Gender & Arms, Sexual Violence Debate & latest resources- PeaceWomen Enews April 2013 -

This month has been another busy one with the adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and the Open Security Council Debate on conflict-related Sexual Violence. We also saw the G-8 countries endorse a declaration on preventing sexual violence.

On April 2nd, States (by majority, not consensus) adopted the first ever Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). It includes a legally binding criterion on preventing gender-based violence (GBV) which makes it part of the mandatory export assessment process. As part of the risk assessment process, States will be required to take into account the risk of the weapons, ammunition, parts, or components being used to commit or facilitate serious acts of gender-based violence or violence against women and children. This creates a platform for prohibiting the transfer of arms, if there is a risk they will be used to facilitate GBV.

From PeaceWomen's perspective, the GBV provision is not perfect, but it is certainly much stronger than the extremely weak language in previous drafts. We, as civil society, can and will move forward with implementation. (See our summary of ATT and Gender here>>) I have hailed the inclusion of this GBV provision as historic. I also know without the enormous amount of work by key colleagues and bridge builders within WILPF and our partner organizations that we would not have this provision to work with going forward. I recall sitting in a café close to the UN with Ray (Director of WILPF disarmament work) and Rebecca (then of IANSA-Women Network) plotting our earlier engagement in the ATT process from a gender perspective. Right then, I committed PeaceWomen to work on this (without any funding) because I believed it was critical to link preventing armed violations against women (VAW) and implementing a women, peace and security agenda.

One step led to the next: a joint policy paper; a side event with the CEDAW Committee; one article to another; a State champion in Iceland. The small meetings and the mountain of emails continued, our campaign “Make it Binding” grew, the advocacy strategy evolved, the politics changed, and at some points we achieved great strides towards our end goal. At others, we hit dead-ends but that did not slow down our momentum, as we journeyed from the prep conferences to the first negotiation conference in July 2012 through the final negotiations last month. Together all these approaches and efforts (as well as other ones I am not aware of) resulted in the final Treaty Text including an important provision on GBV and VAW. I believe that without WILPF's advocacy and work at the international and national level, the Treaty would have been gender-blind or worse, it would have undermined existing international law.

102 States supported our position to strengthen the GBV provision during the March negotiations. Before I walked over to the Group of Friends on Women, Peace and Security meeting last week at the Canadian Mission to the UN, I took out the list of WPS Friends (43 member states) and the list of 102 states who supported strengthening GBV in the ATT. Do you think all, or at least most, of the “friends” would have supported the ATT GBV provision? I had thought the numbers would be close. But in fact, only 70% matched up. This provides a challenge and an opportunity for WILPF to close this gap. Who are those so-called friends of 1325 who didn't provide support? Bangladesh, Chile, Colombia, Japan, Jordan, Rep of Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Tanzania, USA, and Zambia. This requires some further analysis and is an issue PeaceWomen will take up in the upcoming weeks.

This week, on Wednesday 17th, the Security Council met to discuss sexual violence in conflict. The Special Representative on Sexual Violence, Zainab Bangura, briefed the Council on the latest Report and discussed key country situations of concerns including DRC Congo, Central African Republic and Somalia. We, as members of the NGOWG, made a statement delivered by a women's rights leader from Mali, Saran Keita Diakite, calling on States to address root causes, women's participation and equality; prevention; response; accountability; and resourcing. Overall, this debate was less politically contentious than the previous debate on Sexual Violence (Feb 2012) and there were very limited new aspects to the statements delivered. New references included support for the GBV provision in the ATT and reference to the recent G-8 declaration on sexual violence. It seems that the Security Council will now work on a possible resolution on sexual violence to be adopted later this year, perhaps under the UK Presidency in June (details and content still emerging). For PeaceWomen full analysis of the Debate, see our Security Council Monitor page.

The world's eight wealthiest countries (G-8: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US, Russia and Canada) have also taken up a focus on rape during times of war and recently adopted a declaration. The UK initiative led by UK Foreign Minister, William Hague, has several aspects: a team of experts who can be deployed to conflict-affected countries to support national investigations; an international protocol to provide clear guidance on gathering and documenting evidence; and the declaration of rape and serious sexual violence's "grave breach” of the Geneva convention. Practical and political commitment to fighting sexual violence and to promoting women's rights must be welcomed. But is the G-8 the proper and most effective forum to address gender justice and equality? Is this transforming accountability for violence against women or about politics? Many of these questions remain open and will continue to be discussed as the UK pushes forward with their initiative and a possible resolution on Sexual Violence in the Security Council later this year.

In this edition of Enews, we feature a recent news article on the historic passage of the Arms Trade Treaty and on the G-8 reaching an agreement to end rape as a weapon of war. Under initiatives, we feature WILPF's Press Release on the ATT and a blog on violence against indigenous women. Additionally, we include a resource on the Monthly Action Points on Women, Peace and Security and another resource on PeaceWomen Final Report and Summary of Events from CSW 57.

Finally, on behalf of PeaceWomen, we extend our thoughts and solidarity to all who have been affected by senseless violence in recent weeks and hope that our collective spirit and work for peace will prevail.

This will be my last editorial for a few months, as I will be on maternity leave to welcome a new human into the world. Abigail Ruane will be assisting PeaceWomen in my absence and we welcome her to the team. (Contact: abigail@peacewomen.org).