The 2005 World Summit: What's at Stake for Women

1. WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY NEWS

SUDAN: MORE WOMEN NEEDED AT PEACE TALKS AND IN GOVERNMENT
September 10, 2005- (IPS) A meeting in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi has highlighted the importance of giving Sudanese women a greater voice in their country's political affairs, if Sudan is to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

WOMEN REPRESENTATIVES ADOPT BEIJING + 10 DECLARATION
August 31, 2005 - (Xinhuanet) The closing of the four-day conference to commemorate the Tenth Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW) Wednesday afternoon was marked by the adoption of the Beijing + 10 Declaration. The document confirms the significance of holding this commemoration, saying that it laid a milestone in global women's movement, and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action which were adopted on 1995's FWCW. It vows to intensify efforts on poverty eradication and halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of the world's people in hunger and extreme poverty, and to strive to free all women and men from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty and free the entire human race from want.
"Implement gender-mainstreaming strategies and provide adequate resources and strong political support to national machineries for gender equality; but ensure that such strategies and machineries do not replace specific actions and programs targeting women," the declaration says.

INDIA: WOMEN & GRASSROOTS GOVERNANCE
September 10, 2005 - (IPS) - The picturesque Himalayan state of Uttaranchal is leading the rest of the country in taking advantage of legislation that reserves a third of all elected seats in local bodies for women. No longer satisfied with playing second fiddle in local leadership, women in this state now occupy a full 45 percent of seats in its panchayats (rural local bodies).

UNIP TARGETS 50 PER CENT WOMEN REPRESENTATION
September 6, 2005 – (The Times of Zambia) UNIP (United National Independence Party) has said it is targeting a 50 per cent women representation at all leadership levels of the party in a bid to help reduce the gender imbalance in the country.

UGANDA: UNEVEN PROGRESS ON GENDER EQUALITY
September 3, 2005 - (IPS) Uganda has been widely praised for having a constitution that reflects gender concerns. The 10-year-old document commits the country to affirmative action in the workplace, freedom from sexual discrimination and economic rights for women

IRAQ: WHY WOMEN MATTER
August 31, 2005 – (Salon.com) Some Iraq warriors insist women's rights can wait until later, but democracy and development flourish when women are treated as equals. Commenting last week on Iraq's drafting of its constitution, President Bush hailed it as "an amazing process" that "honor's women's rights, the rights of minorities." But whether Iraqi women will achieve full participation in Iraqi society in the ultimate version of their country's contentious draft constitution remains very much in question.

For more country-specific women, peace and security news, CLICK HERE

For more international women, peace and security news, CLICK HERE

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2. 1325 TRANSLATION UPDATE: Using 1325 in translation

As part of our 1325 Translation Initiative, PeaceWomen have started collecting information on how translations are being used and the impact that having translations of the resolution available has had on the work of advocates of Resolution 1325. For many, the translation process itself has served as a mobilizing tool and organizational efforts have enabled more women to become familiar with Resolution 1325 and its relevance to them. We hope to feature experiences of advocates in future editions of the newsletter and on our website.

WIPNET USES 1325 IN TRANSLATION
An interview with Ecoma Alaga of the West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET). As with many other advocates of Resolution 1325, WANEP/WIPNET have prioritized its translation as part of their own programs and initiatives related to Resolution 1325.

PW: Have you (or your organization) been involved in any efforts to translate Resolution 1325 into local languages? If so, which ones?

EA: WIPNET has translated the resolution into 4 West African languages, Diola (Senegal), Fongbe (Benin) & Fongbe (Burkino Faso) and Hausa (Nigeria).

PW: What were your experiences in this process?

EA: In November 2004, WIPNET launched the initiative we call “localizing UN SCR 1325.” Our aim is to translate the resolution into 20 languages by November 2006. There has been great enthusiasm for this initiative. Everywhere we talk about UN SCR 1325 and our localizing initiatives there are several requests to have the resolution translated into their local language. Surprisingly though, this initiative has revealed that a lot of West African languages are oral based. Many speak but can't write the local languages. In a few cases, the computers have not been friendly. Translated versions of the resolution can't be typed out because there are no appropriate keys.

PW: Did you rely on people in your network to carry out the translations or did you reach out to new contacts?

EA: We rely on our WIPNET (women peacebuilder) Teams. In this way the women become more and more familiar with the document prior to the actual translation being complete.

PW: What local versions of Resolution 1325 have you been using most actively in your advocacy work?

EA: So far the Diola and Fongbe translations are the most used. This is actually because these two have been typed out and are therefore accessible.

PW: In which types of activities or forums have you used local versions of Resolution 1325 as tools for education or advocacy?

EA: We have used the translated versions in our capacity building training workshop for rural women in conflict prevention and community peacebuilding on our rural women's peace initiative. It is used for our Voices of Women community radio program. It has been used in a consultation with Gender/Women's Ministries on mainstreaming gender into national policies on peace and security. It was also circulated by women during our peace check point activity on March 8 2005.

PW: From your experiences in women, peace and security work, why do you think translation Resolution 1325 into local languages is important for its implementation?

EA: Translating the resolution makes it end-user friendly, ensuring relevance, ownership and sustainability of initiatives to advance its implementation.

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For more information about WIPNET and to access the translations, visit:
http://www.wanep.org/programs/wipnet.htm

If you would like to contribute to the Using 1325 in Translation effort by providing answers to these questions or submitting other information, please contact milkah@peacewomen.org

To view the 70 Translations, including those completed by WIPNET, CLICK HERE.

For information about the translators of the available 70 translations, CLICK HERE.

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3. FEATURED INITIATIVES

Speak for Peace! Participate in the 2005 Peace Building Cyber-Dialogues during the Summit!
The 2005 Cyber-Dialogues are a series of interactive discussions using Internet voice chat and visual teleconferencing to connect women from Africa and Asia-Pacific who work for human rights and peace building issues with gender advocates and policy makers participating in September's Millennium +5 Summit and UN Security Council meeting in October, 2005.

To join the 2005 Peace Building Cyber-Dialogues or for more information contact:
Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, IWTC: mavic@iwtc.org or visit: http://www.iwtc.org/

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Invitation to NGOs: Input to Study of the UN Secretary General on Violence Against Women
The study of the Secretary-General, requested by resolution 58/185, will be submitted to the General Assembly in the fall of 2006. The United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs has responsibility for preparing the study, in close cooperation with relevant United Nations bodies, and by soliciting information from Member States and non-governmental organizations.

Many non-governmental organizations have immediate knowledge of the challenges of violence against women and the experiences of survivors. This knowledge is a critical factor in the successful preparation of the study and follow-up to its recommendations, once completed. NGOs thus have a key role in the preparatory process: they are invited to use the study as a vehicle to galvanize action for policy outcomes and work within their communities, and with Governments at national, regional and global level, towards a more determined, committed and effective effort to eliminate violence against women. After its completion, NGOs should continue to use the study as a tool for advocacy and monitoring implementation of its recommendations.

For guidelines for the preparation of NGO inputs and more on the study visit:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/

United Nations Division for the Advancement Of Women
Department Of Economic And Social Affairs
2 UN Plaza, DC-2-1228, New York, NY 10017 USA
Facsimile: +1 212 963 3463
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/

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Daily Media Scan: Monitoring the Recurrence of Conflict
A daily media scan is assisting UNIFEM in the Solomon Islands collate information on monitoring the recurrence of conflict. This is all part of a global series of pilot projects which are monitoring peace and conflict using Gendered Early Warning Indicators, as Dr Annalise Moser explained to femLINKPACIFIC:
“The media scan is conducted through a partnership with Vois Blong Mere Solomons. We look at the Solomon Star newspaper on a daily basis and look just at articles pertaining to peace or conflict issues, which are very broadly defined. What we do is analyse each of those articles, identifying what the particular topic of the article is, whether the subject of the article is women or men, and whether the subject of that article is portrayed in a positive, neutral or negative light.”

While Moser admits that this is not a very in-depth analysis, the media scan does enable the team to identify the types of issues which are being portrayed in the newspaper, and how they are portraying men and women as well.

Aside from the media scan, a wide range of data collection techniques are used to capture the different levels of information sources – from community-based information sources to formal documentation, such as through the newspaper: “We also do a community survey, using another set of indicators, we also conduct community focus groups with separate groups of women and men to gain a more in-depth understanding of how these issues are affecting communities,” says Moser

The UNIFEM Project in the Solomon Islands has trained 20 men and women in each of the communities that they work in to monitor their own communities using a number of indicators that they have learnt about. And Mosser has found that the response to informing and providing the community teams with a set of early warning indicators has been very positive. Not only are they more aware of how conflict can be prevented from within their community, but they have also endorsed that the issues that the indicators address, from governance, to economic issues, land issues, public security, all have a human security factor.

For more on this initiative visit:
http://www.peacewomen.org/campaigns/Fiji/mediascan.html

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4. FEATURE RESOURCE

Overview Document: The 2005 World Summit – What's at Stake for Women
The Gender Monitoring Group of the World Summit

The United Nations has been a galvanizing force for women in the past two decades, facilitating their efforts to define a comprehensive global agenda for peace and human rights, gender equality and women's empowerment, and poverty eradication and sustainable development. More than 190 governments have made commitments to this global agenda yet there continues to be a large gap between these promises and implementation at the international and national level.
From September 14th-16th, heads of governments from around the world —the overwhelming majority of whom are men - will meet at the United Nations headquarters in New York for the 2005 World Summit. They will be seeking consensus on a package of proposals linking peace and security, human rights and development with UN reform. Yet the United States threatens this process by seeking last minute, far-reaching amendments that would gut the proposals on sustainable development, debt relief and financial assistance to poor countries, and the environment, and weaken support for agreements on social and economic issues reached at past conferences.
Women have paid considerable attention to this process. What's at stake for women are the promises of equality, empowerment and women's human rights contained in the Women's Treaty (or CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women), in the Beijing Platform for Action, Cairo Programme of Action and other widely-endorsed government agreements of the 1990s. The following overview details the critical issues that will be on the table at the World Summit and their importance to women around the world.

For the full document visit: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/September_Summit/atstake.html

For more on this resource and other Summit materials visit:
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/September_Summit/SeptSummitInfo.html
and
http://www.beijingandbeyond.org

For NGO and civil society reports, papers and statements, UN and government reports, and books, journals and articles on women, peace and security issues, please visit: http://www.peacewomen.org/resources/resourcesindex.html

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5. UNIFEM UPDATE

Representatives of States, international organizations and civil society groups participated in “Men, Women and Gun Violence: Options for Action” on 14 July 2005 at the United Nations in New York. The event was convened as a side event at the UN Second Biennial Meeting of States to Consider the Implementation of the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects on small arms (11-15 July 2005). Unlike many previous events held on gender and disarmament issues, “Men, Women and Gun Violence” focused on analysing constructions of masculinity and femininity that contribute to or ameliorate the global gun violence epidemic.

Presentations were given under two thematic headings: ‘gender analysis as a tool for understanding impacts and solutions for gun violence' and ‘policy change for action'. Joanne Sandler, UNIFEM's Deputy Director for Programmes, chaired the meeting. Speakers included Ambassador Carmen Moreno, Director of UN-INSTRAW, Cate Buchanan of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, Michael Kimmel of the State University of New York, Jessica Galeria of Viva Rio Brazil, Vanessa Farr from the UN Institute for Disarmament Research and Rebecca Peters, Director of the International Action Network on Small Arms.

A full version of this groundbreaking report is available at: http://www.womenwarpeace.org/issues/smallarms/docs/bmspanelreport.pdf

Highlights include Ms. Galeria's discussion of the ways in which women in Brazilian favelas encourage their men to take up arms as a status symbol and Professor Kimmel's analysis of men's feelings of “entitlement thwarted,” which often drives them to use violence to re-balance their power when they perceive it to be threatened.

Professor Kimmel's full statement is available here: http://www.womenwarpeace.org/issues/smallarms/docs/kimmelspeech.pdf

The level of debate and engagement of Member States and UN agencies on gender, masculinity and women's issues and dramatically increased in 2005 as compared to 2003. This can be attributed in part to ongoing engagement and awareness-raising in the small arms and DDR arenas by gender advocates, including UNIFEM.

For more information on the gendered impacts of small arms and light weapons and UNIFEM's response, go to UNIFEM's Small Arms and Light Weapons Issue Brief at http://www.womenwarpeace.org/issues/smallarms/smallarms.htm

For UNIFEM's Web Portal on Women, Peace and Security: CLICK HERE

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6. WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY CALENDAR

High-level Plenary Meeting of the 60th session of the UN General Assembly on the Millennium Declaration and UN Reform
14–16 September 2005, UN Headquarters, New York

For information on the advocacy and monitoring campaign to ensure that the voices of women are heard at the summit visit http://www.beijingandbeyond.org

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“What's At Stake for Women at the Summit”: Panel and discussion
15 September 2005, UN Headquarters, New York
1-3pm at the UN Church Center (8th Floor), 777 UN Plaza (at 44th Street)

Sponsored by the Gender Monitoring Group of the World Summit (GMG) and the United Methodist Office for the UN.
Speakers will include US and international experts on the four issues of critical importance to the Summit, including development, human rights, peace and security, and UN reform. They will address how each of these areas impacts women around the world, and how women are contributing to shaping the dialogue for each issue.

The Gender Monitoring Group is:
Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL)
Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)
Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)

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Security on Whose Terms? If Men and Women were Equal...
20 October 2005, 9.00-17.00, Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden
What is the security concept prevailing today? Whose interests and needs does it protect? What would be the definition of security if women would be the ones to define it? Is there a gender perspective in the forthcoming Swedish security policy? In September 2004, the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation releases the report Security on whose terms? If men and women were equal. This report focuses on threats and obstacles to women's security in war and conflict affected areas. The report will be the base for this seminar. Themes in the report such as lack of information, limited freedom of movement and the need for women to have ownership of their own bodies, will be discussed. Together with experts from conflict affected areas we will explore what the international community can do and what responsibility international actors have to see, interact with and support women and women's activists. The aim is to inspire thoughts on how the security situation, and women's ability to participate in society and peace processes, can be improved. The seminar will contain both panel discussions and workshops. Speakers will include practitioners from the conflict affected areas and theoretic security experts.

Please RSVP to Agneta Jacobson agneta.jacobson@iktk.se at your earliest convenience, but no later than 15 September 2005.

For more information about The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation please visit: http://www.iktk.se

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International Day Of Peace
21 September, 2005
In 1981 the United Nations General Assembly passed resolution 36/67 declaring an International Day of Peace. In 2001, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a new resolution 55/282 declaring 21 September of each year as the International Day of Peace. The intention of the resolution is to have the entire world observe a day of peace and non-violence. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked all United Nations departments and agencies to expand their observance this year, extending a special invitation to civil society as well.

For more information on the International Day of Peace, please see: http://www.un.org/geninfo/faq/factsheets/FS13.htm
For the United Nation's International Day of Peace website, please visit: http://www.un.org/events/peaceday/2005/

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Third Annual Symposium on Women, Peace and Security/Troisième symposium annuel sur les femmes, la paix et la sécurité
17-18 October, 2005, Ottawa Canada
The Canadian Committee on Women, Peace and Security (CCWPS) will be organizing the Third Annual Symposium on Women, Peace and Security in advance of the 5th Anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325. The event will be hosted by Foreign Affairs Canada and will be held in the Robertson Room, Lester B. Pearson Building, 125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa.

For more information visit: http://www.ccwps-ccfps.org/

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International Symposium: "Due Diligence and Violence Against Women"
21-23 September 2005, University of Berne, Switzerland
This symposium is open to academics, students, representatives from governmental and non-governmental organizations and politicians. The symposium will serve as an information forum for the international legal concept of due diligence and launch an interdisciplinary debate focusing on four main topics: violence in the family, trafficking in women, violence in armed combat, and violence legitimized with arguments of "culture."

For more information visit: http://ww.izfg.unibe.ch/duediligence/