PRESS CONFERENCEON WOMEN’S ROLE IN PEACE PROCESSES

 

There was a critical need to integrate women in conflict prevention and peacebuilding negotiations, speakers said at a United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) press conference, held at Headquarters today.

“Despite ongoing efforts, there is still very little progress in women being at the peace table,” said Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda, Director of UNIFEM Regional Programme, East and Horn of Africa, one of four speakers who urged greater attention to the continuing marginalization of women in peace processes.

The press conference was held on the eve of a three-day international civil society conference at Headquarters aimed at forging partnerships to prevent armed conflict.

Stressing the need to integrate gender equality and women’s human rights in peace processes, Ms. Gumbonzvanda called for greater recognition of the vital role of women in their communities during and after conflict.  Despite women’s efforts to play a greater role in conflict resolution at the community level, they were still being excluded from formal peace negotiations.

Asha Hagi Amin, of Save Somali Women and Children, shared the experiences of women in Somalia who had formed a “Women’s Clan” to insist on the inclusion of women in national peacebuilding efforts in her war-torn country, which has had no central government for more than 15 years.

“In our patriarchal society, women are not given the responsibility or the right to protect the clan.  So women gathered to act outside the box”, said
Ms. Amin.  She recalled a 2000 Somali peace and reconciliation conference held in Djibouti, wherein only men had gathered in the negotiating tent.

“We held our own meetings outside the tent until we were accepted as a clan that spoke on behalf of women”, she said.  As a result of those efforts, their group, called the Sixth Clan, was able to include women in the heart of the political process and to participate as equal partners in the peace negotiations.  “The conference would not have succeeded if not for us women”, said Ms. Amin.  “We acted as a binding glue between the conflicting clans.  We spoke the voice of peace, the voice of the voiceless, the voices of mothers and children.”

The Sixth Clan now serves as the first political entity for Somali women and has given Somali women political visibility, said Ms. Amin.  Among its most significant political achievements has been the advancement of women’s agenda in the national political process, which has resulted in the allotment of 23 parliamentary seats for women.

Addressing correspondents from the Southern Caucasus Regional Coalition’s Women for Peace, Sevil Asadova said her group emphasized the importance of people-to-people diplomacy in increasing women’s involvement in the peace process.

“There is no sustainable peace or development without women’s participation”, she said.  Women were part of the conflict, so they should be part of the solution.  Her group’s work had focused on supporting women in Azerbaijan and Armenia who had been displaced by armed conflict.  They had organized meetings to promote a dialogue among the women and had provided training programmes to foster negotiating skills aimed at conflict resolution.

In Haiti, where the conflict involved armed groups targeting an unarmed population, UNIFEM was working to increase women’s participation in the political process, said Tonni Ann Brodber, UNIFEM Gender Advisor in Haiti.  Efforts were aimed at promoting a greater understanding of democratic governance and integrating women in conferences addressing national sovereignty.

“UNIFEM’s role is to serve as a bridge and to ensure women are heard on all different levels, at both the national and international levels”, said Ms. Brodber.

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