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Forum:
General Assembly 2 (Economic and Financial)
Issue:
Role of women’s participation in peacebuilding
Student Officer: Tartelle Al Tigani
Position:
Deputy Chair of General Assembly 2
Introduction
The idea of "peacebuilding" began in the 1970's when Johan Galtung, a Norwegian
mathematician and socialist who founded the disciple of peace and conflict studies, pointed out
the fact that it would help exterminate the main causes of violent conflict. From that day on,
Peacebuilding now became significant in political, judicial, economic, and civil society
institutions.
The United Nations Secretary-General's Policy Committee agreed on the following:
"Peacebuilding involves a range of measures targeted to reduce the risk of lapsing or relapsing
into conflict by strengthening national capacities at all levels for conflict management, and to lay
the foundations for sustainable peace and development. Peacebuilding strategies must be
coherent and tailored to specific needs of the country concerned, based on national ownership,
and should comprise a carefully prioritized, sequenced, and therefore relatively narrow set of
activities aimed at achieving the above objectives."
It is argued that peace is only achievable once it is inclusive to all of society. This means
that only when males and females work alongside each other, will it be possible. For many
years, women have been excluded and discouraged from being a part of things such as voting.
According to a recent UN study, only around 3% of the signatories of peace agreements were
women and less than 1/5 made any reference to gender issues. For this reason, women have
been constantly fighting for their rights for many years, especially when it comes to issues such
as peacebuilding. It is very important to consider women’s roles in peace negotiations since
they have different experiences of violent conflicts and different needs that need to be brought
forward and addressed.
The involvement of women in peace negotiations is not only an issue for women, but
also for men since the main point is to improve life for all people. For this reason, men must
realize the benefit of engaging women in these peace talks and negotiations.
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Definition of Key Term(s)
Peacebuilding
Peacebuilding is defined as an intervention that is designed to prevent the start or
recurrence of violent conflict by creating peace.
Background Information
In July 2010, the UN created a three different entities that focus on the empowerment of
women; the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for
Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. This was a major step towards gender
equality, as one of the main visions is the “achievement of equality between women and men as
partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and
security”.
Recovery and peacebuilding is a whole sub-section in this entity. This included a 7-Point
Action Plan that is there to ensure women's full engagement, and commitment to the UN to
allocating 15% of post-conflict funds to different projects that aim to address women's needs,
advancing gender equality and at the same time empowering women.
Some of the changes that were made include the recovery of the 2010 earthquake in
Haiti, where there was a collaboration between NGO partners and the UN in order to ensure
that women had a 40% share of the temporary employment days that were offered. Another
example is after the Rwandan genocide in 1994, where UNW (United Nations Women) helped
repair agricultural services that were available for women, where they were given loans and
fertilizers to help boost their productivity. This caused a triple in yields on some small farms and
lead to involvement of more women in the creating of agricultural services and measures for
greater gender balance.
Today, women are fighting for their voices to be heard. This lead to many feminist
movements, which started in the early 1840’s. Between 1848 and 1920, the women’s rights
conventions were being held in Seneca Falls, New York, the National American Woman
Suffrage Association was formed, and the 19th amendment was passed which gave women the
right to vote.
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Major Countries and Organizations Involved
UN Women
Some of the main roles of UN women include supporting inter-governmental bodies,
such as the Commission on the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, global
standards and norms, helping Member States implement these standards, standing ready to
provide suitable technical and financial support to those countries that request it, and to forge
effective partnerships with civil society, leading and coordinating the UN system’s work on
gender equality as well as promoting accountability, including through regular monitoring of
system-wide progress.
Somalia
During the Somali civil war, many women were at the center of many conflicts within
their male families, which lead them to become quite active in peacemaking and peacebuilding.
Generally the Somali society relies on males to create peace. This lead Somali women to take
control of many mobilizing civil society engagements in peace work, despite the fact that they
are ever so rarely noticed. Female activists have struggled to achieve peace as much as they
did their rights.
This lead the women to take action in fighting for their rights. One of the first examples of
this was after their involvement in the Beijing Conference on Women in 1995, where women
built on their growing experience in fighting for peace, which soon started the Coalition for
Grassroots Women Organizations (COGWO) which was a major stepping stone. COGWO
aimed to promote women’s rights and support victims of violence. Additionally, its heavy
involvement with peacebuilding in the area helped establish and recruit civil society
organizations (CSOs). Following this, many different causes and organizations were established
worldwide in regards to the issue.
The Peacebuilding Commission (PBC)
The Peacebuilding Commission was established in 2005, mainly to integrate strategies
for recovering after a conflict. Its fund, which was established one year later, was allocated $27
million to mainstream gender in peacebuilding. The commission plans to donate more of this
money to empower women in peacebuilding.
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United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office (UNPSO)
The UNPSO was established alongside the PBC in order to support the growth in UN
peacebuilding efforts. In resolutions A/RES/60/180 and S/RES/1645(2005), the UN General
Assembly and Security Council agreed upon the “establishment within the Secretariat, from
within existing resources, a small peacebuilding support office staffed by qualified experts to
assist and support the Commission”
Relevant UN Treaties and Events
●
The Role of Women in Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding
http://www.gsdrc.org/document-library/the-role-of-women-in-conflict-resolution-andpeacebuilding/
●
Women’s Participation in Peace Negotiations: Connections between Presence and
Influence http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/03AWomenPeaceNeg.pdf
●
Resolution 1325
●
Resolution 1889
●
Resolution 1820
Previous Attempts to solve the Issue
There have been a number of debates and discussions that have been going back and
forth in the UN about women’s crucial role in peacebuilding. All these different organizations,
including UNW, took a step closer to solving the issue. This is because it raised a lot of
awareness, and started that spark enthusiasm about the legitimateness and importance of this
issue. Everyday this issue gets more awareness and light, since it is one that indeed needs to
be addressed.
For this reason, many countries implemented their own laws and strategies to help
slowly balance the role of both genders when it comes to peace negotiations and agreements.
An example is UNSC resolution 1325, which was adopted on the 31st of October 2000. This
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resolution focused on the issue of gender inequality and the fact that women and girls need to
be considered and their needs should be catered during conflict, repatriation and resettlement,
rehabilitation, reintegration and post-conflict reconstruction. Another example is that of the
Rwandan genocide, where the UNW women helped repair agricultural services that were
available for them through loans and different fertilizers.
In 2009, the UN’s resolution 1889 requested that the Secretary General submit a report
on women’s participation in peacebuilding within 12 months. The report includes a detailed
account of the needs of women and girls in post-conflict situations, and shows that women’s
their participation helps prevent many conflicts from emerging, along with recovery for the
existing ones. Additionally, it analyses different national and international measures that will
help ensure that women’s needs are met and that their right to complete participation is
addressed, along with the fact that “all public actions are consistent with States’ international
human rights obligations”.
A report by the Security Council in 2010 states that: “The foundation was laid in
resolution 1325 (2000), which calls for equal participation by women in the maintenance and
promotion of peace and security, and for the mainstreaming of gender perspectives into conflict
prevention, peace negotiations, peacekeeping operations, humanitarian assistance and postconflict reconstruction. Resolutions 1820 (2008) and 1888 (2009) focus on preventing and
responding to conflict-related sexual violence. In its resolution 1889 (2009), the Council called
for, inter alia, the development of global indicators to track the implementation of resolution
1325 (2000) and greater attention to the gender dimensions of post-conflict planning and
financing. The need for a more robust implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) has been a
recurring motif in Security Council decisions over the past decade. Noting the slow pace of
progress, the Council, in its resolution 1820 (2008), urged that enhanced efforts be made to
facilitate the equal and full participation of women at decision-making levels. In its resolution
1889 (2009), the Council expressed deep concern at the persistent obstacles to women’s full
involvement in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and participation in post-conflict public
life. In its presidential statements, the Council has drawn attention to the constant
underrepresentation of women in formal peace processes (see S/PRST/2005/52) and noted
with concern the very low numbers of women in formal roles in mediation processes (see
S/PRST/2009/8). “
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Possible Solutions
Raising awareness
As cliché as it sounds, as mentioned before, this is an issue that requires a lot of
attention and knowledge, therefore the more awareness that is being raised about the injustice
and situation of many females all around the world would be a good way to start to get rid of the
issue. This could be done through news articles, podcasts, etc. by encouraging member states
to increase the representation of women in their peace agreements and negotiations. This also
requires raising awareness of the different situations and conflicts that women constantly face,
which by doing so would help take a step towards combatting the main issue.
Training
Another way to help combat this issue is to create training for different member states
that would help increase their knowledge in the material of the protection, rights and particular
needs of women and the importance of involving them with these issues. If and when
implemented, this training and education will also help decrease crimes against women,
Commitment
First and foremost, there have already been a large number of resolutions and
organizations that have been established in regards to this issue; simply adding to them will not
lead to any progress. One thing that could be done would be to tighten the already-existing
terms and commitments that each member states should follow, such as those mentioned in
resolutions 1325, resolution 1888, 1820 and 1889. A report by the Secretary General in 2010
covers a similar belief: “Efforts by national and international actors to engage women and
address gender issues in the context of peace processes must be accelerated and
commitments made more concrete… First, the Secretary-General will continue his policy of
appointing more women to senior positions by ensuring that women are appointed as chief
mediators in United Nations-led peace processes. Secondly, in accordance with the 2009 report
of the Secretary-General on enhancing mediation and its support activities (S/2009/189), the
United Nations will include gender expertise, at senior levels, in mediation support activities.
Negotiating parties will be briefed regularly on gender issues relevant to peace-agreement
provisions on, inter alia, humanitarian access, justice, security, wealth-sharing and
implementation mechanisms. Thirdly, while the international community cannot dictate the
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composition of negotiating parties, we can invest in strategies for the inclusion of more
women...” (View A/65/354–S/2010/466 for more details)
Bibliography
General, Secretary. "United Nations Official Document." UN News Center. UN, 7 Sept. 2010.
Web. 31 Oct. 2015.
Tuul, Suvi. "WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN PEACEBUILDING MUST BE ENSURED." CMI.
Tuija Talvitie, Web. 31 Oct. 2015.
Lan, Commitment, and Meas. Report of the Secretary-General on Women’s Participation in
Peacebuilding (A/65/354–S/2010/466): n. pag. UN. UN. Web. 31 Oct. 2015.
Agbajobi, Damilola. "The Role of Women in Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding - GSDRC."
GSDRC. DFID, 2010. Web. 31 Oct. 2015.
Park, Wilton. "Advancing Women's Participation in Peacebuilding: What Are the next Steps in
Implementation?" Wilton Park. Crown Copyright, 27 May 2013. Web. 31 Oct. 2015.
"United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office." UN News Center. UN, Web. 31 Oct. 2015.
Ngcuka, Phumzile Mlambo-. "Women's Participation in Peacebuilding: Report of the SecretaryGeneral (A/65/354–S/2010/466)." HeadQuarters. UNWOMEN, 2010. Web. 31 Oct. 2015.
U., and What Do We Want To Achiev. Enhancing Women’s Participation in Peace Building and
Post-Conflict Planning UNDP Component within Joint Project UNDP-UN Women and EU: n.
pag. UNDP. Kosovo. Web. 31 Oct. 2015.
Kuehnast, Kathleen. "Gender and Peacebuilding." Gender and Peacebuilding. United States
Institute of Peace,Web. 31 Oct. 2015.
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AppendicesAppendix 1
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