WUNRN
WOMEN LEADERS TELL THE UN THAT ARAB WOMEN ARE STILL BEING IGNORED IN
CONFLICT
Arab States
and the United Nations have a long way to go in order to meet their
international obligations for the protection of women in conflict, a
consultation with leading women activists and experts has concluded.
Women from across the Arab region met in Cairo earlier this month as part of
the United Nations’ Global Study on the Implementation of Security Council
Resolution 1325. This international agreement sets out how women's rights and
needs should be taken into account in countries affected by conflict, and
women’s role in prevention and peacebuilding. The resolution was agreed in
2000, and the UN is currently reviewing its implementation.
Since 2000 the Arab region has been scarred by numerous conflicts. These have
included foreign-led interventions, civil conflicts following the Arab
revolutions ranging from extreme violence and the breakdown of law and order to
outright civil war, as well as on-going conflicts that predate the agreement of
1325. Experts discussed the impact that these and other conflicts have had on women,
and how the principles of resolution 1325 have and have not been implemented in
those cases.
The consultation was attended by 38 women leaders from 12 countries across the
region. During its discussions it heard from leading experts, activists and diplomats,
including Director General of the Arab Women Organisation, Dr Mervat Tallawy,
Dr Maya Morsy of the UNDP and Hibaaq Osman CEO and Founder of the Cairo-based
NGO Karama, which has led the development of the Arab Network on Women, Peace,
and Security. The network aims to ensure the establishment of security and
peace and the effective participation of the women in these efforts across the
region.
Following the discussions the conference agreed a series of 23 detailed
recommendations for the United Nations, member states and the international
community as a whole, under the following headings:
These
recommendations will now be considered by the United Nations as part of the
consultation, and will also be submitted to the League of Arab States, the Arab
Women’s Organization and the international community as a whole.
Asha Dirie Gelle, Somali politician and activist, said:
“It is now fifteen years since the United Nations agreed the resolution
on women, peace, and security, but in that time still many thousands of women
and girls across the Arab region and Africa have been killed while many, many
more have suffered gravely as a result of conflict.
“Women in Somalia and across the region will continue despite this hardship. We
demand that our rights our respected and our needs met in conflict and
post-conflict.”
Minister Mervat Tallawy, Director General of the Arab Women Organization, said:
“Conflict in the region has seen women made homeless, turned into refugees
without shelter or a homeland, and taken away from their families and forced to
marry. However, this has not prevented the emergence of strong female figures
and activists at the social, human rights and political levels.
“The level of violence across the Arab region generally and facing Arab women
specifically makes the principles of resolution 1325 even more important today.
As such it is absolutely critical that the United Nations leads its member
states and the international community in making its principles a reality. The
recommendations made at the conference set out clearly the most important areas
for the Arab region.”
Dr Maya Morsy, Gender Team Leader, United Nations Development Programme, said:
“Women are no longer the agents of change, they are doing the change by
themselves. Being an agent or being the catalysts is not enough anymore;
Arab women are the change.”
Hibaaq Osman said:
“The four pillars of resolution 1325 – participation of women, prevention of
conflict, protection in conflict, and prosecution of the perpetrators of
gender-based crimes – provide a strong foundation for improving the situation
for women in conflict. But the conflicts and violence that still plague the
region show that 1325 has still not been fully implemented.
“Too many governments still believe that they have the discretion to choose
which aspects of 1325 to respect. These obligations are their duty, and they
are the least that women should expect in such terrible circumstances.”
Full recommendations of the conference are as follows:
2. Recommendations on Protection and
Human Rights:
3. Recommendations on Participation:
4. Recommendations on Peacekeeping and Security
Forces:
5. Recommendations on Justice and Accountability:
6. Recommendations on Prevention of Conflict:
7. Recommendations on Emerging Issues: