A Call for Translations of Resolution 1325

1. 1325 NEWS FOR PEACEWOMEN

7 Women to Serve on the ICC!
February 2003 - (Women's Caucus for Gender Justice) After 33 rounds of balloting, 18 judges have finally been elected to the International Criminal Court! The panel of judges includes 7 women, an unprecedented and historic development.

To read an article in The Observer, Women Judges Dominate World's New War Crimes Court, from February 8, go to: http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,891900,00.html

Refugees International (RI) Conducting Assessment Mission in Ituri
February 13, 2003 – (IRIN) Refugees International (RI) is conducting a humanitarian assessment mission in the Ituri District of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the NGO announced on Thursday. The mission is focusing on assessing the overall situation of the displaced, with particular attention to the needs of vulnerable women and children.

Namibian President Nujoma Condemns Violence Against Women And Children
February 12, 2003 – (The Namibian –Windhoek) As armed Police officers kept Namibians concerned about violence against women and children away from Parliament yesterday, President Sam Nujoma was speaking about the issue inside the National Assembly.

Launch of National Data Collection of Violence Against Women in Congo
February 12, 2003 (IRIN) - In an effort to better understand and improve the status and quality of life of women in the Republic of Congo, the government has begun the compilation of data on violence against women country-wide.

Women Helping Women in Bosnia
February 11, 2003 – (ReliefWeb) On the 11th day of every month, Hajra Catic, from Srebrenica, joins peaceful demonstrations organized by Mothers from Srebrenica and Zepa in Tuzla and Sarajevo, demanding the truth about family members who disappeared during the Bosnian Serb campaign against their two native towns.

U.N. Official Wants Action Against Personnel Involved With Sex Trade in Bosnia
February 10, 2003 – (UN Wire) The United Nations' top human rights official in Bosnia, Madeleine Rees, is calling for an end to immunity for U.N. officials involved in the sex trade in Bosnia. Rees said that those involved in sex crimes in Bosnia must be brought to justice in their home countries.

Australians Bare All in Anti-War Protest
February 8, 2003 – (BBC) More than 700 women have posed nude in Australia in a mass protest against their country's support for possible military action against Iraq. The naked demonstrators, aged 20 to 60, used their bodies to form the words "No war" on the side of a hill in Byron Bay, New South Wales.

Keeping The Security Council Door Ajar
February 5, 2003 – (UN Wire Notebook by Barbara Crossette) Diego Arria, an innovative Venezuelan diplomat, hadn't occupied his country's newly acquired Security Council seat for very long in 1992 when he decided that something had to be done to penetrate the shroud of secrecy that surrounded almost everything the council did. Crossette also analyses the difficulties in organizing the Arria on women, peace and security held around the second anniversary of Resolution 1325.

Women in Brazil take a stand against guns
February 2003 – (Amnesty International-The Wire) In the last 10 years, 300,000 people have been killed in Brazil, largely as a result of urban violence and the proliferation of guns in the country. While 24 men are killed for every one woman, every death leaves a grieving mother, wife, sister, girlfriend or friend. Now the women of Brazil are uniting to try to put an end to the terrifying escalation of violence and gun crime.

For More News please see: http://www.peacewomen.org/news/newsindex.html

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2. FEATURE STATEMENTS: WOMEN SPEAK OUT EVERYWHERE ON WAR AGAINST IRAQ

Women all over the world, individually and in organizations and networks, have been speaking out on the war against Iraq. This issue of the newsletter features a number of recent statements made by women's groups and networks from Porto Alegre, Geneva, and Egypt:

World Social Forum, Feminist Peace Statement
Porto Alegre, January 2003

This statement was developed by feminist/women's groups and networks at a pre-conference to the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and was circulated for signatures during the Forum:

We, Feminists from the World Women's Movement, gathered for the World Social Forum, wish to go on record in opposition to the criminal invasion of Iraq being planned and promoted by the government of the USA with the complicity of many other governments. This invasion threatens all women, men, youth and children and the planet as a whole. It will intensify US global dominance in service to transnational corporate access to and control of all the world's resources.

We wish to express our active support to our sisters in the USA in their growing and urgent struggle against this new invasion and continuing hidden wars everywhere. We are committed to this struggle in our own countries.

To read this statement online in English, Spanish and Portuguese, visit: http://www.peacewomen.org/resources/voices/declar/feministpeaceWSF.html

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The following statement from WILPF International, Geneva, has been circulated by email and has also been sent to all Security Council representatives, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the President of the UN General Assembly:

WILPF International, Geneva 12 February 2003

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom joins the many millions of women and men around the world in saying NO to war against Iraq. We say YES to every non-violent means of disarming Iraq of all weapons of mass destruction.

History shows that the disarmament process is painfully slow, and all to often reaches a standstill, as witnessed at this time in the Conference on Disarmament and other disarmament negotiating forums.

There is no convincing evidence of any alarming developments in Iraq that threaten the security of its neighbours or of anyone else. There is therefore no justification for taking military action against Iraq. A decision by the Security Council or by any of its members to go to war against this country, impoverished and weakened by years of sanctions against its citizens, can only be seen by people everywhere as criminal.

We should not have to, but we will remind you all that the prime responsibility of the United Nations is the maintenance and building of international peace.

We commend all those of you who have stood firm so far on using every diplomatic and political means to resolve the current crisis over Iraq and call on you to continue in your endeavours. We call on those of you who are spending billions on the military build-up near and far from the borders of Iraq to stop and disengage. There is no justification for sending to death soldiers and civilians an every side.

We call on you all to use reason and give all the needed time to ensure the disarmament of Iraq. We then urge you to work strenuously to achieve general and complete disarmament for the safety of all peoples.

To read this statement online, go to: http://www.peacewomen.org/resources/voices/declar/WILPFIntonIraq.html
WILPF International homepage: http://www.wilpf.int.ch/

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Arab Women's Declaration to Stop the War on Iraq

We, the undersigned Arab women's organisations, call for a stop to the planned military aggression against Iraq and for peace in our region. We are convinced that a military attack against Iraq will destroy a whole nation, including its women and children, and will result in an appalling humanitarian tragedy.

Women throughout the Arab world categorically condemn American-led attempts that target the integrity of the Arab world by undermining its sovereignty, and rupturing its national unity. The American administration is attempting to create any pretext to justify its onslaught on the Iraqi people and to occupy their land only to control their oil fields, whilst totally disregarding the destruction and annihilation which the Iraqi people will be exposed to. This, after the extreme suffering that the Iraqi population has had to endure for the past twelve years as a result of the suffocating economic sanctions. Infant and child mortality rates in Iraq are the highest in the world. The mortality rate for Iraqi children under five years old is 130 per 1,000, compared with 8 per 1,000 for American children.

A military invasion would not stop at Iraq. Israel will seize this golden opportunity to continue its Zionist plans for the transfer of the Palestinian people from their lands. Moreover, Bush's plans will not stop at regime change in Iraq but will go beyond this to re-map the entire Arab region. Despite the fact that no evidence has been found to prove that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction, the United States insists on preparing for the invasion of Iraq.

How can the American administration justify the estimated cost of 200 billion dollars of a war against Iraq? How can this be justified at a time when there are more than 1.2 billion people worldwide who live below the poverty line (i.e. with a daily income of less than one dollar); at a time when there are more than 149 million children in the developing countries suffering from malnutrition; over 1.1 billion people who do not have access to potable water, and over 2.4 billion people without sanitation?

Arab women, like all women of the world, act as safety valves for the protection of humanity in general, and the children of the world in particular, against the degradation of the world's natural resources which God has created for all of us to safeguard, not to destroy. Women have always been in the front line of calls for peace and for the protection of the environment and natural resources. Thus, we, Arab women say NO to the war against Iraq because we are certain that when armies invade, only destruction will prevail.

We appeal to all the women of the world to support us, Arab women, in our call to stop the planned American-led aggression against Iraq. We call on all women to voice their unequivocal condemnation of any military attack on Iraq and the resultant inevitable killing of more innocent civilians.

Alliance for Arab Women, Egypt
Egyptian Women's Legal Aid Centre, Egypt
Association for Support of Community Participation, Egypt
New Woman's Research Center, Egypt
Egyptian Democratic and Social Center, Egypt
Association for Women and Society, Egypt
El-Nadeem Center for Psychological Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, Egypt
Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women, Egypt
Forum of Associations for Women's Development, Egypt

Arab Women's Declaration website: http://www.arabdeclaration.com/
To read the declaration online, go to: http://www.arabdeclaration.com/edeclaration.htm

For a comprehensive annotated bibliography of books, articles and analyses on women's peace theory and activities, as well as NGO position papers, reports, speeches, statements and tools for organisational building. Please go to: http://www.peacewomen.org/resources/resindex.html

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3. FEATURE CAMPAIGN FOR PEACEWOMEN: A Call for Translations of 1325

To date, PeaceWomen has access to only a few translations of Resolution 1325 which are included below with html and/or PDF links. In order to improve public awareness about the Resolution, and to mobilize effectively for its implementation, 1325 must be accessible to as many people as possible, and thus in as many languages as possible.

If any of our readers have translated Resolution 1325 into their own language, know of existing translations, would be interested in translating it into their own language, or know of others who could, please contact us at: 1325news@peacewomen.org.

A number of translations of Resolution 1325 already exist:
-1325 has been translated into the official UN languages (Arabic, English, French, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish). However, unless you have the proper character fonts on your computer, you won't be able to read the Arabic, Mandarin or Russian translations. For this reason, PeaceWomen has not been able to find and post links to these translations. As soon as we figure out how to make an easy link to these translations, we will post them to the website. In the meantime, if you have the proper character fonts for reading Arabic, Mandarin or Russian, go to http://www.un.org/documents/ , click on the language of choice, then click on “Security Council Resolutions.”
-PeaceWomen.org has translations of 1325 in Finnish and Turkish in html.
-PeaceWomen.org has a link to a Korean translation, but, once again, unless you have the proper character fonts you will not be able to read it.
-According to information from International Alert, 1325 has been translated into Nepali. PeaceWomen is trying to find out more about this translation and acquire a copy, and we will post it as soon as it becomes available to us.
-1325 was translated, a few months ago, into the four indigenous languages in DRC. PeaceWomen is trying to find out more about these translations and acquire copies, and we will post them as soon as they become available to us.

Links

Official UN Languages:
Arabic: Go to http://www.un.org/documents/, click on Arabic link, then click on “Security Council Resolutions”

English: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/sc/1325.html, http://www.peacewomen.org/un/sc/res1325.pdf

French: http://www.un.org/french/docs/sc/2000/res1325f.pdf

Mandarin: Go to http://www.un.org/documents/, click on Mandarin link, then click on “Security Council Resolutions”

Russian: Go to http://www.un.org/documents/, click on Russian link, then click on “Security Council Resolutions”

Spanish: http://ods-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N00/720/21/PDF/N0072021.pdf?OpenE...

Other languages:
Finnish: http://www.peacewomen.org/campaigns/featured/1325%20translation/Finnish....

Turkish: http://www.peacewomen.org/campaigns/featured/1325%20translation/Turkish....

Korean: http://www.yunsooklee.pe.kr

Visit this PeaceWomen campaign at: http://www.peacewomen.org/campaigns/featured/1325%20translation/translat...

For more PeaceWomen campaigns please visit: http://www.peacewomen.org/campaigns/outreachindex.html

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4. CALENDAR EVENTS FOR PEACEWOMEN

International Seminar on Small Arms Proliferation
February 21-23, 2003, Sri Lanka
Organized by the South Asian Small Arms Network and South Asia Partnership International, this seminar will focus on the situation of small arms in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Participants – government officials and local NGOs – will assess the priorities of the region, share experiences, and strategize on how to improve NGO collaboration. The organizers are looking to produce an action plan that incorporates ways to deal with the traditional dimensions of stockpiling, and de-weaponization, among others, and the non-traditional factors of gender and poverty. Saferworld, a foreign affairs think tank, and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) will also be participating in the seminar. For more information on the conference, visit http://www.sapint.org , or call Manik Perera Gunatilleke at 500311/360908

Conflict Analysis for Prevention and Peacebuilding: Exploring the Roles of NGOs
March 11-14, 2003, Johns Hopkins, Washington, DC
Participants in this course will “learn and apply an analytical framework for selecting NGO programming priorities for conflict prevention, transition and/or peacebuilding based on first examining causes and dynamics of conflict in a specific country context.” For more information, including registration information, visit: http://epdweb.engr.wisc.edu/brochures/E617.html, or contact Charles at: dufresne@interworksmadison.com.

59th Commission on Human Rights
March 17- April 24, 2003, Geneva Switzerland
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights convenes a regular annual session each year in March/April for six weeks in Geneva. Over 3,000 delegates from member and observer States and from non-governmental organizations participate, adopting resolutions, decisions and Chairperson's statements on issues of relevance to the participants.
For information about the upcoming Commission, click here.
For more background on the Commission, click here.

For more calendar events please visit: http://www.peacewomen.org/frame/calendar/calendar.html

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