WUNRN
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE -
SEPTEMBER 21, 2014
Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on 21 September. The General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples.
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REPORT OF THE UN OPEN-ENDED
INTERGOVERNMENTAL WORKING GROUP ON A DRAFT UNITED NATIONS DECLARATION ON THE
RIGHT TO PEACE
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WOMEN & THE HUMAN RIGHT TO PEACE
Though
there are many efforts for peace and non-violence in this world, most
documentation relates to conflict and non-peace. The Human Right to Peace is a
specific process and document becoming codified into an eventual Declaration
for the UN General Assembly. The Human Right to Peace has been in consultation
in multiple regions of the world, and has been reviewed by the UN Human Rights
Council Advisory Committee, the Human Rights Council, and now an Official UN
Intergovernmental Working Group.
The unique feature of a Human Right to Peace is that it would provide a UN document of substantive commitment of countries to build a culture of peace, not react after the traumas of war and conflict. The Human Right to Peace would help protect the human rights defined in many important UN documents, but so often lost or elusive before, during, and after war and conflict, and especially for women.
Indeed, there is UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and subsequent Security Council Resolutions for women, peace, and security; but a UN-wide text as a Declaration on the Human Right to Peace would have broad reaching dimensions for the international community.
For
women, non-peace, and all the fragmentations of peace in today's world,
reach their pulse points of life. Women are so often the victims, the
abused and oppressed, in war and conflict. But, their pain and trauma,
especially at the grassroots level, is often not clearly visible. WUNRN and
collaborating programs have organized multiple Panels on Women and The Human
Right to Peace, at the UN Human Rights
Council in
But, the world continues to be on fire, immersed in war and armed conflict. An enormous number of women, and children, have their lives torn apart by conflict, often with no warning, and become refugees, displaced, undocumented, injured, widowed. Tragically, many innocent civilian women have died in these protracted conflicts. Many girl children become orphans, lone migrants, child brides and mothers, victims of abuse and violence, and lacking in schooling.
Speaking
through the hearts and souls of women on the front lines of conflict, desperate
for peace:
*What does it feel like to grab your children and run to try to cross a border, with no assurance of safety, food, or water, and be turned away again and again
*What does it feel like to hide under the bed with your children, when bombs burst outside your door?
*What does it feel like to see your adult son step outside your village home, to be shot and killed by waiting enemy insurgents?
*What does it feel like to be a young bride seeking refuge in a closet during conflict, going into labor with your first child, and medical care elusive?
*What does it feel like to experience your home, your dreams, even your family, evaporate in war, and for which you are innocent, helpless?
*What does it feel like to believe in social justice, human rights, dignity of woman and man and child, and yet be displaced constantly, have no real citizenship or identity during conflict, lose all your possessions and yet protect the family as best you can, try to be strong outside, but inside feel pain, anguish, despair, tears.....tears!
It is so very important to define the Human Right to Peace, the Human Right to Life in Peace, as a concept, process, and UN document, and consider what it means to women, why it is unique and so very important. Over time, let us as women consider the realities of non-peace that continue to prevail and destroy, and how through the Human Right to Peace women can be engaged, not just in words or theory, but in reality, as advocates, intersectional partners, and agents of change, for PEACE.
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