WUNRN
SYRIA - WOMEN AT THE HEART OF SYRIAN
POLITICS - FIRST WOMEN INCLUSION STRATEGY 2014-2018
Direct Link to Full 22-Page 2014
Publication:
SYRIA
- KARAMA - DEMANDING WOMEN'S VOICES ARE HEARD IN TRANSITIONS TOWARD PEACE
I've said it before and I will say it again
and again: any country that leaves behind women is not committed to the ideals
of the revolution or to democracy. Following the revolutions, women saw
themselves not only excluded, but marginalized by violent backlash that
undermined the importance of their equal role in the transitions and processes
that followed.
Now at the juncture of moving beyond transition and into defining new states in many areas of the region, women are
demanding their voices be heard and their priorities be built into the backbone
of new constitutions, decision-making bodies, and laws.
How are they doing this? It is of course an understatement to say it hasn't
been easy, and many lessons have been learned along the way, the most important
of which has been strength in numbers. Women across the region have shared
lessons learned and helped each other build the best strategies at the national
level through exchange, capacity building, and collaboration. They have held
consultations and launched inclusive coalitions, bringing together both men and
women from diverse backgrounds to inform the way forward.
More specifically, for our partners in Syria, the issue of inclusion became
pivotal ahead of the Geneva II peace talks held in late January. Members of the
Syrian
Women's Forum for Peace, a platform launched in partnership with Karama,
and other Syrian groups met inside Syria to discuss women's priorities for
peace in early January, prior to Geneva II. In Geneva, they issued the Syrian
Women's Charter for Peace to ensure women's voices were included in some way in
the Geneva II talks and that their concerns and recommendations informed
international stakeholders and media.
For our partners in Yemen, after months of struggling to ensure women were
included in the National Dialogue Conference, women were not only included, but
they were added to the agenda. One outcome of this was the joint recommendation
to adopt a 30 percent quota for women's participation in the Yemeni national
assembly. Our partners followed this up by issuing an official stakeholder
report to the Universal Periodic Review ahead of Yemen's official review in
Geneva. In January, a delegation from Yemen held a side event in Geneva and
share their recommendations regarding human rights, women's rights and
inclusion, and state building.
In March, we will continue raising our voices with a delegation of thirty women
from seven countries in the region at the 58th Session of the UN Commission on
the Status of Women (CSW). At CSW each year, it is women activists from around
the world who contribute new perspectives, illuminate evolving problems, and
most importantly, provide strategies and innovative solutions to address shared
priorities and overcome jointly-identified challenges.
Women's voices must be heard, but we cannot take for granted that they will be
invited or welcomed. Instead, we need to continue working together to identify
opportunities to share what we have to say and to find new ways of expressing
what is most vital and important to not only women's futures, but the future of
the states in which we live.
Salamat,
Hibaaq Osman