Special Report for the 12th Anniversary of UNSCR1325:
Keeping the Hope Alive:
“The Role of Women’s Civil Society Organizations in Contributing to the Prevention and Resolution of Armed Conflict and Peacebuilding.”

*  2012년 10월 29일 뉴욕 유엔 본부에서 유엔 안보리 결의 1325호 공개토론이 예정되면서 무장갈등예방국제네트워크(GPPAC)는 이와 병행해 패널토론을 조직했다. 이 토론회에 대한 보고서이다. 필자는 유엔 시민사회자문위원의 일원이며 무장갈등예방국제네트워크 젠더포컬포인트이다.

New York, 30 October 2012
By Sharon Bhagwan Rolls
 
If you walked past the Roger Smith Hotel on Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York, you would have had a window into the work and world of 1325 activists, on the eve of October 31 st , which 12 years ago was the day when the UN Security Council adopted the groundbreaking resolution on Women, Peace and Security.
 
The improvised panel was convened at the Roger Smith Hotel as New York families and communities were either in wait and see or recovery mode – whether you have electricity or not, or whether you are to access basic services.
 
But for us, the work goes on, even though the UN Church closed and despite our co-convenor of the panel Julie Anne Salthouse’s inability to travel into the city from New Jersey. We had a “disaster risk management plan”:
 
“It is a chance to get our message out there (online),”said Gesa Bent, the Gender Coordinator of GPPAC, especially the message of prevention, which she said needs to emphasized to enhance the platform for women as agents of conflict prevention and peacebuilding.
 
The panel discussions which has been filmed will feature on GPPAC’s Peace Portal focusing on National and Regional initiatives such as Action Plans and the experiences of civil society to develop and implement plans, the role of women in Dialogue and Mediation processes from the community level to international platforms and the role of engaging with men including the related challenges.
 
The planned panel was initially an opportunity to partner with the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership and a message from Julie Anne Salthouse who reiterated that women’s civil society experiences and voices that Members States must not just consider, but systemically collaborate with and integrate into the planning, implementation and evaluation of national action plans in order to ensure true peace and security.
 
Prevention requires a demilitarized role and the dismantling of patriarchal structures:
 
According to Salthouse, whose message was read by Bent, “The Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) at Rutgers University welcomes this year’s Open Debate on 1325 and the opportunity it presents to consider women’s civil society roles throughout the peacemaking process.  Where do we as civil society stand in this dialogue?  What roles can we play?  What roles should we be playing?   We hope through the forums this week that we can work directly with Member States to further all of our work on gender equality, women’s empowerment, and the end of violence against women.”
 
Building on the 16 days campaign which since 1991, has involved over 4,100 organizations in 172 countries the Campaign, over the last 3 years, has specifically focused on the intersections of gender-based violence and militarism.  Militarism remains a key source of the violence experienced by women, as it creates a culture of fear, and supports the use of violence, aggression, and military interventions for settling disputes and enforcing economic and political interests.
 
Subsequently, the 16 Days Campaign has worked with women’s organizations and gender equality advocates worldwide to highlight the linkages between gender-based violence and militarism within the following three areas:
    * Violence perpetuated by state agents
    * Domestic violence and the role of small arms
    * Sexual violence during and after conflict
 
 
“Militarism not only undermines women’s rights as a whole, but also women’s dignity and bodily integrity. While often being used in the name of “security,” militarism typically has the opposite effect, frequently serving as the antithesis of peace. Stemming from our work on militarism, the Center recently developed a second project, The Security Project, which aims to examine how members of civil society define security in their own terms.  Often when we hear about security, it is defined by the state, in terms such as the presence of military personnel, checkpoints, and the right to bear arms.  But do we define our own sense of security in these same terms?  What do this mean for the ways in which governments prioritize their national budgets?”
 
“We want to use the North East Asia Peace Conference to also raise public awareness of “1325” and also to ensure that all the states involved in the Six Party Talks must also host a women’s conference”  says Gyung Lan Jung who is adamant that all state parties involved in the peace talks must be complying with UNSCR1325 and this includes a call for a National Action Plan for South Korea particularly as the state assembly in Seoul has adopted a resolution to pave the way for an action plan, “but this must be an inclusive approach,” she adds as she looks forward to the integration of “1325” into the November 2012 gender policy review.
 
The impact of protracted militarization is one of the key reasons for the work of Gyung Lan Jung who was a Coordinator of Korean women's peace delegation which visited 5 countries to hold the Women's Six Party Talks in 2007 and is a Coordinator of the Organizing Committee of the Northeast Asian Women's Peace Conference since 2009. She is a Chairperson of Policy Committee, Women Making Peace in Seoul, South Korea. She is also the co‐director of the South Korean Committee for Implementation of the June 15th Joint Declaration between North and South Korea and the co-director of its Women's Division. She visited North Korea over 10 times including Pyongyang, Mt. Kumkang and Kaesung city for negotiations with North Korean women's group. She is also co-chair of the steering committee of the Civil Peace Forum.
 
“We try to meet to reduce the mistrust,” but this is not helped each time there is a nuclear crisis, “We meet twice every year… we have visited day care centres and the office of the Democratic Women, so we see the reality of North Korea women including the impact of society attitudes,” she said.
 
“Women Making Peace is raising awareness of 1325 since 2007 to contribute to articles on women and youth and we tried to rope in congress women to make testimonies to ministries of defence and unification,” says Gyung Lan Jung who added that a strategy is also the monitoring of the national women’s machinery, ”But women are still not visible in the Six Party Talks, and (now) since 2008 we have hosted conferences including in the DMZ and we also visited the US and Russian embassies to voice our concerns about the lack of progress of the peace talks,” she said.
 
The need to expand women’s participation and ensuring a gender perspective in the South Korea foreign affairs and diplomatic process however the current state plan of the Ministry of gender Equality and Unification does not reflect this and often women continue to face state obstacles from meeting for dialogue and mediation and further the women’s unification efforts. This also impacts on humanitarian assistance and civil society engagement: “The status of women is very low and even though there is a gender responsive budget approach, the actual amounts, she says is very low.”
 
A National Action Plan she also adds is a responsibility not just of the women’s machinery but must have an effective participation of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Unification.
 
There is a need to continue to search for the common ground between the two Koreas, and that is one reason the strategies use both Track One and Track Two Diplomacy says Gyung Lan Jung who is also looking forward to the upcoming elections especially as one of the Presidential candidates has heard the call of the “1325” Women’s Network and has added this to his campaign commitments.
 
Taking a Preventive and Human Security Approach – Women’s Participation Vital
 
Power sharing, resource sharing, DDR and transitional justice is where there is a need for women in the post-peace signing process says Carmen Lauzon-Gatmaytan (Memen) the Gender Focal Point for GPPAC Southeast Asia, who reiterated that the strategies include the involvement of the security sector and must build on how women have participated in innovative ceasefire monitoring, suggesting that throughout the implementation of the recently signed peace agreement must also be about the prevention of the resurgence of violence.
 
The role of “1325” in peacebuilding is obvious in Mindanao where the coalition of “Peace Weavers” also developed a peace agenda which integrated “1325” and complimented the innovation of other human rights and peacebuilding advocacy groups. Innovations included an all-female “Ceasefire Watch” which involved women from grassroots communities who were affected by the armed violence.
 
Participation of women is key, not just within civil society but also as Gyung Lan Jung is stressing for her region, in formal processes.
 
For Mindanao the “1325” campaign has also involved lobbying for and supporting the inclusion of women from the We Act Network in both sides of the peace negotiations, but this was not without barriers of culture and tradition, although with perseverance there was breakthrough.
 
And local peace efforts obviously connect to overall national peace. From the local to the national level, a series of women’s peace initiatives between Mindanao and Manila extended across the Philippines resulted in the launch of the National Action Plan on UNSCR1325 by October 2010. Aside from the establishment of the state working group, the women have also established their own monitoring mechanism through the “We Act 1325” network which has developed a series of reports and are now in the stage of localizing “1325”.
 
But according to Memen, there is also a need to ensure there is greater innovation and interface and interaction as the National Action Plan moves forward, which includes the need for government officials to be able to better understand and collaborate women’s civil society. Finally, there is also a need to work within the civil society and to continue to inspire each other to build on the gains.
 
 
At the global level, the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership is also bringing forward experiences from the local to the global level through an online research project that asks “what security means to you” and according to Salthouse, already the responses so far to this survey, as well as through the work on the 16 Days Campaign, key patterns are emerging in how members of civil society envision a more peaceful world, hinting at the steps necessary to achieve sustainable development and long-lasting peace.:
 
“Too often, we see women being places in two roles within the peace and security dialogue: as passive victims, and/or solely in relation to roles within their families.  Women are not viewed as individuals, and their subjectivities are often erased through action plans that often block individual women’s experiences and identities into one homogenous group.  To end violence against women, women’s rights must not be seen as one dimensional.  Women’s experiences of violence are manifested in multiple forms of discrimination, and greatly influence their access to economic, social and cultural rights.  Violence against women cannot be adequately addressed unless States also address land rights, healthcare, education, access to justice and legal mechanisms, and the larger economic, social, cultural, and political context in which women and men live.”
 
Additionally says Salthouse, there is a need to clarify men’s roles in this work as well: “Not all men are perpetrators, and not all women are victims.  It is imperative that we work alongside men to address the larger systems of discrimination and unequal power structures that manifest themselves through violence.  Men can and must be women’s allies in this work, and must work with other men to dismantle these systems that oppress us all.  We must be willing to take a hard look at gender roles and dismantle the binary thinking that places unequal value―and power―on specific traits, gender, sexuality, race, and people. It is mandated in 1325 to “ensure increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict” and to “incorporate a gender perspective into peacekeeping operations.”