International Day of Peace

1. EDITORIAL
Sam Cook

This edition of the 1325 PeaceWomen E-News offers an opportunity to reflect on some of the linkages between women, peace and security. Certainly some of these links are recognized in Resolution 1325 and we are proud to contribute to efforts across the globe to raise awareness of women, peace and security issues and their interplay through our 1325 Translation Initiative (Item 8) – we now have on our webiste 95 local -language translations of 1325. These translations facilitate access to Resolution 1325 as a tool for those most affected. The existence of so many translations only serves to heighten our awareness of the importance of issues of conflict and of peace and security for women around the world. The stories in our News section (Item 2) are reflective of the many common issues and links that can be made and these are carried through in other sections. Our Gender and Peacekeeping Update (Item 7) this month recognizes the crucial link between gender equality and effective peacekeeping and we feature the valuable gender training resources put together by INSTRAW. The threads connecting women, peace and security were also explored in this year's Women PeaceMaker's Conference hosted by the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. For those of us unable to attend, the staff at the institute developed a blog – which is our Feature Initiative (Item 6).

As these various contributions show, recognizing, as 1325 does, the need for women's participation and recognizing the particular protection needs of women are first steps. As we think about the imperative of women's participation, we have to go beyond thinking about simply increasing the numbers of women in militaries. As we consider the impact of war and its particular impact on women, we also have to go beyond this to thinking about peace as being “more than the absence of war.” As noted in our 2008 International Day of Peace Statement (Item 3), “WILPF believes that the concepts of safety and security must shift so that they include the full enjoyment of all human rights for all away from military and national security concepts.”

The high-level general debate at the start of the 63rd Session of the General Assembly was certainly an opportunity for governments to show their commitment to these notions. The PeaceWomen and Reaching Critical Will Projects of WILPF's UN office monitored this debate and produced gender and disarmament indices of the statements made (Item 5). With much of the start of the GA session being concerned with the mid-point review of the Millennium Development Goals and the current food (and financial) crises, it was not unreasonable to expect some mention of women and gender concerns. Discussion of the feminization of poverty, maternal mortality or of the crucial link between MDG 3 – gender equality and women's empowerment – and the attainment of all other MDGs would have seemed fitting topics to be mentioned. It was sobering then to see that fewer than a quarter of the UN's 192 Member States made any mention at all of women or gender issues (interestingly many of the governments represented by female heads of state or ministers were in the group that did mention such issues). Of those that did mention women or gender equality, few made more than cursory statements. Fewer still noted, as Zambia did, support for the assertion that “women's empowerment and gender equality are drivers for reducing poverty, building food security and reducing maternal mortality.” There were, however, several very powerful statements and moments of appreciation of the need for tangible commitments to be made. As Norway noted, in linking development and the current financial crisis, “[t]here is something fundamentally wrong when money seems to be abundant, but funds for investment in people seem so short in supply.” Taking this consideration of what investing in peace and development really requires, WILPF's Peace Day Statement notes the need for a paradigm shift in resource allocation and “calls on all governments to allocate one day of their military expenditures – USD 3 668 493 151 – towards addressing a real security threat, such as catastrophic climate change.” Imagine the difference one day's worth of global military expenditure could make to the work being done around the world for gender equality and women's empowerment. Looking at these figures, in comparison, the 1 billion dollars per year budget that the women's movement is demanding for a new women's entity at the UN seems pitiful.

Another critical aspect of making commitments real is through ensuring that individuals, governments and systems are held accountable. This edition's Feature Resource (Item 4) – the UNIFEM Progress of the World's Women Report “Who Answers to Women? Gender and Accountability” – addresses this very problem. Along with concrete examples and data, the report provides recommendations that must be taken seriously if governments are to have any credibility in claiming to care about gender equality. A lack of an accountability framework for implementation is a problem that is all too real in relation to Resolution 1325. One of the few mechanisms utilized is the now standard practice of holding an Open Debate on women, peace and security in the Security Council each October. China, as president of the Council for October, will host this debate on 29 October 2008. The debate itself is not per se an effective accountability mechanism. It has the potential to allow governments to ask probing and real questions. It has the potential to work as a forum to raise real implementation challenges and to suggest solutions. It has the potential to provide a space to “call out” non-performance. It has the potential to be a platform for further progress. But for this to be the case we all have to push for governments to actually use the opportunity and, when all is said, to make sure that it is done. As a small contribution to this effort, the PeaceWomen Project will once again monitor the debate and index all statements made according to several priority themes and advocacy calls. This and other related resources will appear in the next edition of the E-News.

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As always, we welcome your contributions to the newsletter's content. Contributions for the next edition should be sent to info@peacewomen.org by Thursday October 30 2008.
2. WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY NEWS

UGANDA: Radio Drama Strengthens Women's Voices
October 1, 2008 - (IPS) Fifteen-year-old Taboni's parents are in a bind. Their daughter has been raped by the commandant of the squalid internally-displaced persons camp they call home, and they do not know what to do. "The idea was to put into action the United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 about women's contribution to peace-building. We resolved to make a difference through a radio drama series."

DRC: MONUC meets with Congolese women
September 30, 2008 – (MONUC) The security and socio-political situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo in general and the east in particular is a major concern for Congolese women. The Permanent Framework of Dialogue for Congolese Women (CAFCO) came in the name of Congolese women to meet MONUC, to discuss security questions and also the part which Congolese women can play in the prevention and settlement of conflict.

Sudan: Engaging religious leaders to combat violence against women
September 27, 2008 – (ReliefWeb) More than five years of armed conflict has led to a general breakdown of law and order in Darfur. Women – and girls in particular – are subjected to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) with alarming regularity. However, as the social fabric of Darfuri communities threatens to unravel, religious leaders remain a trusted source of guidance on matters linked to ethics and human behavior.

Solomon Islands: Women and peace in Bougainville
September 26, 2008 – (AWID) Bougainville - situated at the far western tip of the Solomon Islands archipelago in the Pacific - is a powerful example of how women can knit communities together and facilitate peace in the midst of armed conflict. In this article, AWID looks back at Bougainville's conflict and the role of women as catalysts for peace.

Nigeria: Niger Delta Crisis is Invitation to Anarchy - Women Group
September 26, 2008 – (AllAfrica) As Nigerians join to celebrate the World Peace Day, Mothers of Peace International Organisation has condemned the escalation and militarisation of the conflict in the Niger Delta.

ZIMBABWE: Blazing a Trail For Women Politicians
September 24, 2008 – (IPS) You could spot her easily in the evening newscasts: the only woman among the grey-suited men daily accosted by reporters as they emerged, tense and tight-lipped, from the closed-door meetings. In the recent power-sharing talks between the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu PF) and two wings of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga was the sole woman negotiator, representing the splinter MDC faction.

ZIMBABWE: Tortured, raped and forgotten
September 23, 2008 - (IRIN) During the bitterly contested Zimbabwe elections between President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the country's rural areas became effective no-go areas. There were numerous reports of politically motivated killings and widespread rapes, allegedly by members of Zimbabwe's national army, veterans of the country's liberation war and members of the ruling party's youth militia.

Croatia: CroatiaN Wives Contend With War's After Shocks
September 14, 2008 – (WOMENSENEWS) Croatia's war ended in 1995 but soldiers who returned home with post-traumatic stress never received adequate assistance. One group of veterans' wives took it upon themselves to help form 11 centers to help families cope.

Zimbabwean Women Have Had ‘‘More Trauma'' After Independence
September 13, 2008 – (IPS) Interview with Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) National Coordinator Jenni Williams. Zimbabwean women have experienced higher levels of trauma, including violence and lack of food, after the country's independence from Britain in 1980 than before.

Bosnia: Voices of Victims Heard at Belgrade Conference
September 12, 2008 – (IWPR) Organisers hope event will encourage creation of regional commission to establish truth about war crimes in region. Bosnian war crimes victims told a Belgrade conference this month about their suffering as part of a plan to raise public awareness about atrocities committed during the 1990s Balkans conflicts.

Sierra leone: NDI Awards Madeleine K. Albright Grant to 50/50 Group of Sierra Leone
September 11, 2008 – (NDI) On October 24, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) will present its third annual Madeleine K. Albright Grant to the 50/50 Group of Sierra Leone. Founded in 2000 to promote greater participation of women in politics, the 50/50 Group has grown from a handful of women meeting in borrowed space in Freetown to a nationally recognized organization actively engaged in building a new post-war Sierra Leone in which women can share equally with men in the political decisions that affect their lives.

ICC appeal for Africa war victims
September 10, 2008 – (BBC) The International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for $14m (£8m) to help the nearly two million victims of sexual violence in Africa's wars. The ICC said sex attacks against women and girls had been found to be the most widespread form of criminality.

CAMBODIA: Khmer Rouge Trials Bare Sexual Abuse
September 8, 2008 – (IPS) In a move that could break the silence around sexual violence under the Khmer Rouge, a 68 year-old transgender woman has became the first person to submit a complaint about gender-related abuse to the international tribunal during the group's brief but bloody reign.

Syria: Syrian Case Tests Tolerance on Killing Kinswomen
Sept. 8, 2008 (WOMENSENEWS) - Oasis, Syria's first shelter for battered and abused women, opened its door the first week of August.According to a 2005 study prepared by the Syrian Federation of Women, 1 in 4 Syrian women suffered domestic violence at the hands of male relatives. While that's comparable with levels around the region and the world, the country's response to the problem has so far been lagging.

Philippines: Women to GRP, MILF: stop the violence
September 7, 2008 – (Minda News) The Mothers for Peace and other women from Mindanao have banded together in calling on the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to stop the violence by declaring a ceasefire and returning to the negotiating table.

Iran: Iranian women battle the system
September 5, 2008 (BBC News) - Four more women in Iran have been sentenced to jail - six months behind bars - for campaigning for women's rights. They were accused of "spreading propaganda" against the Islamic system here - specifically for taking part in the Million Signatures Campaign for equal rights for women.

Liberia: Gender Minister Indicts Judges
September 4, 2008 – (AllAfrica) Gender and Development Minister Varbah Gayflor has accused judges of paying less attention to cases arising out of gender based violence (GBV).

Yugoslavia: Rights & Democracy joins effort to see Karadzic charged with sexual crimes
September 3, 2008 – (Rights & Democracy) The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Serge Brammertz, is expected to file shortly an amended indictment, last revised in 2000, in the case of the former leader and commander of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic.

Israel: Woman FM is within reach of Israel's highest office
September 2, 2008 (USAToday) — For the first time in 40 years, a woman is within reach of becoming the prime minister of Israel, a nation traditionally dominated by macho military types and a religious establishment decidedly lukewarm about equal rights for women.

Somalia: Building bridges for women's empowerment in Somalia
September 2, 2008 – (UN-INSTRAW) Despite the clear mandate of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security to increase the representation of women at all decision-making levels, they have been all but completely excluded from the ongoing peace- and State-building processes in Somalia. The participation of both women in Somalia and Somali women from the Diaspora is crucial to the establishment of sustainable and inclusive peace and democratic governance in this war-torn and famine-affected country.

Nepal: Nepal's Culture War
September 1, 2008 – (Scoop) It took a decade for the rise in level consciousness around the country on women's rights and rights of minorities to reach Kathmandu. The national media centered in the capital were content covering the combat side of civil war and missed the social changes that came along with it.

Thailand: Women Power Anti-Gov't Protests
August 30, 2008 - (IPS) In fact this army of middle-aged women, who come dressed in yellow as a mark of loyalty to the colour identified with the country's monarch, whom the PAD claims it is defending, are not recent participants. They have been the mainstay of the PAD's street protests that began in late May, when it took over a street near a United Nations building here, and have run non-stop, round-the-clock rallies, infused with rants against the government and music.

Namibia: Councillors Seek Ways to Empower Women
August, 28 2008 – (AllAfrica) Councillors in the Caprivi and Kavango regions recently met at Rundu to discuss ways through which women programmes could be given priority in the national budget. Councillors of both regions during the gender budgeting workshop, sponsored by Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, said the Government should set aside funds for programmes aimed at empowering women in Namibia.

Afghanistan: Afghan inquiry into freed rapists
August 27, 2008 – (BBC News) The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, has announced a full investigation into the case of two rapists who have been freed on a presidential pardon.

Pakistan: Taliban Violently Campaigns Against Girls' Education in Northwest Pakistan
August 27, 2008 (WorldPolitics) - The Swat valley, a picturesque region in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, was once a tourist destination. Two years ago, however, it became a Taliban haven when Maulana Fazlullah, a hardline cleric turned militant Taliban commander, launched a vicious campaign against the education of girls.

Kuwait: Debate over the headscarves of female ministers
August 27, 2008 (WLUML) - Islamic MPs are obliging Education Minister Nouriya Al-Sabeeh and Housing Minister Moudhi Al-Homoud to wear hijabs during parliamentary sessions in implementation of Islamic rules and regulations. The hijab issue had been the core of debate and controversy amongst MPs and political activists for a long time with some of them for and others against forcing the female ministers to wear the hijab.

Africa: Women Make Peace in Conflict Areas
August 25, 2008 (Public Agenda) – In war torn countries, women do not enjoy many privileges. Life is so uncertain that one does not know if "you will wake up with a roof over your head the next morning or find your family intact." This is the lot of women in Africa countries like Uganda, Eritrea, Kenya and Sudan. For most of these women, the basic necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter have become luxuries that they can barely afford.

Rwanda: Smart Politics - Country Geared for Parliamentary Female Domination
August 23, 2008 (The New Times) – Political developments in Rwanda as she prepares for legislative elections to be held next September could have an outcome with a profound impact on gender relations on the African continent, where women have lagged behind in political decision-making processes. In fact, Rwanda's Parliament will be the first female dominated one in the world; given that Rwanda currently has the world's highest female legislative presentation beating well to do countries with huge investments in gender equality spanning over decades.

DRC: UN mission trains police on sexual violence
August 21, 2008 – (UN News Center) The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is holding training sessions for the vast African nation's police in a bid to ensure that victims and witnesses of sexual violence are better protected.

Zimbabwe: SADC Heads of State Hailed for Adopting Protocol on Gender
August 20, 2008 – (AllAfrica) GENDER activists from the Sadc region have commended Heads of State for adopting the Sadc Protocol on Gender and Development at the summit, which ended in South Africa last Sunday.The activists noted that if implemented, the protocol stands to make a difference in the lives of most women in the region.

India: Women court arrest in Jammu over Amarnath land row
August 19, 2008 - (IANS) Peace might have returned to the Kashmir valley after eight days of protests on the Amarnath land row but the issue continued to fester in Jammu with several thousand women banging on the gates of police stations here on the second day of their ‘court arrest' agitation Tuesday.

Rwanda: Women Députés More Concerned With Grassroot Issues
August 19, 2008 (Rwanda News Agency) - The high number of women Députés in the Rwandan Parliament has brought issues that affect the grassroot voter to the forefront of national policy - rendering the Députés a needed block in the House, a study by British experts says.

Uganda: Make Women Part of North Development, Government Advised
August 19, 2008 (The Monitor) – Women from different civil society organisations in Uganda have urged the government to involve people at grassroots when designing development plans for northern Uganda if they are to work out. "This is the time for us to react and act to government programmes, most times government looks at issues in a broader perspective they are now looking at guns going silent yet the problems of women are increasing and not addressed well," the Executive Director ISIS-WICCE, Ms Ruth Ojiambo Ochieng said.

Georgia: Women struggle for peace in Georgia
August 18, 2008 – (kvinna till kvinna) While Georgian President Sakhashvili and Russian leaders Putin and Medvedev accuse each other of genocide and abuses, active efforts are being made for peace in South Caucasus. Women's organisations throughout the region are collaborating over the borders to achieve a peaceful solution to the conflict in South Caucasus.

Afghanistan: The Afghan women jailed for being victims of rape
August 18, 2008 (The Independent) - Two-thirds of the women in Lashkar Gah's medieval-looking jail have been convicted of illegal sexual relations, but most are simply rape victims – mirroring the situation nationwide. The system does not distinguish between those who have been attacked and those who have chosen to run off with a man.

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3. FEATURE statement

WILPF 2008 International Day of Peace Statement
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom

On 30 November 1981, the United Nations General Assembly, in resolution A/RES/36/67, declared an international day of peace. This resolution recognized that “the promotion of peace, both at an international and a national level, is among the main purposes of the United Nations, in conformity with its Charter”. Since 1915, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has worked to promote peace by non-violent means, promoting political, economic and social justice for all.

World military expenditures are estimated to have been USD 1,339 billion in 2007, or about 202 spent for every person on earth.[1] Article 26 of the UN Charter obliges the UN Security Council to “promote the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security with the least division for armaments of the world's human and economic resources”, and the Security Council has failed to meet this obligation. You get what you pay for, and when governments of the world decide to prioritize peace building through education, health care, strengthening public infrastructures, and sustainable development over the purchase of arms, then these governments will begin walking down the path towards peace and break the military spending- poverty cycle.

WILPF calls on all governments to allocate one day of their military expenditures USD 3,668,493