Women Against Sexual Violence

An article in today’s New York Times, In a Guinea Seized by Violence, Women are Prey, outlines the brutal shape of an oppressive regime in Guinea that is purposefully targeting women…raping and savaging women…as a willful tactic to stop demonstrations aimed at overthrowing the military junta and its leader, Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara. Read the article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/world/africa/06guinea.html

On September 30, 2009, the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that addresses the need to end sexual violence against women in conflict-affected countries. Introduced by the US government, at a session chaired by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the resolution builds on Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820, both of which were instrumental in raising the issue of sexual violence on the Security Council’s agenda. In her address to the council, Clinton affirmed that “today, the United States joins with the international community in sending a simple and unequivocal message: violence against women and children will not be tolerated and must be stopped.”

Strengthening the commitments made in SCR 1820 which clearly links the prevention of sexual violence with the maintenance of peace and security, the new resolution, SCR 1888, asks for:

• The immediate appointment of a Special Representative to provide leadership, work effectively to strengthen existing UN coordination mechanisms and advocate on ending sexual violence against women with governments, military, judicial representatives and parties to armed conflict;
• The creation of a team of experts, comprising specialists on rule of law, civilian and military judicial systems, mediation, criminal investigation, security sector reform, witness protection, fair trial standards, and public outreach. This team will assist governments, UN missions on the ground and peacekeeping forces to cope with sexual violence in armed conflict, enhance national capacity and to strengthen rule of law and state authority to prevent impunity;
• The appointment of women’s protection advisors in peacekeeping missions;
• The provision of data and information about the prevalence of sexual violence in reports made by peacekeeping missions to the Security Council;
• An annual reporting on the progress made on implementing SCR 1820 and this new resolution

France and other UN member states expressed concern about the recent violence in Guinea Conakry. They cited this as an example of a situation where women and other marginalized groups can become more vulnerable and international instruments like Resolutions 1820 and 1888 would be very much needed. The importance of Resolution 1325 as the foundation document that recognizes women’s role in peace building and conflict resolution was also highlighted by Vietnam and other Security Council members. The United Kingdom, Mexico and a number of other Security Council members also welcomed the creation of the new women’s entity in the UN system. The Security Council also received endorsements and statements from 40 other Member States but they were not read in today’s meeting.

A draft copy of the resolution, SCR 1888, can be found at: http://www.iwtc.org/1888.html

The 68 countries that sponsored the resolution, include:
Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Rwanda, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United Republic of Tanzania, and United States of America.

Euphemia Akos Dzathor, Phyu Phyu Sann, Jeanne Nzuzi Nsamba, Gladys Brima and Lindora Howard-Diawara present their work women in conflict-affected countries at an event co-organized by the Mission of Finland to the United Nations and the International Women’s Tribune Centre

On Monday, September 28, 2009, five remaining participants from IWTC’s strategy session on 1820 converged on the Mission of Finland to the United Nations to share their experiences on working with women in conflict-affected countries, the challenges and strategies on working with international and regional instruments in their countries, and suggestions for the way forward. Participants from Ghana, Burma, DRC, Sierra Leone and Liberia addressed an audience comprising of representatives from other UN country missions, NGOs as well as UN agencies that have a particular interest in conflict-affected countries, at an event co-organized by the IWTC and the Finnish mission.

Gladys Brima, from Women Partnership for Justice and Peace, talks about the value of SCR 1820 in a post-war country like Sierra Leone.

To find out more about the situation of women in Sierra Leone, both during the war and after the cessation of hostilities, go to http://www.peacewomen.org/resources/Sierra_Leone/sierraleoneindex.html

IWTC, in partnership with women’s rights and community organizations in Sierra Leone, has produced a set of radio dramas that weaves information about international and regional legal mechanisms (SCR 1325 and the African Protocol, for example) into stories on education, political participation and violence against women. These stories are drawn from the experiences of women and each program is available in Krio, Themne and Mende. To listen to the programs, go to: http://www.iwtc.org/2983/9515.html

Lindora Howard-Diawara, WIPNET-Liberia, discusses the realities of women living with sexual violence in Liberia and how SCR 1820 can become a tool in the arsenal of women’s groups who are fighting to eradicate it

To read more about the experiences of women in Liberia, both during the conflict and post-conflict reconstruction, go to: http://www.peacewomen.org/resources/Liberia/liberiaindex.html

The extraordinary role that women, organized by WIPNET-Liberia, played to bring peace to an embattled and brutalized Liberia is chronicled in the film Pray the Devil Back to Hell. Find out more about the movie at: http://www.praythedevilbacktohell.com/v3/

Here is the trailer:

Bandana Rana, President of Saathi, Nepal: http://www.saathi.org.np/

To read more about the situation of women affected by Nepal’s brutal conflict, go to:  http://www.peacewomen.org/resources/Nepal/nepalindex.html

Jeanne Nzuzi Nsamba, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, waiting to make her speech outside the formidable network of checkpoints and maze of police that has the entire area around the United Nations in lock down; and reading her speech in the Trusteeship Council room at the UN

The highpoint for all of us was an afternoon rush uptown (after a rich and full morning session) to accompany Jeanne Nzuzi to her speaking engagement at an event co-hosted by the presidents of Finland, Tarja Halonen, and Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. This meeting was convened in the UN Trusteeship Council room to convey and renew the important commitments made at the Liberian colloquium in March 2009 on implementing SCR 1325 and addressing climate change. Other speakers included Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda; and Wangari Mathai, environmental activist and founder of the Green Belt movement.

Jeanne was agonizing over and finalizing her speech till the very last minute and all of us were excited…nervous…energized…with sweaty hands…waiting for her soft, firm voice to come on over the microphone as we listened to the speakers before – from governments and civil society – make their commitments towards enabling and strategizing around women’s participation and protection from sexual violence. Then, finally it was her turn.

Her eloquent and strong speech follows (in French):
Excellence, Mesdames les présidentes des républiques sœurs du Liberia Madame Ellen Johnson Sirleaf et Tarja Halonen de Finlande, Monsieur le Président de la République du Rwanda Monsieur Paul Kagame.

Mesdames et Messieurs,
Je réponds au nom de Jeanne Nzuzi Nsamba et je représente le Réseau Femme et Développement de Kinshasa basé en République Démocratique du Congo. Nous prenons la parole du haut de cette tribune au nom de la communauté de pratique pour la consolidation de la paix.Nous saisissons de l’occasion pour remercier les présidentes Ellen Johnson Sirleaf et Tarja Halonen pour avoir organisé le Colloque International  sur la résolution 1325 du conseil de sécurité tenue du  7 au 09 mars 2009 a Monrovia.

A l’issue des séances de travail sur la résolution 1325 du conseil de sécurité des Nations Unies sur la paix et la sécurité tenue à Monrovia du 07 au 09 mars 2009, les participants ont fait  une déclaration  axée sur 5 points.

Click to continue »

The first email ever sent contained an invitation to a party.

One of the things that happens at face to face meetings like this strategy session is that we engage in other kinds of information sharing—with their own protocols and their own (low) technologies.  No wifi needed.  But plenty of sophistication and innovation all the same.  Faces and bodies.  Dress and manner.  A shared look.  A shared joke.  Photographs of friends and strangers.  Some living, some dead.

Do I want to work with you?  Are you a friend?  Can I trust you?  What will you give?  What will I get?

And if it all checks out….

Do you want to come to a party?

Jeanne Bitsure, Burundi; Isabelle Geuskens, the Netherlands; Bandana Rana, Nepal; Akos,Ghana & Lindora Howard-Diawara, Liberia; Gladys Brima, Sierra Leone; Jeanne Nzuzi, DRC; and Kate McInturrf, Canada

After two days of active listening to experts on various issues that must be considered when strategizing around the implementation of SCR 1820, the afternoon of Day 3 was a petri-dish of thoughts, ideas, conversations and collaborations. Set with the task of developing strategies for each of their countries, women hunkered down over paper and laptops trying to be SMART as they thought concretely about what they wanted…what they could realisitically achieve…what they could commit to…what they would be willing to take the responsibility for…

What would be different in your country if 1820 is fully implemented? They wrote in silence and then spoke their aspirations:

• Existence and enforcement of laws
• More confidence and assertive girls
• Gender focused bench marks for foreign affairs and development benchmarks
• Paradigm shift of who women are and what they ought to be in society
• Critical mass of multistate holders that are committed
• Recognition of all that sv=security threat
• Reduce sexual violence
• Increase credibility between organizations
• Stronger judiciary and in line with international law-national law will come into alignment with international law
• Confidence and assertiveness of girls to elevate to community development

Women mapped out strategies on giant post-its and we all became visitors to their impromptu galleries pasted up around the room as they us walked through their strategies, possible partners and funders, outcomes and indicators.

Parts of this post are excerpts from daily recap notes prepared by Mahima Achuthan. The country-specific strategies, developed by participants, will be available on this blog on Friday

Marilou McPhedran, Canadian human right activist, explains her model of evidence-based advocacy that makes a link between gathering evidence to support an advocacy position.

There is a misconception that the passage of a law is an endpoint, a cause for celebration.  The predominant perspective is that the power to implement the law lies with bureaucrats but the truth is that if we don’t see advocacy at the community level, the law is probably not being implemented. Moreover, as advocates, if we are not investing in the kind of evidence that we to bring to make our case, then we are weakening our own positions.

Marilou’s model of evidence-based advocacy is based on the idea of respect between academia and governments for the enormous expertise and knowledge that lies within civil society, particularly community-based women rights groups. How do we make it work:
(i) Build flexible and resilient partnerships and coalitions with women’s groups – involve them early on in designing the research so that you can ask the relevant questions;
(ii) Continue to link advocacy to law-making, and ask the right questions so that the evidence can support the advocacy;
(iii) Set up long-term and short-term benchmarks that are achievable, and give a sense of accomplishment, without breeding complacency;
(iv) Plan for the long-term – five to 10 years – because it is only possible to track systemic change this way;
(v) In the absence of opportunities for face-to-face collaborations, take advantage of technology-based solutions;
(vi) Tap into students and the academic community who can be very interested in using their skills and learnings to work with groups on the ground.