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IWTC WOMENS GLOBALNET #358 ACTIVITIES & INTIATIVES OF WOMEN WORLDWIDE PEACE
MEDIATIONS SHOULD INCLUDE WOMEN & ADDRESS SEXUAL VIOLENCE: HIGH-LEVEL
MEETING & UN REPORT July 10, 2009 Tina Johnson & Helena Gronberg |
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Sexual
violence is increasingly used as a tactic of war, with women and girls the
primary targets. Research
by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), however, shows
that sexual violence is rarely mentioned in peace agreements, and failure to
include these crimes has been linked to increased levels of peacetime rape
committed by demobilized fighters and ordinary civilians. To coincide with the first anniversary of UN
Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1820, a high-level colloquium was held on
the issue of addressing conflict-related sexual violence in peace processes.
The UN Secretary-General has also stressed the importance of mediators in peace negotiations having expertise on the issue of
sexual violence. In addition, UN members States have repeated the call for
women to be involved at all levels of conflict resolution, including as
mediators, to secure lasting peace and security. |
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1. HIGH-LEVEL COLLOQUIUM DISCUSSES HOW SEXUAL
VIOLENCE SHOULD BE ADDRESSED IN PEACE PROCESSES From 2224 June 2009, a high-level colloquium was held in New York on addressing sexual
violence in peace negotiations. It was co-organized by UNIFEM, the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Department of Political Affairs
(DPA), the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and the Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), on behalf of UN Action
Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, in partnership with the Centre for
Humanitarian Dialogue. Participants included senior mediators, subject experts
and womens rights advocates. Senior mediators admitted at the opening plenary that sexual violence was not something that they had felt themselves
specifically mandated to address. Moreover, a number of obstacles to the
inclusion of provisions on sexual violence in peace agreements were
identified, including: resource constraints; a lack of systematic
data on the intensity, frequency and circumstances of conflict-related sexual
violence; the often weak domestic advocacy on this issue; compressed timeframes
for concluding agreements; resistance among negotiating parties to full
accountability; and failure to ensure adequate numbers of women mediators,
negotiators, peacekeepers and ceasefire monitors.
However, the final plenary session ended with a
collective acknowledgement among mediators that the colloquium had given them
the perspective to see sexual violence as a routine part of their mandate. Participants generated a number of key principles for
enabling mediators and negotiating parties to ensure that sexual violence is
addressed in peace agreements and that these are consistent with both UNSCR
1820 and 1325, including: 1
Pre-ceasefire
negotiations including humanitarian-access and human rights agreements to
address sexual violence; 2
Ceasefires
to prohibit and monitor for sexual violence; 3
Disarmament,
demobilization and reintegration (DDR) and security sector reform (SSR) to
prevent sexual violence and ensure womens security; 4
Justice processes
to ensure that issues of sexual violence are addressed with equal priority to
other international crimes; and 5
Peace
agreements to specify sexual violence victims as reparations beneficiaries,
and to address their socio-economic needs in recovery and development
frameworks. Over the coming months, these principles will be
further refined, based on comments received during the colloquium as well as
additional expert input, and turned into an Operational Guidance Note along
the lines of those developed for other aspects of peace processes on the UN
Peacemaker website. For further information, see: http://www.unifem.org/news_events/event_detail.php?EventID=251
UNSCR 1820 can be found at: http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N08/391/44/PDF/N0839144.pdf The UN Peacemaker website is at: http://peacemaker.unlb.org/index1.php# 2. UN S-G & MEMBER STATES CALL FOR WOMEN &
OTHERS WITH EXPERTISE ON SEXUAL VIOLENCE TO BE APPOINTED AS MEDIATORS The report of the Secretary-General on enhancing mediation and its
support activities was launched on 8 April 2009. The report highlights the
need for experienced and knowledgeable mediators and support teams and for
mediators with the expertise to address such crucial issues as sexual
violence. It underlines the importance of having women present at peace negotiations
and commits to appointing more women as special envoys and representatives.
For the full report see: http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N09/278/78/PDF/N0927878.pdf?OpenElement The Security Council held an open debate on the report on 21 April
2009. Mr. B. Lynn
Pascoe, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, addressed the
Council beforehand on mediation processes and the report. It was noteworthy
that Mr. Pascoe did not once mention women in his briefing. During the debate, however, a number of member States including
Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Republic
of Korea, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay referred to the critical role of women. The absence of women at the
mediation table, despite the calls in UNSCR 1325 and 1820 for their increased
representation at all levels of conflict resolution and peace processes, was
described as striking, and attention was drawn to the fact that to date not one single woman had been
appointed chief mediator. States further
emphasized the need for women to be part of peace negotiations in order to
adequately address womens perspectives and secure lasting peace and
security. For complete statements and Mr. Pascoes statement see: http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/PRO/N09/308/25/PDF/N0930825.pdf?OpenElement In a presidential statement (PRTS) issued after the open debate, the
Security Council noted the low numbers of women in formal roles in mediation
processes and stressed the need to ensure that women are appointed at
decision-making levels and as high-level mediators as called for in
resolutions 1325 and 1820. For the full text see: http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N09/309/04/PDF/N0930904.pdf?OpenElement |
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