TURKISH CYPRIOT AND GREEK CYPRIOT WOMEN “IMAGINING A POST-SOLUTION CYPRUS: THE GENDER PERSPECTIVE…”

March 24, 2003 – (Cyprus Alternative News – Cyprus) Hands Across the Divide calling on negotiators for "gender perspective" "All the inhabitants of Cyprus want a solution NOW but to be viable the solution needs to take into consideration respect of the human rights of all of all and a balance of both the rights of the two communities and the sexes. With this final window of opportunity facing the Cyprus peace negotiators, we call on all the parties involved to include the perspective and the rights of 51% of the population. Please also note that we, both as women and as members of 'Hands Across the Divide' are determined to play a role in the reconciliation process in a post- solution Cyprus, to continue what so many of us have been doing all these years..."

In a letter to all parties involved in the Cyprus conflict, the only joint women's NGO in Cyprus, "Hands Across the Divide" called for "gender perspective".

In a paper developed in three workshops and presented at an international conference at Intercollege on the 6th of March 2004, Cypriot women, together are "Imagining a post-solution Cyprus: the gender perspective" and looking at different areas of life from security to demilitarization, from politics to family life and are putting forward what sort of measures must be taken for not only balancing the rights of the two communities but also of the sexes.
Hands Across the Divide sent the paper to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and to his representative Alvaro de Soto, to the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, G_nther Verheugen, to the President of Cyprus Tassos Papadopulos as well as the Turkish Cypriot leaders Rauf Denktash and Mehmet Ali Talat. They also sent their perspective to the guarantor powers Turkey, Greece and the UK. They also sent the paper to Thomas Weston, the special representative of the US on Cyprus.

In their "gender perspective" while thinking of a "post-solution Cyprus", the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot women together look at "Political and Legislative Structures", "Economy, Employment and Training", "Security, Militarism and Violence", "The Family, Everyday Life and Community" and "Education, Media and Culture", listing the concrete measures to be taken in order to ensure gender equality and as well as a balance among the two communities.

LETTER TO ALL

In their letter addressed to all sides involved in the current negotiations proccess, the women say:

"The members of this group took the bold initiative of forming this NGO long before the "partial opening" of the checkpoints, during a period when even meetings among Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots were a "taboo". Even then we dared to think of working
together within a unitary structure.

'Hands Across the Divide'' has been active throughout the negotiations, including doing street action, flying doves, writing letters to all parties involved, sending postcards from around the world in order to convey the uncompromising desire for peace of all Cypriot women, regardless of their ethnicity, social and political as well as class background.

With this document, 'Hands Across the Divide' is daring to envision a Cyprus after a solution.
The ideas included in this document we believe are creative and 3-dimensional and bring to the forefront yet AGAIN that in the peace process and negotiations whose final goal is a viable and long lasting solution for all the people of Cyprus, women and the gender perspective are sadly missing.

All the inhabitants of Cyprus want a solution NOW but to be viable the solution needs to take into consideration respect of the human rights of all and a balance of both the rights of the two communities and the sexes.

With this final window of opportunity facing the Cyprus peace negotiators, we call on all the parties involved to include the perspective and the rights of 51% of the population.

Please also note that we, both as women and as members of 'Hands Across the Divide' are determined to play a role in the reconciliation process in a post- solution Cyprus, to continue what so many of us have been doing all these years."

From: http://www.handsacrossthedivide.org/index.php?section=newslist