Solutions to Violent Conflict

Archive for the ‘Women’ Category

Crowbar No. 1325

In Colombia, Women on December 4, 2018 at 9:58 am

Kate Paarlberg-Kvam

Colombia’s 2016 Peace Accord is a groundbreaking example of how to include women and a gender focus in negotiations and peacebuilding. This achievement is the result of years of advocacy by Colombian women, with the support of the international community. To claim a role in the peace process, Colombian women effectively made use of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which mandates that UN member states increase women’s participation in peace and security efforts and take gender and gender-based violence into account when making decisions about armed conflict and its resolution. Colombian women’s strategic use of 1325 produced an accord that both reflects and extends beyond international dialogues on Women, Peace, and Security.

Resolution 1325 was adopted 18 years ago, the result of a concerted effort by women activists around the world. Several NGOs, including groups in New York, Dakar, and London, came together to advance the Beijing Platform for Action that emerged from the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995. They were supported in particular by member states in the Global South, and propelled by Namibia’s May 2000 Windhoek Declaration calling for attention to gender in the design of peace support operations. While 1325 and subsequent WPS (Women, Peace, and Security) resolutions have been criticized for their limitations, they nonetheless have served as a powerful tool. Read the rest of this entry »

Women’s Participation: An Essential Principle of the Colombian Peace Accord Implementation Process

In Colombia, Women on December 4, 2018 at 9:57 am
peace policy

CIAT, Mark Koester, Momentcaptured1, Neil Palmer / Flickr

Rebecca Gindele and Carolina Serrano

The inclusion of a gender perspective and specific gender-related commitments in the text of the Colombian Peace Accord is an important step toward strengthening women’s meaningful participation in the building of peace. The Accord text includes a record number of commitments relating to women’s participation and the advancement of women’s rights. These gender provisions commit the Government of Colombia, FARC, and all relevant actors involved in the implementation of the Accord to ensure that the process includes a focus on women’s rights and women’s participation. These commitments seek to achieve equality of rights between men and women and guarantee affirmative measures to promote equal and active participation of women in the implementation of the accord. Read the rest of this entry »

Inclusive Pathways to Equal Peace: Systematic Methodology for Monitoring Gender Stipulations in the Colombian Final Agreement

In Colombia, Women on December 4, 2018 at 9:57 am

Louise Olsson and Madhav Joshi

To determine the quality of peace, it is important to evaluate if men and women experience the same peace process differently. As recently stated by the UN Secretary General, the systematic monitoring of peace agreement implementation is fundamental to the strength and durability of peace. We argue that this means collecting high-quality gender disaggregated data, and utilizing an inclusive methodology that seriously engages both women and men.[1]

Inclusivity and systematic monitoring are at the core of the Kroc Institute’s Peace Accords Matrix Barometer Initiative in Colombia. The Barometer methodology applied to the Colombian Peace Accord implementation process represents the first real-time monitoring of a comprehensive peace agreement.

A key element of the Barometer methodology is engaging key stakeholders in the Colombian peace process who are promoting women’s rights and gender representation and participation. A total of 20 organizations in Colombia were consulted or involved in developing the methodology for assessing the implementation of gender-related provisions. Read the rest of this entry »

Struggling for Representation in the Peace Process

In Afghanistan, Women on September 5, 2012 at 9:57 am

Mariam Safi

Two years after President Hamid Karzai’s consultative Peace Jirga and creation of the Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Programme, the peace process continues to receive criticism for the ambiguity that surrounds the role of women. Civil society organizations and women’s rights advocates argue that a peace settlement without safeguards to promote and entrench women’s voices could threaten women’s constitutional rights.

Persistent discrimination has prohibited women from garnering a greater role in the design and implementation of the peace process. The Programme’s gender policy, introduced in September 2011, seeks to ensure women’s participation in decision-making at the strategic/political level through the High Peace Council (reconciliation) and at the operational level through gender-mainstreaming in local peace processes (reintegration). However, this policy has been largely ineffective. Read the rest of this entry »

Afghan Women at the Table

In Afghanistan, Human Rights, Peace, Women on September 5, 2012 at 9:56 am

Photo: DVIDSHUB (Flickr)

David Cortright and Kristen Wall

The U.S. is set to withdraw the bulk of its forces from Afghanistan by 2014. This transition period is fraught with risk for Afghan women, many of whom have benefited during 10 years of improved access to education, health care, and political participation.

International aid programs have funded schools, trained health care workers, and supported development projects. There are now more than 3 million girls in school and 50,000 female teachers. Infant and maternal mortality rates have dropped significantly. Read the rest of this entry »

Afghan Women in the Transition Process

In Afghanistan, Human Rights, Peace, Women on September 5, 2012 at 9:55 am

The Afghan Women’s Network

The Afghan Women’s Network is a non-partisan network of women and women’s groups working to empower Afghan women and ensure their equal participation in Afghan society. This post summarizes the Network’s presentation at the NATO Summit in Chicago in May 2012.

We recently consulted with more than 300 women leaders throughout Afghanistan to assess the transition of security from U.S.-led to Afghan-led forces and to develop ideas for protecting the rights of women during the transition process.

The Network found that women do not feel they have participated meaningfully in the transition process. They are unsure of how they will fare in the transition and frustrated by the lack of clarity from the Afghan government and international community about what will happen after 2014. Women across the country are calling for greater transparency and accountability in the Afghan government and international community. Read the rest of this entry »