Background concerning the Kosova Women’s Network and local women’s groups in Kosova:

The Kosova Women’s Network is a network of local women’s groups. This includes groups which have over ten year’s experience of community development, as well as more new groups founded since the arrival of the UN in Kosova. Members of our groups provide a variety of community services to vulnerable people, including courses, trainings, aid, psychological support as well as working on social problems affecting women and girls such as violence against women, trafficking for prostitution, low enrolment of girls in school and at University. We also work with Roma and Serbian women in Kosova by providing support and training to build their capacity to work effectively on behalf of their communities.Many of these women’s groups have been awarded international prizes and honours for their work such as in promoting women’s rights, advocating on behalf of those most repressed in the society. 11 groups were active before the war and managed to provide services to women and children in need, with little input from outside actors or the international community. All of these groups contain articulate women who well understand the realities for their communities, and who experience at first hand the effects of the international community’s role on our citizens.

REASONS FOR THIS MEMO:
This memo is written because of the adoption by the UN Security Council of S/RES/1325 concerning the role of women in peace-building and negotiations concerning peace and conflict resolution. With this resolution we are expected to hold our governments accountable. In Kosova, the government is UNMIK. Despite the fact that the UN adopted this resolution, women’s representatives and women’s groups in Kosova continue to struggle in order to have any voice or involvement in post-conflict decision making. We have been "fighting" for over three years to persuade the UN administration in Kosova and many international NGOs and international institutions, that we should be recognized as we have great experience and knowledge in peace-building and in communicating across borders and boundaries in difficult and dangerous circumstances.

Our work with groups across ethnic lines is not recognized by the UNMIK or OSCE. And our advocacy on behalf of ethnic groups in certain issues has been clearly rejected. This is because it is a local initiative, whereas UNMIK and OSCE behave as if only they have the authority to work on this and to take ownership. They don’t want initiatives independent of them and their control. They want us to believe that only with international money can we make changes. This again means, that women’s vital role in peace-building is being ignored, in order that international institutions and individuals can claim credit for actions which have far less effectiveness because they do not come out of genuine community impulses or genuine cross-ethnic contact.

In summary, the UNMIK and OSCE in Kosova, formally in writing, in reports and in speeches promotes the role of local women in decision making regarding conflict and security issues. However, our experience is that this has not been matched by any genuine action. We see a failure to invite and include us in vital meetings particularly at high level. Despite, for example, that local women’s groups are the strongest and most committed part of NGO organizing in Kosova, we were not invited to meet with Kofi Annan when he met with civil society groups when he first visited Kosova in October ‘99. We were able to attend only because a member of OSCE got us in at the last moment.(She was dismissed from her job the next day for bringing us in the meeting). When he visited Kosova this year, we were invited only for the reception on his honour. No chance to talk to him face to face.

Last year in June, when the Delegation of the Security Council visited Kosova, UNMIK didn’t plan for the delegation to meet with women’s groups, which reflected that all the UN’s resolutions about the role of women in peace and post-conflict decision making, are nothing more than lip service. If it wasn’t for the Ambassador’s persistence to meet with us, (Mr. Anwarul Karim Chowdury, Head of Delegation) which we highly appreciate, we would have no chance to give any of our views face to face.
Despite all these meetings with UN High Representatives, UNMIK continues to ignore women’s vital role in peace-building.
We really hope and expect that you will hold accountable UNMIK concerning the role of women in peace-building, because of the adoption by the UN Security Council of S/RES/ 1325.

The standards for the final status of Kosova:

Dear Delegation of the Security Council, we were invited and had the honour to be present at the reception on your honour last night and we heard your valuable speech, Mr. Ambassador.
You warned us that we have to work toward multiethnic future of Kosova, as one of the standards for the final status of Kosova.
You will be surprised to know that despite the terrible war in Kosova, we started very soon after the war to work with other ethnic groups in Kosova, including Serbs. But as I mentioned above, UNMIK and OSCE didn’t support local initiatives on peace-building.

We, as Womens Network, helped in trainings and supporting these ethnic groups.

Whenever we asked OSCE for the transport of the Serbian women, they refused to do so, because it was NOT their initiative. So many times, we drove these women back and forth with the help of the Swedish Organisation Kvinna till Kvinna, who belives in the peace building process done by the local initiatives. I need to say, that the way OSCE and UNMIK work is not making easier our work, on the contrary, they make a bigger wall between Albanians and Serbs. Lately, by the initiative of UNIFEM, local womens NGOs, political women and women in media worked together on the National Action Plan. This group was not only Albanian women but also Serbian. The Serbian women asked from us to help them found their Network, which we did. We helped the founding of the Roma, Ashkali and the Egyptian Women’s Network, together with Kosova Open Society Foundation. There are very big positive changes in Kosova but obviously you don’t hear about them from UNMIK.

We women of Kosova belive that even more positive changes are going to be with the final status of Kosova. In this way, not only in Kosova but in the whole region is possible lasting peace.
We look forward to continued debate on these issues to ensure that women are afforded their rightful place at all levels at negotiating tables and we thank you for your time and your willingness to meet with us today

Signed
_____________________________
Ms. Igballe Rogova
Founder and Board Chair
Kosova Women’s Network
Igo@womensnetwork.org
www.womensnetwork.org
Dec.15th, 2002, Prishtina, Kosova