NGO Statement to the UN Security Council
Arria Formula, 23rd October 2002
Dear Chair, Excellencies, and friends of Women, Peace and Security,
1. On behalf of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, I would like to thank the Governments of Cameroon and Singapore, for convening this meeting today and the many member states supportive of the agenda we are here to discuss. We would also like to thank the United Nations Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues, the Division for the Advancement of Women and UNIFEM for eliciting the perspectives of NGOs and women’s organisations in their work. We look forward to continuing our collaborative and complementary work to implement Resolution 1325 with the United Nations and member states.
2. In the context of the escalating tension and conflict in the Middle East and Iraq we have to date heard too few women's voices, despite the call from women in the region for the establishment of a Women's Council on the Middle East. We have seen public opinion throughout the world express its strong objection to the use of force with respect to Iraq in massive demonstrations. We applaud the Security Council convening an open forum on Iraq this month and support the vital need for a continued multi-lateral approach. We urge the Security Council to also consult with women's organisations and members of civil society inside and outside Iraq. It is important to hear the voices of women who are on the frontline and holding communities together on a daily basis.
3. Afghanistan is seen as a test case for the implementation of 1325. Last October at an Arria Formula, you heard Jamila (Director of the NGO Afghan Women’s Welfare Department then living as a refugee in Pakistan). She has since opened an office in Kabul with plans for a sub-office in Jalalabad, and is working with Afghan communities in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Although Jamila clearly identified funding as a priority need, a year later Afghan women are still asking donors to fulfil their funding promises to help improve the position of women and encourage recognition of women's rights in Afghanistan beyond Kabul. There is commendable work being done on the ground, but we need the commitment of the international community to support Afghanistan's reconstruction and development.
Afghan women, crossing the divides of the conflict, articulated clear recommendations in the Brussels Declaration (in December 2001). Yet, their commitment to participate in the reconstruction process in their country is thwarted, on account of insufficient resource distribution and insecurity in areas outside Kabul.
4. We call on you to move from ad hoc to systematic consideration of women and gender perspectives in every Council action – in particular your field missions, mandates, resolutions and reports. More information on what women are doing in conflict situations should be routinely integrated in country and thematic reports from the Secretary-General. A regular item on women, peace and security on the Council’s agenda would serve to monitor and measure such actions, good practices in the field and at UN headquarters.
5. The critical role of civil society in providing key information and solutions to conflict was recognised by the United Kingdom in the open debate they chaired on Gender, Conflict and Peacekeeping in July.
In the context of conflict prevention, NGOs have initiated identification of gender-sensitive early warning indicators, highlighting the linkages of micro level violence to the macro level, such as increased cases of gender-based violence, sex-specific migration and employment patterns. In rural Kenya, for example, women often start wearing traditional belts believed to protect their sons from being killed when they are anticipating the outbreak of conflict. Further information on this work is available from the NGOWG.
6. Until recently, attacks against women during armed conflict were seen as an inevitable consequence of war. For the first time, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda have convicted individuals of rape as an instrument of genocide and torture, as a war crime and as a crime against humanity. However, women in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone have reported brutal rapes, sexual slavery and torture committed by male combatants, which to date have been subject to impunity. Resolution 1325 affirms the need for accountability for war-time violence against women. This still needs to be urgently advanced.
7. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court entered into force on 1 July 2002, confirming that crimes of sexual violence must be tried as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It provides a permanent mechanism to try individuals, who commit such acts of atrocity. The NGOWG calls upon the Security Council to fully use the powers granted to it in the Rome Statute and to maintain the integrity of the Rome Statute, resisting political pressure from those, who seek to undermine the effectiveness and independence of the Court. We urge you not to renew the controversial Security Council Resolution 1422; a renewal would provide immunity from the Court's jurisdiction to those participating in UN operations producing double standards that are contrary to international law, including the Statute as well as the UN Charter. Since September 2002, the Assembly of State Parties to the Rome Statute has opened the period for nomination of candidates for the first 18 judges of the Court. The NGOWG calls on governments to ensure a gender balance and geographical spread when electing judges and prosecutor to the International Criminal Court. We urge that these mandates also be carried out in the appointment of investigators, legal counsel and other staff.
8. Two years after the unanimous adoption of Resolution 1325 in the Security Council there is still only one woman Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the existing field missions. We join the call to the Secretary-General to appoint more women as Special Representatives and Special Envoys of the Secretary-General (SRSG) and to reach the target of thirty per cent by 2005 and gender balance soon thereafter.
We agree with Jean-Marie Guéhenno of DPKO and many Member States that much more needs to be done to include women at all levels of peacekeeping processes. We strongly recommend that a gender unit for DPKO be established at headquarters, consisting of a team of senior gender advisers. We urge that adequate funds be made available and sustainable for this unit. It has been three years since the inauguration of the first Office of Gender Affairs, yet the capacity of DPKO at headquarters to support such offices is severely limited due to lack of resources and expert staff. It is vital that every peacekeeping mission has a Senior Gender Adviser and that this post is separate to the position of the Human Rights Adviser.
We consider it vital that effective gender awareness training is provided for peace support operations personnel at all levels – in part through the investment of adequate resources – thereby complying with the focus on "Training of Security and Peacekeeping Force" in the Security Council’s Aide-Memoire.
9. We recommend that donors restore adequate levels of funding to UNHCR and organisations working with the UN on the ground with refugees and internally displaced populations in order to effectively implement the Policy and Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women. We concur with the SG report findings that policy directives and guidelines on protection for refugee and displaced women have been formulated by the office of the UNHCR. However, there is still a need for gender sensitisation in their implementation. An assessment report on UNHCR guidelines and policy on protection of women is available from the NGOWG.
Over the past year, numerous advances have been made at national and regional levels in recognising and acting upon the pivotal role that women and girls play in societies’ struggle for sustainable peace:
Ý During the recent Presidential and Parliamentary elections in Sierra Leone, the authorities worked to ensure the equitable participation of women – from election officials to elderly, nursing and pregnant voters in camps for the internally displaced. These efforts included gender sensitive hiring practices, facilitation of women’s access to polls, and prevention of voter intimidation.
Ý At the level of peace support operations, MINUGUA, the UN Verification Mission in Guatemala, continues to call attention to and act upon gender discrimination.
10. The NGOWG would like to close by reiterating the statement made by the Canadian government’s International Development Agency in their operational framework for gender-aware peacebuilding:
"Peacebuilding is a two-fold process requiring both the deconstruction of the structures of violence and the construction of the structures of peace". The inclusion of women in these processes is crucial to the establishment of sustainable peace.
