Equality for Afghan Women Remains a Critical Goal for President Ghani

By Mayesha Alam

Originally featured in Global Post here.

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Afghanistan is at a crossroads. After taking office in a close election last year, President Ashraf Ghani has struggled to form a government and build a solid partnership with his political rival, Abdullah Abdullah, who was appointed chief executive officer in a power-sharing compromise.

Ghani ran as a reform candidate. He promised to reform policies, institutions and public discourse. On the key issue of women’s rights, he is trying to live up to his pledge.

After a woman was beaten and set on fire for allegedly desecrating the Quran, President Ghani ordered an investigation. He said, “No individual is allowed to make oneself a judge and use violence to punish others.”

An arrest in the case was an important signal his government would no longer tolerate violence against women or pursuing vigilante justice in the name of Islam.

On March 21, the eve of his first official visit to the United States, President Gahni announced 16 new cabinet nominees that included four women. This encouraging step is in line with an earlier commitment to appointing women in senior level positions of government.

The president invited a group of prominent Afghan women to join his official delegation to Washington, including Dr. Sima Samar, chairperson of the Independent Afghan Human Rights Commission; Dr. Habiba Sarabi, first female governor of a province; Nargis Nehan, founder and head of women’s civil society organization called Equality for Peace and Democracy; and Kamila Sadiqi, an entrepreneur and business owner profiled in Gayle Lemmon’s best-selling book The Dressmaker of Khair Khana.

These respected, pioneering Afghan women leaders served as advisers during President Ghani’s trip and help keep women’s empowerment squarely on the agenda.

Rula Ghani, the president’s wife, has been a crucial ally and spokesperson in the government’s outreach to women. On a visit to Washington in February, she explained how she sees herself as a “listener.” She has pledged to hear the grievances of ordinary Afghans, especially women, to enable her to help devise solutions on issues such as unemployment or access to basic services.

This is a remarkable turn of events. Mrs. Ghani’s public leadership stands in stark contrast to that of her predecessor, Zeenat Karzai, who was rarely seen and did not campaign for her husband.

Mrs. Ghani’s words and actions are sanctioned by the new president. He has supported her participation in international conferences where she has repeatedly spoken on the need for women’s empowerment in Afghanistan. With his encouragement, Mrs. Ghani has created new initiatives to connect Afghan women and youth to resources that can improve their lives.

Her messages have been sensitive to local culture. She has sought to inspire Afghan citizens participate in civic action. She routinely refers to historical examples of Muslim women leaders, including from the time of Prophet Muhammad, which makes it difficult for naysayers to accuse her of espousing Western or un-Islamic beliefs and traditions.

She is highly educated, dignified and charming. She is creating a model for young Afghan women who are trying to find their own voices.

President Ghani’s rhetoric and recent actions, along with his wife’s public persona, provide reasons for cautious optimism about the government’s commitment to women’s rights.

It is clear, however, that the ultimate measure of progress will be access to higher education for common Afghan women, freedom to exercise their productive potential in the formal economy, hold leadership positions in government and civil society and participate in the all-crucial peace process.

As anticipation rises for the prospect of negotiations with the Taliban, a fundamental question remains: what about Afghan women and girls? Will their rights be bargained away in a peace arrangement with the Taliban? Will they be invited to share their perspectives as part of the dialogue and hold decision-making positions?

In February, Mrs. Ghani said, “If peace and reconciliation with the Taliban happens, you can be sure that women won’t lose their rights…My husband won’t allow that.” But, she also acknowledged, “Whether or not women will be at the table, I don’t know.”

The High Peace Council is currently comprised of 61 men and only nine women. Moreover, the daily insecurity that women face — especially in rural and remote areas where they continue to be marginalized — is an issue of grave concern.  Women must be safe and free in their homes, in their communities and beyond to live as full and equal citizens.

The simple reality is that Afghanistan cannot move forward if half its population is left behind. The well being of the Afghan women — including the protection of their rights as well participation in political and socioeconomic life — will be vital to ensuring democracy and prosperity.

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Mayesha Alam is the Associate Director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the author of Women and Transitional Justice: Progress and Persistent Challenges. 

Women’s Equality Isn’t a Zero Sum Game. It’s Vital for Peace and Prosperity.

By Ambassador Melanne Verveer and Mayesha Alam

Originally posted in The Guardian here.

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There is a plethora of data which demonstrates that women’s economic participation grows economies, creates jobs and builds inclusive prosperity. As essential as women’s equality is for growth, it is often stymied by discriminatory laws, customs, and structural barriers that restrict women from full participating in the formal economy. In no country is the gender equality gap completely closed.

In the United States, women still do not receive equal pay for equal work. The pay gap has barely changed in a decade, it exists in nearly every occupation and it is exacerbated for women of color and older women. The lack of paid maternity leave makes it difficult for women to have children and also work outside the home. The resulting loss of income hurts families and the larger economy.

The international community has acknowledged the essential role that women play in peace and prosperity, which is particularly evident in conflict zones. Secretary of State John Kerry noted, “Countries that value and empower women to participate fully in decision-making are more stable, prosperous and secure. The opposite is also true. When women are excluded from negotiations, the peace that follows is more tenuous. Trust is eroded, and human rights and accountability are often ignored”.

For countries emerging out of conflict, women’s access to jobs and markets is essential to ensuring stability. Peace agreements alone do not bring security; employment brings stability that is critical to security. Access to a sustainable livelihood is especially important for women survivors of conflict who must care for themselves and dependents such as children and elderly parents.

We have seen an example of progress in the Philippines – where women have helped lead peace negotiations that culminated in a historic agreement between the government and rebel forces in the Mindanao region. There, for the first time ever, a woman was the chief signatory to a peace agreement in 2014. Women continue to be seen and treated as merely victims during armed conflict and while they are subjected to unique and disproportionate harms – including sexual violence – they also represent the greatest untapped resource to creating a more peaceful world.

Women’s political participation has been the area where progress has been slowest, even while other indicators have improved. Rates of women’s participation in parliaments and as heads of state are low in both the US and internationally. Rwanda serves an example of success, where women have led the charge to transform their country after the horrific 1994 genocide; it is the only country in the world with a higher percentage of female parliamentarians (64%).

Where women and girls can access education and employment alongside men and boys, countries are more likely to prosper. Yet women in many countries still lack access to education and vocational training. In Pakistan and Nigeria, extremists threaten and commit violence against girls seeking to go to school. In Afghanistan, girls’ enrollment in primary education has increased drastically in the last decade but there has been less progress on higher education for women. Lack of access to education is exacerbated in refugee settings and for internally displaced persons while child marriage continues to disempower young women and undercut their potential to live productive and happy lives.

As we mark International Women’s Day, we should act on our collective unfinished agenda, wherever we live. Despite the genuine progress that has been achieved, our work remains incomplete. Even where laws exist to protect women from harm, enforcement is often lacking. Moreover, gains have been uneven, not only from one geographic region to another but within countries across urban and rural divides.

Empowering women and girls worldwide is strategic and smart. No country can get ahead if it leaves half of its population behind. This is the great, unfinished agenda of the 21st century.

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Melanne Verveer was the inaugural U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s issues from 2009 to 2013. She now serves as the Executive Director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security.

Mayesha Alam is the Associate Director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the author of Women and Transitional Justice: Progress and Persistent Challenges (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

Women Leading for Peaceful Societies: A Recap of The Carter Center’s 2015 Human Rights Defenders Forum

From: https://www.facebook.com/cartercenter

The Carter Center convened the second Human Rights Defenders Forum (HDRF): “Beyond Violence: Women Leading for Peaceful Societies” on February 7-10, 2015. This annual forum presents itself as an “opportunity for leading human rights activists to raise and amplify their individual and collective voices on key issues in an international space.” More than 60 academics, human rights defenders and religious leaders gathered to discuss pertinent issues such as inclusive leadership, confronting violence against women and girls, and women leading to prevent and resolve violent conflict. This year’s distinguished array of participants included Bineta Diop, Special Envoy for Women, Peace and Security for the African Union; Dr. Alaa Murabit, Voice of Libyan Women; Wai Wai Nu, former political prisoner and founder of the Women’s Peace Network in Myanmar; and former extremist-turned-undercover counterterrorism operative, Mubin Shaikh.

Participants met in closed working group sessions during the first two days of the conference to deliberate drivers of conflict and violent extremism, best practices for transforming those drivers, and threats and challenges to successfully engendering peace. Many participants noted the effect of structural injustice, ingrained in institutional power relations, in fostering environments primed for violent extremism. Forum attendees also identified gender inequality, dearth of educational opportunities, lack of legal mechanisms to resolve disputes nonviolently, and human needs not being met, as specific drivers of violent extremism.

To create a peaceful society, participants recognized the benefit of addressing multiple drivers of violence simultaneously. Proposed actions included:

• Creating additional space for dialogue among stakeholders;
• Documenting and disseminating stories of violence shared by survivors;
• Framing human rights language within cultural and religious contexts so that the concepts resonate with diverse audiences;
• Providing training for the disempowered so that they could more effectively advocate for their rights;
• Instituting early education on human rights through a participatory pedagogy that empowers communities and individuals;
• Working with local NGOs who are trusted within their communities;
• Moving away from language that demonizes certain groups as a whole; and
• Meaningfully engaging female participation in efforts to counter violence.

From: https://www.facebook.com/cartercenter

Speakers at the public event included former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who began his remarks by acknowledging that gender-based violence is closer to home than many realize. President Carter reported that 60,000 people are living in bondage in the United States today and that Atlanta, where the forum took place, is a global hub for sex trafficking. U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand also addressed the forum, discussing how the United States fails to protect and empower women and girls. She raised the timely example of bias surrounding rape in the military and on college campuses, noting that “institutions will protect the favored, not the survivor,” and also criticized the U.S. for not institutionalizing equal pay for equal work. Another forum participant admonished the United States for being one of the few countries – along with Somalia, Iran, and Sudan – that has not yet ratified the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

From: https://www.facebook.com/cartercenter

Gaynel Curry, the Gender and Women’s Rights Advisor of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), highlighted a challenge that has been on the forefront of advocates’ minds for the past decade: We have a strong international legal framework on women’s rights, but the challenge is, how do we implement this framework? Curry was hopeful that the upcoming review process for UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which seeks to increase women’s participation in peacebuilding and protect women from sexual violence, could be informed by this forum’s findings. Conference attendees resoundingly agreed that women’s participation and protection are paramount, warning, “If you’re not at the [peace] table, you end up on the menu” and “where there is impunity there will be continued violence.”

From: https://www.facebook.com/cartercenter

To continue this dialogue, the Carter Center launched The Forum on Women, Religion, Violence and Power at this year’s conference. This platform will serve as a safe medium for continued collaboration and consultation to promote equality for women everywhere and foster solutions for peaceful societies. As one participant fervently proclaimed, “Women cannot wait for change…we’ve waited for centuries. We need to push for it.”

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Ashley Binetti is the 2014-2015 Hillary Rodham Clinton Law Fellow at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. She received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 2014, specializing in human rights and transnational law.

Economic Empowerment, Peace and Security—Women Using Information Communication Technology in Somalia

Johorad [name has been changed] lives in the deep desert just under a full day’s walk from the “tarmac road”, the black asphalt highway cutting across Puntland – a state in Somalia’s northwest – the only formal transit point connecting Johorads’ community with the rest of the country and the coast. Johorad is 23 years old, married, with three children, and is the family member directly responsible for managing the goats and camels sourcing the family’s income. Johorad also walks three kilometers to climb the top of a hill four times a week so that she can get reception on her 3G mobile phone from one of the telecom towers dotting the arid landscape. Through her phone, she can connect with other women in her livestock and milk collection cooperative via SMS, and she can navigate the Internet and manage her Facebook account. Phone and the internet are so important to Johorad that at times, when income constraints force her to choose between buying batteries for a generator to light the house at night and paying her phone bill, the phone bill wins. And because she often uses this technology to manage her livestock business, Johorad’s family supports this prioritization. Yet in addition to growing her family’s business, Johorad’s phone, and through it, her ability to connect to other communities through the internet, has enabled her to develop her talent as a poet, and even gain national recognition for her writing.

Johorad went to school until class four, and she can still read and write in Somali. She has always thought in music and song, and she would jot lines of poetry on paper scraps about the house. But her world expanded drastically in the spring of 2014 when she found the Facebook page of the Puntland Women Writers Association (PWWA), based in the state capital of Garowe. Taking a leap, Johorad messaged one of the PWWA women and sent across a short poem. The association was shocked and thrilled that someone from such a far off, rural community had found out about their presence and made contact. After communicating back and forth, the PWWA was eventually able to fund Johorad coming to Garowe to present her poem as an honorary guest at the Association’s annual literary conference. This visit marked the first time Johorad had traveled to an urban setting beyond the nearest village on the asphalt highway to which she brought livestock and milk every few weeks. Today, Johorad exchanges messages with PWWA members and other women several times a week, and her writing will be included in a book of poetry and oral history collected by the PWWA and set to be published in early 2016.

Johorad’s story is just one example of how in certain contexts in Somalia, the growing availability and use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) is helping augment women’s activity in the economic and public sphere. Though unfolding in incremental steps, women’s increasing empowerment in this regard, and the inter-clan networks growing out of their activities are contributing to Somalia’s movement towards more peaceful coexistence between communities.

Women in rural areas largely manage the livestock-related businesses, and, through this, are major drivers of communication between communities in rural spaces. To overcome separation across huge geographic distances, women livestock holders have been forming milk collection collectives, where participants arrange for milk and livestock transport through semi-urban counterparts at various stops along the asphalt “tarmac road.” The increasing ubiquity of mobile phones is now helping women diversify these businesses. They are creating a socially acceptable avenue for communication with the more “downstream” parts of the livestock supply chain, such as milk processing, livestock transport, market access and distribution – businesses traditionally dominated by men.

In more urban contexts, Somali women most commonly engage in economic activity through retail entrepreneurship. Women are often seen in the public sphere running clothing and perfume emporiums, market stalls and connector businesses. Particularly in Somalia’s context of entrenched clan conflict and fighting between Somali-African Union forces and al-Shabaab, Somalis have developed a complicated security vetting process to screen new neighbors, employees, business partners and educational institution applicants. Female entrepreneurs often have to conduct particularly strenuous social vetting processes for those they associate with, given the added restrictions on women related to modesty and social reputation. Mobile phones help streamline these complicated processes. Urban women entrepreneurs have actually converted security vetting processes into a service they sell as part of the “connector services” product suite. Already being mavericks simply by nature of their non-traditional client-facing role allows Somali women entrepreneurs to push boundaries in other ways. Anecdotal evidence suggests that, proportional to the amount of women in the workforce, it is more common for Somali women to enter into a business partnership outside their own particular community or sub-clan than for men to do the same.

Somali women in both rural and urban contexts are increasingly using communication as an entry point into the economic space. Furthermore, they are using mobile phones as a tool for doing so, and their economic activity bridges social gaps between disparate communities. Linkages between communities build rapport between community members that disincentives escalation of violent conflict. The improved economic opportunities available to rural communities out of women’s increased involvement in different parts of the livestock supply chain helps satisfy some of the economic grievances associated with violent conflict. Research suggests that in areas where women’s communication-based economic activity is more robust, inter-community conflict and revenge-based violence has been on the decline.

Johorad’s experience using mobile phone technology to grow her family’s business and her own artistic pursuits gives us one tiny glimpse into how the use of information communication technology is changing women’s role in Somali society. This change in roles is both improving women’s overall position and strengthening community linkages necessary for maintaining sustainable peace. Though community backlash towards women’s increasing economic activity is prevalent, ICT is making it socially and logistically easier for women to create bonds between their communities and between each other. As Somalia moves closer toward its 2016 elections, women politicians might find new opportunities for engagement and have a particularly important role to play. Women’s increasing use of ICT to link with other women and society at large may continue to develop and contribute to these and other socio-political tides.

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Rachel Firestone is a second year Master’s Candidate at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, focusing on post-conflict reconstruction and the role of access to justice mechanisms in fragile and conflict states. Previously, she spent five years in India working on leadership and self-advocacy programs for women from communities recovering from sectarian violence and internal displacement. This summer, Rachel led a global education program in India through Lakeside School in Seattle and worked in Somalia on an ICT-based entrepreneurship development project with the World Bank.

Symposium Recap – “Women: Powerful Agents for Peace and Security”

Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security Associate Director Mayesha Alam travelled to Amsterdam, Netherlands to participate in the “Women: Powerful Agents for Peace and Security” symposium, convened by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. Discussions at the symposium focused on enhancing the participation and leadership of women in conflict and post-conflict peacebuilding. Read her recap of the symposium below.

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1. We need to deconstruct what we mean by “peace” and “security” and reconstruct this terms, as well as how we formulate policy around them, in a way that incorporates the lived experiences of women and their grassroots level efforts. So when we say “peace” or “security”, what do we mean by this? Peace for whom and by whom? Security for whom and by whom?

As one woman leader from South Sudan, Rita Abraham, said, “The hierarchy of peace negotiations does not favour those who wage peace but those who wage war. Women are systematically marginalized from negotiations, even when mobilized for peace. It’s as if you need a gun to get to the peace table.”

What happens all too often, when the only people around a negotiation table are the warring parties, is that the discussion become about power-sharing and personal gain. This needs to be changed such that negotiations provide a roadmap for responsibility-sharing and good governance.

How do we do this? Listen to women on the ground. If they’re living it, they’re the true experts. They know what it takes to survive.

2. Increase both the participation of women as well as their perspectives during peace negotiations. How do we do this? Make sure that every internationally mediated peace process includes one male mediator and one female mediator. And in the terms of reference for mediators, include guidelines and requirements related to gender sensitivity. These are two measures that can move us towards developing an international standard of practice. 

3. Civil society and government need to work more constructively together.CSO and government do not need to be friends but they do need to be able to partner.Peace is a multi-stakeholder process, but, too often, the participation of anyone that is not a direct warring party is simply cosmetic. One way to make the dialogue a partnership is by focusing on common goals and mutual interest. 

4. If you want women to be in decision-making positions, they need to be able to perform at their best and navigate the systems through which peace, governance and security are operated. This requires capacity-sharing (new terminology to replace capacity-building which connotes that women on the ground are lacking in capacity). 

Two examples:

a) Electoral quotas — if you are going to create quotas for women to participate in formal politics, you need to make sure they are able to work the system and survive – to actually lead. Otherwise, quotas can be counterproductive.

b) Political parties — political parties in too many places have a bad reputation for their dysfunctional nature, for corruption and poor leadership, and for partisanship that ultimately undermines good governance. And yet, without political parties, there cannot be a true democratic system. Women often choose not to run for office because of the way political parties work. There is a need to overhaul and clean up parties. Democracy without women is impossible. And democracy without political parties is also not possible. 

More than rights trainings or gender sensitization trainings, what women on the ground need are real entry points to engage directly in decision-making, whether or not they’re engaged informal politics.

5. If you want to encourage governments to incorporate women into the process, don’t just blame and shame, but also use positive examples. How do we do this? Elevate those who are leading by example. Use positive examples to change mindsets; in every single country there are women who are doing important and transformative things. Highlight them and hold their governments accountable based on these positive examples rather than only negative examples.

6. Violence takes many forms and one of the troubling trends now is gender-based violence and abuse being perpetrated through ICT. Maybe it seems like a lesser form of violence, but it can incite serious physical and mental harm, especially for women in politics or women human rights defenders. It feeds into institutions, it feeds in domestic violence within the home, and it can make very real barriers for women to participate that a) did not exist before or b) buttress old barriers.

7. The WPS agenda needs to be broadened to include and engage with private security (not just police, armies and insurgent groups), especially as the role of private security companies grows in places like Afghanistan (UNSCR 1325 and subsequent resolutions do not recognize this actor). The same is true for the intelligence agencies. There is very little understanding and research on this topic. These agencies, especially in the Countering Violent Extremism space, have operated until now in a gender-blind way that actually does more harm than good and also undermines their objectives.

8. Apply the principle of “Do No Harm”to the implementation of UNSCR 1325/the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. This is especially for donor agencies and governments who are increasingly trying to engage on these issues but don’t necessarily know how to. Even where good intentions exist, bad practice triumphs. A few common mistakes include:

1. a) Not listening to women on the ground
2. b) Speaking on behalf of women on the ground, rather than letting them speak for themselves
3. c) Providing inadequate support to women’s groups due to the way in which international aid is administered or false perceptions (such as women’s groups are unable to manage financial resources, ill-equipped to handle large sums of money)

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Mayesha Alam is the Associate Director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. Ms. Alam is an Adjunct Faculty in the School of Foreign Service where she co-teaches a graduate seminar on women, peace and security. She is the author of Women and Transitional Justice: Progress and Persistent Challenges (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). Originally from Bangladesh, she received her M.A. in conflict resolution at Georgetown University and her B.A. in international relations and biology from Mount Holyoke College.

When One Man’s Peace is Another Woman’s Trap

Any views or opinions represented in this blog post are personal and belong solely to the blog author and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated. 

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Standing in Nevruz Park in Diyarbakir, Turkey last March, I was immediately and acutely aware of the magnitude of the event playing out before me. Two years ago marked the first time Kurds could legally gather to celebrate the Persian New Year. This year, Kurdish vendors came prepared with traditional foods and merchandise for sale. Eager to capitalize on the spirit of the day, men solicited grilled meats and peppers, circled families with trays of traditional simit, and manned tables stacked rows-deep with t-shirts, flags, and scarves – some boasting the traditional colors of Kurdish nationalism, others boldly featuring Abdullah Ocalan’s profile. Visions of red, yellow and green were woven together by the sound of women ululating in unison over rhythmic drumbeats, a combination that evoked a sense of communal celebration.

To understand the significance of the event, it is critical to establish some context around Turkish-Kurdish relations over the past several decades. In 1974, Abdullah Ocalan organized Kurdish resistance to Turkish rule by issuing a clarion call to action that, up until recently, argued for a separate and unified Kurdish state encompassing Kurdish communities living in Iraq, Syria, and Iran. Over the past 40 years, the Turkish government and the PKK, or Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan – the group of armed insurgents that formed around the charismatic leadership of Ocalan – have participated in on-again, off-again periods of intense military engagement. Since 1984, the conflict has racked up severe costs, both human and financial: 30,000-40,000 lives and $300 billion-$450 billion have been claimed over four decades of fighting. By all accounts, the Turkish-Kurdish conflict has defined several generations of Kurds living in Turkey, and has served as a template from which offshoots of the PKK in Syria and Iraq have mobilized for greater autonomy within their own national contexts.

But since 2013, Ocalan, with the support of PKK leadership in the Qandil Mountains of Iraq, has engaged directly with the Turkish Government in high-level peace talks, even though both sides are careful to frame the discussion in terms of “seeking a solution” rather than “building peace.” The talks are in the very early stages, with the government only having released its vision of a six-phase road map last summer. In addition to the slow pace of progress, many observers express concerns that ISIS’ sustained attack on the Syrian-Kurdish town of Kobane and the Turkish governments’ posture toward intervention threaten to derail the positive developments of the past few years.

In Diyarbakir, I was awestruck listening to Ocalan’s message – recorded prior to the start of the festival from his prison on Imrali Island in the Marmara Sea – permeate the air, reminding his followers to tread the path of peace and avoid a return to violence. Even more strikingly, I was amazed to see how many young girls took center-stage in the celebrations. In conversations with Turkish friends, I was told that Kurdish women suffer a great deal under the burden of an oppressive patriarchal structure, further stressed by decades of conflict, poverty and neglect. But at the celebration, the energy on the ground suggested something very different. I noted an equal number of women dressed in long, sequined gowns as I did women dressed in the infamous green fatigues of PKK mountain fighters. I quickly lost count of the number of young girls I saw, ages 10 and younger, dancing with their elders, clad head to toe in the olive green of the Kurdish insurgency. So even as Ocalan was speaking to a peaceful and prosperous future, it was clear that the allure of rebellion still held powerful sway over some of Turkey’s youngest women.

There is limited scholarship outlining the conditions under which women leverage violence to effect political change, but some anecdotal evidence suggests that, at least in the case of Kurdish women electing to join the insurgency, women take up arms to “escape poverty. They flee a conservative society where domestic violence is common and there is little opportunity.” These motivating factors could help explain why Kurdish women have been attracted to the organization since it was formed in the late 1970s.

But women’s representation in the struggle for Kurdish self-determination is not just limited to the PKK. In the political wing of the Kurdish movement, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), women are guaranteed a participation threshold of 40 percent and the party is presided over jointly by both a male and female representative at all times. There is historically a strong commitment to elevating women to key positions as both political actors and combatants. This is true at least in terms of theory and what is visible to an outside world, whose capacity to understand the PKK might be influenced by factors such as the U.S. State Department’s 1997 listing of the PKK as a terrorist organization.

Turning again to the ongoing peace negotiations between the Turkish government and the PKK, a workable plan that facilitates the disarming, demobilization and facilitated reintegration (DDR) of Kurdish combatants is a hotly contested topic. One often-ignored aspect of DDR in this context is how demobilization will impact on the Kurdish women who have made their mark in the decades-long insurgency. If it is true that significant numbers of women have joined the ranks of the PKK over the past four decades as a means of pursuing empowerment and social status through military engagement, any sort of demobilization and reintegration scheme will have to comprehensively map out mechanisms through which returned combatants can return to civilian life without sacrificing perceived gains in self-actualization. A report by International Crisis Group suggests, “Any amnesty or reintegration mechanisms must make sure not to exclude women and girls who are combatants or otherwise associated with the insurgency.” In view of women’s long involvement with the insurgency, simply ensuring that we do not exclude women does not evoke a strong image of a plan that accounts for women’s active roles in the group.

Rather than limit the focus on how not to exclude women from DDR programming, a successful post-conflict strategy must think more proactively about how to prioritize the women being asked to disarm. There must be compelling incentives to return to civilian life that are driven by an understanding of the gendered pathways to combat that brought women into the military theatre to begin with. If the aim is to present a peaceful alternative to the militant nature of the past 40 years, any durable peace deal cannot afford to ignore the factors and structures that pushed Kurdish women into combat; it cannot risk implementing DDR protocol and programs that do not expressly appeal to female combatants. Parallel political, economic and social development programming must be sensitive to the ways in which Kurdish women’s realities are differently gendered, and must offer enticing and appropriately tailored incentives to female combatants being asked to demobilize.

The most enduring memory of my March afternoon in Diyarbakir was not dancing chapi, and it was not moving freely through a dense crowd wrapped in a scarf emblazoned with the colors of Kurdistan, an act that would otherwise garner unwanted attention everywhere else in Turkey. The moment I will never forget unfolded when I looked into the eyes of a little girl waiving a flag with Ocalan’s face on it and wondered if she would be afforded the chance to grow up in a Turkey where her interests would be represented democratically, equitably and without the echo of gunfire in the background.

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Amanda Jessen is a graduate student in the Conflict Resolution program in the Department of Government at Georgetown University, focusing her studies on women and violent extremism. She spent 11 months in Turkey as a Boren Fellow, where her work centered on researching Turkey’s role in providing humanitarian relief to Syrian refugees.

The Great Unfinished Business of the Beijing Platform for Action

This essay by Ambassador Melanne Verveer was originally included in a publication by the Wilson Center’s Women in Public Service Project entitled Beijing+20: Looking Back and the Road Ahead, Reflections on Milestones in Women’s Leadership in the 21st Century.

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Twenty years ago, I joined then-First Lady Hillary Clinton on a trip to Beijing for the Fourth World Conference on Women. It was there that she declared, for all the world to hear, that “human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.”

Women globally have made significant progress in the last 20 years: more girls are in school than ever before, maternal mortality is decreasing, and women’s economic participation is growing. Laws have been enacted to combat violence against women, but, still too often, they are not enforced and policies are not implemented. Women are also frequently shut out of political leadership. Despite the undeniable progress, much remains to be achieved for women and girls to enjoy full equality—not just on paper, but in reality. This discrepancy that divides rhetoric from reality is not just a women’s issue. Research and experiences show that when women and girls progress, all of society progresses.

Our world is plagued by dozens of armed conflicts that threaten the safety and security of millions of men, women, and children on a daily basis. Women and girls bear a disproportionate toll. Rape is a strategic tool of war, and women are sidelined in the processes where decisions are being made about them and their families. It is essential that women have a place at the table in peacemaking and that they actively participate in peacebuilding.

We also know that economic prosperity is critical to peace and security. Women represent 80 percent of the global purchasing power, and investing in women helps to grow economies and stabilize communities. Our economic progress as a global community will stagnate if women remain disempowered, disenfranchised, and excluded from decision making positions in governance and the economy.

Including women’s voices and perspectives in peacemaking ultimately helps entire societies reconcile, rebuild, and achieve a just and lasting peace. Yet, women are consistently underrepresented in peace processes. Of some 39 active conflicts over the past 10 years, women have made up only 4 percent of peace negotiation teams. Moreover, only 16 percent of some 585 peace treaties drafted in the past 20 years contain  references to the critical role of women. This exclusion is not only shortchanging women, but also undermining peace and security.

As we mark the 20th anniversary of the Platform for Action adopted at Beijing in 1995, and the 15th anniversaries of the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the establishment of the Millennium Development Goals, let us renew the commitment to women’s progress and a better world that these pronouncements represent. We have yet to fully realize their objectives and so we must seize the moment to do more.

Growing women’s political decision-making capacities and opportunities, especially in conflict-affected and post-conflict settings, remains the great unfinished business of the Beijing Platform for Action. This will require innovation, collaboration, and determination, but I believe that by working together—in government, civil society, and the private sector – we can create progress and level the playing field. It is our collective responsibility to fulfill the promise we made 20 years ago, that women’s rights are human rights, once and for all. We cannot settle for anything less.

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Ambassador Verveer is the Executive Director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. She served as the first Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues with the U.S. Department of State.

Japan Reaffirms Its Commitment to Women’s Participation in Peacebuilding

In partnership with the Institute for Inclusive Security, Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security co-hosted the inaugural National Action Plan Academy December 3-5 at Georgetown University to share best practices on developing, implementing and reviewing National Action Plans.

A National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace and Security represents a country’s express commitment to realizing UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000), which seeks to increase women’s participation in peacebuilding and protect women from sexual violence. While the UN Security Council called upon member states to create NAPs in a 2004 presidential statement, only 48 Countries currently have NAPs, with Afghanistan being the most recent. There is still a long way to go—this number represents less than 25 percent of all UN member states, and the existence of a plan does not guarantee its implementation.

During the Academy, we had the privilege of speaking with Rui Matsukawa, Director of the Gender Mainstreaming Division in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to learn more about Japan’s forthcoming NAP.

Japan began developing its NAP in September 2013, and is hoping to publish the plan in early 2015. When asked about the inspiration for embarking on this journey, Ms. Matsukawa said it was greatly facilitated by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s enthusiasm: “Prime Minister Abe’s government is really interested in women’s empowerment and gender equality—domestically and internationally. The Prime Minister’s leadership is the ‘why now’ piece.” She also noted the Prime Minister’s work on increasing women’s participation in the Japanese business world through womenomics, as well as Japan’s recent $3 billion contribution in Official Development Assistance for women’s empowerment initiatives.

In its NAP, Japan has focused on five themes contained within UN Security Council Resolution 1325: participation, protection, prevention, relief and recovery, and monitoring and evaluation. In summarizing the NAP’s focus, Ms. Matsukawa stated, “First, it’s about gender mainstreaming in peace and security; second, its about promotion of women’s rights issues more broadly.” The NAP’s provisions encompass prevention of and training on sexual and gender-based violence, assistance after natural disasters, peace education, victim assistance, participation of women in the community both politically and economically, and assistance to internally displaced persons and refugees, and more. Furthermore, the action items in the NAP apply not only to improving women’s status internationally, but within Japan’s own population as well. “If we promote externally, we promote internally,” Ms. Matsukawa affirmed.

The effort to develop Japan’s NAP has been a truly collaborative affair. Several government agencies and civil society organizations have come together to create a holistic, multi-layered approach. The government departments involved include the Ministry of Foreign affairs, Ministry of Defense, National Police Department, Ministry of Justice, Department of the Interior’s Peace Keeping Operations Secretariat, and Natural Disaster Department, among others. Each ministry has a representative in the office that coordinates internally within their department, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs serves as the coordinator.

“Our NAP is very specific and special in terms of its process,” Ms. Matsukawa shared, “It is not only about working on these issues, but how we work on them. We are working with civil society, and creating accountability towards civil society, which is very important.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs held ten consultations within the central government, and five regional consultations with more than 30 civil society organizations (CSOs) in various regions of the country. The CSOs first met together to form a consensus, and then negotiated with the government agencies to shape the NAP’s focus and the indicators against which progress would be measured. Ms. Matsukawa noted that the interaction between CSOs and the government will extend beyond the NAP’s publication: “We will face difficulties with the CSOs, together—we will review our NAP over time, and may change focus or indicators to respond to feedback—but in that phase too there [will be] partnership between civil societies and [government] agencies.”

The NAP Academy has helped Japan assess potential areas for improvement before it renders the final version of its NAP. One Japanese CSO representative shared her concern that Japanese Parliament has not yet been involved in the NAP process, which might mean lessened political will for the implementation of the plan. Another uncovered issue concerned the number of proposed indicators in Japan’s NAP. Maki Mitsuoka of Japan’s Gender Mainstreaming Division reflected on what she had heard from peer country delegations who already had NAPs in place: “We have too many indicators…we will have too much data to collect.” Ms. Matsukawa also expressed her concern, noting, “We want improvement, and we want to be practical. Time and resources spent on information gathering can take away from implementation efforts.” The Japanese delegation indicated that it planned to bring this newly gained knowledge back home and reassess.

Implementation is crucial—without tangible actions, a NAP is a collection of words on paper. “We want to make sure it’s not just a [NAP] launch, but an implementation,” said Jacqueline O’Neill of the Institute for Inclusive Security as she addressed the NAP Academy delegates. The same idea holds true for the overarching implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325—without countries identifying and executing clear action plans, the resolution will have nominal impact. When asked how to best support other countries in joining in this process, Ms. Matsukawa stated,

“The reason why womenomics is taken seriously in Japan is that it makes sense—it increases GDP. Similarly, including women in security efforts makes sense. If countries are educated on the benefits of adopting a NAP and inclusion of women in decision-making and peace and disaster management—that’s the motivation that will encourage them to act.”

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Special thank you to Rui Matsukawa, Maki Mitsuoka, and Junichi Sumi for making this interview possible.

Ashley Binetti is the 2014-2015 Hillary Rodham Clinton Law Fellow at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. She received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 2014, specializing in human rights and transnational law.

An Interview with May Sabe Phyu, Women’s Activist in Myanmar

May Sabe Phyu, or Phyu Phyu as she is affectionately known, is a devoted advocate for women’s empowerment and peacebuilding in Myanmar.

She is a Director for the Gender Equality Network in Myanmar. In this role, Phyu Phyu facilitates dialogue between civil society, government stakeholders and parliamentarians through meetings and workshops on gender equality as a means of shifting policy.

When asked how she became an activist, Phyu Phyu said, “It’s a good question! I started my career as a humanitarian worker, a social worker.” She worked to provide care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS for more than 10 years. She states that before she considered herself an activist, she was “just an ordinary mother and housewife doing social work serving [her] own community.”

She cites watching the documentary film “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” as being a transformational experience. “This really made me change – it made me think and reflect on our situation for women [in Myanmar]. It made me want to work on women, peace and security issues.”

Phyu Phyu co-founded the Kachin Peace Network and the Kachin Women Peace Network to work toward inter-ethnic cooperation. She has worked to prioritize the needs of women through these networks, specifically focusing on security and protection issues, while advocating for greater inclusion of women in peace processes in Myanmar.

She states “the topic of gender was very sensitive in our country before.” But due to the progress made in the country and the efforts of the Gender Equality Network and others, groups working on issues related to gender are able to do so with less stigma. This allows the Network to advocate for policies in support of women’s rights.

For Phyu Phyu, making a difference in her own community was a key motivation for becoming an activist. “What made me become an activist was [wanting to] reduce conflict in Kachin State.” She notes that before she got involved, she thought of politics as dirty. “Politics seemed like a man’s game – like it has nothing to do with us women. But politics itself is not dirty at all. It is because of the people who are involved in the politics – they make politics seem dirty.”

As she got more involved, she realized that “outside of Yangon, they don’t have any idea what’s really happening in Kachin state.” She wanted to play a role in working to raise awareness about the needs of women and girls and the people of Kachin state, “otherwise our people will suffer violently.”

Phyu Phyu played an essential role in developing the country’s National Strategic Plan for the Advancement of Women. She says that prior to working on the Strategic Plan, there was no trust built between the civil society groups and the government. “Developing the National Strategic Plan was a starting point for seeing how we can work together.” They are now working to draft Myanmar’s first law on violence against women. “It will be the first law protecting women from different kinds of violence in our country. It will be a kind of model process for how government can involve civil society.”

Phyu Phyu shares that the process has not been quite so seamless for the Kachin Peace Network. “Because of the long conflict in Kachin State and the long suffering of the Kachin people, trust has been broken. There’s a lot of inter-ethnic tension for the Burmese people.”

An important piece of this work to build trust has been documenting the advocacy that is taking place. “We brought a lot of media with us for this peace advocacy trips so that the media can record and document the real situation on the ground.”

Phyu Phyu has also been working to advocate for the rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Myanmar. She says, “nearly half of the IDPs are in government-controlled areas and 50 percent are living under Kachin ethnic arms groups controlled areas. The difficulties and living conditions of those two areas are quite different.” She also noted the challenges for IDPs along the China border. She states, “the camps along the China border are not government-controlled, and there’s very little humanitarian assistance from the international community…they are running with very limited resources.”

The Kachin Women Peace Network worked with the Gender Equality Network to conduct an assessment of 17 camps and the specific needs of women living in those camps. “There are a lot of issues that are not addressed and are not getting any attention from humanitarian actors. Women have to live in tents with no privacy. Violence happens in the camps with no reporting mechanism. And there is no separated latrine or water source. There are a lot of women-specific issues there.”

Phyu Phyu has also been an advocate against the Interfaith Marriage Bill in Myanmar, which would impose restrictions on inter-faith marriages. If passed, the bill would require Buddhist women to seek permission from authorities before marrying outside their faith. “A few women leaders released the very first statement against the Interfaith Marriage Bill. We gather frequently and discuss how to address it before we submit it to the parliament.” She and other women’s rights activists have been vocal in their opposition of the bill because it limits women’s rights to make decisions.

The leaders of the 97 women’s and civil society groups who released a statement opposing this bill started receiving death threats and sexual harassment threats as a result of their advocacy. Despite these threats, 166 civil society groups have joined the coalition. Phyu Phyu also helped to organize a variety of workshops outlining reasons for opposing the Interfaith Marriage Bill, and these workshops included groups like the UN and international nongovernmental organizations.

She stresses the importance of including these groups, noting, “Without the international community’s support, we are under threat…we do not have any protection.” She also acknowledges the need to include the media in these workshops and in the movement. She credits the movement with positive outcomes for this Bill. “We strongly believe that, because of our movement and our mobilization…we may delay the process of the Interfaith Marriage Bill.”

In September 2012, Phyu Phyu was charged during a peaceful demonstration calling for an end to civil war in Myanmar. Over the 14 months that followed those charges, she and her fellow co-organizer made 124 appearances in six courts before their charges were dismissed under presidential amnesty. She says, “being charged in six different courts for peaceful demonstration has made us real activists.”

For Phyu Phyu, women’s rights and peace in Myanmar are intertwined. When asked how she defines peace and security, Phyu Phyu says, “To me, peace is equality and justice. If there is no equality and justice, there will not be peace. When I say equality, it’s across everything – it’s across women and men, it’s ethnic and religious differences, it’s across nationality – if we are able to live equally in our society with fairness and justice, this is what we call a peaceful society.”

Women and the Growth of Peace Through Health

Women’s leadership in the development and implementation of innovative approaches to building peace is integral to engaging with the greater field of peace and security. Just as peace processes benefit from women delegates – and transitional justice from women judges and advocates – so too does the creative development of new fields benefit from women theoreticians and practitioners. Nowhere is this more evident than in the small, but promising field of Peace through Health. As the field has grown, two women have figured prominently in articulating the theoretical development of the field and demonstrating examples of its effective implementation. Looking to the work of Dr. Joanna Santa Barbara and Dr. Paula Gutlove, it is evident that their leading roles have been an invaluable contribution to the development of a new and innovative approach to building peace.

What is Peace through Health?

Peace through Health is an approach to peacebuilding that utilizes the unique access and position of health care professionals to positively impact conflict. It is based on the recognition that health and conflict are intimately related, and that health care professionals are often accorded access to denied areas/populations, held in high social esteem, and practice a profession defined – at least in part – by altruistic principals. Peace through Health seeks to take advantage of these characteristics through using health programming and professionals to promote opportunities for dialogue, address issues of structural conflict, and facilitate personal and communal healing in post-conflict settings.

The first examples of Peace through Health efforts were undertaken by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in the early 1980’s to address conflict between guerilla groups and the government in El Salvador and Peru. Using mutual concern over children’s health, PAHO implemented a campaign of  “days of tranquility” or temporary cease-fires in order to immunize children from both groups against preventable disease. Through temporary ceasefires that continually grew in length, space and time were created to bring opposing groups to the table, eventually leading to a political resolution of the armed conflict. The idea of using immunization campaigns as a way to temporarily halt hostilities, while at the same time providing for the basic health needs of their respective populations, soon took hold. Primarily through the work of the WHO, similar campaigns were introduced throughout the late 1980’s and 1990’s in countries such as Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, and Sri Lanka among others. As these efforts grew, so too did similar programming using trauma recovery and psychosocial interventions as a means to heal from conflict and prevent its resumption.

Influential Women Leaders

Though work had begun to be done pairing health and conflict programming, there was little theoretical or academic support for such efforts until the late 1990’s. When individuals in the academic community finally began discussing these joint efforts, the voice of Dr. Joanna Santa Barbara was consistently at the front of the field. Through her association with the Center for Peace Studies at McMaster University, as well as her many publications, she advocated for the growth of Peace through Health as a field. During her time at McMaster, the university established the Peace through Health Initiative and led the academic world in the development of Peace through Health. The university convened the first academic conference related to the field in 2001, soon followed by a second in 2005. Throughout this entire process, Dr. Santa Barbara, in partnership with Dr. Graeme MacQueen, also established the first university course in Peace through Health. And in 2008, she co-edited the first comprehensive book on the field, Peace through Health: How Health Professionals Can Work for a Less Violent World, in collaboration with Dr. Akshaya Neil Arya.

In addition to leading the academic development of the field, she was influential in articulating the principals upon which a solid theory defining the new field could grow. Through her articles co-authored with Dr. MacQueen, she articulated ten guiding mechanisms that continue to underlie the theoretical explanations of why Peace through Health can be an effective way of promoting peace. Additionally, she helped formulate the theoretical stages of involvement of health care professionals with conflict in a manner consistent with traditional conflict resolution theory.

At the same time that Dr. Santa Barbara was playing an influential role in the academic and theoretical development of Peace through Health, Dr. Paula Gutlove was at the forefront of implementing Peace through Health programming. A dentist by training, Dr. Gutlove founded the Health Bridges for Peace project at the Institute for Resource and Security Studies (IRSS) in 1996. As the project director Dr. Gutlove utilized her training in negotiation, facilitation, and conflict resolution to implement programming that integrated the delivery of health care with conflict management and sustainable community reconciliation.

Throughout the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, Dr. Gutlove facilitated the development of medical networks in the former Yugoslavia and North Caucasus.  These medical networks used the shared concern for public health as a way to bring health care professionals from conflicting ethnic and religious groups together. Once convened, the meetings were designed to provide training in negotiation and conflict resolution skills, brainstorm the development on locally implementable psychosocial healing programs, and provide a safe space in which individuals from different groups could interact and share information. In addition to her work in developing medical networks, Dr. Gutlove has also been consistently involved in the U.S.-Muslim Engagement Initiative, again using a shared interest in public health as a way to promote dialogue and negotiation. With her efforts over the last decade and a half, Dr. Gutlove has been a consistent and tireless practitioner using health as a vehicle for peace. Her work has done much to promote peace, and demonstrate the practical applicability of the theory Dr. Santa Barbara helped articulate.

Conclusion

The theoretical development of new and innovative ways to build peace plays an integral role in the growth of the field of peace and security. Without envisioning new paths to address issues of conflict and security, or the creative combination of existing efforts, potential gains are lost. The pioneering work of Dr. Santa Barbara and Dr. Gutlove provides a tangible demonstration of the valuable role women can and should play in this creative work. While the field of Peace through Health still has a long way to mature – and women will most certainly continue to play a leading role in its development – it’s growth to date constitutes a strong example of the way in which peace, conflict, and security has benefited from women’s leadership.

By Ryan Nichols, September 2012