PHILIPPINES: RP adopts UN Resolution to promote women's participation in peace building

In celebration of the International Women's Month this March, the Philippine government has issued Executive Order 865 creating the national steering committee on Women, Peace and Security. EO 865 adopts the National Action Plan of the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UN SCR) 1325 that specifically addresses the impact of war on women, and women's contributions to conflict prevention and sustainable peace.

Almost ten years ago, on October 31, 2000 UN SCR 1325 was adopted to urge member states such as the Philippines to ensure increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions for the prevention and resolution of conflict. It also emphasized the need to support local women's peace initiatives and indigenous processes for conflict resolution.

UNSCR 1325 also called on all parties to armed conflict to adopt a gender perspective to cater to the special needs of women and girls during resettlement and post-conflict reconstruction and to mainstream a gender perspective into peacekeeping operations and provide specialised training to military, police and civilians for the protection and human rights needs of women and girls in conflict situations.

"It was the first time that the UN's most powerful body endorsed the inclusion of civil society groups, notably women, in peace processes and the implementation of peace agreements," Carmela Lauzon-Gatmaytan, program coordinator of the Initiatives for International Dialogue, an advocacy and solidarity institution promoting peace, conflict prevention, democratization and right to self-determination in Southeast Asia said.

In many of the regional consultation process, women leaders representing organizations engaged in lobbying and advocacy initiatives around the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSC) 1325 highlighted that women have always played the role of negotiator, convenor, facilitator, mediator, service providers to victims of conflicts, humanitarian worker in evacuation centers and related roles. Yet this contribution was never officially recognized as a mechanism to build peace.

"This means that our efforts at building grassroots-level peace pacts and women-led indigenous peace processes would no longer be considered an alternative but as an unconditional and necessary process in building peace," Lauzon-Gatmaytan added.

"What is even more critical now is the involvement of Peacewomen in particular 1325 activists and experts to the process of implementation and NAP roll-out at the community and policy level," expressed Sharon Bhagwan Rolls in a statement released by the Pacific Regional Women's Media Network on UNSCR1325 and the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict.

"This will require the mobilization of resources to enable active women's civil society action - within formal and community level spaces and to ensure their autonomy at times in realizing a gender inclusive and just peace for all," Rolls added.

To date, sixteen countries have produced National Action Plans (NAPs) implementing the resolution: Austria, Belgium, Chile, Cote D'Ivoire, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Liberia, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Uganda, and the United Kingdom. The Philippines is the 17th country to adopt a national action plan for UNSCR 1325 and is launching this today in Miriam College, Quezon Cit