1325 PeaceWomen E-News: Issue #100

The Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, 31 October 2000.

For the full text of the resolution, please CLICK HERE

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For past issues of the newsletter, CLICK HERE

Sam Cook

Since May 2002, PeaceWomen has been producing the 1325 PeaceWomen E-Newsletter as a means to maintain the momentum and visibility of SCR 1325, to advocate for its full and rapid implementation, and to share information with UN entities, government representatives and civil society actors about the resolution and related women, peace and security issues. As usual we feature the month’s women, peace and security news (Item 8 ) and events in our calendar (Item 9) and we have also included a section with an overview of some of the highlights of our website (Item 6). This month’s edition is, however, a special one.

Six years since the E-News began, we have now published 100 editions of this newsletter and Felicity Hill, in our guest editorial below, reflects on the genesis of our website peacewomen.org and this newsletter in the context of the adoption of Resolution 1325. The editions of the newsletter itself trace a history of implementation of the resolution and of the work of the PeaceWomen Project. Looking back at our first edition, for example, one sees a PeaceWomen compilation of references in UN documents – ‘the possible Gender Unit in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations’ – which is now a permanent gender advisor position (announced in Issue 47). Also published in our first edition was our first call for translations of the Resolution into local languages – an initiative which has now grown to a compilation of 84 language translations. As can be seen in this newsletter (Item 7), we are now expanding this project to examining how the resolution is used in translation with a view to gathering training and advocacy materials that have been compiled in local languages and publishing these. If you work with 1325 ‘in translation’ we would greatly appreciate your taking a few minutes to complete our ‘1325 in Translation Survey’ in this newsletter. Also in the pages of this newsletter we have continued to advocate the inclusion of women and a gender perspective in work on peace and security and are pleased to include as this month’s Feature Statement (Item 5) the NGO Statement (led by WILPF) on Gender and Nuclear Disarmament delivered at the second Preparatory Committee for the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference.

We look forward to the PeaceWomen Project continuing to be part of the collaborative efforts to make Resolution 1325 a reality. We would like to thank our readers, all those who have contributed information, analysis, and shared feedback and to those who shared their comments on this occassion (Item 2) and to the intern team for all your efforts. This occassion is also special in that this month we mark the 93rd Birthday of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. We echo the WILPF Birthday Statement (Item 4) in saying ‘Thanks one and all, to every WILPF woman, for being so persistent – and so daring !’ and thank you also for your support of your PeaceWomen Project. The message of support from our International Presidents of WILPF (Item 3) celebrates the PeaceWomen Project but is also a call to all our readers and women, peace and security advocates who use our web services to consider making a donation to allow the PeaceWomen Project to continue its work. This and your participation in our reader survey will help us continue, develop and grow the work of the PeaceWomen Project and this 1325 E-Newsletter for another 100 editions.

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Reflections on the beginnings: 1325, PeaceWomen.org and the PeaceWomen 1325 E-News
Felicity Hill,
Vice-President, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom & Founder of the PeaceWomen Project

The experience of the Security Council public gallery isn't so great; the artwork is terrible, the seats are uncomfortable, half of the ear pieces don't work so you can't hear anything, and because all the real discussion takes place in another room, prepared speeches are all you get.

Still, in 2000 when the first debate on Women, Peace and Security was held, the public gallery was filled with women; happy, relieved, determined women. One diplomat from the US noted that never before had she heard clapping in that chamber like she did that day. Not everyone got a clap, but those who expressed an impatient relief that the Security Council had finally discovered that women exist, or the hope that the Council would finally recognise women's suffering in war and agency for peace, did get applause.

I should have been taking notes, but the speeches were being collected for us so I let myself play with an idea. As the governments below were demonstrating that they had caught up with the 1970s women's movement idea about women not just being victims but agents too, I drew the first four-part structure of the PeaceWomen.org website, a resource to build on 1325, organised around 1) decoding the UN for peace women 2) providing contact details for NGO and governments to increase our communication, lobbying and engagement 3) campaign actions underway around the world to inspire and share ideas and 4) resources for facts, figures and stimulation for our minds.

The website grew quickly thanks to Sarah, Mikele, Magdelene, Isha, Emily, and dozens of interns. One of them, Sheri Gibbings from Canada started her internship in New York with WILPF on 10 September 2001. We all know what happened the next day. Sheri stuck around during that very difficult time and helped to build the site. It was she who came up with the idea of an e-news supplement to the website, that would provide updates of what was online, and a news service to all of the peace women working to realise the goals and vision of 1325.

8 years on the PeaceWomen website and e-news reflects and documents that women are using 1325 in a lot of ways : as a KEY to open doors to negotiations and agendas ; as a MIRROR to hold up and shame those who make commitments, but hesitate to do the deeds ; and as a pair of SPECTACLES to see security through a gender lens.

To be honest with you, I think very often we have been caught up using 1325 as a tool that is only about women in peacekeeping operations, (which it is about) or the number of women in UN posts (it is also about this), and the number of women in peace negotiations (again, this is part of it) – but while these are incredibly important issues, I think we can affect these issues in more powerful ways by using 1325 to challenge and prevent conflict at the source of thinking, at the source of money, at the source of weapons used to wage war.

The small, sometimes medium, gains we have made as PeaceWomen need to be seen in the larger context, in a tense world of increasing military expenditure, of increasing investment in war, and continued engagement in and use of war.

I personally think we 1325 peace women should be SCREAMING about military spending reaching the level of $1 trillion 200 billion. This is the equivalent to 600 years of the UN’s regular budget!! Money is being spent on one littoral combat ship that could send 6.8 million children to school in Afghanistan for 9 years. The money used to occupy Iraq for TWO WEEKS is the equivalent of what the OECD countries allocated to gender empowerment projects for the last 5 years based on 1996 figures. How can we be satisfied with the tiny budgets and projects and inroads we are making when this structural and institutionalised organised crime and corporate welfare continues?

I think we could use 1325 more as a tool to critique the organization of security itself, the culture of security, the budgets and human resources that are wasted on military security on weapons to kill and mutilate. I don’t think 1325 has been used enough in this way YET. I think we can use 1325 as a key, as a mirror and as a set of lenses on each of our campaigns against weapons, on each of our campaigns against wars. I think it is time for us to dare to be more political, to dare to enter in numbers, as women, to what is called the “hard security issues” with more confidence and determination. For me this is what 1325 was about, this was what I hoped for, and this is still what I think we must use it for.

Comments from our Readers & Contributors :

Anne Marie Goetz, Chief Advisor, Governance, Peace and Security, UNIFEM
"The 100th issue of PeaceWomen’s E-news is an occasion to celebrate. That so many issues have been produced, that the readership continues to expand, and that there is a growing and more complex set of issues to report, are all testimony to the on-going relevance of PeaceWomen’s work and of the growing size of the community committed to advancing SCR 1325.

At a time when there are opportunities and significant challenges to the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325, PeaceWomen E-News and the network of readers and activists linked to it is more important than ever. PeaceWomen E-News brings critical attention to gaps in implementation which cannot be ignored by the international community. For example, the January issue (#97) called for 2008 to be the year for action on responding to SGBV in conflict, dovetailing on increasing momentum in the international community and within the UN system to deliver on commitments to end SGBV. PeaceWomen E-News strengthened the call for accountability and the end to impunity and in doing so, played and continues to play a critical advocacy role.

UNIFEM values its collaboration with PeaceWomen and hope to continue working together to realize the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1325. UNIFEM thanks PeaceWomen for continuing this important initiative and looks forward to 100 more issues of E-News! "

Gina Torry – Coordinator, NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security
The NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, a coalition of international civil society organizations advocating for the full and effective implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the PeaceWomen E-News on their 100th issue! The PeaceWomen E-News has been instrumental in raising awareness of SCR 1325 as well as deepening the understanding of women, peace and security issues by a range of readers - civil society, Member States and United Nations alike. The PeaceWomen E-News not only provides a critical, timely global resource for information and analysis on issues of women, peace and security, but brings together, each month, the voices, experiences, challenges and work of women building peace worldwide. The PeaceWomen E-news has been a crucial conduit for the NGO Working Group we would like to sincerely thank them for providing a global space for our voices to be heard and for connecting us all together.

Sharon Bhagwan Rolls – Coordinator, femLINKPACIFIC, Fiji Islands
"When you are located on the other side of the world from the United Nations Headquarters, getting your message across to key global leaders, especially those in the UN Security Council seems impossible. When your Pacific Island sub-region is labeled as the arc of instability but does not get the attention of leaders making decisions about global peace and security because our conflicts seems too complex and just not as dire as the larger regions of the world, working for peace can seem very lonely....However, linkages with trans-national partners such as the PeaceWomen Project of WILPF makes a difference - here are women, working in a small office at the UN Church Centre who are reading and taking note of our Peace-news and sharing it with broader networks, including policy makers; here are women willing to help us make a connection and work together in solidarity for the realization of the commitments made to the women of the world, here are women whose work must continue."

Sarah Masters - Women's Network Coordinator, International Action Network on Small Arms
“The continued push to translate SCR 1325 into even more languages is a huge inspiration for the IANSA Women's Network. I regularly direct members to the website and hope that translations continue in addition to the development of other 1325 related information and web resources in these languages. The PeaceWomen project has highlighted that women absolutely must have this information available in local languages in order to know their rights and advocate for change.The PeaceWomen E-news bulletin is very useful to our network due to its thematic focus. It gives a good overview of each particular issue it engages with, usually involving a wide range of contributors and a mix of comment, news, resources, features and opinion pieces. I circulate each issue to IANSA Women's Network members and link to it from the IANSA women's portal.”

Mavic Cabrera-Balleza - Senior Programme Associate, International Women's Tribune Centre
“The PeaceWomen website has been very useful to the work of the International Women's Tribune Centre. The up-to-date information on the UN member states' positions on Resolution 1325 and the Security Council's actions is crucial to our work in advocating for the national level implementation of the Resolution. The translations in Bahasa and Tetum were also very important to IWTC's 1325 advocacy and capacity building work in Timor Leste --where very few women spoke English.”

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1325 E-News Survey

In order to improve our 1325 E-Newsletter and better meet the needs of our readers, we are looking for your feedback through this brief on-line survey.
We would be very grateful if you could assist us in this effort by participating in our survey. We estimate that it will approximately take 5-10 minutes to complete.

To complete the survey, please CLICK HERE

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Celebrating the E-News & Calling for Support

Annelise Ebbe and Kerstin Grebäck
International Presidents of WILPF

There are projects that come and go, ideas that look great and nevertheless end up in a non-glorious way. However, one WILPF project that really has been – and continues to be – a great success is the Peace Women Project including the website and the newsletter.

At the Beijing +5 conference in 2000 we were very disappointed and angry that practically no progress had taken place concerning the status of women, especially in the field of women, war and peace. A cluster of women’s organizations under the leadership of WILPF was then established and after months of hard work they managed to get the issue of Women and Peace on the agenda at the United Nations’ Security Council in October the same year and as described by Felicity Hill in the editorial, the Security Council adopted Resolution 1325.

Since then WILPF has nourished, developed and headed the website and the newsletter and been the watchdog of the follow up on the resolution. We know it is read and used by thousands of women, groups, organizations and governments around the world.

The Project Associate Sam Cook is handling the project in a wonderful way, and we assume that you, all the users and readers are as happy as we are in the WILPF Executive Committee.

We would indeed appreciate your feedback, and we hope to be able to continue this service. However, for the time being the Project is extremely short of funding. In order to ensure its future, we would really appreciate if you are willing to contribute financially. All donations - large and small, are very welcome.

Go to http://www.wilpf.int.ch/donate/index.htm or http://www.peacewomen.org/donate.html and Support the PeaceWomen Project.

4. WILPF 93RD BIRTHDAY MESSAGE

Statement for 93rd Birthday of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
by Cathy Picone and Ruth Russell, WILPF Australia

Today we mark an important anniversary - the birth in 1915 of the organisation that came to be known as the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom - WILPF.

WILPF's links to the women's suffrage movement are well known. In the early days of World War I, the International Women's Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) was divided on the whole question of the war:

"A few notable Suffrage Alliance leaders enthusiastically supported the war effort, and plans for the organization's 1915 international gathering in Berlin had been halted."

But Aletta Jacobs, president of the Dutch suffrage movement, was one of those undaunted. She wrote:

"But I thought at once, just because there is this terrible war the women must come together somewhere, just to show that women of all countries can work together even in the face of the greatest war in the world."

One Christmas Eve during that "greatest war in the world", German soldiers on the battlefield put up Christmas trees lit with candles and English, French and German soldiers sang "Silent Night, Holy Night/ Stille Nacht! Heil'ge Nacht!".

They sang together - in German, in English and maybe in French - and came together across their trenches first to bury their dead and then they exchanged gifts with each other - chocolate cake, cognac, tobacco, postcards, newspapers. But the generals hated this international mateship. They ordered their troops to resume shooting at each other.

It's hardly surprising that governments were fiercely opposed to people from opposing "sides" of the war coming together in common purpose. According to their lights, divisions had to be whipped up in order to enable the continued conduct of the war. Without divisions between people, there could be no war.

So at a time during the first World War when people's fears were being savagely exploited under the guise of nationalism and patriotism, WILPF's founding foremothers demonstrated magnanimity of vision and huge courage in daring to come together across the nations to oppose the killing of women's sons by other women's sons on the battlefields of Europe. According to one woman who later became one of WILPF's Nobel prize-winning International Presidents - one of WILPF's two Nobel Peace Prize winning International WILPF presidents - Emily Greene Balch:

"The women, 1500 of them and more, have come together and for four days conferred, not on remote and abstract questions but on the vital subject of international relations. English, Scottish, German, Austrian, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Belgian, Dutch, American, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish were all represented."

What a feat to bring together in the face of fierce government opposition women from both sides of that conflict!

To quote Aletta Jacobs again:

"I invited as many women as I could reach in different countries to discuss together what the congress should be and to make a preliminary program. When the answers came, so many were in favour that I thought, "Now I dare to do it".

Coming out of their founding congress in The Hague in 1915, these women established two small delegations to present a peace plan to the heads of state of thirteen warring and neutral nations. Their purpose was to assemble a panel of neutral states for "continuous mediation of the conflict". They were for mediation and talking around the negotiation table rather than suffering and slaughter on the battlefield. Or in Churchill's words: "Jaw, jaw is better than war, war."

Jane Addams, the other of our two International Presidents to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, led one of the delegations. She wrote of one of their visits:

"We went into the office of another high official, a large, grizzled, formidable man. When we had finished our presentation and he said nothing, I remarked, "It perhaps seems to you very foolish that women should go about this way; after all, the world is so strange in this war situation that our mission may be no more strange nor foolish than the rest."

He banged his fist on the table. "Foolish?" he said. "Not at all. These are the first sensible words that have been uttered in this room for 10 months."

This concept of a panel of neutral states for continuous mediation of conflicts was later reflected in the formation of the League of Nations for whose founding the WILPF women worked very hard, and still later in its successor, the United Nations - with which WILPF has consultative status.

Ninety-three years on, as we celebrate our 93rd birthday, women of WILPF are still daring to do it - to study, make known and help abolish the political, social, economic and psychological causes of war, and to work for a constructive peace.

Thanks one and all, to every WILPF woman, for being so persistent - and so daring!

NGO Statement on Gender and Nuclear Disarmament, 2nd Session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference
29 April 2008
Convenor: Felicity Hill, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Speaker: Ray Acheson, Reaching Critical Will of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; Tim Wright, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

Gender and nuclear weapons—what are the connections?

The first nuclear weapons explosions, called Little Boy and Fat Man, open our story. More recently, when one country tested nuclear weapons, the leader said, “We had to prove that we are not eunuchs.” A newspaper at the time showed a cartoon that had “made with Viagra” stamped across a weapon.

These meanings were not invented out of thin air. These kinds of names, images, and jokes rely on widespread assumptions and associations about gender, in this case, linking political and military power with sexual potency and masculinity.

Note the use of the word masculinity. It’s worth belabouring one point a little in order to eliminate completely the idea that “Margaret Thatcher” or “Indira Gandhi” are counter arguments to what follows. Feminist international relations theorists are very loud and clear about this point—we are not talking about biology, we are noticing the use of stereotypes in policy processes and thinking, we are talking about ideas, pervasive, embedded ideas, but we are not saying that there is anything inherently warlike in men or peaceful in women. We are talking about masculinity and femininity and how they are valued and defined in our cultures today.

People in every culture have biologically male or female bodies, but what it means to be “masculine” or “feminine” is different for different cultures and changes over time. What it means to be a “real man” or a “good woman” changes also, and there are strong ideas communicated about these stereotypes and roles around war and war planning—look at any propaganda poster depicting heroic men protecting good women who keep the home fires burning and take up roles that the fighting men usually occupy.

Gender also functions as a symbolic system: our ideas about gender permeate and shape our ideas about many other aspects of society beyond male-female relations—including politics, weapons, and warfare. Just as the cartoons and ideas cited above communicate attitudes and assumptions, adjectives like strong, rational, prudent, active, and objective are associated with masculinity, whereas words such as weak, irrational, impulsive, passive, subjective, and emotional are associated with femininity.

One example you might have heard before will serve to show how gender stereotypes affect the ways in which nuclear weapons are culturally associated with strength, power, and masculinity. It will also introduce the arguments we will make about how policy debates—the way you diplomats and governmental officials interact, behave, and negotiate—is limited and distorted by these gender stereotypical ways of thinking, which have been normalized and legitimized after decades of practice.

A white male physicist, who is a member of a group of nuclear physicists, told the following to Dr. Carol Cohn:

Several colleagues and I were working on modelling counterforce nuclear attacks, trying to get realistic estimates of the number of immediate fatalities that would result from different deployments. At one point, we re-modelled a particular attack, using slightly different assumptions, and found that instead of there being 36 million immediate fatalities, there would only be 30 million. And everybody was sitting around nodding, saying, “Oh yeah, that’s great, only 30 million,” when all of a sudden, I heard what we were saying. And I blurted out, “Wait, I’ve just heard how we’re talking—only 30 million! Only 30 million human beings killed instantly?” Silence fell upon the room. Nobody said a word. They didn’t even look at me. It was awful. I felt like a woman.

The physicist added that henceforth he was careful never to blurt out anything like that again.

This story is not simply about one individual, his feelings and actions; it illustrates the role and meaning of gender discourse in the defence community. This example should not be dismissed as just the product of the idiosyncratic personal composition of that particular room; it is replicated many times and in many places.

The impact of gender discourse in that room (and countless others like it) is that some things get left out from professional deliberations.

Certain ideas, concerns, interests, information, feelings, and meanings are marked in national security discourse as feminine, and thus devalued. They are therefore very difficult to speak, as exemplified by the physicist who blurted them out and wished he hadn’t. And if they manage to be said, they are also very difficult to hear, to take in, and work with seriously. For the others in the room, the way in which the physicist’s comments were marked as feminine and devalued served to delegitimize them; it also made it very unlikely that any of his colleagues would find the courage to agree with him.

If at the PrepCom you were to really express concern about human bodies, if you were to express an emotional awareness about the suicidal, genocidal, and ecocidal, desperate human condition that has created and maintained the means to destroy the planet, if you were to discuss the human reality behind the sanitized abstractions of death and destruction in security and strategic deliberations, you would be transgressing a code of professional conduct.

For the majority in this room, that is the male diplomats, your colleagues might look at you like you were a woman, they might question your masculinity, and you might be seen as soft and wimpish. For a minority in this room, that is the female diplomats, your colleagues might look at you AS a woman, and mean it as a put down, and that is something that as intelligent, skilled people, you wish to avoid, because that means you are not being a good diplomat, rather that you are impulsive, uncontrolled, emotional, upset.

The statement, “I felt like a woman,” and the physicist's subsequent silence in that and other settings, are completely understandable. To find the strength of character and courage to transgress the strictures of both professional and gender codes and to associate yourself with a lower status is very difficult.

But what are the advantages of considering gender issues?

1. Gender analysis provides tools—not all of the tools you need, but some of the tools—to address why nuclear weapons are valued, why additional states seek them, keep them, and why leaders are motivated to resort to dominance and the use of force to obtain policy objectives. Possessing and brandishing an extraordinarily destructive capacity is a form of dominance associated with masculine warriors (nuclear weapons possessors are sometimes referred to as the “big boys”) and is more highly valued than the feminine-associated disarmament, cooperation, and diplomacy.

2. Ignoring this doesn’t make it go away. Instead, by recognising that there is a problem, it becomes possible to confront traditionally constructed meanings and redefine terms such as “strength” and “security” so that they more appropriately reflect the needs of all people. The anxious preoccupation with affirming manhood and masculinity can cease if we recognise and address this problem in politics. The dangerous and illusory idea that security can be achieved through militarized, weaponised strength has not worked, we do not enjoy security, even those armed to the teeth. Humanity is chronically insecure, under developed, under educated, under fed, and over-weaponised. Insecure. Security and strength defined through weapons is not security; this model has failed, terribly.

3. Gender awareness also shows that participating in self-censorship, as the physicist in the example above did, is understandable, but very counter-productive. The effect of such self-censorship is to exclude a whole range of relevant inputs as if they did not belong in discussions of “hard” security issues because they are too “soft” (i.e. feminine).

The role of men and a certain kind of masculinity in dominating the political structures that organise wars and oversee security matters is beginning to be questioned. In 2000, the Security Council adopted resolution 1325. Since the adoption of this resolution, these issues have been newly and more deeply understood. Governments and NGOs have undertaken some laudable work to implement it. We have seen some more highly competent and intelligent women appointed to engage in security and disarmament issues—of course we would like to see more in this room today.

In 2006, the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission chaired by Hans Blix acknowledged gender issues when they stated, “Women have rightly observed that armament policies and the use of armed force have often been influenced by misguided ideas about masculinity and strength. An understanding of and emancipation from this traditional perspective might help to remove some of the hurdles on the road to disarmament and nonproliferation.”

The association of weapons with masculinity, power, prestige, and technical prowess has a direct effect on policy decisions and negotiations and is a hurdle on the road to disarmament and non-proliferation. The concept of “mastering” or “dominating” the nuclear fuel cycle and relying on nuclear energy is likewise associated with the masculine characteristics of prestige and technical prowess, while the arguments to phase out nuclear power and rely on the “benign” power of the sun, wind, tides, and heat from the Earth, are seen as feminine and weak.

Decision-makers and negotiators working within a “radioactively realist” context of power optimization are working in a paradigm which is also gendered. In a “realist” perspective on international relations, all states seek as much power and potential to dominate as possible. This is especially true in the nuclear age, where many governments have come to believe that security requires the ability to militarily dominate and control. Within this security paradigm, weapons are necessary because security can only come through the ability to obliterate the other, and to command control of any relationship through the threat or use of force. In personal interactions, this sort of fearful controlling is called abuse and a crime, but from a realist geopolitical perspective, it is called “hard security” and wise policy.

Gender stereotypes that promote the value of weapons of terror are a problem at the heart of international relations and national security policies, obstructing progress towards the goal of the majority of states and citizens: the total elimination of the world’s nuclear arsenals.

Launched in 2001, one year after the adoption of SCR 1325, peacewomen.org features news, resources and initiatives and a database of organizations working on women, peace and security issues organized on a country and thematic basis. The primary goal of this information collection is to inform and support collaborative efforts to implement the resolution and to encourage advocates to mobilize for implementation.

Over time the website’s information offering has expanded greatly and the Project has worked to make it more systematic. The scope of information offered has expanded so as to include our 1325 Translation Initiative, information on the history and genesis of the resolution and on who is responsible for its implementation. It also now includes monitoring of and information on various UN fora, processes and mechanisms such as the Security Council, General Assembly, and the Commission on the Status of Women. In many cases peacewomen.org web pages serve as tools for advocates engaging in these fora, to prepare for them and to make timely interventions or to share their own advocacy positions. This has helped make these more transparent and accessible to civil society around the world and has allowed the Project to create conceptual links to support our advocacy positions.

We are currently working on upgrading our website and comments and suggestions on content and organization are most welcome!

Some of the highlights from our site include:

The PeaceWomen 1325 Security Council Monitor:
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/sc/1325_Monitor/index.htm

An online resource and advocacy tool to monitor the Security Council’s efforts to meet its own commitment to integrate 1325 in its work. Resolution Watch analyzes the gender and women-specific content of Security Council resolutions addressing all current and upcoming peacekeeping operations. The country-specific pages are cross-linked to a thematic compilation of language and a host of related resources.

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Who’s Responsible for Implementation:
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/UN1325/1325whoswho.html

Pages feature information on UN entities and what they can do to implement Resolution 1325 as well as a new section on national level implementation of 1325. This section includes all available 1325 National Action Plans and policies as well as NGO critique and analysis of these.

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Gender & Peacekeeping:
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/pkwatch/pkindex.html

News, resources and useful links on gender, women and peackeeping.

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Tracing history and keeping Track:
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/UN1325/1325index.html
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/anniversaryindex.html

Resources and links on the context, genesis and development of Resolution 1325 including links to events and resources marking each anniversary of the adoption of the resolution. This includes all statements made at Security Council Open Debates on women, peace and security as well as a thematic index of these statements compiled by the PeaceWomen Project.

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Women and the UN:
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/unindex.html
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/ecosoc/CSW/CSWindex.html
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/genass/gaindex.html

An expanding body of information on the UN and its various bodies and processes and links to relevant resources and analysis of women, peace and security issues in these. Included in these pages are coverage of the Commission on the Status of Women and the General Assembly opening sessions from a women, peace and security perspective.

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Women, Peace and Security Regional & International News:
http://www.peacewomen.org/news/countryindex.html
http://www.peacewomen.org/news/International/Index.html

Women, Peace and Security Country and Thematic Resources:
http://www.peacewomen.org/resources/resourcesindex.html

Women, Peace and Security Country, Regional and Global Initiatives:
http://www.peacewomen.org/campaigns/countriesindex.html
http://www.peacewomen.org/campaigns/global/index.html

Women, Peace and Security Country and Global Contacts:
http://www.peacewomen.org/contacts/conindex.html
http://www.peacewomen.org/contacts/int/Int-index.html

7. 1325 TRANSLATION INITIATIVE

The PeaceWomen Project has been compiling existing translations, and advocating for and welcoming new translations of SCR 1325 since February 2003. To-date PeaceWomen.org is the only website to house all existing translations of SCR 1325. Through the efforts of individuals and representatives of civil society organizations, the UN system and governments, the number of available translations available on Peacewomen.org has increased from 9 to 84.

If you know of existing translations of 1325 which are not among the 84 on the PeaceWomen website, or would like to volunteer as a translator, suggest potential translators or add languages to the list for priority translation, please contact info@peacewomen.org

To view the 84 translations and for information and on translations needed, please CLICK HERE

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USING 1325 TRANSLATION SURVEY: WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

As a part of its Translation Initiative, PeaceWomen has created the “Using 1325 in Translation” project to collect information on how translations of Resolution 1325 are being used and their impact on the work of advocates, including women peace-builders and their organizations and networks. We are working to expand this project to include your translated advocacy materials and tools on our website for wider distribution.

Do you have 1325 advocacy or training materials translated into local languages?

Please send these in an electronic or hard copy format to:

PeaceWomen Project
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, UN office
777 UN Plaza 6th floor
New York, NY 10017

Email: info@peacewomen.org

We encourage and welcome your feedback on the usefulness of translations of 1325 for outreach, advocacy or other purposes

Please feel free to translate and share this survey with others and send us their feedback.

To complete our survey online, please CLICK HERE

To obtain a word version, please CLICK HERE
And send by fax or email to:
Fax: +1 212 286-8211
Email: info@peacewomen.org

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For more information on the “using 1325 in translation” initiative, please CLICK HERE

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Questions in our survey:

1. Are you or your organization familiar with the UN Security Council Resolution 1325?

2. Have you seen Resolution 1325 translated into local languages from your country or region? Which languages?

3. Have you seen 1325 advocacy or training materials translated into local languages from your country or region? Which languages? What materials?

4. How has your organization used translations of Resolution 1325 (e.g. workshops, training sessions, radio programs, posters, letters)?

5. What difference did it make to have 1325 and other training materials available in a local language?

6. Why do you think is it important to have 1325 translated into local languages?

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Some User Feedback on Using 1325 in Translation

WIPNET - Nigeria: The Importance of Translating SCR 1325
The Women in Peacebuilding program (WIPNET) of the West African Network for Peacebuilding (Nigeria) with the support of NOVIB Netherlands, recently translated 1325 into 3 Nigerian languages -Ibo, Ijaw and Tiv. In a short article, Bridget Osakwe, a program officer with WIPNET explains the motivation for the translation efforts and the use of translations in the organization's peacebuilding work.

To read the article, please CLICK HERE

WIPNET Uses 1325 in Translation
In September 2005, Peacewomen spoke with Ecoma Alaga, regional coordinator of the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET) of the West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), about the organization's efforts to translate Security Council Resolution 1325 into various West African languages. As with many other advocates of Resolution 1325, WANEP/WIPNET has prioritized its translation as part of their own programs and initiatives related to the Resolution.

To read the interview, please CLICK HERE

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8. WOMEN PEACE AND SECURITY NEWS

IRAQ: Sense of Injustice Drives Women Bombers
April 28, 2008 (IWPR) - In Iraq, suicide bombings by women are increasing. This week, two women blew themselves up in Diyala province, bringing to nine the number of such suicide bombings in the first four months of 2008. Experts link recent increase in female suicide bombers to wartime suffering and desire for revenge.

Myanmar army raping with impunity, say Karen activists
April 24, 2008 (Alertnet) - Soldiers in eastern Myanmar are raping with impunity, according to a rights group. Their victims, villagers from the Karen minority, have reportedly included children and nuns.

Gender activists call for decisive action on Zimbabwe
April 24, 2008 (ZimEye) – Southern African gender activists have called on their leaders and the international community to "act decisively" in ending the Zimbabwean crisis which threatens all peace loving citizens, especially women and children.

IRAQ: Call for action against murderers of women in baghdad
April 23, 2008 (IRIN) - Residents of a western Baghdad neighbourhood have said militant groups in the area are hunting down women and killing them, and have appealed to parliament to do something, a member of parliament (MP) said on 22 April.

Afghanistan: Half of Afghan children not in school, U.N. says
April 21, 2008 (Reuters) - Half of Afghan children are still not going to school and the biggest group missing out on an education are girls, the United Nations said on Monday.

DRC: Tortured women struggle for justice
April 17, 2008 (The Toronto Star) - For women, the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is the heart of darkness: a territory where they are sexually attacked, mutilated and killed in ways so vicious that the United Nations calls it unprecedented.

PARAGUAY's elections: Indigenous Woman on Course for Senate
April 17, 2008 (IPS) - An indigenous woman has an excellent chance of winning a seat in Congress for the first time in the history of Paraguay, in Sunday’s general elections.

Inter Parliamentary Union Report on Women's Political Representation
April 16, 2008 (IPS) - A new report by the Geneva-based Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) has shown that women are changing the priorities and sometimes the tone of legislatures around the world. But, it also highlights the slow pace at which the number of parliamentary seats held by women is increasing.

Liberia: UN-backed anti-rape campaign reaches country’s north
April 16, 2008 (UN News) - A United Nations-backed campaign to stamp out rape in Liberia, the highest reported crime in the West African country as it recovers from a devastating civil war, has been extended to the north with a senior UN official calling for full implementation of the law.

Remarks by Stephen Lewis, co-director of AIDS-Free World at the tenth annual V-Day Celebration
April 12, 2008 - Today is a day that has largely--and rightly--been given over to Dr. [Denis] Mukwege and his astonishing and heroic work in the Congo. Driving the work is the endlessly grim and despairing litany of rape and sexual violence. All of us assembled in the Superdome, talk of V-Day and The Vagina Monologues; in the Congo there's a medical term of art called "vaginal destruction." I need not elaborate; most of you have heard Dr. Mukwege. But suffice to say that in the vast historical panorama of violence against women, there is a level of demonic dementia plumbed in the Congo that has seldom, if ever, been reached before.

Guatemala: Major Step to Stop Violence Against Women
April 10, 2008 (NIMD) - The much discussed “Law Against Feminicide and Other Forms of Violence Against Women” was approved in Congress under loud applause from the public tribune, where representatives of political parties and women organisations had been awaiting the approval of the law.

Nepal's Historic Vote Puts Women in Running
April 9, 2008 (WOMENSENEWS) - Nepal has sealed its borders as it tries to safely forge a new path after 240 years of autocratic monarchial rule, 10 years of a violent Maoist insurgency and two years of a wary stability under an interim government.

World YWCA stands in solidarity with Zimbabwean women
April 7, 2008 (World YWCA) - Zimbabwe has elected 28 women into its lower house of assembly in their March 29 general elections. The World YWCA stands in solidarity with Zimbabwean women as the nation anxiously await result of the presidential election. The World YWCA congratulates the women for successfully wining their campaign amidst a difficult political climate characterised by intimidation and lack of security. Many female candidates successfully navigated the sensitive political climate despite limited access to campaign resources.

Afghanistan: Vocal 'Warlord' Critic Seeks To Reverse Her Expulsion From Legislature
April 7, 2008 (RFE/RL's Radio) - She's been called "the bravest woman in Afghanistan" for her criticism of warlords, and even compared to Aung Sun Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmar's democracy movement. Now, Malalai Joya's courage is again being put to the test.

US: Senate Committee Hearing on Rape as a Weapon of War
April 3, 2008 (Feminist Daily News Wire) - On Tuesday, United States Senator Dick Durbin chaired the first-ever Congressional hearing on the use of rape as a weapon of war. The Subcommittee on Human Rights and Law discussed the need to hold perpetrators accountable for sexual violence against women. The focus of the hearing was sexual violence as a weapon of war in Democratic Republic of the Congo, with testimonies from Lisa F. Jackson, Karin Wachter, Dr. Kelly Dawn Askin, and Dr. Denis Mukwege.

colombia: Colombia's displaced women sexually abused and forced into early motherhood
April 2, 2008 (Alertnet) - Wherever they are, displaced women are easy prey to sexual exploitation and abuse - from partners, relatives, neighbours, landlords and strangers and many become mothers at a very young age. While 20 percent of Colombian teenage girls have been pregnant, that figure goes up to 30 percent for internally displaced girls.

CAR: Struggling to undo the damage of sexual violence
April 1, 2008 (IRIN) - The Monam group of rape survivors in the northern town of Bossangoa in the Central African Republic (CAR) does what it can to keep going, but morale is low and money tight. Monam, which means "common good" in the Sango language, was set up in 2006 to bring together female survivors of sexual violence committed in 2001 and 2002 amid the mayhem leading up to the most recent of CAR's numerous coups d'etat that brought Francois Bozize to power in March 2003.

BANGLADESH: Government moves to boost women’s rights
April 1, 2008 (IRIN) - The Bangladesh government is pushing ahead with a new National Women’s Development Policy (NWDP), despite criticism from a section of Muslim clerics and some Islamic political parties.

One day workshop held on the promotion of new sexual violence law in the DRC
April 1, 2008 (MONUC) - As part of the month of the woman this March, a one day workshop on the promotion of the new sexual violence law in the DRC was held on Monday 31 March 2008 in Kinshasa, under the aegis of the International NGO Network for Development (RIOD).

IRAQ: Iraqi Women Face Increased Human Rights Violations in Post-Invasion IraQ
April 1, 2008 (Feminist Daily News Wire) - Iraqi women's rights are eroding instead of improving in post-invasion Iraq. Women's rights have had a prominent place in the Bush administration's democracy rhetoric, but in reality women and children have faced increased hardship since the invasion.

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

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

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9. WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY CALENDAR

Call for Applications for the 2008 Women PeaceMakers Program
The Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice (IPJ) in San Diego, California

Application Deadline: May 23, 2008

The Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice (IPJ), is currently accepting applications for its Women PeaceMakers Program (WPM).

The WPM program is designed for leaders from conflict-affected countries around the world who are transforming conflict and assuring gender-inclusion in post conflict recovery through in human rights advocacy and peace building efforts they lead. These are women whose stories and best practices will be shared internationally; they are women who will have a respite from the frontlines work they do. Four Women PeaceMakers are selected each year to spend two months in residence at the Institute. Women PeaceMakers in residence will have the opportunity to engage with the community through a series of public panels and to meet with other activists and leaders involved in human rights, political action and peacemaking efforts.

For more information about the program and an application please CLICK HERE

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LEADERSHIP FOR A CHANGING WORLD: Scaling Up For Global Impact
Women's Funding Network Annual Conference
May 1-3, 2008, Washington, D.C.

2008 Annual Conference will be a high-energy gathering of visionary leaders from around the world. The conference will showcase the most cutting-edge ideas, trends and insights on social investment in women.

For more information, please CLICK HERE

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Voices of Courage Awards Luncheon 2008: ending violence against refugee and displaced women and girls
Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children
May 6, 2008, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Columbus Circle, New York City at 12:00 noon

Each year, the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children holds a luncheon to honor individual refugee women and young people who are working on behalf of other refugees.

For more information, please CLICK HERE

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Managing and Transforming Global Conflicts in the 21st Century
Enabling Peace and Effective Responses to Conflict – Human Security, Conflict Transformation and Good Governance Nationally and Internationally
May 22 – 23, 2008, Ottawa, Canada

A two-day seminar with one of the world’s leading practitioners and international experts in peacebuilding and national and international negotiations and mediation.
Hosted by Civilian Peace Services Canada in cooperation with the Department of Peace Operations (DPO) and International Peace and Development Training Centre

Application Deadline: Friday May 2nd, 2008

For more information, please CLICK HERE

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“Money for Women Peacemakers” Seminar
IFOR Women Peacemakers Program(WPP)
May 24, 2008, Hague, Netherlands

In honor of May 24, International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament, the IFOR Women Peacemakers Program (WPP) will organize the seminar “Money for Women Peacemakers” on May 24, 2008, in the Hague, the Netherlands. The seminar will also be a celebration of the WPP’s 10th anniversary. The seminar will explore the impact of investments in women activists on the establishment of sustainable peace and justice. It will consist of lectures and workshops.

For more information, please CLICK HERE

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Transformative Mediation
Responding to Conflict in Bermingham
May 26 - 30, 2008, Birmingham, UK

The Transformative Mediation course has been developed to help organisations, practitioners and mediators to enhance the quality of their work, to gain new perspectives into the Conflict Transformation field, and to develop new practices in mediation. Transformative Mediation is the only course of its kind in the UK, specifically for organisations and individuals with experience in the mediation process locally in family and community settings or for those interested in applying a transformative approach to their mediation work in activities such as peacebuilding and conflict sensitive programming.

For more information please CLICK here

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Women's Human Rights: Building a Peaceful World in an Era of Globalization
May 30-July 4, 2008 , Ontario Insitute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, IT
Centre for Women's Studies in Education

The Institute brings feminist perspectives and an activist orientation to the inextricably related issues of peace, human rights and life-sustaining development. Participants will gain an understanding of the global economic, ecological, legal, cultural and political contexts of this work, as well as of the groundbreaking work that is currently being done and has been done over decades by women and men around the world.

For more information, please CLICK HERE

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3rd International Salon for Peace initiatives
French Coalition for the Decade
May 30-31 and 1 June 2008, Paris

Organized within the dynamics of the “International Decade for the promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence for the children of the world (2001-2010)”, this Salon will aim at helping a large public discover peace initiatives from all over the world, illustrating the various dimensions of peace: justice, international solidarity, human rights defense, non-violent resolution of conflicts, peace and non-violence education, solidarity economy, sustainable and fairdevelopment, environmental protection, etc.

For more information, please CLICK HERE

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CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: A Three-Week Training session in Peacebuilding
The West Africa Peacebuilding Institute (WAPI)
September 1–19, 2008, Accra, Ghana

The training covers a range of courses on Peacebuilding, Facilitated Dialogue and Mediation; Women and Gender Mainstreaming in Peacebuilding; Youth and Peace Education, Early Warning and Early Response, Human Rights and Conflict Resolution, Human Security, Development and Peace, etc.

Application Deadline: May 31, 2008

For more information, please CLICK HERE

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For the complete calendar, CLICK HERE

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PeaceWomen is a project of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).

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Best Wishes,
PeaceWomen Team

Sam Cook and Susi Snyder
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
United Nations Office
777 UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA
Tel: 1.212.682.1265
Fax: 1.212.286.8211
Email: enewssubmissions@peacewomen.org
Web: www.peacewomen.org

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