinnas generalsekreterare Lena Ag

Kvinna till Kvinna, is Swedish for “Woman to Woman” have been working on the ground in conflict areas for more than 15 years , in the Balkans, South Caucasus and the Middle East, supporting and cooperating with women’s organizations in these regions.

 1. First I would like to talk about lessons learned by Kvinna till Kvinna and partners on why and how women organize on community level and the conditions they face in the context of conflicts and post-conflicts.

2. Then, 3 concrete recommendations, from the ground, for international organizations in order to be effective in promoting women’s rights and women’s empowerment. 

Our recommendations are in short: Recognize, Include, Fund  -  I will come back later to this.

1. LESSONS LEARNED

International consensus, “in theory, but not in practise”?

 I agree with the Report of the Secretary General – there is today an international consensus of the important link between women’s empowerment, poverty eradication, democratic development and peace and security We have for example the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and its followers, which is an expression of this consensus, participation, protection, prevention… 

That is: women's participation as a prerequisite for peace.

Yet, there appears to be an unwillingness to embrace gender-equality and women's perspective into the mainstream security policy analysis. Almost half of the responses to the 15 year review on implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action did not address this critical area of concern. Could it be due to the fact that this area is dominated by a political elite, consisting of, not only but mainly – men? A group that often lacks insight into the significance of civil society, into the conditions of women and the role that women play at all stages of armed conflict.

What does it tell us that not one single woman was present in the Afghan delegation during the recent London talks on the future of Afghanistan? Not one! Yet the plight of Afghan women are constantly mentioned as an important reason for the international military engagement in the country.

This uneven distribution of power must change – for the benefit of all.

Since women are marginalized from decision-making and power hierarchies in large parts of the world they have to choose other routes to political influence. Women are not only victims of war, but they are also drivers of peace. We in the international community need to understand this in order to be able to support them in the right way.

Humanitarian becomes political

Women are often quick to organize, quick to assess their communities’ needs and quick to respond to these needs. Their starting point is in general quite pragmatic and down to earth.  Why? Because the prevailing gender roles gives the women the main responsibility for the family, food and for the children.

That is why women start to organize around practical problems.

At a first glance it might look like only humanitarian or social work. But our experience is that very often this kind of “community based or service provider” work develops into rights based organizing, entailing for example dialogue projects between former enemies or work against religious fundamentalism – often women are in the front line of this democratic and political struggle. Look at Iran for example.

But the problem is that they are not recognized in this capacity. 

And yes- women ARE victims in armed conflicts. In recent conflicts on all continents in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, gender based violence as weapons of war, on a large scale – horrible crimes against women, because they are women  – have taken place.

To combat sexual and gender based violence both in peace and war time is key to reach the Millennium Development Goals. We have seen new resolutions in this area, 1820,1888, and a newly appointed special representative. This is positive. But still, there has been very few results reported in terms o preventing sexual and gender-based violence in armed conflict and in addressing impunity, as the Secretary General mentions in his report.

That is why ignoring women and their organizations in their other roles as peace, human rights and political activists, is playing into the hands of oppressive leaders and patriarchal systems.

Women’s efforts to defend human rights are rarely recognised. For many, the default assumption is that women are merely passive victims of violence and poverty. Seldom are women activists seen for who they really are: agents of massive change.

The denial of acknowledging women’s agency renders WHRDs invisible and by doing so, it puts them at great risk. It is much easier to get away with humiliating, raping, disappearing or executing women who are “just women” than attacking human rights defenders.

Such attacks are presented as “normal” violence against women.

The silence and inability of public authorities to prosecute the perpetrators indirectly supports the violations. The greatest threat to women's rights activists is the lack of recognition.

Let me now move on to what our partners want international organizations to do, in order to best support and promote women’s rights and women’s empowerment, from a community based perspective.

2. RECOMMENDATIONS

1. First: Recognize: Political recognition is key!

What these women’s organisations often are doing in conflict areas takes a lot of courage. Political leaders need to meet women’s organizations, both to give them status, which equals protection, but also to listen to their knowledge and use their power and potential. If national leaders don’t do so, international leaders can and should do so  - even more.

2. Second: Include: Peace talks

– increase the participation of representatives from civil society and women’s organizations, find new ways to involve them! Our experience is, as is also stated in the Report by the General Secretary, that post-conflict situations can open up for change in governance structures, rule of law and infrastructure development. This must be used more efficiently to eliminate inequalities and discrimination in law and in practice and guarantee equal access to resources and opportunities.

- Again see and listen to them and their own ideas. (In December last year I attended the first people to people conference between Russian and Georgian women. Exciting. They did what their politicians should be doing!)

- More women as peace negotiators – In all peace processes since 1992, women have averaged just over 7.5% of negotiators and fewer than 2% of mediators.

- Every track I process should be mirrored in a track II process.  It will enable civil society including women’s groups to have a say, if they cannot sit at the very table. Important perspectives can otherwise get lost.

(For instance: Often the involved forget that the conflict might have changed patterns in the society: men's violence against women often increases just as the support for traditions that restrict women’s freedom of movement and participation in society. Negotiators can seize the opportunity to change destructive gender roles, but often the opposite happens and it gets worse. )

 3. Third:  Fund –(capacity development, needs based activities and meeting spaces)

Last but by no means least – the international community needs to put aside resources – much more that there is today – to specifically support the women human rights defenders and the women’s movement in countries ravaged by war. Recent AWID- research, published here at the CSW the other day, shows that although funding has increased for gender equality over all, this does not necessarily mean that women’s organisations per se gets more resources. The financial crisis has had a large impact on local women’s organisations on grass root level. It has to be remedied. These brave women hold important parts of the solution in their hands.

- It takes time – there are no quick fixes. In order to organise, long-term and predictable support and capacity development is needed, core funding is essential.

- Women need safe havens - rooms of their own- to use Virginia Wolf’s expression - in order to heal, meet, talk, strategize and organize for a change – International organizations can provide this!

- A well funded new UN Gender Entity with a strong mandate, operations on the ground will be an important partner.

Let it also be noted that one year of global military spending which is more than 1400 billion dollars are the equivalent of 2900 years of funding a Gender Entity or for that matter 700 years of regular UN budgets.

To summarize:

Recognize! Include! Fund!

I would like to end by quoting Gandhi:

"First they ignore you, then they make fun of you, then they fight you, then you win.”