Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security was passed on October 31, 2000. For the text of the resolution please visit: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/sc/1325.html

This edition of the 1325 PeaceWomen E-News Features:

1. 1325 News for PeaceWomen
2. Personal Profile: Aningina Tshefu Bibiane, Defender of Women and Advocate for Resolution 1325
3. Analysis of 1325: Women Advocating for Resolution 1325 in the Democratic Republic of Congo
4. PeaceWomen and the UN: General Assembly Debate Excerpts Now Posted
5. Feature Contact for PeaceWomen: Canadian Peacebuilding Coordinating Committee (CPCC) Gender and Peacebuilding Working Group
6. Resources on Women, Peace and Security: The War Within the War: Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls in Eastern Congo
7. Calendar Events for PeaceWomen

Evaluation of 1325 PeaceWomen E-News: Please write to 1325news@peacewomen.org and we will send you the evaluation document.

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1. 1325 NEWS FOR PEACEWOMEN

Egypt Hosts Conference On Women's Role In Promoting Peace
Sept. 23, 2002 - Egyptian first lady, Suzanne Mubarak, opened a three-day conference on women's roles in promoting peace and tolerance entitled “ Women for Peace, Dialogue for Action,” or the Sharm El Sheikh Initiative. Participants included Bahrain's Queen Sheikha Sabika bint Ibrahim, former Ghanaian first lady Nana Rawlings, and former Lebanese first lady Mona al-Hrawi. In addition, Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a message that was read at the conference. The meeting was, however, criticized for the absence of Israeli participants. For the full story on UN Wire go to: http://www.unfoundation.org/unwire/util/display_stories.asp?objid=29100?
To read the message sent by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, go to: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2002/sgsm8396.doc.htm
The women of the Sharm El Sheikh Initiative also released a statement at the conclusion of the conference. For the full statement, go to: http://www.peacewomen.org/resources/voices/declar/Sharm%20El%20Sheikh.html

Israeli Women Support Call for Indictment of Sharon for War Crimes
September 24th, 2002 - In the September 24th issue of the Independent, Robert Fisk reported on a letter from the Coalition of Women for a Just Peace, a coalition of nine Israeli women’s peace groups, to the survivors of the massacres of Sabra and Shatilla in Lebanon, on the 20th anniversary of the event. In the letter, the Coalition extends its solidarity to the Palestinian survivors, and supports their efforts to indict the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, for "war crimes'.' For the full article and the letter, go to: http://www.peacewomen.org/news/september/wib.html

1325 Translated in all Four Local Languages in Democratic Republic of Congo!
October 1st, 2002 – At the initiative of the Gender Advisor office of MONUC, the UN Peacekeeping Operation in DRC, and in collaboration with the DRC Ministry of Culture, Resolution 1325 and the Nairobi Declaration (an agenda for peace written by Congolese women who met in Nairobi in February 2002) have just been translated into the four local languages of the DRC. The gender advisor office of MONUC has received the translated copies of 1325 and the declaration and is now strategizing about how to disseminate the information within DRC. We will try and stay informed of the dissemination process in DRC and give an update in the next newsletter.

Follow-up from 1325 Training in El Salvador
Report from Marta Benavides, WILPF-El Salvador:
September 21 – We had representatives from the judicial system--judges, women's groups and feminist organizations, universities, programs of the European Union, media and human rights groups. The representatives from UNIFEM and UNICEF were feeling overwhelmed with work and did not come. We have contacted them and will be having a meeting separately. It was a very important meeting [for the representatives of the many groups] for most of them knew little or nothing about it, the implications or about the implementation. We have been bringing the information but this was the first time we had training of so many groups together and for them to reflect together from all their various experiences and perspectives. WILPF-El Salvador (LIMPAL) will give more in-depth feedback at a later time.

For More News please see: http://www.peacewomen.org/news/newsindex.html

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2. PERSONAL PROFILE: Aningina Tshefu Bibiane, Defender of Women and Advocate of 1325

By Kara Piccirilli

Aningina Tshefu Bibiane's story, set in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), illustrates the flow from the experiences with conflict and the desire for peace in childhood to the reflective and active life of a woman in search for justice. Bibiane, like so many other catalysts of social change, constantly asks questions of herself and her society, and then acts on what she intuits in the search for truth and justice.

Throughout her childhood Bibiane mediated between her parents and problem-solved family dilemmas, oftentimes having to take up the struggle of her mother, though she herself was a strong and dynamic woman. Drawing from these experiences, she became determined to become an independent woman who would seek to support women who found themselves in unjust situations. Resolutely, she studied abroad at the Institute Superior of Social Training and the Free University of Brussels on scholarship, and returned to her home country with a Masters in Social Work and Community Development. While she was studying abroad she supported her family financially and helped to ensure that her nine younger siblings all obtained college degrees.

It is important to understand the political and social climate to grasp what Bibiane sought to help bring about in her return to the DRC in 1990 after studying abroad. Between the years of 1990 and 1992, Mobutu, who had ruled the country via coup for thirty years, had given some concessions to a shared ruling with the opposition party, Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDSP). Although he had reneged on many of the promises he had made to the insertion of more democratic mechanisms in the regime, he endured the multiparty conference of 1992. The plans for a transitional government, which would have included a constitutional parliament and universal suffrage, were allowed to advance to their fruition.

At this point in time in 1990, Bibiane was hopeful- as were so many in the country- that the political arena would be democratized. With this hope, she served as an advisor to the Ministry of Women's Affairs and an advisor to the Ministry of Justice and Institutional Reform in what was believed to be the transitional government for the Congo. Between the periods of her advising, she consulted with women and women's NGOs that she had made contact with as an advisor to the Ministry of Women's Affairs. After being disillusioned on account of the disingenuousness of Mobutu's commitment to power-sharing, Bibiane decided that she could be more helpful to the women of her country by working for them from the outside. She asked, "Why is my country like this? Why are my people in misery and suffering?" She eventually moved to New York City and worked for the African Services Committee.

With the violence and povertization in the DRC worsening through the 1990s, Bibiane- in 1998- knocked on the doors at the UN to offer her assistance in the UN's work in the Great Lakes Region. The United Nations Development Program Office New York referred to their office in DRC, which in turn, hired Bibiane to help them perform a survey of the work of local NGOs on the ground in the Great Lakes Region. In producing the needs assessment, she heard women speak of their struggles, which were largely the consequences of the ongoing civil war. Bibiane encouraged the women to stand for their concerns and organize themselves, instead of using the extant means, which were principally controlled and run by men. Preparing for a return to the United States she asked, "How can I be useful to the women from New York?" It was in asking this question to women in the UNDP after her return that she was given the name of WILPF, a group that was working on similar issues. In 2001, the WILPF Office formed the PeaceWomen project after the passage of Resolution 1325 in 2000 and hosted Bibiane in her research of women's organizations in the Congo, which can be found at PeaceWomen.org.

At the same time, Bibiane, as the contact person for the Women as Partners for Peace in Africa-DRC (WOPPA-DRC), a Pan-African organization created by African women, worked to increase the visibility of Congolese women and to prepare them for the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, the principal peace negotiations for the DRC. In early 2002, she prepared women for and went with women to the Inter-Congolese Dialogue in Nairobi, Kenya and Sun City, South Africa. Bibiane and the women exerted pressure on delegates and other decision-makers to increase the numbers of women delegates and experts to the Dialogue meetings. The women spoke non-violently and non-aggressively, though firmly, to the male delegates "as brothers" and told them that more women needed to be at the peace table. At one point in Sun City, women physically shut the participatory delegates into the room where the negotiations where taking place after the delegates from the differing parties had failed to come to consensus, or an inclusive solution, on the last day. After the Sun City meeting, Bibiane returned to Kinshasa to mediate between rival leaders of grassroots women's groups and women's NGOs in order to unify the women and energize them for the meetings that still lay ahead. Having returned to New York, Bibiane is currently reaching out to women from other countries to request their help in building international support for Congolese women to increase the visibility of their continued struggles in the peace process in the DRC.

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3. ANALYSIS OF SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION 1325: Women Advocating for Resolution 1325 in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The profile of Aningina Tshefu Bibiane reveals a woman who, through her activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and elsewhere, has become a strong advocate for Resolution 1325, struggling for women’s inclusion and active participation in the peace process in DRC. Bibiane is not alone, however; there are many women in DRC like Bibiane who are committed to implementing 1325 and ensuring women a place at the peace table.

The accomplishments of women in the DRC towards implementation of Resolution 1325, that are described here, have taken place despite huge barriers. Within the government, and among the participants in the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, there is still little awareness about Resolution 1325. There continues to be a serious lack of political will among the principal players in the peace negotiations, for whom the inclusion of women is simply not a priority. In addition to their direct exclusion from the negotiations, Congolese women face other kind of constraints including limited funding, limited access to information, and technological resources, a lack of media coverage, and a lack of dialogue and information sharing among Congolese women, due to tensions between women in government and civil society.

Below is a list, compiled with the help of Bibiane, of some of the concrete actions Congolese women have taken to implement Resolution 1325:

1. Women as Partners for Peace in Africa DRC chapter (WOPPA-DRC) and Femmes Afrique Solidarite (FAS) organized the Nairobi Training Workshop to build Congolese women’s capacity for and technique of negotiation in preparation for the Inter-Congolese Dialogue in Sun City, and to harmonize the views of women from all sides in order to engender the peace process. The organizers distributed Resolution 1325 in pamphlet form to all of the participants (Nairobi, Kenya, 15-19th, February 2002).
(For the Nairobi Declaration, released by the participants of the Workshop, go to: http://www.peacewomen.org/campaigns/featured/drc/NAIROBI%20DEC.html)

2. Women distributed copies of 1325 and the Nairobi Declaration to all the delegates and experts –both men and women- at the Inter-Congolese dialogue (pamphlets and Nairobi Declaration were placed in every delegate’s dossier) (Sun City, South Africa, March-April 2002).

3. Members of the Congolese Women’s Caucus, an initiative of the Nairobi Workshop and Nairobi Declaration, participated in a debate on national TV and a debate on a UN radio station called “Dialogue between the Congolese” addressing the contribution of the Congolese Women’s Caucus in the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, raising awareness about Resolution 1325, and advocating for the use of 1325 as an instrument for women’s participation in the peace process (May-September, 2002, Kinshasa, DRC).

4. The Congolese Coalition of Protestant Women held a 3-day conference about the contribution of women in the peace process, including a workshop about 1325 where they distributed copies of the resolution to all participants (September 2002, Kinshasa, DRC).

5. Based on the demands of women at the grassroots level, Resolution 1325 and the Nairobi Declaration have recently been translated into the four local languages (an initiative of the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC-MONUC -and in collaboration with the DRC Ministry of Culture).

6. WOPPA-DRC wrote to UN agencies, USAID, foreign embassies and other international organizations to request funding to support women’s participation at the peace table.

7. Congolese women in collaboration with MONUC gender advisor’s office of have had frequent informal meetings with young women to encourage them to organize and be instruments of change in their communities, and to be part of the peace process.

8. Women and men leaders of civil society, in collaboration with MONUC gender advisor’s office, organized a meeting to discuss how to move forward with the peace process and how women and men can work together in partnership (Kinshasa, DRC, August 2002).

Previous Analysis done on the 1325 PeaceWomen E-news can be found on-line at http://www.peacewomen.org/news/1325News/1325ENewsindex.html

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4. PEACEWOMEN AND THE UN: General Assembly General Debate Excerpts Now Posted

As mentioned in the last newsletter, during the General Assembly Genera Debates, from September 12th-20th, the WILPF UN Office was monitoring the speeches and compiling excerpts from the statements on a variety of issues. These excerpts have been compiled and are now posted to the PeaceWomen website. Below is a list of the issues covered and the links to the compiled excerpts online:

Women and Gender: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/genass/Women57.html
Afghanistan: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/genass/Afghanistan57.html
Conflict prevention: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/genass/ConflictPrevention57.html
Human security: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/genass/HumanSecurity57.html
International Criminal Court: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/genass/ICC57.html
Iraq: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/genass/Iraq57.html
Israel and Palestine: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/genass/IsraelPalestine57.html
Multilateralism, rule of law and UN role/reform: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/genass/Multilateralism57.html
Peacekeeping: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/genass/Peacekeeping57.html
Terrorism: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/genass/terrorism57.html
Disarmament: http://reachingcriticalwill.org/1com/1com02/disarmref57.html
For a list of women who spoke (16 of 189 speakers), see: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/genass/Speakerswomen57.html

Links to all of these compiled excerpts can be found at: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/genass/gaindex.html
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5. FEATURE CONTACT FOR PEACEWOMEN: Canadian Peacebuilding Coordinating Committee (CPCC) Gender and Peacebuilding Working Group

The Gender and Peacebuilding Working Group, part of the Canadian Peacebuilding Coordinating Committee, is an informal network of Canadian NGOs, civil society representatives, academics, and activists who have come together to, among other things:

- Build political support for the contribution women make to building peace, and to encourage their participation and integration in all national, regional and international fora.
- Dialogue with parliamentarians and representatives of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Foreign Affairs and the Canadian Forces, and members of the Canadian Committee on Women Peace and Security.
- Maintain a listserv
- Publish and disseminate documents and research on issues related to gender and peacebuilding
- Host training seminars, workshops and other events to raise awareness and build the capacity of members on these issues
The goal of the Gender and Peacebuilding Working Group is to “achieve progress in translating the general commitments that have been made on gender equality and peacebuilding into concrete actions in specific situations, and to promote the active participation and recognition of the contribution of women to human security and peacebuilding.”

For more information call 613-241-3446, email cpcc@web.ca or contact Christine Vincent at christine.vincent@canadem.ca

To visit the Canadian Peacebuilding Coordinating Committee website, go to: http://www.cpcc.ottawa.on.ca/

For an extensive database of organizations worldwide working on women and peace issues, go to: http://www.peacewomen.org/contacts/conindex.html

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6. RESOURCES ON WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY: The War Within the War: Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls in Eastern Congo

In June 2002, Human Rights Watch released a 114-page report entitled The War Within the War: Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls in Eastern Congo. The report, based on interviews with victims, witnesses and officials, documents how forces on all sides of the conflict- soldiers, combatants and police- frequently and systematically used rape and other forms of sexual violence as a weapon of war in the Rwandan-occupied areas of eastern Congo.
The report includes:
-Recommendations to the government of Rwanda, the Government of the DRC, and to the UN
-Analysis of sexual violence as a weapon of war
-A study of the responses by individuals, the community, the authorities, the international community

To see this report online go to: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/drc/
To order this report online go to: http://store.yahoo.com/hrwpubs/demrepofconw.html

For a comprehensive annotated bibliography of books, articles and analyses on women's peace theory and activities, as well as NGO position papers, reports, speeches, statements and tools for organisational building. Please go to: http://www.peacewomen.org/resources/resindex.html

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7. CALENDAR EVENTS FOR PEACEWOMEN

1325 Training Workshop at Women and Globalization Conference
October 5th, 2002, Guadalajara, Mexico
At the Women and Globalization Conference sponsored by the Association of Women in Development (AWID), women from the WILPF sections in Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador and the US will be giving a workshop entitled “Women and Peacemaking: Implementing UN Resolution 1325.” For more information contact: forum@awid.org
We hope to include feedback from this workshop in an upcoming newsletter.

UN Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders
October 6-9, 2002, Geneva
Hundreds of women spiritual and religious leaders will meet for 3 days at the UN’s Geneva offices to forge a plan of action for this new global peace initiative that will bring together women from religion, business and government. For more information go to: http://www.millenniumpeacesummit.org/wcw1.html

Women for Afghan Women’s Second Annual Conference
October 19, 2002, 9-5:30pm, Barnard College/Colombia University New York City
The Second Annual Conference of Women for Afghan Women is entitled “Afghan Women Report: Achievements and Challenges One Year After Bonn.” The conference includes a keynote speech by Suhaila Siddiqui, Minister of Health in Afghanistan. For more information go to: www.womenforafghanwomen.org

The International Criminal Court: The US Attack and Gender Justice
October 21, 2002, 6-7:15pm, Graduate Center of the City University of New York
The Human Rights Lecture Series organized by the CUNY graduate Political Science Program, hosts a lecture by CUNY law professor Rhonda Copeland entitled “The International Criminal Court: The US Attack and Gender Justice.” The lecture is free, however, due to limited space, it is necessary to RSVP at (212) 817-8684. For more information go to: http://web.gc.cuny.edu/dept/polit

For more calendar events please visit: http://www.peacewomen.org/frame/calendar/calendar.html

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The PeaceWomen is a project of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Please visit us at http://www.peacewomen.org.

Previous 1325 PeaceWomen E-news can be found on-line at http://www.peacewomen.org/news/1325News/1325ENewsindex.html
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