WUNRN
SOUTH SUDAN - WOMEN CALL FOR GREATER
REPRESENTATION IN UN SC RESOLUTION 1325 NATIONAL ACTION PLAN, & FOR CEDAW
RATIFICATION
South
Sudan - Women Call for Greater Representation in UN SC Res 1325 Action Plan +
By Mavic Cabrera Balleza - February 12,
2013
"The
voices of rural women need to be heard in this 1325 National Action Planning
process. We need to make sure that their voices are heard because they are the
ones who suffer in the conflict. They will also be the implementors of the
NAP." Veronica Anni Michael from Self Help Women Development,
a women's organization based in the West Equatorial state commented
emphatically during the first national conference on South Sudan's NAP on the
UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security held in Juba,
South Sudan from January 29-31, 2013.
The Joint Donor Team for South Sudan in collaboration with Eve Organization for
Women Development, the Ministry of Gender and Social Welfare, and UN Women
organized the NAP UNSCR 1325 conference. The conference participants
representing national and state level CSOs, government ministries and UN
agencies identified the pillars of the NAP namely, participation, protection,
prevention and relief and recovery, as well as the priority issues under each
pillar. Sexual and gender-based violence, access to justice, access to
education and women's political participation, particularly in constitution
building, were some of the issues identified. The importance of the
participation of rural women and traditional leaders was also highlighted
throughout the conference.
Another key point in the discussion is the need to guarantee financing for the
NAP implementation and the need to link NAP financing to the "New
Deal," the new aid architecture for post-conflict countries or fragile
states. At the moment, South Sudan's NAP process does not have a budgetary
allocation. To address this situation, the National Steering Committee for the
NAP will explore the formation of an International Consortium composed of
donors, international CSOs and UN agencies that will generate quick
financial, technical and other forms of support. For the longer term, other
financing modalities such as the Multistakeholders Financing Mechanism will be
considered.
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Betty Achan Ogwaro and Deputy Minister of
Gender and Social Welfare Priscilla Nyanyang Joseph, were two of the high-level
officials who attended the national conference. Minister Ogwaro highlighted the
role of women's organizations like Eve and GNWP in tirelessly lobbying for the
implementation of UNSCR 1325.
Following the NAP 1325 national conference, South Sudanese CSOs participated in
a NAP strategy session facilitated by the Global Network of Women
Peacebuilders (GNWP). The CSO strategy session allowed the South Sudanese CSOs
to discuss and reflect on their participation in the NAP process. They
came up with additional issues they want reflected in South Sudan's NAP 1325
and 1820 such as protection for peace activists and women human rights
defenders; and the need to integrate implementation of women's rights treaties
such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW) and other human rights norms into the NAP 1325. A key
output at the CSO strategy session on the NAP 1325 was the CSO
Statement that will be presented to the National Steering Committee on the
NAP 1325. The statement outlines CSO contributions to the NAP process and
calls for an increase in the number of CSO representatives to the National
Steering Committee. Currently, there is only one CSO representative out of the
24 members of the National Steering Committee.
The Addis Cooperation Agreement and the NAP 1325 and 1820
The CSO Strategy Session also included a discussion on the Addis Cooperation
Agreement between South Sudan and the Sudan. There is a strong link between the
NAP and the Addis Cooperation Agreement because women's participation in peace
negotiations such as the Addis negotiations is a key pillar of the NAP
1325. There are no women members in the peace negotiation panels in
Addis. Moreover, there is an overarching concern that majority of South
Sudanese are not aware or do not understand the agreements. The staff of the
Institute for Inclusive Security and a member of the Women Leaders' Network
served as resource persons in the discussion on the Addis Cooperation
Agreement.
Ratification of CEDAW in South Sudan
The South Sudan CSO Working Group on 1325 also held a consultative discussion
to develop an advocacy strategy for the ratification of CEDAW in South Sudan.
They agreed on the following next steps: integrate CEDAW in their respective
organizations' capacity building initiatives; build partnership with the South
Sudan Women Lawyers' Association, Constitutional Review Commission, Women's
Parliamentary Caucus, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Ministry of Gender, National Human Rights Commission among others. (Please
see below blog on CEDAW in South Sudan.)
Arabic version of South Sudan civil society monitoring of 1325 launched
The South Sudan civil society 1325 monitoring committee led by Eve Organization
for Women Development in partnership with GNWP launched the Arabic version of
South Sudan civil society monitoring of 1325 during the first national
conference on South Sudan's NAP 1325. The Arabic version was welcomed by all
the conference participants as an important tool in raising awareness of the
resolution. "This is a very useful document. Arabic is the language
that rural women in South Sudan speak, " said Zeinab Yussin Hagelsafi, an
officer from the South Sudan Land Commission.
The CSO Strategy Session, the translation and printing of the Arabic version of
South Sudan civil society monitoring of 1325 and the consultative discussion on
CEDAW were facilitated by the Gobal Network of Women Peacebuiders with support
from Cordaid, ICCO, the Principality of Liechtenstein and the Federal
Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland.
_________________________________________________________________
Towards
Ratification of CEDAW for South Sudan
February
2, 2013; Juba Regency Hotel - Juba, South Sudan
By Selamawit Tesfaye
The Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP) in collaboration with EVE
Organization for Women Development organized a consultation session among civil
society organizations at the Juba Regency Hotel on February 2, 2013. The
consultation had the objective of raising awareness on CEDAW as well as to
identify advocacy strategies around the ratification of the Convention. The
training started with a presentation on the introduction and background of
CEDAW. Participants were able to gain an understanding of the basic elements of
the CEDAW - rights and freedoms enshrined, the role of the Committee, the use
of General Recommendations, the Optional Protocol among others. The
presentation also included best practices in the use of CEDAW in stopping
violence against women, promoting girls' education, improving health care for
women, improving women's lives at work, and protecting women's legal rights.
It was startling to note that only 4 women out of the 15 CSO participants have
heard of the CEDAW in their line of work and noted that they are engaged in most
of the activities related to the rights and freedoms enshrined in the
Convention but are not aware of the instrument itself. They cited that
previously the Operation Lifeline, the UN-SPLM aid cooperation for South Sudan,
had provided some rules of procedure such as the Geneva Convention and some
other human rights instruments making a link to the respect of human rights
especially rights of civilians. They also noted that since South Sudan at the
moment is drafting its Constitution, now is the time to break the silence and
start awareness creation and popularization of the instrument.
Furthermore, during the referendum, one of the government's promises was to
protect and promote women's rights and also ratify the CEDAW, which in turn
galvanized a lot of women's votes in favor of separation. It was noted that the
South Sudanese government wanted to distinguish itself from the North, which is
not friendly towards the ratification of CEDAW and thus should be held
accountable to its promises.
Another important development that came out of this is the need for enhanced
exchange of information that is lacking at the moment in South Sudan. There is
also a huge capacity gap that needs to be addressed within the government and
other relevant stakeholders, as there are some CSOs who have already initiated
advocacy strategies on the CEDAW. Thus, instead of reinventing the wheel, the
need for tapping into these kinds of initiatives was acknowledged.
All of the participants agreed on the importance of having the CEDAW ratified
to alleviate the promotion and protection of women's rights in South
Sudan. Even though there are a lot of competing interests at the moment,
participants identified two entry points in kicking off their activities
towards the ratification of CEDAW. The first is integrating CEDAW education in
all their current work while the second is identifying relevant stakeholders
that needs to be targeted for advocacy strategies on the CEDAW - the Ministry
of Gender Child and Social Welfare; Constitutional Review Commission,
Parliament, Women's Parliamentary Caucus; Ministry of Justice; and Ministry of
Foreign Affairs.
For now all the parties have identified the steps and are willing to work
together on pushing for the ratification of CEDAW for South Sudan. Let's hope
that the relevant Ministries and other stakeholders are committed to ratify the
CEDAW and enhance the promotion and protection of women's rights in South
Sudan.