Women, Peace and Security E-News June 2017

Against Violent Masculinities and For Feminist Peace: Engaging Men and Boys
By MenEngage Alliance Global Coordinator Joni van de Sand 

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The need to put a spotlight on violence against women and girls is more pertinent than ever. In every society, women and girls are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse that cuts across income, class and culture. Violence against women and girls violates their human rights and fundamental freedoms. It is an obstacle to the achievement of equality, development and peace. The long-standing failure to protect and promote those rights and freedoms has to be addressed as a top priority. Women’s rights organisations and feminist groups must have a central role in setting the bar for how to do that.

I am writing from the 35th Session of the Human Rights Council (HRC35) in Geneva, where the Government of Canada has tabled a resolution on engaging men and boys in preventing and responding to all forms of violence against all women and girls. This resolution outlines interventions that are gender-transformative, that dismantle harmful norms, attitudes, practices, stereotypes, inequalities in power and privileges - particularly related to masculinities - which perpetuate all forms of violence towards all women and girls.

MenEngage Alliance has been actively involved in securing that the work with men and boys is framed and operationalised not as a goal in itself, but as a strategy towards the ultimate aim of the elimination of violence against women and the promotfon og the rights of women and girls. During the course of the session, we have brought civil society speakers to this international space for their voices to be heard as they call for drastic change.

It strikes me that in finding solutions for huge problems the world faces, there appears to be a tension between the individual and the systemic: is it individuals that are the source of violence and have to change? Or is it the systems in which we operate and live our lives that enable or even create such violence, and that have to change? Is it up to individual men to take responsibility for their violent behaviours, or is it the responsibility of states to shape and implement laws, policies and institutions that perpetuate or can eliminate such violence?

Following the HRC35 debate this week, it has become ever more pertinent that it is both. Systems are created by people, and people, in turn, are shaped by the systems in which they live. There is no either/or, there are roles to play for each and every one of us and for every element of the system to transform. It is up to individual men to change their own violent behaviours and ideas around masculinities and call out violence perpetrated by others.

It is up to institutions and organisations to adopt policies, procedures and practices that create safe spaces. And it is up to governments to adopt and implement laws and comprehensive national strategies to put an end to violence against women and girls, including by committing the adequate resources to do so. Change at all levels is necessary and will reinforce and enable change at others.

There is perhaps no clearer issue for the need of state transformation than militarism. Governments must come to realise that they cannot end violence with more violence. The global arms trade is one of the biggest hypocrisies of this day and age. When states are trying to achieve peace and gender equality without addressing their role in the reproduction of violence through the arms trade, it is like trying to mop the floor with the tap running. It is mission impossible, and we all know it. The arms trade is patriarchy manifesting itself in political economy - primarily by men in power - and it needs to stop, immediately.

A rigorous paradigm shift has to happen with states. We, as civil society gender justice activists and peacebuilders, are here to provide expertise and support states to do that – and to hold states to account for the realisation of their commitments. And in turn, we need to be supported by states, both national and foreign, to implement this vision of change on the ground. Challenging patriarchy in all its manifestations is at the core of MenEngage Alliance’s work, and that is why we work with partners like WILPF, and support initiatives such as the #MoveTheMoney campaign.

We are also calling on male leaders – at all levels, and including within MenEngage Alliance itself, to make the spaces they occupy feminist, and be accountable to women and girls. But, what does this mean to us? It means acknowledging that we build on the heritage of feminist women’s rights organisations and movements, be allies to their work, and ground our work firmly in feminist principles. It means striving to strengthen our work by embracing a women’s rights perspective and feminist analysis, including placing inequalities in privilege and power that result from patriarchy at the heart of our work with men and boys. It also means committing to listening to and being accountable to women’s rights voices, as well as institutionalising democratic and inclusive decision-making processes, including within MenEngage Alliance.

If we are to achieve all development and peace commitments, meaningful participation of women’s rights organisations and feminist groups is crucial. The current reality of shrinking spaces for civil society is against what the Agenda2030 stands for. It’s at huge risk of being a hollow-shell, if we don’t act now!

At the upcoming High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) we will continue to have these conversations and keeping up the pressure on governments to take their commitments seriously – together with partners like WILPF – to make feminist peace a reality.