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Highlights from the 2008 Asia Pacific Symposium:

Women, Faith and a Culture of Peace

 

February 23-25, 2008

 

A femLINKPACIFIC Media Initiative with support from Believing Women for a Culture of Peace

 

 

After years of constant struggle and advocacy by women worldwide, women’s human rights and gender equality are protected in several international and regional treaties.  These include the UN Convention for All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action and the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 titled Women, Peace and Security, which has as one of its core focus the equal participation of women in decision making for conflict prevention, management/resolution and also conflict transformation. Women of diverse faith, spirituality and cultural traditions have been part of this struggle.  In many different contexts, however, human rights continue to be denied or violated and, in particular, there is a failure to accord women full human rights, including within many faith communities.  

 

Yet, as participants at the Asia Pacific Symposium: Women, Faith and a Culture of Peace heard, there is a need to ensure a convergence between the spiritual or secular, to ensure that faith based leaders take into account as well as are accountable to human rights standards and values and place greater emphasis on compliance with international human rights standards, including security council resolutions.

 

This is critical, because, even though women are contributing to the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, undertaking social actions within a religious or faith based framework to empower and assist marginalized community groups, they are ensuring empowerment through education and livelihood activities.

 

A critical challenge is the limited convergence between faith based values and these international standards and principles, which can be a more substantive enabler of peace processes, especially through the United Nations system.

 

These were the perspectives shared from the experiences of a Buddhist nun, an advocate of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in South Korea, a social activist from India and a young man with a commitment to ensuring compliance with United Nations resolutions, to bring about peace in the Middle East, addressing the theme “Affirming human rights and transcending conflicts: Where can faith take us?”

 

Professor Madhu Kishwar, Venerable Dr. Yifa, Gyunga-Lan Jung and Halim Rane agreed that there was a need for greater recognition of internationally agreed fundamental human rights, including freedom of religion and belief, in the development of a culture of peace.  

 

There is a critical need, said Dr Yifa, not to simply give consideration to racial and religious identities, but to broaden the perspective to achieve national identity and gender equality. Yifa is a member of the Buddha’s Light Mountain Order, based in Taiwan which has close to 1200 ordained nuns, who work to promote environmental awareness, social justice, equality and human rights. However, even this the biggest order of Buddhist nuns also bears the brunt of gender biases as the nuns continue to be marginalized from decision making roles within their faith.

 

Women’s participation as a result of gender empowerment strategies is a critical focus of peacebuilding and reconciliation initiatives between North and South Korea coordinated through the Women’s Peace Movement organisation, which is a network of more than 40 women’s peace groups led by women such as Gyunga-Lan Jung:  “This is how we are implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1325.”

 

Her own leadership role stems from her own personal experiences: “I know something about the suffering of people because of the wars in Korea.”

 

The Women’s Peace Network is also working in solidarity to address the growing militarization in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan but is also grappling with the realities of military spending in her own country. A recent critical challenge, she shared was a campaign to ensure the retention of the government departments responsible for gender equality and unification, and the ongoing struggle of financial support for these key government institutions, even though the South Korean Government invests more than USD20 million every year, which is in fact more than 9.23% more than North Korea’s military budget.

 

Meanwhile a Broom Wielding Goddess now referred to as “Mother India” has become a symbol of composite nationalism, and a source of empowerment for a campaign to support and protect street vendors in India who continue to bear the brunt of corrupt and illegal practices as a result of a piece of legislation dating back to the 1820s, even though the street vendors who continue to perform a vital function in India’s urban settings and are recognised as a legitimate part of the informal economy.

 

Without adequate legal protection the street vendors continue to be the prey of extortionist mafia and a whole range of anti social elements who threaten them with the brunt of “clean up operations”. Many vendors, yield up to thirty percent of their earnings as protection money in order to simply protect their livelihood.

 

“Our goddess has no violent symbol; her main weapon is the broom, it is a deliberate choice; the female deity is revered also, that is (after all) where the power resides” said Professor Madhu Kishwar, Editor of Manushi and Professor at the Centre for the Study

 

However, despite the reform of the national legislation in 2004, as a result of this ten year campaign, which has resulted in the development of model market project with regulations adopted by the vendors themselves to maintain health and management standard, Kishwar and members of the vendors community continue to risk their lives in this struggle for good governance and equity, at the community level. And the problem says Kishwar, stems from the political leaders themselves who use divisive strategies to continue to divide and rule and to torment and bribe the vendors.

 

But strengthened by their deity who holds up symbols of transparency, social justice, the rule of law and adherence to the constitution, she hopes that this initiative will continue to remind communities, of the values of good governance no matter how hard and dangerous it becomes.

 

Sharon Bhagwan Rolls
Coordinator: femLINKPACIFIC-Media Initiatives for Women

www.femlinkpacific.org.fj

sharon@femlinkpacific.org.fj





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