Armed conflict and its consequences affect women’s lives immeasurably. Although women are typically not active combatants,[1] armed conflicts impact them disproportionately. Women are not only victims’ of hardships and displacement in violent conflicts, they are also directly targeted with rape, forced pregnancies, and assault as deliberate instruments of war. In Rwanda, women were raped as a means of ethnic cleansing, serving not only to terrorize individual victims but also to inflict collective terror on an ethnic group.[2] It is also in recent memory for us that Boko Haram, The Nigerian based militia, kidnapped 200 Chibok school girls as way of manipulating the government and international community to achieve its political agenda.[3] With regard to displacements, generally three-fourths of refuges and IDPs are women and children.[4]
In spite of their disproportionate misery, women’s role in the peace building and conflict prevention process is fundamentally undermined both at the national, regional, and international level. In cognizance of this long lived problem, the Security Council, at its 4213th meeting, passed the ground-breaking resolution no.1325 on 31 October 2000, and other subsequent resolutions, see 1325 (2000), and 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013) and 2122 (2013), calling for the special protection and the full and equal participation of women in all conflict prevention, resolution and post-conflict peace building efforts.
While these resolutions have created normative developments and global consensus on the necessity of involving women at every step of peace-making efforts, the number of women participating in official peace-making roles, such as mediators, negotiators, signatories or witnesses at the national, regional or global level, remain very low. According to a report by UN WOMEN in 2012, out of ‘a limited but reasonably representative sample of 31 major peace processes between 1992 and 2011 showed that women represent only 4 per cent of the signatories, 2.4 per cent of chief mediators, 3.7 per cent of witnesses and 9 per cent of negotiators.’ The report also refers to another survey which found that only 92 (16 percent) of 585 peace agreements since 1990 contained at least contained reference to women.
Why is it important to involve women in the peace process?
Peace building is about rebuilding societies after conflict; as such it offers an opportunity to create an all-inclusive, stable and democratic country. Particularly, it presents a great opportunity to institutionalize women’s right and ensure gender equality. The experience of some post-conflict countries in advancing the rights and position of women and girls has achieved this. For example, in post-genocide Rwanda some female small scale landholders and entrepreneurs have gained newfound rights to land, property and equal inheritance.[5] Girls have also shot ahead in the education system, where previously over 40% of women were illiterate. The experience in Rwanda demonstrates that the political, economic and social status of citizens – and women citizens in particular – can be improved during the rebuilding of societies after conflict. In Ethiopia, as well, the post conflict constitution has addressed women’s rights and their status among the community deliberately in an unprecedented way.
Women need not to carry a weapon or be active combatants in order to sit at the negotiation tables.[6] Women comprise more than half of every nation and the world population. Whether they are combatants or survivors, peace-builders or bystanders, women must play a role in the reconstruction of their countries. In conflict affected countries, any efforts for war to peace transformation or the remaking of the state, equally concern women as members of the society. Thus, women, just like men, should participate at every step of the remaking/transformation process so that they can air their concerns, frustrations, and interests in the new state to be.
Besides, the ‘peace process’, which leave out half of the country’s or world’s population, can be considered inefficient as it has left out women in the important discussion of creating a better, more peaceful world.
Crisis Group’s research in Sudan, Congo (DRC) and Uganda has confirmed that peace agreements, post-conflict reconstruction, and governance do better when women are involved. Women make a difference in the peace process, because they advocate a more inclusive approach towards security and address key social and economic issues that would otherwise be considered insignificant. That is why it is said, placing women at the forefront of peace-building efforts guarantees a peaceful and stable world.
Why have women continued to be neglected in the peace process since resolution 1325?
While there is global consensus on the importance of engaging women in the peace process, the problem lies on the commitment to implement the promises pledged. The gender biased attitude that considers women as inefficient and incapable of making sound decisions perpetuates women being ignored in the peace process. Also, an absence of sufficiently trained women remains a problem and has resulted in an in significant number of women playing official roles in the peace process.
What needs to be done?
More than 25 countries have adopted resolution no.1325 after it was passed in 2000 by the Security Council. Yet, much needs to be done for more countries to adopt this very important resolution. What is more important is having an accountability mechanism to make sure that member state comply with their obligation is imperative. Besides, building the capacity of women to stand alone and say no to the continuation of neglect within the peace process and to be able to participate actively in peace building is necessary. It is thus crucial that, National and International Governments and Non-Governmental Organizations exert their efforts and finance in advancing women decision making capacity so that the world can benefit from the potential of women in creating a more peaceful and stable world.
In this year’s women’s international day, UN Secretary General Banki-moon said, “When we unleash the power of women, we can secure the future for all”. A world which equally involves women in every aspect of life ensures a just, peaceful and stable world for all.
[1] In Sudan, for example, women and girls played active roles on the front lines of the two north-south civil wars, as combatants. However, despite their role as active combatants, women didn’t participate on the formal peace-making negotiation in any of the civil wars in sudan. See Kathleen Kuehnast, Why Women’s Involvement in Peace building Matters.
[2] Damilola Taiye Agbalajobi, The Role of African Women in Peace Building and Conflict Resolution: The Case of Burundi
[3] The whereabouts of these girls kidnapped by the Boko haram militants is not known up until now.
[4] Displaced women and girls: leaders and survivors, concept paper presented on the Security Council debate on women, peace and security, 2014.
[5] By Jacqui True, Women, peace and security in post-conflict and peace building contexts, Norwegian peace building resource center, 2013.
[6] This is because, negotiable tables are usually rounded by men who were active combatants at once
