NGO Working Group on Women Peace and Security
Resolution 1325: Two Years On Report
October 31, 2002

NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security Coordinator:
Indira Kajosevic
777 UN Plaza, 6th Floor
New York, New York 10017 USA
Tel. 1 718 626 2681
indira@peacewomen.org

Hague Appeal for Peace
C/o IWTC, 777 UN Plaza, 3rd Floor, New York , NY 10017 USA
Ph: 1 212 687 2623, Fax: 1 212 661 2704
Email: hap@haguepeace.org

International Alert
Dolby House, 346 Clapham Road, SW9 9AP, United Kingdom
Ph: 011 44 207 793 8383, Fax: 011 44 207 793 7975
Email: njohnston@international-alert.org

International Women's Tribune Center
777 UN Plaza, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10017, USA
Ph: 1 212 687 8633, Fax: 1 212 661 2704
Email: iwtc@iwtc.org

Women's Caucus for Gender Justice
P O Box 3541, Grand Central Post Office, New York, NY 10163 USA
Ph: 1 718 626 2681, Fax: 1 718 626 3528
Email: caucus@iccwomen.org

Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children
122 East 42nd Street, New York NY 10168, USA
Ph: 1 212 551 3063, Fax: 1 212 551 3180
Email: info@womenscommission.org

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
777 UN Plaza, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10017, USA
Ph: 1 212 682 1265, Fax: 1 212 286 8211
Email: wilpfun@igc.org

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Highlights of Actions & Initiatives Involving Governments and Intergovernmental Bodies 3

Intergovernmental Bodies
African Union 3
European Parliament 3
Inter-Congolese Dialogues 4
International Criminal Court and ICTY 6
Southern African Development Community 7
World Health Organization 7

Governments
Afghanistan 7
Canada 8
Egypt 8
Ghana 9
Senegal 9
United Kingdom 9
United States 9

Highlights of Actions and Initiatives of NGOs and Individuals
Women in Colombia 11
East Timor 11
The Middle East 12
Judgment of the Tokyo Tribunal 2000 13
Women, Peacebuilding and Constitution-Making 14
Dialogue Between Academics, Activists and UN Officials 14
Justice and Accountability and the ICC 15
AWID’s 9th International Forum 17
World Women’s Security Council 18

Activities and Initiatives of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security
Working Group Activities 19
Member Activities 21
Chronological Listing of Other News and Highlights Relating to Women’s Activisms 29

Annex
Statements to Security Council
Jamila (Afghanistan) ii
Haxhere Veseli (Kosovo) iv
Natercia Godinho-Adams (East Timor) vi
NGO Working Group viii
CAFOB xi
NGO Working Group xiv
Angelina Atyam (Uganda) xvii
Gila Svirsky (Israel) xx
Teesta Setalvad (India) xxii
Sabine Sabimbona (Burundi) xxviii

Declarations, Resolutions and Statements
The Nairobi Declaration xxxi
The Brussels Proclamation (Afghan Women’s Summit) and Declaration of Solidarity xxxiii
Statement of Cora Weiss xxxix
AWID Statement (Iraq) xl
Memorandum from Women’s Organizations of Sri Lanka and Proposed Plan of Action xli
Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace, and Security
Two Years On

Introduction

The Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) Working Group on Women, Peace, and Security was formed in 1999 to advocate for the first open session and subsequent resolution on women, peace and security of the United Nations Security Council. The group includes the Hague Appeal for Peace, International Alert, the International Women's Tribune Center, the Women's Caucus for Gender Justice, the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. These non-governmental organizations work with UN departments, supportive member states, and networks of local and regional women’s NGO’s towards the advancement and implementation of Resolution 1325.

Unlike most Security Council Resolutions, 1325 has a constituency of active organizations and individuals that know and quote its clauses and expect its full implementation. These groups and individuals have pooled their efforts, networks and expertise to spread the good news about the international commitments enshrined in Security Council Resolution 1325, and will continue to work towards ensuring its full implementation.

Since October 2000, however, many opportunities have been missed that could have made a lasting impact on women affected by war – opportunities to include greater representation of women in high level decision-making on conflict transformation, peace, and security matters, in peace negotiations, and in conflict prevention. Women’s experiences are a valuable but overlooked early warning indicator of conflict. But the officially recognized international peace and security bodies and mechanisms do not adequately or systematically incorporate the information that women working on peace and security generate regularly, not to mention their talents and energies in the ‘official’ modes of negotiation and resolution.

There have, however, been some notable advances since the historic unanimous adoption of the Security Council Resolution on Women, Peace and Security – advances that offer encouragement and point towards the type of action needed for fuller implementation of Resolution 1325.
In October 2001 the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace, and Security produced One Year On, an annotated compilation of activities, initiatives, publications and decisions taken since October 2000 by the UN system, governments and non-governmental organizations. This year’s compilation, Two Years On, is intended to supplement One Year On (available on-line at http://www.peacewomen.org/un/UN1325/since1325.html).

Unlike the earlier counterpart, it does not attempt to detail the activities and initiatives related to Resolution 1325 that have taken place within the UN system since these are the subject of the Secretary-General’s Report requested by Resolution 1325 and submitted to the Security Council in October 2002. Two Years On concentrates on the work involving governments and inter-governmental bodies outside the UN system or those related to the UN that would not be detailed in the Secretary-General’s Report. This compilation is most concerned with highlighting the breadth and depth of the work of non-governmental organizations and individuals who have consistently endeavored to identify alternatives to war and advance the cause of real peace despite the persistent marginalization of their efforts.

We note, however, that not all organizations or individuals have access to the media or internet to document their peacebuilding activities and neither is it regarded as a priority in the face of day-to-day survival emergencies in conflict zones. Therefore, we make no claim that the items in this report represent the actual extent of the work women and civil society organizations are doing all over the world to promote peace.

As an ongoing work in progress, this annotated listing of activities and initiatives will continue to be developed and will seek to monitor, complement, and build on the work of the UN and the substance of the Secretary-General’s Report. These updates will appear on www.peacewomen.org in an effort to provide a sense of the activities, initiatives, publications, and decisions taken since October 2000, as well as background and sources of further information.

A number of high activity focus areas have been high-lighted in this resource document, which covers the period October 2001- October 2002. These include developments and activities relating to:
ß Afghanistan
ß The African Union
ß The International Criminal Court
ß The Middle East
ß The Inter-Congolese Dialogues

In this report, we have included an annex which contains key declarations and statements made by civil society peacebuilders and women’s organizations in support of the advancement of the implementation of Resolution 1325 in UN and member state actions. We hope you find this report useful and affirmative. If you have additions and updates, comments please send them to info@peacewomen.org.

Highlights of Actions and Initiatives Involving Governments and Intergovernmental Bodies

Intergovernmental Bodies

African Union

African Union: Where Are the Women?
The Heads of States Summit of the Organization of African Unity formally launched the African Union in Durban, South Africa, on 19 July 2002. Gender equality had been given high priority in both the African Union (AU) charter and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) principles but at its inaugural session all the African leaders present at the International Convention Centre in Durban were men. http://www.sabcnews.com/africa/southern_africa/0,1009,38230,00.html
"The relative absence of women at this meeting does not augur well for democracy on our continent," said Frene Ginwala, South Africa’s parliamentary speaker. At the insistence of women parliamentarians, members of the AU decided to add a provision to a Protocol requiring the appointment of five women commissioners from Africa’s five regions. In addition, the women said, at least one woman from every country should be represented in the proposed pan-African parliament, one of 17 institutions of the AU. Ginwala pressed their case further by suggesting that all five members of the AU's Peace and Security Council -- intended to help curb continental conflict -- should be women "because women don't make war". http://allafrica.com/stories/200208010001.html European Parliament

Palestinian and Israeli Women in the European Parliament
December 4, 2001 - Two women active in Palestinian and Israeli organizations working towards peace and dialogue and in women's issues spent 3 months with the European Parliament as guests of the GUE/NGL Group. The purpose of their visit was to provide members of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Union with updated information on current events. These included the situation of women and the work being done by women’s organizations in Palestine and Israel, the efforts to negotiate a comprehensive and just peace in the Middle East, the role of the European Union in the region, and violations of human rights.
http://www.peacewomen.org/news/oldnews/pparliament.html

Inter-Congolese Dialogues

According to article 19 of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement of 1999: "On the coming into force of the Agreement, the Government of the DRC, the armed opposition, namely the RCD and MLC as well as the unarmed opposition shall enter into an open national dialogue. These inter-Congolese political negotiations involving les forces vives shall lead to a new political dispensation and national reconciliation in the DRC. The inter-Congolese political negotiations shall be under the aegis of a neutral facilitator to be agreed upon by the Congolese parties." The first significant outcome of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, after the assassination of Laurent Kabila, was the publishing on 4 May 2001 on a Declaration of Principles, much of which reiterated content already included in the Lusaka agreement.
Sir Ketumile Masire, Botswana's former President was the Facilitator of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue. He urged the participation of women. The Security Council heard this message directly from the Facilitator. The last sessions of the dialogues were held in December 2001 in Abuja, Nigeria and in October 15-19, 2001 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and again from February to April 19 2002 in Sun City, South Africa. Kofi Annan sent strong messages of encouragement, as did the Security Council.
As the political actors were not able to come to agreement on a durable solution, informal dialogues reconvened in July 2002 under the mediation of President Mbeki and Deputy President Zume of South Africa. The Presidents of DRC and Rwanda seem to have reached a mutual agreement that marks the beginning of the end of war in the DRC.
In August 2002, the UN and South Africa, in cooperation with Masire, established a joint secretariat to work closely together to oversee and verify the implementation of the commitments made by both parties and effectively implement the peace accords.

Women Advocating for Resolution 1325 in the Democratic Republic of Congo
The accomplishments of women in the DRC towards implementation of Resolution 1325 described below 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 Aningina Tshefu Bibiane from the DRC, 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, see Annex or go to: http://www.peacewomen.org/campaigns/featured/drc/NAIROBI%20DEC.html)
2. Women distributed copies of 1325 and the Nairobi Declaration (See Annex) 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).
See http://www.peacewomen.org/news/1325News/issue10.html for more information.

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 received the translated copies of 1325 and the declaration and began strategizing about how to disseminate the information within DRC.

International Criminal Court

Rome Statute Enters into Force
After obtaining the 60th ratification on April 11, 2002, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) entered into force on July 1, 2002 marking the moment at which the future court’s jurisdiction over genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity takes effect. The Rome Statute codifies rape and other forms of sexual and gender violence as among the gravest crimes of concern to the international community. The Rome Statute is also innovative in its attention t the protection and participation of victims and witnesses in the process, its capacity to award reparations and the its mandates concerning women and gender expertise in the Court.
http://www.peacewomen.org/news/july/icctoday.html

Fair Representation of Women Must Be Taken into Account in ICC Elections
At the first meeting of the ICC Assembly of States Parties Court, delegates adopted a set of rules which ensure that the elections of judges will be the first elections in an international tribunal subject to minimum voting requirements for women. The nomination process opened on 9 September and closes on 30 November with the first elections of judges and the prosecutor scheduled for February 2003. It is expected that the Court will be functioning sometime in mid-2003.
http://www.ips.org/ips/TVE.NSF/vwTVEbyData/5C3C50DF1894203C80256C2E0014A5FB?OpenDocument

International Criminal Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia
First Conviction for Sexual Enslavement Confirmed by Appeals Chamber
On 12 June, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia issued its confirmation of the Trial Chamber’s judgment in The Prosecutor v. Kunarac, Kovac and Vukovic. The judgment in the case which is also known as "Foca" was historic in that it dealt with sexual enslavement for the first time in an international tribunal. The trial chamber judgment also clarified the status of rape as a crime under customary international law.
The decision was issued just months after the release of the judgment of the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal Against Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery in December. The judgment of the "people’s tribunal" dealt extensively and in detail with the state responsibility of Japan as well as individual criminal responsibility of named defendants for the system of sexual enslavement organized by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. It is estimated that more than 200,000 women from throughout Asia were forced into sexual slavery. The post-World War II tribunal established to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the war did not address the crimes against the former comfort women.
From April 1992 to February 1993 at least, the area of Foca was the scene of an armed conflict. Non-Serb civilians were killed, raped or otherwise mistreated as a direct consequence of that armed conflict. Kunarac, Kovac and Vukovic also participated in this campaign which sought, inter alia, to rid the area of Foca of its non-Serb inhabitants. One of the targets of the campaign were the Muslim civilians, women in particular. They were detained in various centres where the conditions of hygiene were intolerable and where they were subjected to many acts of physical violence, including multiple rapes.

Southern Africa Development Community

30 Percent of Women Into Political Structures by 2005
October 7, 2002 - (PAMBAZUKA NEWS) The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) has planned for a 30 per cent representation of women to be in political and decision-making structures by 2005. http://allafrica.com/stories/200209300384.htmlWorld Health Organization

Report Indicates Gender-Related Violence is Global
October 3rd, 2002 - An unprecedented United Nations report on violence and health is expected to be a powerful tool for advocates wishing to improve their nations' responses to domestic and sexual violence with new legislative and health care policies. http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1059

Governments

Afghanistan

Afghanistan was seen by many as an ultimate test case for the implementation of 1325. Though the conflict has been complex and long term the focus on Afghanistan post September 11th 2001 has renewed the international peacebuilding focus on the country. There is commendable work being done on the ground, but the need remains to maintain the commitment of the international community to support Afghanistan's reconstruction and development.
Afghan women, crossing the divides of the conflict, articulated clear recommendations in the Brussels Declaration adopted at the Afghan Women Leader’s Summit held from December 4-5, 2001 in Brussels, Belgium. In response to a request from women of Afghanistan for support and solidarity, the European Women's Lobby, Equality Now, V-Day, the Center for Strategic Initiatives of Women, and The Feminist Majority organized the event. The Summit was held at the European Commission in Brussels in collaboration with the Gender Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and UNIFEM. Fifty Afghan women leaders, broadly representative of women in Afghanistan, took part in the Summit, which aimed to help bring the voices of Afghan women into the current international political discourse, ensuring that their message is heard. Yet, their commitment to participate in the reconstruction process in their country has been thwarted, in large part on account of insufficient resource distribution and insecurity in areas outside Kabul. http://www.equalitynow.org/afghan_womens_summit/index.html

Call for Support for Women's Ministry of Afghanistan
(January 2002) Despite promises of U.S. and UN support, one month into the six-month term of Afghanistan's interim government, the Women's Ministry, headed by long time women's rights leader Dr. Sima Samar, had been given neither an office nor funding to hire staff or to initiate programs. Women’s groups around the world worked to raise awareness and find ways to help the Women’s Ministry overcome the obstacles.
See http://capwiz.com/fmf1/issues/alert/?alertid=73281 and http://capwiz.com/fmf1/issues/alert/?alertid=73973.

Afghan Commission to Establish Loya Jirga Will Have 3 Women
(January 28, 2002) – Afghanistan’s interim government leader, Hamid Karzai, announced that there would be three women in the 21-member commission he selected to help establish the country’s loya jirga.
See http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=6101

Afghan Women’s Ministry Leads International Women’s Day Events
(March 7, 2002) - From March 5-7, sixty women participants in the Afghan Women’s Consultation held meetings hosted by the Afghan Women’s Ministry in cooperation with United Nations agencies and the Afghan Interim Authority.
See http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=6378

Canada

Gender and Peace Keeping Training Course
23 May 2002 - Members of the Canadian Committee on Women, Peace and Security: Minister Bill Graham announced at a plenary meeting of the Canadian Committee on Women, Peace and Security on 30 April that the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs along with the UK Department for International Development have developed an online training course on gender for military and civilian personnel involved in peace support operations. The website is http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/genderandpeacekeeping/.

Egypt

Egypt Hosts Conference on Women's Role in Promoting Peace
September 24, 2002 - Egyptian first lady Suzanne Mubarak opened a three-day conference Saturday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh on women's role in promoting peace and tolerance. The meeting was criticized, however, for the absence of Israeli participants. To read the message sent by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, go to: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2002/sgsm8396.doc.htm
http://www.unfoundation.org/unwire/util/display_stories.asp?objid=29100

Ghana

Two-Day Workshop on the Situation of Women and Children
July 12, 2002 - The Ministry of Women and Children Affairs hosted a two-day workshop on the situation of women and children in the country. The theme of the workshop "Promoting Gender Mainstreaming and Children's Rights Protection in Ghana" had the objective of creating a good working relationship between the ministry and the media to help educate the public on the harm of gender imbalances.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200207090824.html

Senegal

Women to represent 30% of candidates of the 13 parties in local elections
April 30, 2002 - Women will represent 30% of candidates of the 13 Senegalese political parties during the local elections scheduled for 12 May to elect some 600 regional, municipal, and rural officials. http://www.famafrique.org/nouv2002/nouv26-04-12a.htmlUnited Kingdom
British Parliament Passes Bill to Elect More Women
February 14, 2002 - Faced with a shrinking percentage of women in the British Parliament, lawmakers are searching for ways to redress the imbalance. A recent bill would legalize a controversial approach: women-only elections.
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=816United States

Global Women's Rights Treaty Gets Second Wind
May 15, 2002 - For the first time since 1994, the U.S. Senate planned hearings on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the U.N. global women's treaty which has been ratified by 168 countries since 1979.
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/908

U.S. Launches Attack Against World’s First Permanent Criminal Court; Seeks Exemptions for Its Military Personnel and Officials
August, 2002 – On May 6, 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush officially renounced the U.S. signature of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court which effectively cleared the path for a string of tactics designed to prevent U.S. nationals from coming within the future court’s reach. In the wake of the ‘unsigning’ the treaty, the Bush administration pursued language in Security Council resolutions regarding peacekeeping missions that would exempt U.S. peacekeepers and other U.S. officials and personnel from the ICC’s jurisdiction. At the same time, the administration pursued a series of bilateral agreements with individual countries through which other governments agreed not to turn over U.S. nationals or allies to the Court.
On 12 July 2002, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1422 which essentially provided the U.S. government immunities for its personnel taking part in UN-sponsored or authorized peacekeeping missions as well as other military actions sanctioned by the UN for the period of one year. NGO’s and others opposed to the U.S. efforts, denounced the Security Council action as illegitimate under the UN Charter and in violation f the ICC Statute. See http://www.iccnow.org/html/gov_t.html#asp200209

Highlights of Actions and Initiatives of Non-Governmental Organizations and Individuals

Women in Colombia

No Turning Back: WILPF-Colombia Challenges the Colombian Government
March 8, 2002 - On the International Day of the Woman, Patricia Guerrero, Executive-Secretary of WILPF-Colombia, made an intervention concerning state-level implementation of Resolution 1325 before the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights in Bogota. Patricia spoke to the history and mandate of the resolution, and then went on to testify to the implementation over the past two years by parties within Colombia that are bound to implement the resolution. She insisted that the Colombian military spending and conduct, as well as its participation in the transnational arms market, run contrary to the maintenance of women's rights because violence against women in armed conflict is in itself an arms strategy. Colombian women, who have borne the brunt of the conflict by means of forced displacement, domestic abuse and torture, have never had their own experiences and opinions with regard to processes of prevention, reconstruction and rehabilitation taken in to account in high-level peace negotiations. The daily arduous and life-threatening work of WILPF-Colombia to secure the well-being and to affirm the dignity and voices of marginalized and displaced women and children in the cities of Cartagena, Bogota and Cundinamarca is but one testament to the resolve of local Colombian NGOs to implement the resolution, to which they are equally accountable.
See www.peacewomen.org/resources/voices/declar/intervencionporlimpal.html

WILPF Colombia calls for an end to the war
July 25, 2002 - Thousands of women from all corners of Colombia joined by international delegates converged in the capital Bogotá to attend the mass demonstrations for peace and social justice. "We are asking women from around the world to respond in international solidarity and write governmental officials in Colombia to request protection for women during this march…. Please 'hold them in the light' as they take to the streets of Bogota this July 25."
http://www.peacewomen.org/campaigns/regions/samericarib/peacemarch.htmlEast Timor

East Timorese Activist Filomena Barros Reis on a US speaking tour
January 3, 2002 - In February and March 2002, the East Timor Action Network/ U.S. held a national speaking tour with an East Timorese activist FILOMENA BARROS DOS REIS, focusing on justice and women's issues. The tour stressed the need for an international tribunal -- highlighting the fact that the ad hoc Indonesian Human Rights Court will not hear any cases of crimes of violence against women -- and aimed to educate people on issues facing East Timorese women, including meaningful inclusion in political and social processes, domestic violence, and the plight of women still trapped in Indonesian refugee camps.

A Call for Justice in East Timor
May 16, 2002 - Over 125 women representing 14 countries and 22 US states joined with the East Timor Action Network (ETAN) to urge the United Nations Security Council to establish an international tribunal for East Timor. Since 1975 when the Indonesian military illegally invaded and occupied East Timor, the country has witnessed the killing of over 200,000 people, including the brutalization of women via rape, forced marriage, and forced sterilization. (Feminist Daily News Wire)
http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=6535

The Middle East

The Coalition of Women for a Just Peace (Middle East) - Vigils for Peace
Posted December 4, 2001 - The Coalition of Women for a Just Peace organised vigils for peace in 42 cities for December 28, 2001: Adelaide, Vienna, Brussels, Montreal, Cairo, London, Paris, Privas, Aubenas, Hofgeismar, Goettingen, Cologne, Milan, Rome, Naples, Reggio Emilia, Ravenna, Padua, Verona, Torin, Dundee, Belgrade, Stockholm, Tucson, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, Santa Barbara, Sebastapol, Boulder, Hartford, Washington, DC, Chicago, Boston, St. Louis, Albuquerque, New Paltz, New York City, Philadelphia, Houston, Seattle.
http://www.peacewomen.org/news/oldnews/coalition.html

Stopping the Tanks Rolling in Ramallah
December 23, 2001 – As part of the international solidarity movement Women in Black, women activists removed one of the Israeli roadblocks which prevent Palestinian villagers going to work. The day before this incident they lay down in front of Israeli tanks rolling down the streets of Ramallah in the West Bank in order to draw attention to the 800 Palestinians killed by Israeli troops during the last year and the occupation of Palestinian land. The tanks stopped at the last minute, after firing shots in the air.

Israel-based Coalition of Women for a Just Peace
June 8, 2002 –The Israel-based Coalition of Women for a Just Peace, which includes Women in Black in Israel, marked 35 years of Israel's occupation of the territories, with a call to end the Occupation and event on June 8 in Israel.
http://www.peacewomen.org/news/June/women4peace.html

Arria Formula Meeting of the UN Security Council and Women from the Middle East
On Tuesday, 7 May 2002 the United Nations Security Council held an Arria Formula meeting requested by Equality Now, an international women’s rights organization, with Palestinian Maha Abu-Dayyeh Shamas and Israeli Terry Greenblatt. The two women, accompanied by Gloria Steinem and other supporters, jointly addressed the Security Council urging the immediate deployment of an international peacekeeping force to the region and calling for a greater role for women, and for civil society, in the peace process. Chairing the closed session, the Norwegian Ambassador to the United Nations, H.E. Mr. Ole Peter Kolby, welcomed the initiative, noting that in their extensive recent discussions on the Middle East this was the first opportunity the Security Council had had to hear the views of women from the region.
The meeting was an effort to bring meaning to Security Council Resolution 1325 affirming the importance of equal participation and the full involvement of women in all efforts in the maintenance of peace. Ms. Abu-Dayyeh Shamas and Ms. Greenblatt called for equal (50%) representation of women on all sides in the planned upcoming peace negotiations organized by the so-called Quartet (the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia). The women also urged the Security Council to take the next step and rise to the challenge of creating a means through which women can contribute formally and integrally to Middle East conflict resolution efforts, for example by creating a women’s commission of peace activists from both countries and third parties.

Judgment of the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery
On 3 December 2001, the final judgment of the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery was released in a ceremony in The Hague, the Netherlands. The release of the judgment took place a year after the People’s Tribunal was convened in Tokyo, Japan, where teams of prosecutors from eight different countries presented their cases against the state of Japan as well as key individuals for violations arising from the system of sexual enslavement of more than 200,000 women from throughout Asia during World War II, commonly referred to as the ‘comfort women’ system.
At the ceremony in The Hague, former comfort women and country prosecutors assembled to receive the judgment from the panel of four judges who had presided over the case the year before. The judges included the Hon. Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, former judge and president of the ICTY, the Hon. Carmen Argibay, a former judge from Argentina who is currently serving as an ad litem judge at the ICTY, the Hon. Willy Mutunga, a human rights advocate and expert from Kenya, and the Hon. Christine Chinkin, an international law scholar from the U.K.
The Women’s Caucus assisted the local host in the planning and coordination of the event and served as a liaison between the convenor organizations which included, the Korean Council, Violence Against Women in War Network – Japan, and the Asian Centre for Women’s Human Rights based in the Philippines.
For more information see: http://www.iccwomen.org/tokyo/index.htm Women, Peace Building and Constitution-Making
The International Centre for Ethnic Studies will be hosted an International Conference on ‘Women, Peace Building and Constitution Making’ in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 2nd – 5th May 2002. The conference drew women activists from conflict areas including Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Guatemala and Northern Ireland. It also drew leading academics and specialists who have researched the theme of women and peace. The conference sought to create a platform for the sharing of experiences and strategies amongst women, who are either experts in the subject, and/or have played and active role in the peace building and constitution making process of their respective countries. The objectives of the conference were:
Ý To identify and articulate the effect of war on women and the gender specific needs of women during times of war.
Ý To contribute to an understanding of women’s roles in peace building and constitution making;
Ý To develop strategies for supporting, developing and enhancing women’s peace building and constitution making capacities at multiple levels;
Ý To improve the cross-regional and cross-cultural exchange on the subject;
The International Centre for Ethnic Studies firmly believes that the further inclusion of women in the peace building and constitution making process in Sri Lanka holds potential for achieving peace and reconciliation in the context of its own protracted ethnic conflict. With this in mind, this conference will bring together women from all walks of life in Sri Lanka, ranging from academics, to officials in government ministries, to women peace workers at the grassroots level. It is hoped that this conference will enrich and invigorate their own work, while laying the foundation for the creation of an international network of women who are committed to working on issues of peace building and constitutional reform. (See Annex for a series of recommendations from women’s organizations in Sri Lanka for the peace undertaken between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE with the Norwegian government.)

Dialogue between Academics, Activists and UN Officials
April 11, 2002 – Security Council Resolution 1325 has sparked many conversations, meetings and publications. The UN Office of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom organized a day of conversation that was held at UN HQ on April 11, 2002, bringing together academics, activists and UN officials focused on the
interpretation and implementation of this resolution. A celebratory mood was already in the air on that Thursday morning as the official depositing of the 60th ratification of the International Criminal Court occurred. Conference Room 4 of the United Nations was filled, on April 11th, with students from Columbia, Fordham, New York University, New School University, Queens College, CUNY, Hunter College, Baruch College, Rutgers University, Jay John College and Brookyln College. Participants of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Prepcom and individuals from various UN departments such as DPKO, DAW, and DPA were present. The morning session on Women, Peace and Security highlighted the importance of gender becoming not just an occasional issue, but a routine component of all processes and institutions of the UN, academia and activist efforts. The panelists all brought to the table a different way to pursue this. Participants in this discussion included Ann Tickner, from Center for International Studies at the University of Southern California; Jane Connors of the UN's Division for the Advancement of Women; Cynthia Enloe, feminist scholar. The afternoon session devoted to disarmament and focused on the strengths women can bring to disarmament issues. Discussants included Betty Reardon, peace activist and scholar; Rebecca Johnson, Acronym Institute; Carol Cohn, from Wellesley College. Later in the day, a panel was devoted to discussion of the International Criminal Court, the treaty of which had entered into force on this day, and feminist approaches to international justice. Participants included, Rhonda Copelon, Professor and Director of the International Women’s Human Rights Law Clinic at the City University of New York School of Law; Maria Solis, lawyer and journalist from Guatemala; and Pam Spees, Program Director of the Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice.
The dialogue and exchange between the panelists and the audience, many of whom proved to have significant expertise and insights, was a key part of the day.
The audience played an extremely important role by bringing to the discussion of gender, issues of power distribution, race, and North versus South.

Justice and Accountability and the ICC Justice and Accountability Conference
In conjunction with the release of the Tokyo Tribunal judgment, the Women’s Caucus co-organized a conference on Justice and Accountability which was intended to look at many of the pressing international legal issues facing the international community in the wake of September 11th. The conference was held from 4-6 December 2001 in The Hague and drew approximately 80 participants from different parts of the world, including many conflict areas. Some participants came from Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Yugoslavia and Sri Lanka.
The conference included panels which focused on issues related to fundamentalisms and women’s human rights, the state of international law in the wake of September 11th, reparations and assistance to victims with links to the history of the former comfort women, among others. ICC Entry Into Force Discussion
The Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice hosted a panel discussion and brainstorming session entitled, "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the International Criminal Court But Didn’t Have Time To Ask," on 1 July 2002, the day the ICC Statute entered into force.
Participants on the first panel included: Rhonda Copelon, Director of the International Women’s Human Rights Law Clinic and Legal Advisor to the Women’s Caucus; Sindi Medar-Gould, Executive Director of Baobab for Women’s Human Rights in Nigeria; Arline Pacht of the International Association of Women Judges; and Jayne Stoyles, Program Director of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court. The panel was moderated by Pam Spees, Program Director of the Women’s Caucus. The participants discussed the current status and timeline for the establishment of the ICC and work being done and international, regional and national levels.
Participants in the brainstorming session included: Charlotte Bunch, Director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership; Isha Dyfan, Program Director of the Human Security and Peacebuilding Program of the International Women’s Tribune Centre; Merav Datan, Director of the UN Office of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; and Kathy Hall-Martinez, of the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy. The panel was moderated by Maria Solis, of the Myrna Mack Foundation and La Cuerda in Guatemala. Panelists discussed ways in which the ICC is relevant to their work in the arenas of women’s human rights, reproductive rights, disarmament and gender-mainstreaming in peace processes. They identified obstacles and strategies to incorporating work around the ICC other mechanisms of accountability at the international level more fully into the advocacy and raised questions about future strategies.
A report will be issued based on the discussions at the event and will be made available through the Caucus website, www.iccwomen.org.

Women on the Court Now!
In September, the Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice launched the ‘Women on the Court Now!’ campaign to raise awareness about the imminent establishment of the International Criminal Court and the first elections of judges and prosecutor. The record of women in different legal institutions at the international level has been dismal. Currently, there is only one woman judge serving at both the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Three women are serving on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and no women are serving on the 21-member International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Further, the recently released list of candidates for election to the ICJ does not contain even one woman candidate.
The ICC will be the first international institution of the 21st century, indeed of the new millennium, established by multi-lateral treaty and is the first of its kind. It is time, finally, that women are accorded a presence in such institutions on an equitable footing. In order to help raise awareness among women’s groups of the need to impact the nomination processes at the international level, the Women’s Caucus developed a webpage dedicated to tracking the nomination process and which provides a series of informational materials and tools. In addition, the Women’s Caucus has circulated a series of campaign communiqués via email to provide updates about the nomination process and strategies and obstacles.
The nomination period closes on November 2002 and the first elections of the judges and prosecutor will be held in February 2003.

AWID's 9th International Forum
With some 1,300 attending from 105 countries around the globe, the Ninth Forum of the Association of Women’s Rights in Development, which was held from 3-6 October 2002 in Guadalajara, Mexico, provided the setting for unparalleled opportunities to develop strategies, share ideas, build skills and provide support for all to advance gender equality and social justice. The forum centered around the theme "How can we reinvent globalization to further the rights of all women?" The workshops and plenaries considered not only the economic, but also the political, social, ecological and cultural implications of globalization. Together participants strategized for viable alternatives to the unsustainable, undemocratic and exploitative forms of globalization. We launched the "Globalize This! Women's Rights in Development Campaign" and more than anything reinforced global solidarity for economic justice and women's rights.
During more than 150 content-rich workshops, plenaries, skills-building sessions and debates, participants analyzed current approaches to economic and political change, and strategized on how to ensure their ideas are translated into concrete actions in the years to come. The conference organizers sought to look at globalization through feminist eyes and engage in thought-provoking debates.
The AWID Forum focused on five cross-cutting themes that reflect some of the most urgent issues for women's rights and social justice today including: women’s rights and economic change, young women and leadership, gender equality and new technologies, feminist organizational development, and women’s rights and the new global order. At the end of the Forum, a statement against the U.S.-led military invasion of Iraq was issued for supporters to sign on. (See Annex for a copy of the AWID statement)

World Women’s Security Council
September 15, 2002 - On the occasion of the anniversary of the terror attacks of 11 September, a "World Women’s Security Council in Foundation" was announced at an international conference in Berlin. At the end of the conference, which was organized Heinrich Boell Foundation and Women’s Action Sheherazade, all 60 participants from Germany, Afghanistan, Iran, Slovenia, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Israel, Palestine and other countries voted unanimously for its foundation.
The participants denounced the fact that wars are plotted over their heads – inside or outside the UN Security Council – and the fact that male diplomats and military officials dare to decide the world’s fate. They proclaimed the need for a new concept of security policy that was not based on the imagined security needs of nations but on the real security needs of living people. As the former women’s minister of Afghanistan, Dr. Sima Samar, who supports the idea of a "World Women’s Security Council", said during the conference: "Security is the first priority of women in Afghanistan. For true freedom in Afghanistan, security is essential. Without security, no human being can be free. Only with security can we win the restoration of women’s rights, peace and democracy. At the same time, security is not possible without women’s rights. They go hand in hand."
The participants of the conference agreed that the World Women’s Security Council should be established as an NGO and not as an additional UN body. Within the structure of UN hierarchy and its diplomatic and qualified language it would not be able to fulfill one of its most important tasks: the critical monitoring of the UN Security Council.
Another task of the World Women’s Security Council would lie in the organisation of future workshops that would offer women from conflict regions a space to reflect and envision future forms of civil life. A third task would be to create international awareness for the persistent - as well as persistently ignored - peace work of many NGO’s. The initiators of Women’s Action Sheherazade suggested that female writers, artists and scientists would be invited as spokeswomen of the World Women’s Security Council. Other participants referred to the already existing model of an African World Women’s Security Council, the "African Women Committee for Peace and Development" made up of five women from governments, five from NGO’s, and five women known for their peace-keeping work. For further information see www.women-security-council.org and www.glow-boell.de, key word ‘conference’.

Activities and Initiatives of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security

With the adoption of Resolution 1325 in October 2000, the group continues to work towards its implementation and to monitor and raise its profile among policy makers and
practitioners worldwide. It is now seeking further funding to support the continuation of its collaborative and effective work.
The role of NGOs in the buildup to the passing of Security Council Resolution 1325 was critical. Since 1998 when the Commission on the Status of Women reviewed the chapter in the Beijing Platform for Action on Women in Armed Conflict, the women's peace community has been working together to advocate for women to be recognized in peace and security policies and to participate as equals in processes that lead to peace in the international community and their own societies.

Key areas of activity of the working group include:
ÿ Targeted interventions to promote 1325 and undertake advocacy and activities for its implementation and monitoring
ÿ Identifying and promoting recommendations and mechanisms to ensure the implementation of 1325
ÿ Lobbying Security Council members to ensure that gender concerns are reflected in relevant agenda items and decision-making
ÿ Promoting and facilitating 'Arria Formulas' where women from areas of conflict provide direct input to the Security Council
ÿ Creating a database of strong partners in each region and integrate their input into the UN system
ÿ Assessing progress of key UN institutions in integrating gender into their agendas, priorities, policies and programs
ÿ Monitoring and reporting on financial contributions to gender components of projects and programs
ÿ Promoting effective implementation of relevant clauses of the International Criminal Court
ÿ Monitoring the integration of gender in peace support operations and accountability of peacekeepers and recommend appropriate strategies and action
ÿ Organizing events (seminars, roundtables, trainings, etc) to continually promote women, peace and security issues
ÿ Collaborating closely with women's organizations in the field to build a bridge between their work and the United Nations

Activities and Initiatives over the last year include:

Commission on the Status of Women

At the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in March 2002, the Working Group and member organizations held 12 events to raise awareness and develop strategies on issues in 1325. These included panels on gender equality and refugee settings, gender and peace support operations, media perspectives on women, peace and security, war widows, discussions on rape as a weapon in war, gender justice and the training of over 100 CSW delegates on the implementation of 1325.
In addition, the Working Group facilitated meetings between high-level UN officials and women from Afghanistan, East Timor, Nepal and the African Women's Caucus. Five thousand copies of a brochure on 1325 and its relation to the themes of the CSW - poverty and environmental degradation, were also distributed.
A reception in April 2002, which brought together academics, activists and UN officials to foster communication and exchange on women and peace, gender justice, disarmament, and other issues related to 1325. It also provided an opportunity to celebrate the ratification of the International Criminal Court.
Continuing to push for the participation of women's organizations
and concerns in Security Council Visits.
The group brought together UN officials, women's organizations media, and mission staff to ensure women's input into the Security Council visit to signatory countries of the Lusaka accords in April 2002. A report on this process was widely distributed which outlined recommendations and mechanisms to ensure women's participation in future visits.
Developing strategies with other NGOs, missions and UN personnel to effectively mainstreaming gender in the Department of Peace Keeping Operations (DPKO).
Information has been gathered from women on the ground and UN officials to show the potential impact of a gender unit at DPKO and the group has begun mobilizing
NGOs to push for financial allocations to make this unit a reality, as mandated by Resolution 1325. A member of the advisory panel for the development of the Secretary General's report on Women, Peace and Security, as well as giving ongoing input to the
UNIFEM independent export report on the same subject.

Arria Formula Meeting, October 2001
November 3, 2001 New York, United Nations - Women peace leaders from Afghanistan, Kosovo and East Timor today spoke to Security Council Members about violations committed against women during and after war and women's role in peace negotiations and peace-keeping efforts. International experts Elisabeth Rehn, former UN Under-Secretary General, and Maha Muna from the NGO Working Group on Women, International Peace and Security also addressed Council Members at the meeting in New York. http://www.peacewomen.org/news/oldnews/scwomen.html

Arria Formula Meeting, 23 October 2002
On October 23, 2002, the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security again met with the UN Security Council in an Arria Formula Meeting. The Council heard statements from women from Uganda and Burundi in addition to a statement by the NGO Working Group presented by Indira Kajosevic, working group coordinator. The statements are available at http://www.peacewomen.org. Prior to the meeting with Council members, the NGO Working Group held a press conference at the United Nations which was hosted by the government of Chile. The Press Conference has been re-broadcast in its entirety on FIRE (Feminist International Radio Endeavor) at www.fire.or.cr.

NGO Working Group Roundtable Discussion
July 25, 2002 - The NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security held a roundtable discussion on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325. The importance of collaboration between NGOs and amplifying the voices of women into international discussions was indicated. The NGO Working Group will continue working towards a gender unit at the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) until they are successful

Member Activities*

Hague Appeal for Peace

The Hague Appeal for Peace has printed and distributed thousands of copies of Security Resolution on behalf of the Working Group. In addition, the Hague Appeal for Peace published the pamphlet, "Building a Women’s Peace Agenda" which is based on discussions at the May 1999 Hague Appeal for Peace Conference.
The Hague Appeal for Peace has published a manual for teachers, "Learning to Abolish War: Teaching Toward a Culture of Peace" in which gender equality and sensitivity are part of the definition of democracy and 1325 is included as a teaching tool. Peace Education is a participatory approach which prepares people for active engagement in democracy and includes understanding of disarmament, gender equality, human rights, protection for the environment, and non violence.

‘Necessary Targets’ and Panel Discussion on Resolution 1325
March 10, 2002 - Following a performance of "Necessary Targets" at the Variety Arts Theater, a riveting play by Eve Ensler, about "violence aimed at women as an act of war," Hague Appeal for Peace co-founder Cora Weiss led a panel discussion on resolution 1325 and its relevance to the play. Copies of the resolution were distributed to the audience. The panel was entitled "No Women, No Peace," and included former Bangladesh Ambassador, Anwarul Chowdhury; Anne S. Walker, Executive Director, International Women's Tribune Centre; Shirley Knight, Broadway and TV star who played a lead role in the play, and activists from Afghanistan and Serbia.

UN NGO/DPI Conference: No Women, No Peace
On 11 September 2002, Cora Weiss, Hague Appeal for Peace President, presented a statement at The United Nations Non-Governmental Organizations/Department of Public Information Annual Conference entitled "No Women, No Peace." (See Annex for full text of statement).

International Alert

International Alert (IA) has continued the second phase of its’ Women Building Peace Campaign over the past year through a national/regional Gender Peace Audit project and global policy work.
International Gender Peace Audit – 1325 in Practice
The Gender Peace Audit has focused on specific countries and regions over the past year - Nepal the Caucasus and Nigeria - examining the contextual situation of security and peacebuilding for women's and human rights organizations in these countries and facilitating the development of recommendations on how 1325 could potentially be used as an advocacy tool in these country and regional contexts.
From this work IA has produced three policy feasibility studies for Nepal, Nigeria and the Caucasus mapping and examining issues relating to women peace and security in each country or regional context (available on request from njohnston@international-alert.org)
National/Regional Consultations on 1325
IA has organized and facilitated with local partners three consultations on Women, Peace and Security in:
Ý Nepal (January/February 2002)
Ý Caucasus (held in Russia in March 2002)
Ý Nigeria (August 2002)
Three reports have been produced from each of these consultations (available on request from: njohnston@international-alert.org).
A follow-up regional consultation for Asia is being planned at time of writing for early 2003 to be held in Thailand. Activities have continued at a national, regional and international level as outcomes from these consultations. IA has been responsible for the international follow-up of issues raised at the consultations and local partners have been responsible for facilitating activities in their countries and regions. As an outcome of the Nepal consultation IA is also developing a broader Asia program with specific focus on the current situation in Nepal.
IA also co-facilitated with WILPF a consultation on 1325 in March 2002 organized by The Urgent Action Fund, and facilitated a training in July 2002 on international standards for empowerment in a conference organized by ISIS WICCE for a group of international participants. A report has been produced from this consultation
IA's Great Lakes Women's Peace Program have produced a report based on a workshop held in the region: Conflict Transformation in Africa: African Women's Perspectives. This exists in both French and English translation (available on request from lhucks@international-alert.org or in pdf format at www.international-alert.org).
Over 2001/2002 IA has developed an analytical framework for better understanding women's peacebuilding know how. This has been used as a tool for women to analyze the peacebuilding work they do and the motivations for getting involved, as well as looking for ways to improve and share what they do. In follow up to this a Know How Sharing Conference is being planned for the 5th-8th of November for IA's partners to share what they do as peacebuilders and learn from each other. This will be held in Oxford U.K. A publication will be produced which documents all of this work early 2003.

Global Policy Work on Women, Peace & Security
IA's global policy work focuses on cross-cutting global issues relating to Women, Peace and Security. Over the past year the two cross-cutting issues have been: Gender and Peace Support Operations and Gender and Conflict Early Warning. Since October 2001 IA has produced two in-depth research framework publications titled:
Ý Gender and Conflict Early Warning: A Framework for Action – June 2002
Ý Gender Mainstreaming in Peace Support Operations: Moving Beyond Rhetoric to Practice – July 2002 (www.womenbuildingpeace.org)
These and previous resources and publications produced have formed the basis for policy and practice related meetings with relevant UN institutions, EU institutions, Member state missions, I/NGOs, military institutions and community based organizations. Recommendations have been developed and shared in such forums and policy/practice workshops and meetings.
IA participated and provided inputs on gender and peacekeeping for the DFAIT gender awareness training in Ottawa in March 2002.

European Initiatives
In March 2002 at the Commission on the Status of Women IA organized two panel discussions on Gender and Peace Support Operations and Gender and Conflict Prevention and one workshop on Gender and Conflict Early Warning. As a member of the NGO Working Group on Women Peace and Security IA also provided training for over 100 participants at the CSW on gender and peacekeeping aspects of Resolution 1325, as well as organizing a panel discussion on Women, Peace and Security and providing inputs on Women in the Media from the Nepal context through our partner from IHRICON.
In May 2002 IA organized a European NGO coalition meeting in follow up to the European Parliament Resolution on Human Rights: Women in Afghanistan. This was done together with European Centre for Common Ground and APRODEV. An Interagency Forum meeting in the European Parliament was also organized jointly by IA and ECCG on Women, Conflict Prevention and Resolution: The role for the European Union. IA subsequently held several bi-lateral meetings with NATO to discuss recommendations relating to gender and peacekeeping.
In June 2001 IA produced an Inventory of Women and Conflict Prevention initiatives for the Council of Europe. This was used by the Council for an inter-governmental meeting on Gender in June 2002.
Prior to this in Brussels in December 2001 IA participated as a supporting organization in the Afghan Women Leaders Summit organized by Equality Now at the European Parliament. A supporting Parliamentary Resolution: Human Rights: Women in Afghanistan was produced based on the outcomes of the summit.
In March 2002 IA conducted a consultancy for the Dutch government on Women, Conflict, Peacebuilding and institutional mainstreaming.
At the invitation of the U.K Foreign and Commonwealth Office, IA has been working on inputs relating to the implementation of Resolution 1325 for the U.K presidency of the Security Council in July 2002. This culminated in the open debate on Gender and Peacekeeping on July 25th.
IA’s Women Building Peace Program has also launched its own website in 2002 giving greater detail of our gender peace audit and global policy work (www.womenbuildingpeace.org).

IA Involvement with NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security
As a member of the NGO Working Group on Women Peace and Security (NGOWG), IA has supported the interface between local women's organizations in the Great Lakes region and the Security Council Mission to the Great Lakes through the U.K chair (May 2002). A report was produced by the NGOWG covering efforts made. IA has participated as a member of the advisory group in the development of the Secretary General's report on Women Peace and Security and been requested to participate in the development of recommendations for the parallel UNIFEM report. See www.womenbuildingpeace.org for more information.

International Women’s Tribune Centre

Under IWTC's program area "Human Rights, Human Security, Women in the Peace Building process", IWTC has designed its work to engage the expertise and out reach of the global women's information and media networks to build pro-active information chains to support women in conflict zones using UNSC resolution 1325.
A panel discussion organized by IWTC during the 46th session of The Commission on the Status of Women on March 7, 2001 in New York, entitled "Women's Media strategies for Peace" was IWTC's first step toward designing a multi-phased, multi-media communications strategy for the promotion of Resolution 1325. The event brought together over thirty media women, media and communication experts, practitioners, and policy makers who identified key ways of attracting visibility of media and other information and communications outlets to promote resolution 1325, defined approaches and methods for popularizing the message in resolution1325 for women on the ground, and shared good practices for future work in this area.
The Know How Conference on the World of Women's Information was held in Kampala Uganda on 23 July 2002. IWTC used this opportunity to build on the meeting in March 2002 and to expand the constituency and ideas. IWTC organized a workshop entitled "Information in the Peace Building and Reconstruction Process: Needs and Initiatives" which looked at ways of creating information pipelines for women caught in conflict, documenting violations against women in conflict, and determining the radio's role in peace building. The outcomes of the workshop were: It created a media women's group working on implementation of resolution1325 from an information and communications perspective; The group will pursue a discussions on recommending the appointment of a rapporteur on media and war situations while making key interventions and provide feed back into Security Council's work.
ISIS WICCE International Exchange Program Institute Kampala Uganda was held on 30 July 2002. IWTC provided part of on advocacy training on implementation of 1325 at international and national levels through case studies. Over forty participants attended the institute worldwide.
On August 1, 2002 in Kenya IWTC brought together a group of peace and media NGOs, to plan a national training on resolution 1325 at the end of this year as part of its larger media strategy.
Global Nets is IWTC's electronic outreach to more than 2,500 individuals and groups world-wide. IWTC devoted six issues to women, armed conflict, and peace.
An occasional Journal of IWTC "The Tribune" which has a readership of fifteen thousand individuals and groups globally will be on the theme "women, war and peace" showcasing Resolution 1325 as one of the achievements for women and peace in the new century. The Journal will be published in October 2002. See www.iwtc.org for more information.

The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children

The Women’s Commission’s mandate is to advocate for the rights and needs of refugee, returnee and internally displaced women, adolescents and children. In implementing Resolution 1325 the organization emphasizes the need to include war-affected women as decisionmakers well before allocating seats at the peace table. For example, including women in distribution of humanitarian assistance in internally displaced and refugee camps reduces the likelihood of their exploitation. Supporting the activities of local women’s groups, many of them established in refugee camps and exile settings, is key to building capacity of civil society when they are free to return home and rebuild their communities. Women also gain leadership skills through their positions as directors of local groups. Ensuring that internally displaced women have sufficient information and can vote in national elections, is a step toward holding governments accountable to their needs. Following are some examples of Women’s Commission activities in relation to implementation of UN SC Res 1325:
1. Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Programs (Article 13). Women’s Commission Protection Partner in Sierra Leone researched and documented gaps in the national program and support provided by the international community regarding the special needs of girls who are not ex-combatants yet part of the war camp. The Women’s Commission found lack of attention to the special needs of thousands of girls who were abducted and forcibly married to combatants as bush-wives and bore their children during the civil war. When the conflict ended, they were ostracized from their communities, labeled as sympathizers with the rebels, and lacked skills and education to support themselves and their children. From November 2001, the Women’s Commission has pressed the Sierra Leone government, international agencies including the United Nations, and donor governments, to ensure that the DDR program is adjusted to meet the needs of ex-combatant as well as non ex-combatant girls. There have been positive developments as some agencies are introducing new programs and seeking solutions on how to better support these girls. Women’s Commission is continuing to monitor the situation and uses it as an example of a gap in Resolution 1325.
2. Special needs of women and girls during repatriation, resettlement, reintegration and post-conflict reconstruction. (Article 8)
ß In May 2002, the Women’s Commission monitored the participation of internally displaced Sierra Leonean women in the national elections. A report on the process including what women voted for and why, has been distributed to Sierra Leone Members of Parliament and local and international agencies to highlight how to engage displaced women in such elections and articulate the reasons why women voted. The report is being used as a benchmark for follow up with the Government of Sierra Leone to reinforce accountability in meeting the needs of these women voters.
ß In October 2002 the Women’s Commission hosted a roundtable between 15 women from the Government of Afghanistan (representing a wide range of ministries), international NGOs and UNOCHA to encourage dialogue on how international NGOs and the Afghan government can work in closer partnership to advance the reconstruction of Afghanistan, and engage the participation of Afghan women.
ß In July 2002 a photo essay was posted to our website on the needs of returnees in Kabul, Afghanistan and the increased protection problems of widows and other Afghan refugees remaining in Pakistan which are being neglected as the focus turns to Afghanistan.
ß Throughout 2002 the Women’s Commission held a series of meetings with US- based women’s rights and human rights groups, UNIFEM and others to compare notes and strategize on ways to collaboratively support the participation of Afghan women, and support women’s leadership, in the reconstruction and post conflict phase.
ß In October 2001 the Women’s Commission distributed a paper to donors and international humanitarian assistance agencies identifying local Afghan women’s groups that were key providers of humanitarian assistance and support to communities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Based on the work of our Peshawar field office, which has been supporting these groups for several years, the paper suggests ways to further support the activities of Afghan women’s groups financially and programatically. The Women’s Commission continues to update the international community on the needs of these groups as many of them are continuing operations in Pakistan, and reviving operations in Afghanistan to meet the needs of repatriating refugees and be full partners in the post-conflict reconstruction process.
3. All parties take special measures to protect women and girls from gender based violence (Article 10) and all parties to armed conflict respect the civilian nature of refugee camps (Article 12). For several years, the Women’s Commission has been pressing for an end to Uganda’s civil war. In October 2002 Ms. Angelina Atyam addressed the UN Security Council on the lack of protection given to young Ugandan girls who are being abducted by the Lords Resistance Army, a local rebel group. In-depth research by the Women’s Commission with war-affected youth in North Uganda (2002) has been followed up with intense advocacy to engage the US and other governments in pressuring Uganda to seek a peaceful solution to the 17-year crisis. The Uganda situation calls attention to the needs of refugee as well as internally-displaced women and girls and the need for the Security Council to take actions in areas beyond those that have the presence of peacekeepers.
4. Increased voluntary financial, technical and logistical support for gender-sensitive training including those undertaken by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Article 7). For ten years the Women’s Commission has been monitoring UNHCR’s guidelines on the protection of women and girls. In May 2002, the organization released a report assessing UNHCR’s policy and guidelines on the protection of Refugee Women. The assessment is based on interviews with refugees and UNHCR staff in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Pakistan and Zambia, as well as headquarters in Geneva. The assessment considers how the agency’s policy, guidelines and training have served as tools for gender sensitivity, includes lessons learned from the field in mainstreaming gender and protection, and recommends ways to move forward including the need for funding, in addressing the needs of refugee, returnee and internally displaced women and girls worldwide.
Further information on the activities of the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children is available on the web: www.womenscommission.org, or telephone in New York, USA: 212-551-3111.

PEACEWOMEN.ORG
The PeaceWomen website, an initiative of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, continues to grow, providing a large database of women's peace organizations throughout the world, an annotated bibliography on women, war and peace, as well as a bi-monthly newsletter. The 1325 PeaceWomen E-News, starting in May of 2002, is a publication designed to provide a wide range of women's voices on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325.
The PeaceWomen team describe current efforts of women on the ground, the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, Friends of Women, Peace and Security, Department of PeaceKeeping Operations (DPKO), and other relevant sources.
The 1325 news service will raise the visibility, maintain the momentum and keep all relevant parties informed of others' endeavors. The hundreds of subscribed members are encouraged to contribute any relevant information, events, or documents specifically related to Security Council Resolution 1325.

Chronological List of Other News and Highlights Relating to Women’s Activisms

October 2001 – October 2002"Women and Children in Armed Conflict" Meeting in Kinshasa
14 - 16 November 2001 - A subregional conference on the protection of women and children in armed conflict in central Africa took place in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Report of the Subregional Conference on the Protection of Women and Children in Armed Conflict in Central Africa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo is available at:
http://daccess-ods.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N01/680/34/PDF/N0168034.pdf?OpenElement

Who's Afraid of the Women in Black?
November 26, 2001 - Women in Black, a movement of international peace activists, is one of the latest targets in the FBI's witch hunt. The FBI has classified Women in Black as a potential terrorist organization for being "anti-American," and has threatened members with a grand jury investigation, according to London-based newspaper the Guardian. (By Paulette Chu - Daily Texan Columnist) http://www.peacewomen.org/news/oldnews/Women_Black-2.html

Women for Afghan Women
November 29-30, 2001 – A two-day conference in New York, "Afghan Women: Securing Our Future", the debut event of Women for Afghan Women, showcased the voices of Afghan women leaders in finding just and meaningful solutions for their nation and the world. The conference traced the history of women's rights and roles in Afghanistan for the past thirty years, examined the crisis in governance and human rights in Afghanistan, and brought together key voices to put forward realistic and visionary solutions for post-war Afghanistan. http://www.womenforafghanwomen.org

ICRC RoundTable on Women and Armed Conflict
December 13, 2001 - Eleven prominent members of civil society, representing different communities - Kosovo Albanian, Serb, Bosniac and Ashkali - met to air their views and exchange ideas on the theme "Women as positive actors in defusing violence and preventing armed conflict"http://www.peacewomen.org/news/oldnews/icrc.html

Women Energizing Mexico's Election Season
January 25, 2002 - Women in Mexico are seeking to take charge as political changes sweep the nation, running for top offices, talking about forming their own parties and openly campaigning for women's rights. http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=793

Women Exchanging Burkhas for Coats
February 10, 2002 – Women in the Afghan capital, Kabul began exchanging their all-encompassing burkhas for long coats as part of a project being run by an Afghan women’s NGO.
Seehttp://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20510&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

800 Events Promote V-Day from Antarctica to Zaire
February 14, 2002 – As part of a broad effort to fund shelters, anti-rape campaigns and women’s center, including a communications center for the new Ministry of Womens Affairs in Afghanistan, the creater of the "The Vagina Monologues," Eve Ensler coordinated an effort around the U.S. television premier of the world-renowned play on the occasion of V-Day. http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=815

CONGO: Women want to be represented in decision-making
Brazzaville, 8 March (IPS)- Three days before the upcoming presidential elections, Congolese women met to denounce their weak representation in decision-making. "Forty years after independence, " according to Josephine Ntsika, the coordinator for the Committee on Action for Equality (CAP), "decision-makers have not yet applied the fundamental rights of women in decision-making, despite the ratification in July 1986 of CEDAW." It was in 1975 that the first woman minister was named in the Republic of Congo. Since, the number of women in the government has not surpassed four. The current government has only 2 women compared to 25 men.
http://www.peacewomen.org/news/march/drcwomen.html

Central African Republic: Call for a greater role for women
Nairobi, 8 March (IRIN) A seminar on women and local governance organized to reinforce women's roles in political and economic development was held this week in Bangui. Women from Burkina Faso, Canada, Central African Republic, Gabon, Mali and the Republic of Congo discussed several themes: women and the municipal world; women and local politics; women and local entrepreneurship; women in the fight against poverty; and women and local administration.

International Consultative Meeting on United Nations Resolution 1325
25-26 March 2002 – A regional consultation on UN Resolution 1325 was held in Kampala Uganda on Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th March 2002. The meeting was organised by Betty Murungi, director of the Africa office of Urgent Action Fund, in collaboration with Isha Dyfan of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). The event was hosted by Kituo Cha Katiba, the Ugandan-based East African Centre for Constitutional Development. The meeting was facilitated by WILPF and International Alert. A report of the meeting can be found at the following website: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/ngo/ngopub/kampala.html.
The meeting brought together 21 participants comprised of peace, refugee and human rights activists from Zanzibar, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, New South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Also represented were NGO leaders, the media and representatives of legal and health institutions from the region. Three international organisations working within Africa were also represented.

International Women's Day for Peace and Disarmament
24 May 2002 - Isis-Women's International Cross-Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE) joins women who network for peace and justice all over the world to celebrate this day and reflect on its implications: "We commend our government on the efforts it has made towards disarmament in the country, and for being part of the International Action Network on Small Arms to control the flow of small arms, as well as create awareness about their dangers." http://www.peacewomen.org/news/may/May24.html

WILPF US Issues Urgent Plea For Peace in the Middle East
June 27, 2002 - Non-violent Action in Response to President Bush's speech: The urgency of the situation in the Middle East propels Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) to speak out for peace and justice in that region.
http://www.peacewomen.org/news/June/middleeast.html

Security Council Open Session on Conflict, Peacekeeping, and Gender
July 25, 2002 - Under the United Kingdom Presidency, an open session on Conflict, Peacekeeping and Gender was held on July 25, 2002. Ambassador Greenstock of the UK held a meeting earlier in the week with representatives of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, at which he invited them to raise issues of importance to their organizations that are relevant to the open meeting discussion. At the open session, Ambassador Greenstock said, "I can say that the exchange that I had with the working group was very informative. These groups have done enormous amount of work on the mainstreaming agenda, on the issue of women and families in areas of conflict".
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/sc/genderandpeackeeping2002/genderconflictpeacekeeping.html

South Korea Parliament Rejects First Female Prime Minister
July 31, 2002 SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean lawmakers vetoed the country's first female prime minister on Wednesday, dealing a blow to President Kim Dae-jung, who had nominated her to boost his beleaguered government's image in an election year.
http://www.peacewomen.org/news/july/korea.html

America Forced Me Out, Says Robinson
July 31, 2002 - Oliver Burkeman -The Guardian - The UN's outgoing human rights commissioner, Mary Robinson, says she was prevented from continuing in the job because of pressure from the US, which she has accused of neglecting human rights during the war against terrorism. http://www.peacewomen.org/news/july/robinson.html

Atrocities against Women Widespread in Congo War
August 22, 2002 - The first comprehensive report on the rape and abuse of women during Africa's widest war finds that all sides used brutal violence against civilian women as a military tactic. See http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=1014

Women Aim to Increase Role as Global Peacemakers
September 9, 2002 - Women unite at a UN Conference Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders that might alter the role of women as peacemakers. The Christian Science Monitor considers the UN conference "the latest in a series of moves to shatter the glass ceiling for women in conflict resolution."
http://www.globalpolicy.org/ngos/role/globdem/globgov/2002/0909women.htm

An Era of Women Leaders Ends at the U.N.
September 13, 2002 - The 1990s saw a record number of U.N. agencies led by women. But when Mary Robinson stepped down as high commissioner for human rights yesterday, the decade of women leaders came to a close. Also, several women gained momentum in Tuesday's US primaries.
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=1036

Leifr Eiriksson Peace Award to US Congresswoman Barbara Lee
September 14, 2002 - Reykjavik, ICELAND - The Leifr Eriksson Peace Award 2002 goes to US Congresswoman Barbara Lee "for her sincere and honest dedication to world peace and in particular for her foresight and courageous vote in the US Congress a year ago today" (against a U.S. military response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Nigeria: Women's Groups Oppose Repression
September 19, 2002 - A coalition of leading women's groups has issued an 11-point declaration demanding an end to political repression, environmental degradation, and gender-based persecution. http://www.civicus.org/main/server_navigation/skeletons/Civicus_01/framework/navigation.cfm?contentid=195773A4-7ACA-421D-B7C14AF9983F5831El Salvador:

Training on Resolution 1325
September 21, 2002 – On World Peace Day, WILPF-El Salvador (LIMPAL) and collaborative partners will carried out a training on Security Council Resolution 1325. The training addressed the necessity for women's participation in all dimensions and in all levels of peace efforts, negotiations, reconstruction, reconciliation, re-population and war prevention. The organizers and attendees discussed and developed the program from the bottom-up to see possible ways to implement it in all aspects of life in their country. The meeting drew representatives from the judicial system -- judges, women's groups and feminist organizations, universities, programs of the European Union, media and human rights groups.

ANNEX: STATEMENTS and DECLARATIONS BY WOMEN WORKING FOR PEACE
October 2001 - October 2002

Statement of Jamila of Afghanistan to the United Nations Security Council Arria Formula Meeting on the implementation of Resolution 1325
30 October 2001

Thank you Ambassador Durrant for hosting this meeting, and for offering me an opportunity to share my experience of war with you and the distinguished ambassadors today. My name is Jamila and I am the Director of the Afghan Women’s Welfare Department and a founding member of the Afghan Women’s Network, an umbrella organization of 300 women’s groups.

I have often heard that Afghan women are not political. That peace and security is man’s work. I am here to challenge that illusion. For the last 20 years of my life, the leadership of men has only brought war and suffering.

I am a woman fighting for education. In Afghanistan and Pakistan that is politics. I run a humanitarian NGO. In Afghanistan and Pakistan that is politics. My organization provides relief in the form of emergency supplies and health care, literacy and classes in English. We teach computer skills and give vocation training that helps women earn money for their families. We receive funding from foundations and governments, and through international non-profit organizations.

I began 13 years ago, when few women were able to study and we were largely restricted to our homes. I saw role models in my community who were able to make a difference in our life. Today we are many. Some organizations have moved into work on trauma counseling and rights awareness. We still face challenges within our families, particularly when men are unemployed, and from some in our community who oppose an active public role for women. We see larger grants channeled through Afghan men’s organizations and wonder why? Women’s organizations work in the refugee camps and reach out to the refugee communities in Peshawar, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Quetta, where Afghan refugees do not receive UN assistance. We are the role models for our youth; we are working for security and peace.

A woman, five months pregnant, tried to escape the war. She found the borders closed. She walked for seven hours through a dangerous mountain pass. She got through, but lost her child. Everyday a younger and younger girl is forced to marry to a commander. Our children are being conscripted. When I see these things, I look for these UN Resolution to be fully realized.

Most women’s organizations do not have political affiliations and are providing humanitarian assistance to all of our people, regardless of ethnic background. We are Pushtun, Tajik, Hazara, and Uzbek. We have our family and ethnic affiliation, and our points of view come from this background — In America you say, one woman does not women make. It is the same in Afghanistan. Our work today should be supported so that we can have an active role in rebuilding the future of our country. Anyone searching for Afghan women to engage in peace does not have to look far.

Afghanistan can provide a model for Security Council Resolution 1325. I would like to highlight three areas for immediate action.
1. The Gender Advisor post played a key political role, reporting to the most senior levels. The Gender Advisor "expanded the role and contribution of women in United Nations field-based operations." When a widow with six children in desperate need for shelter, it was the Gender Advisor who got UNHCR to act. But this post has been vacant for six months and although fully funded, does not been seem important enough to be filled.
2. We are very happy that United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees staff receive training to understand women’s contribution to their work. Any future UN intervention should also include training on gender for civilian and military staff. Women still need to be consulted every time a refugee camp is set up. For example, we became involved in the design of the New Shamshatoo refugee camp. We were able to redesign it so that bathes were put in the center of the camp, near the refugee’s homes. Now, women are much less likely to be attacked. This is the United Nations opportunity to address gender from the outset. How could it be avoided in our country, or declared irrelevant?
3. Women must be consulted in peace negotiations and peace building. Several Afghan women and I met with Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi last week and asked for his support. I remind you that 54% of the Afghan population are women and girls. We hope the Security Council will support us, too. The United Nations should ensure that women are protected and safe.
Do not think that because women wear a veil we do not have a voice. When the UN is looking for leaders look to us. We want an Afghanistan free of extremism, in all its forms. We remember a time when women were doctors, lawyers and judges. Tap our networks that reach and assist women and their families. Women must be included in any peace building efforts to ensure peace and lasting security.

Statement of Haxhere Veseli of Kosovo/Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the United Nations Security Council Arria formula Meeting on the implementation of Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security
30 October 2001

Thank you Ambassador Durrant for hosting this meeting and for giving an adolescent from Kosovo the opportunity to discuss a young woman’s experience of war.
My name is Haxhere Veseli. I came to the United States as a refugee on 16 June 1999, when I was 14 years old. My generation and I have not seen peace. Even before the war, we faced many difficulties. In Kosovo, over half the population is under 24 years of age. Peace for our country should address adolescents’ concerns and offer us an opportunity as active citizens.

I understand what it means to be a refugee. After the NATO bombing started in March 1999 and the Serb forces began to attack Albanians more and more, my parents decided we would be safer staying in Presheva, which shares a border with Macedonia.
Originally my parents wanted to return to Prishtina themselves. But after ten days, my parents realized they could not go back because my mother had been active with a human rights organization providing health care to women. While we were in Presheva, we found out that the Serbs were looking for people working for human rights organizations and that they were after my mother. If she stayed in Kosovo, she could be killed, and anyone who knew her or helped her was also facing a big risk.

So, we made the very difficult journey to Macedonia. We tried to cross the border three times but failed. The fourth time we tried, we were blocked, but we decided to stay and wait no matter what. In the end, we had to pay, and we were finally allowed to cross. We were at the border for 20 hours. We were all afraid, but we were lucky. In Macedonia, we stayed with a very friendly family for three months. While we were there, Serbs in Macedonia protested the fact that the Kosovars were there, and I felt that the only decision we had was to move even further away. I came to the United States through the International Rescue Committee and now I live in New York. When I arrived, I heard from one friend that his sister, who is 17, was raped in Kosovo. We were scared, but we tried to survive.

The International Rescue Committee ran a program over the summer at Marymount College in New York, which I participated in. Many new children from Kosovo of all ages participated in the program, which also involved American teenage volunteers. Suddenly we had a whole community to be with and things to do — social activities, English language classes and more. Before the program, I just sat at home, depressed, crying and thinking about all the bad things that had happened and continued to happen back home. But at Marymount, we found space and began to relax. It really helped us.

A year later, I traveled back to Kosovo, intending to stay. But what I found in my homeland changed my mind. Teenagers lost a lot of control during the war in Kosovo. Before the war, they had their parents watching over them all of the time. During the war, as refugees, this control broke down. Their attitudes changed and many of them tried things that they would not have done before. War makes you not care about some things. You don’t know what the future holds, so some kids make decisions they would not normally make. They sold and took drugs. Some girls exchanged sex for money and access to assistance — they did his with little or no knowledge of HIV/AIDS.

A friend of mine started working with the military peacekeepers as a translator. She met a man from the United Kingdom and began an affair with him. He was outside the community and it was easy to meet him secretly. They were married while he was stationed in Kosovo. They left Kosovo after that and now live in the United Kingdom with their daughter.

This is not an exceptional story. There are many stories of relationships with the peacekeepers. In fact, we have a popular song played on the radio now that warns against having children of the peacekeepers.

Afraid for their girls, families are encouraging them to marry earlier and earlier. This is their way of making sure that girls will marry Albanians. A friend of mine has just sent me an e-mail to say that she is marrying soon, and she is only 16 years old.
This year the Security Council sent a mission to Kosovo. Ambassador Durrant, you, and some of your colleagues were able to arrange for a late night meeting with women’s organizations. You heard their concerns and included them in your mission report. However, because the meeting was held at the last minute, there was not an opportunity to hear from Kosovar youth. If you had met with them, you would have heard about projects that they are active in today. I would like to share these with you as examples of the potential role that young people can play.

Ý The Kosovo Youth Council has mobilized more than 2,000 young people, some of whom had been active fighters, in reconstructing their cities. Girls and boys were active in removing hate graffiti.
Ý The Post Pessimists have formed art and other workshops with children affected by war and organized an event called "Condom in, AIDS out" to sensitize youth to the importance of using condoms and raising awareness about HIV/AIDS. Since the arrival of peacekeepers, there is much greater fear of getting infected.
It is important for people to know where Kosovo is, what happened there and what is going on there now. Many children my age are going through similar situations in other parts of the world. My dream really is peace throughout the world. I do not want the next generation of youth in the world to ever experience the fear and inequality so many in Kosovo did. I just want teenagers to be able to be teenagers, without so many worries. They should be able to feel free — to go to school, to have no one to fight against, to laugh and be happy.
Perhaps together we can find ways to make this possible. Thank you.

Statement of Natércia Godinho-Adams of East Timor to the UN Security Council ‘Arria formula’ Meeting on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325
30 October 2001

On behalf of East Timorese women’s organizations I thank you for Resolution 1325.

In the last 25 years 96.6% of East Timorese experienced trauma. With the assistance of UNTAET’s Gender Unit and the leadership of Mr. de Mello, women obtained 26% of the seats in the recently elected Constituent Assembly. This remarkable achievement occurred despite the mixed messages from UN departments and ultimate rejection of the proposal that would have required 30% of each party’s political candidates to be women. The will of the East Timorese must be celebrated by continued efforts at expanding women’s roles within a patriarchal society.

Among several other successes, the formation of Timor Loro Sae’s Women’s Political Caucus, and the "Women’s Charter of Rights" mark an historical milestone in women’s commitment to peace, security, and justice.

While much progress has been made, much needs to be done. Rural women continue to be marginalized and grossly neglected. Post-conflict aid has not improved their lives as they continue to live in extreme poverty, and lack access to adequate health care, particularly pre- and post-natal care. They do not participate in decision-making at all levels of government and educational programs. A problem with the election process was voiced by several rural women who stated that: "they had been told who to vote for by their village chiefs." This indicates a need for election observation efforts to be gender sensitive to women as voters and candidates.

Women and children frequently carry the greatest burden of crisis situations as a result of loss of income, unemployment and family displacement. Under traditional systems, women's leadership and decision-making roles were severely limited. However, while crisis creates serious problems for women it also creates opportunities. Men’s and women's roles changed substantially during the years of conflict and social disruption since 1974. A significant number of women assumed active roles in the clandestine liberation front and the armed resistance. They were soldiers, they smuggled medication, food, armament, and information to the resistant movement hiding in the mountains. Will the women benefit from the demobilization and reintegration programs supported by the UN? In the absence of the male household head, women assumed new responsibilities in traditional male income generation. East Timorese women want to build a society that will respect their newly acquired post-conflict roles, and will not force them to return to traditional powerless roles.
As you know from your visit to East Timor, family attachments have been disrupted, and women bear the psychological scars of the war. East Timorese women call for a concerted effort by the UN to help reunite displaced families, and in particular to bring together unaccompanied children who were separated as a result of the organized violence. We also call for a return of East Timorese refugees in West Timor, where women and children under the control of the militia are often sexually attacked and suffer from malnutrition and poor health. Widows and single mothers in East Timor have received little to no aid in the last two years. Currently, women who care for children with disabilities receive little to no support. A lack of support for women contributes to social ills already visible in Dili’s streets, such as prostitution, street children and child labor.

Women were targeted for sexual assault in a cruel and systematic way throughout the Indonesian occupation. Women were subjected to sterilization programs, stripping, rape, and other forms of sexual abuse and humiliation. Although there is a lack of data of the HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections there is an urgent need to raise awareness and take preventative measures. East Timorese women call upon the UN to provide resources for cost effective and community managed health promotion projects that cover reproductive health, communicable disease control and environmental health. Similarly, mental health programs must be included in health policies and funding allocation.
East Timorese women’s organizations have become increasingly concerned at the growing rate of domestic violence. One half of the cases of violence heard by the courts have been of domestic violence. While examining factors and drawing intervention strategies one thing is certain: women are breaking the traditional culture of silence by reporting acts of abuse that often involve their spouses or brothers.

We thank the UN for holding UN peacekeepers responsible for assaults on women. A Jordanian peacekeeper was indicted of rape on August 21 in a Dili court, and his trial is expected to begin shortly.

East Timorese women join the rest of society, including Bishop Belo, all political parties and NGOs in appealing for justice for serious crimes including gender-based crimes through an International Tribunal. Last year’s resolution on women, peace and security emphasized "the responsibility of all States to put an end to impunity and prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes including those relating to sexual and other violence against women and girls." Because Indonesia is unlikely to successfully prosecute those who ordered and implemented the invasion, occupation and destruction of East Timor from 1975 on, the Security Council must take immediate action to create an International Tribunal for East Timor to ensure that those most responsible for these crimes are brought to justice.

Statement of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security
Delivered by Maha E. Muna to the United Nations Security Council ‘Arria Formula’ Meeting on the implementation of Resolution 1325
NGO Working Group on Women and International Peace and Security
23 October 2001

On behalf of the NGO Working Group I thank the governments of Ireland and Jamaica for initiating this dialogue today. On behalf of women all over the world I thank you for resolution 1325, a Security Council resolution with a broad and global constituency committed to its implementation.

Resolution 1325 firmly placed gender on the Council’s agenda. UN departments, governments and NGOs have responded with initiatives and action plans for implementing the resolution, which we have listed in a compilation distributed today, One Year On. We would like to highlight three positive examples:
Ý The UK Department for International Development and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade have developed gender awareness guidelines and training materials. Member states, especially troop contributing countries and international organisations should make use of these resources which will be on line at http://www.genderandpeacekeeping.org/
Ý You have heard about the groundbreaking results of one of your Gender Units in the field, a model for all future Gender Units in each peacekeeping operation. A Gender Unit in DPKO would ideally support these field units. One of the results of UNTAET is that women are now represented in the East Timor Public Administration (ETPA) at unprecedented levels.
Ý Your mission visits to East Timor, DRC and Sierra Leone really made a difference to women’s organisations. The deliberate emphasis placed on meeting with women’s organisations and valuing their input through your reports has encouraged the UN missions in the field to tap this under utilised resource. We urge you to routinely meet with women’s organisations on your mission visits.

Today the situation in Afghanistan presents both a challenge and an opportunity for implementation of 1325, both in terms of women’s protection and their participation in prevention, conflict resolution and peace building. The basic right to seek asylum is currently being contravened as states close their borders to those fleeing conflict. Neighbouring countries must keep their borders open with the support of the international community; women and girls’ lives are at stake.

The Security Council must seek to ensure that women are not only victims of this conflict but must also be part of the solution, at every stage of peace building and at every negotiation. Last year you heard from Luz Mendes of Guatemala and the Ambassador of Guatemala that the involvement of women changed the architecture of peace and security. We urge Mr. Brahimi to ensure that this lesson is not forgotten in the context of any future mission in Afghanistan. We believe the recommendations arising from the December NGO summit for Afghan Women must inform the UN’s work in Afghanistan.

We anticipate a more detailed and forward looking resolution when the Secretary General’s Report is tabled next year, which we believe should address the following issues:
1. NGOs are not satisfied that Secretary General’s reports received by the Security Council contain adequate information on the situation of women in the field, or gender disaggregated data, as called for by 1325. As the Council changes its working methods formal channels should be developed for it to receive information from a variety of sources, including NGOs. For example, Protection Partners are sending my organisation information from Sierra Leone reports on abuses women experience, which I would be happy to elaborate on.
2. In the context of the Secretary General’s report on Conflict Prevention, we believe the UN system should develop and utilize common gender-based indicators for early warning and response procedures
3. Peacekeepers continue to violate human rights. The Secretary General should establish uniform procedures and disciplinary measures for these violations. In a 1994 paper, Amnesty International called for "no international silent witnesses", calling on all international field personnel, including those engaged in military, civilian and human operations to report through explicit and proper channels any human rights violation they witness. The SG in his report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, called for this principle to apply to all UN personnel. We urge the Security Council to affirm this principle for the peacekeepers they send into the field. Since you passed 1325 a network of NGOs have formed Peacekeeping Watch, to monitor any abuses, to insist upon prosecution and to make concrete recommendations that would uphold the essential trust between the protected and the protectors.
4. The human rights components of peacekeeping operations should be fully staffed and required to integrate women’s rights in all documents and reporting.
5. Women continue to be grossly under-represented throughout the UN, especially at senior levels. Of 46 Special Representatives of the Secretary General, there are no women, of deputies, there is just one.
6. We know that the Council is concerned about the safety and security of humanitarian personnel. There are increasing numbers of NGOs in the field at risk, and women on their staff are more at risk of rape and sexual violence. Part of the mandate of peacekeeping operations should ensure their safety. In encouraging women to take their place at the peace table and at all levels of peace building, special measures are needed to protect them.
7. We applaud Nigeria’s recognition of the high rate of HIV/AIDS among their returning ECOMOG soldiers. Why is nobody asking about the rates of infection of the tens of thousands of ECOMOG babies and their mothers?
8. We are alarmed at reports of landmines and cluster bombs being used in Afghanistan. Apparently the cluster bombs have yellow flags, easily confused with the yellow food packages being distributed. Security Council Resolution 1325 refers to landmine awareness and clearance, efforts that will have to be redoubled in Afghanistan as landmines are being planted as we speak.

In the spirit of civil society and UN collaboration, we are eager to work with you to realise the full potential of 1325.

Violence Against Women in the Great Lakes Region of Africa
Statement of the Network of Women’s Collectives from Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern Congo on the Occasion of the UN Security Council Meeting on Women, Peace and Security
October 2001

(This Statement has been made by the Network of Women’s Collectives from Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern Congo who have come together across the divides of States and conflicts to present the joint requests for support from the United Nations Security Council. It has been translated from French.)

In the Great Lakes region, violence against women can not be analyzed without putting it in the context of the wider violence. Violence recorded in traditional societies were linked to the extension of territories. Colonization and post-independence governments have involved violence based on ethnicity, regionalism, nepotism, adapted economies and other evils. These have engulfed the region and given birth to cyclical conflicts and slaughter, which have characterized the sub-region.
In the framework for the resolution of conflicts there are three points of note:
ß The absence or cessation of the internal dynamics for the resolution of conflicts.
ß The absence or cessation of sub-regional, regional and international dynamics in conflict resolution
ß The failure to integrate women into the resolution of conflicts.

At the internal state level, whether in the context of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi or Rwanda, it seems that the local leadership is unable to establish different modes of governance. This blocks opposition parties and civil society in their initiatives to influence change. At an international level, the West has constantly and persistently maintained its economic interests in the sub-region.

In the face of these realities, attempts at conflict resolution have taken place: government initiatives, meetings and regional conferences linked to the Lusaka Accord; the Arusha inter-Burundian Accord and bi-lateral meetings between heads of state, religious and parliamentarian initiatives of non-governmental organizations. All these meetings have involved foreign mediators or facilitators. In all these attempts, it is significant that women have not been included and initiatives have suffered from the absence of an in-depth regional analysis.
It is necessary to evolve from a social and political environment, which promotes ethnitization and separation. With respect to violence, women, whatever their socio-cultural status, or to whatever degree, are victims of physical, sexual, psychological and mental violence. Women in the sub-region of the Great Lakes experience many forms of violence, whether in the home, the extended family, or at a community or State level. At a household level, some women are subject to discrimination and subordinating practices. Some, are beaten by their husbands, others are forced by their husbands to have sexual intercourse against their will. The lack of access to household resources is equally a form of violence.

At the level of the extended family, relatives sometimes exercise practices which contravene the fundamental rights of women; forced and sometimes under-age marriage: such as forced remarriage of widows in the case of death of her partner; denuding widows of their household goods, even children in the case of remarriage of widows, expulsion, physical and moral torture of widows, women are only valued by the dowry given by their family, and so the list continues. At a community level, women and girls are regularly victims of harassment and sexual exploitation from employers and service providers.

At the level of the State, there are numerous cases of state organized violence; noteably systematic rape used as a weapon of war and the willful spread of HIV/AIDs. During armed conflicts in Burundi, Rwanda and the DRC, women have been subject to cases of sexual abuse perpetuated by armed groups and other atrocities including genital mutilation. These all fall under the category of violence. State violence also includes rape cases and the abuse of women in detention by other prisoners or prison officials.

Based on these circumstances, all efforts should be made to:
ß Put an end to these internal and regional hostilities, everyone needs peace.
ß Destroy the myth of impunity of all forms of violence
ß Solidarity to pursue the perpetrators of violence, wherever and whoever they are.
ß Rehabilitate the victims of these crimes
ß Develop programmes of reconstruction and reparation of the destruction caused by conflict.
ß Initiate a detailed analysis of the causes of the situation of conflict in the Great Lakes sub-region
ß Integrate women into the analysis of conflicts and the search for solutions.

Revindications of the sub-region of the Great Lakes

We the women of the sub-region of the Great Lakes, are tired of living in a world where injustice reigns; a world of gender-based inequalities, a world where wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few.

We the women of the sub-region of the Great Lakes, are left to live in a world where our rights are regularly negated by compliant local authorities and the national, regional and international community.

We, the women members of the Network of Womens’ Collectives and Associations of the sub-region of the Great Lakes, are hungry for a better world where wealth is shared, where women are respected for their integrity as well as physically and mentally.

We, the women members of the Network of Womens’ Collectives and Associations of the sub-region of the Great Lakes, request the following from our states and the International Community:
1. Recognition of women as an integral part and focal point in the search for peace in the Great Lakes region.
2. An end to wars which ravage live in the sub-region of the Great Lakes
3. The development of mechanisms of conflict prevention and identification of resources supporting the sale of arms. We say ‘STOP’ to countries, which hide behind their economic interests leaving the sub-region under fire and blood-stained.
4. The establishment of mechanisms which can condemn and punish all crimes committed in the sub-region of the Great Lakes
5. The adoption of measures, which unconditionally absolve debt in favor of socio-economic rehabilitation programmes of countries in the Great Lakes sub-region.
6. The revision of national and international legislation and development of mechanisms, which ensure the elimination of all inequalities based on gender.
7. The adoption of severe and rigorous legislation against rape and sexual abuse
8. The adoption and support of realistic programmes to improve the education of girls.
9. The support of self-development efforts of women in the Great Lakes region
10. That the struggle against HIV/AIDs be made a high priority in the sub-region of the Great Lakes.

Statement of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security
Delivered by Indira Kajosevic to the UN Security Council Arria Formula Meeting on the Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325
23 October 2002

Dear Chair, Excellencies, and friends of Women, Peace and Security,

1. On behalf of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, I would like to thank the Governments of Cameroon and Singapore, for convening this meeting today and the many member states supportive of the agenda we are here to discuss. We would also like to thank the United Nations Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues, the Division for the Advancement of Women and UNIFEM for eliciting the perspectives of NGOs and women’s organisations in their work. We look forward to continuing our collaborative and complementary work to implement Resolution 1325 with the United Nations and member states.

2. In the context of the escalating tension and conflict in the Middle East and Iraq we have to date heard too few women's voices, despite the call from women in the region for the establishment of a Women's Council on the Middle East. We have seen public opinion throughout the world express its strong objection to the use of force with respect to Iraq in massive demonstrations. We applaud the Security Council convening an open forum on Iraq this month and support the vital need for a continued multi-lateral approach. We urge the Security Council to also consult with women's organisations and members of civil society inside and outside Iraq. It is important to hear the voices of women who are on the frontline and holding communities together on a daily basis.

3. Afghanistan is seen as a test case for the implementation of 1325. Last October at an Arria Formula, you heard Jamila (Director of the NGO Afghan Women’s Welfare Department then living as a refugee in Pakistan). She has since opened an office in Kabul with plans for a sub-office in Jalalabad, and is working with Afghan communities in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Although Jamila clearly identified funding as a priority need, a year later Afghan women are still asking donors to fulfil their funding promises to help improve the position of women and encourage recognition of women's rights in Afghanistan beyond Kabul. There is commendable work being done on the ground, but we need the commitment of the international community to support Afghanistan's reconstruction and development.
Afghan women, crossing the divides of the conflict, articulated clear recommendations in the Brussels Declaration (in December 2001). Yet, their commitment to participate in the reconstruction process in their country is thwarted, on account of insufficient resource distribution and insecurity in areas outside Kabul.

4. We call on you to move from ad hoc to systematic consideration of women and gender perspectives in every Council action – in particular your field missions, mandates, resolutions and reports. More information on what women are doing in conflict situations should be routinely integrated in country and thematic reports from the Secretary-General. A regular item on women, peace and security on the Council’s agenda would serve to monitor and measure such actions, good practices in the field and at UN headquarters.

5. The critical role of civil society in providing key information and solutions to conflict was recognised by the United Kingdom in the open debate they chaired on Gender, Conflict and Peacekeeping in July.
In the context of conflict prevention, NGOs have initiated identification of gender-sensitive early warning indicators, highlighting the linkages of micro level violence to the macro level, such as increased cases of gender-based violence, sex-specific migration and employment patterns. In rural Kenya, for example, women often start wearing traditional belts believed to protect their sons from being killed when they are anticipating the outbreak of conflict. Further information on this work is available from the NGOWG.

6. Until recently, attacks against women during armed conflict were seen as an inevitable consequence of war. For the first time, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda have convicted individuals of rape as an instrument of genocide and torture, as a war crime and as a crime against humanity. However, women in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone have reported brutal rapes, sexual slavery and torture committed by male combatants, which to date have been subject to impunity. Resolution 1325 affirms the need for accountability for war-time violence against women. This still needs to be urgently advanced.

7. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court entered into force on 1 July 2002, confirming that crimes of sexual violence must be tried as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It provides a permanent mechanism to try individuals, who commit such acts of atrocity. The NGOWG calls upon the Security Council to fully use the powers granted to it in the Rome Statute and to maintain the integrity of the Rome Statute, resisting political pressure from those, who seek to undermine the effectiveness and independence of the Court. We urge you not to renew the controversial Security Council Resolution 1422; a renewal would provide immunity from the Court's jurisdiction to those participating in UN operations producing double standards that are contrary to international law, including the Statute as well as the UN Charter. Since September 2002, the Assembly of State Parties to the Rome Statute has opened the period for nomination of candidates for the first 18 judges of the Court. The NGOWG calls on governments to ensure a gender balance and geographical spread when electing judges and prosecutor to the International Criminal Court. We urge that these mandates also be carried out in the appointment of investigators, legal counsel and other staff.

8. Two years after the unanimous adoption of Resolution 1325 in the Security Council there is still only one woman Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the existing field missions. We join the call to the Secretary-General to appoint more women as Special Representatives and Special Envoys of the Secretary-General (SRSG) and to reach the target of thirty per cent by 2005 and gender balance soon thereafter.
We agree with Jean-Marie Guéhenno of DPKO and many Member States that much more needs to be done to include women at all levels of peacekeeping processes. We strongly recommend that a gender unit for DPKO be established at headquarters, consisting of a team of senior gender advisers. We urge that adequate funds be made available and sustainable for this unit. It has been three years since the inauguration of the first Office of Gender Affairs, yet the capacity of DPKO at headquarters to support such offices is severely limited due to lack of resources and expert staff. It is vital that every peacekeeping mission has a Senior Gender Adviser and that this post is separate to the position of the Human Rights Adviser.
We consider it vital that effective gender awareness training is provided for peace support operations personnel at all levels – in part through the investment of adequate resources – thereby complying with the focus on "Training of Security and Peacekeeping Force" in the Security Council’s Aide-Memoire.

9. We recommend that donors restore adequate levels of funding to UNHCR and organisations working with the UN on the ground with refugees and internally displaced populations in order to effectively implement the Policy and Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women. We concur with the SG report findings that policy directives and guidelines on protection for refugee and displaced women have been formulated by the office of the UNHCR. However, there is still a need for gender sensitisation in their implementation. An assessment report on UNHCR guidelines and policy on protection of women is available from the NGOWG. Over the past year, numerous advances have been made at national and regional levels in recognising and acting upon the pivotal role that women and girls play in societies’ struggle for sustainable peace:
ÿ During the recent Presidential and Parliamentary elections in Sierra Leone, the authorities worked to ensure the equitable participation of women – from election officials to elderly, nursing and pregnant voters in camps for the internally displaced. These efforts included gender sensitive hiring practices, facilitation of women’s access to polls, and prevention of voter intimidation.
ÿ At the level of peace support operations, MINUGUA, the UN Verification Mission in Guatemala, continues to call attention to and act upon gender discrimination.

10. The NGOWG would like to close by reiterating the statement made by the Canadian government’s International Development Agency in their operational framework for gender-aware peacebuilding:
"Peacebuilding is a two-fold process requiring both the deconstruction of the structures of violence and the construction of the structures of peace". The inclusion of women in these processes is crucial to the establishment of sustainable peace.

Statement of Angelina Atyam of Northern Uganda/Uganda to the United Nations Security Council ‘Arria Formula’ on the implementation of Resolution 1325
23 October 2002

I am Angelina Atyam, the Chairperson of Concerned Parents’ Association. Thank you to the Security Council for giving me this opportunity to share with you the experiences of women and children in northern Uganda, where war has been raging for 17 years.
My daughter Charlotte was 14 years old when she was abducted by rebels. She is still missing, and many more mothers have their children taken from them. Over 14,000 children have been abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army during the past 17 years of conflict in northern Uganda. It the longest hostage situation in the history of the modern world. Captives are forcefully turned into rebel fighters, and the abducted children comprise over 85% of the rebel fighting force. These are the ‘rebels’ that the government army is fighting with now. Many girls are also forced to be sex slaves to the rebels as well as fighters. These abductions have increased in recent months, and continue even as I speak these words to you.

I want to share with you a story about how the war in northern Uganda, and particularly the recent Ugandan military Operation Iron Fist, is affecting women and children. Two weeks ago, on October 13th, rebels attacking Ngai in Apac district split open the abdomens of cows, packed children inside and sewed the abdomens back in place. As the children suffocated to death, older people were tied to tree branches heads down, and huge logs were used to hit them on the abdomen till the contents of their stomachs oozed out and they died.

On September 4th at Kamdin, Apac district, a woman was forced by the rebels to stir boiling beans with her hands. Her arms was completely burnt, cooked up to the bone, with flesh pealing and falling off. She is now in the hospital with an amputated arm. Later that month, in Lira, central Uganda, the rebels chopped off the hands of a crippled elderly woman who could not flee their attack. They locked her in her hut, set it on fire and burnt her alive.

These atrocities are being committed daily in our communities, and yet we have no protection. Not even from our own government.

When I was asked to speak before you, it was the first time that I had seen a copy of the UNSC resolution 1325. I am glad that Uganda is a Member State of the United Nations. Yet, the passing of the resolution has not marked any positive change in the lives of the girls and woman affected by the conflict in Northern Uganda.

Refugees and internally displaced persons living in camps in northern Uganda are being killed by rebels. Recent rebel attacks on Sudanese refugee camps left many dead, thousands displaced and 5 IRC aid workers held hostage. My question is: how does point 12 of this resolution apply to our situation in northern Uganda?

During this conflict, thousands of girls and women have been beaten, raped and left with unwanted pregnancies. Over 50% of children returning from captivity are infected with HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. My question is: how do points10 and 12 of this resolution apply to our situation in northern Uganda?

The situation faced by child mothers who were abducted and forced to bear children for the rebels is particularly distressing. If they manage to escape, many face rejection by their families and community and lack reintegration support. How does point 13 of this resolution apply to their situation?

17 years of war has left northern Uganda yearning for peace through peaceful means. Yet, the LRA rebels are listed as terrorists, not worthy to talk peace with. If we women want peace, how will point 8 of this resolution help us attain it?
This is not the first time that my organization has brought this matter to this body’s attention. On April 14, 2002, we sent a letter to the UNSC, but never received any response. How can local organizations, like the Concerned Parents Association, reach you? We need a clear mechanism by which to send information to ensure that our voices are heard.

I conclude by saying:
Ý Abductions are on the increase and those abducted in the past, like my daughter, are still being held captive
Ý Over half of the population lives is squalid internally displaced camps, which are breeding grounds for disease and gender-based violence
Ý Killings and maimings, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and child mothers are increasing
Ý Cultural values have been lost
Ý Education, trade and livelihood and other socio-economic activities have slowly come to a halt, leaving the population in utter poverty

Therefore, on behalf of all the suffering children and women of Northern Uganda, I appeal to this noble council to critically create the process of dialogue. This is the key to a beginning of a satisfactorily ending the suffering of the children and women in Northern Uganda. I appeal to the UN Security Council to bear pressure on the Government of Uganda to accept that the situation in Northern Uganda warrants immediate humanitarian action. There is need to involve the UN directly in a monitoring and peacekeeping role on the ground for effective and immediate implementation of Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. I appeal to the UN Security Council members to come to Northern Uganda to see and act on one of the most painful situation of human rights abuses in the history of modern times. The last UN visit to Uganda did not speak to or for our women.
Finally, the implementation of Resolution 1325 can only succeed in Uganda in the face of a national reconciliation process. Because of the Country’s past political record, which divided us into tribes and regions, we need technical, material and moral backup for peace to flourish. This Council could enforce the practical implementation of Resolution 1325 in Uganda. If this were done, there would be no more abductions, no more related deaths, no more displacements, no more insecurity to refugees, no more rapes; the camps for internally displaced would be dismantled and the displaced woman, children and all would go home, with heads high, to look after their families, go back to school, enjoy good health and cultivate belonging to a nation they love. For God and My Country.

Written Statement by Gila Svirsky of Israel on the occasion of the UN Security Council Arria Formula on the Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325
23 October 2002

Your Excellencies: Thank you for inviting me to address you today. My remarks will describe the central, but unofficial, leadership roles that Palestinian and Israeli women
have played as peacemakers since well before the Oslo Accords. I will highlight their persistent and successful efforts at negotiating differences and creatively resolving conflicts – skills they can bring to summit meetings where peace is negotiated.

Allow me to begin with the secret meetings held between Palestinians and Israelis that began 15 years ago. These meetings were secret because it was illegal for Israelis and forbidden for Palestinians to meet together in those years. Only one of these groups continued to meet over the years, resolutely grappling with the most difficult issues, and crafted an agreement that was signed and publicized several years before the Oslo Accords. Above all this agreement declared establishment of a free, independent and secure state of Palestine side-by-side with a free, independent and secure state of Israel as the essence of a political settlement.

As profound as this moment could have been in the history of the Middle East, very few people heard about it. Why? Because the agreement was written by women. You may wonder whether the agreement was rejected for other reasons, perhaps because it was a radical statement dreamed up by utopians or marginal people. But these women were neither marginal nor radical. Each delegation included prominent political leaders, members of parliament, government ministers, an ambassador, and a party head.

As for the content of the agreement, most of its principles have now become matters of consensus among both Israelis and Palestinians. Despite the current magnitude of brutality -- or perhaps because of it. Surveys consistently show that a decisive two-thirds of Israeli Jews would support a peace agreement that includes Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territories, evacuation of most Israeli settlements, and creation of a Palestinian state. Most Palestinians hold the very same views. Indeed, only extremist political leaders on both sides fail to understand that these principles will ultimately set the terms of peace between our nations.

Clearly, the agreement was both pragmatic and moderate. In fact, had the women who wrote it been internationally recognized negotiators, the two Intifadas that followed it might have been prevented. This is but one example of the need to implement and enforce Security Council Resolution 1325.

At the grassroots level women have also been at the forefront of peacemaking. In 1988 women in Israel founded the movement now known as Women in Black. Dressed in black to mourn the victims on all sides, Women in Black has kept a one-hour silent vigil every Friday for the past 15 years. On street corners throughout Israel, Arab and Jewish women hold signs demanding an end to the Israeli occupation and pursuit of a just peace.

The Women in Black movement quickly and spontaneously spread around the globe as a public forum for women to say "no" to war and injustice. In Italy Women in Black
protest the Israeli occupation and the violence of organized crime. Women in Black in Bangalore, India call for an end to abuse by religious fundamentalists. During the war in the Balkans Women in Black, Yugoslavia set an inspirational example of interethnic cooperation. Today, Women in Black throughout the world are engaged in a struggle to prevent a war from being launched against Iraq. For their remarkable work, the international movement of Women in Black, represented by the movements in Yugoslavia and Israel, were nominated for last year’s Nobel Prize for Peace.

In Israel, the women’s peace movement extends well beyond Women in Black. We are Bat Shalom, the organization formed to promote the principles of the pre-Oslo peace agreement described earlier. We are New Profile, women seeking to end the militarization of Israeli society. We are Machsom Watch, women preventing human rights violations at checkpoints. We are the Movement of Democratic Women, Jewish and Palestinian women citizens of Israel struggling for peace and justice. These and other organizations, joined together in the Coalition of Women for a Just Peace, are united in relentless effort to bring the bloodshed to an end.

The women’s peace movement in Israel is absolutely breathtaking: It is alive with new ideas, indefatigable as women have always been, and at the vanguard of creative thinking about how to get to peace. Israeli and Palestinian women march together under the banner? We refuse to be enemies. Indeed, the Israeli and Palestinian women’s peace movements have already made peace: on paper, in our hearts, in the lessons we teach our children, and in the behavior we model. We are allies for peace, united in our
struggle against extremists and warmongers on all sides.

Is it not preposterous that not a single Israeli woman, and only one Palestinian woman, have held leadership roles at a Middle East peace summit? Instead, the negotiators have been men with portfolios of brutal crimes against each other - military men who have honed the art of war and who measure their success by the unconditional surrender of the other. Is it any wonder that we are still locked in combat?

Ultimately this occupation, like every other in history, will come to an end. The general parameters of that ending are already drawn and in consensus. What we need now is leadership committed to swiftly concluding this era awash in blood, leadership that understands the price we pay in death and destruction for every hour of delay. What we need now is leadership with expertise at reconciliation and rapprochement. What we need now is women.


Written Statement of Teesta Setalvad Concerning Genocide in Gujarat, India on the Occasion of the Second Anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security
23 October 2002

From the land of the apostle of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi, this testimony comes with an urgent plea to the influential sections of the world community to comprehend the magnitude of changes being wrought on the social fabric of Indian society by armed wings of fanatic Hindu groups that enjoy the political patronage of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the party that dominates the National democratic alliance at power at the centre.

For decades after independence, India stood poor but proud before the world community-- a pride lent weight by the sagacious political choices of the people and it’s leadership that opted for a democratic form of governance despite the pressures of a violent vivisection of the Indian sub-continent on religious lines in 1947. A Constitution that articulated the basis for a secular, democratic republic assured India’s multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual populace of the vision of an equal place under the sun.

Today that dream lies shattered, an aggressive and violent, anti-minority politics dominates the public sphere and activists and organisations that speak with a voice of conscience have their lives openly threatened and seriously endangered.

I would like to use this opportunity to speak specifically about the State Sponsored Genocide perpetrated on women, children and men of the state of Gujarat in March this year. It is not the first such pogrom against India’s religious minorities in past decades, but represents the culmination of a systematic, two decade long campaign of demonisation of the minorities that has not left the Christian community alone either.

For two decades now, the country, it’s people and it’s secular, democratic ethos have been held ransom by the public posturings of hate and calculated demonisation of religious minorities. Abusive and provocative statements against India’s Christians and Muslims, by prominent leaders of this sinister movement, including many ministers in the central government like the deputy prime minister, even, have created a climate of complicity that allows gruesome violence to pass and often even be justified.
The world needs to know and understand that the campaign to demolish a 400 year-old Mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, a campaign that was watched by two men and a woman who are ministers in the NDA government today, was not a campaign to build a temple in the memory of a Hindu God but a campaign to seriously alter the nature and character of Indian democracy and Indian politics by showing Muslims (and Christians) their place – as second class citizens who’s lives, security, dignity, identities, religious and cultural beliefs and symbols are not secure.

Gujarat is a land that gave the world Gandhi. In March 2002, Gujarat became a blot on the name and memory of the man who inspired Martin Luther King junior, Nelson Mandela and the world by his dogged faith in inter-faith toleration and non-violence from February 28 this year.

On February 27, 02 a train carrying ordinary passengers and also heavily overcrowded with Hindu militants returning from the northern Indian town where they had gone to push for the building of the temple on the site of the demolished Mosque, had an incident of mass arson following which 58 passengers were burned alive. Until today, neither the official Commission of Inquiry nor the Concerned Citizens Tribunal –Gujarat 2002 has been able to ascertain the cause of the fire. What there is ample proof of, however is the abusive and provocative behaviour of the Hindu fanatic militants returning on the train. Yet, the State of Gujarat---abusing every Constitutional norm and law-- tacitly supported by some ministers of the Indian government used this incident to justify and launch a State Sponsored Genocide against the State’s Muslims in a macabre and medieval ‘tit-for-tat’ brand of politics.

¸ Over 2,000 lives were brutally taken by armed and militant squads led by elected representatives of the BJP also enjoying membership of brother Hindu organisations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal, with military precision over 3-4 days.

¸ Over 250 girls and women were subjected to inhuman sexual crimes including rape simply because they were Muslim and women; representative of the ‘honour’ of their community.

¸ Over 33,000 children have been mute spectators to unmentionable violence being perpetrated on near and dear ones and neighbours.

¸ The manner of killing was brutal. Men’s hands and fingers and toes were first cut off, their bodies then quartered before they were urinated upon and burned. Often there were no remains of the dead for the survivors of the Genocide.

¸ Girls and women were stripped and paraded for lengths of time before they were gangraped, then (in most cases) quartered and killed. There are some survivors who have reneged on testimonies because of the utter collapse of the Indian criminal justice system to ensure justice and sensitivity to their plight.

¸ Over 270 Mosques and Shrines representative of Islam and the Sufi traditions were targeted and destroyed.

¸ Muslim businesses and establishments were selectively targeted amounting to a total loss of not less that Rs, 5,000 crores (put in dollars)

¸ Over 2,50,000 persons were made refugees in their own neigbourhoods, and even relief and rehabilitation was callously denied by the State. It was community based NGOs and some others who chipped in. The International Community that had come overwhelmingly to the support of Gujarat victims of the earthquake of January 2001, was utterly absent in the relief and rehabilitation measures after the Gujarat Genocide.

¸ Psychological and health needs of the survivor Muslim women were simply ignored. Even today women survivors have rebuilt their lives on their own steam and with some help from the community.

¸ The State not only refused to involve itself in any serious relief and rehabilitation but showered further abuse on the victim by the Chief Minister passing offensive remarks about the Muslim refugees living in refugee camps.

The absence of overwhelming resistance to this Genocide from the rest of non-Muslim civil society in Gujarat ensured through the generation of fear and terror by the hit squads of the Hindu fanatic groups and also, unfortunately through complicity in the hate speech and demonisation generated through a proliferation of this ideology — way of thinking in Gujarat.

A frightening aspect of the ascendancy of this politics of violence and majoritarianism in India has been the co-option within its cadres and folds, of bands of Hindu women. In the unfortunate inter-community conflicts that we had prior to the growth of this brand of Hindu militant politics, say until the late 1970s or mid-1980s one discernible trend always was the manner in which women came to the help of victim women.

As an active part of the Indian women’s movement, it was disturbing to watch the trends since the mid-eighties on the mobilisation of majority women as agents of violence. This has had to do with the focus of Hindu militant groups in actively building cadres among women; in even training women in arms training; and in also perpetrating a distorted version of Indian history that portray the Muslim as ‘marauder and rapist’ to poison the minds of the young.

Gandhi, who is still dear to international organisations and governments for his deep and moral commitment to non-violence, was shot dead by a man, a Hindu fanatic, who worshipped Hitler and believed that Gandhi’s non-violence had emasculated the Hindu Indian and robbed him of his masculinity. Gandhi said, and believed that in matters of conscience, the majority had no place. Nehru believed (or should I say predicted?) that "Fascism in India would come (or could come) in the garb of Hindu majoritarian and communalism."

Many of us in this struggle believe that the majority of the Indian people is still on our side. My worry is, their silence. Genocide is always and only possible with the tacit compliance of the silence of the majority. And I, and many of us, deeply worry that the majority has been silenced by the systematic half-truths and hate propaganda that any fascist agenda enlists.

At the heart of the brutal, violent, anti-minority politics being systematically perpetrated within India, a politics moreover that has the tacit support of the government in power at the centre, is a sinister design to significantly alter the character of the Indian nation. To capture power, and thereafter convert the secular democratic republic of India into a Hindu rashtra (a Hindu nation).

The admiration of the proponents of such a Hindu state for Hitler and his ‘final solution’ that he practised on the Jews with such horrifying consequences is an ideal for the RSS, the organisation that is at the fountainhead of this ideology and this eulogisation of Facism and Nazism can be today found in Gujarat’s State Social Studies (History) Text Books.
The National Human Rights Commission of India, and over three dozen Indian human rights factfinding reports have closely documented the Genocide that was Systematically perpetrated in the State of Gujarat. The latest document that is in the final stages of completion is the Report of the Concerned Citizens Tribunal—Gujarat 2002 that has at it’s help three leading, retired Judges of the Indian Judiciary—Justice VR Krishna Iyer, Justice PB Sawant and Justice Hosbet Suresh.

The shocking extent of State Complicity and Planning in the Violence has been closely documented. Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues, Gordhan Zadaphiya, Haren Pandya, Naran Laloo Patel and Niteen Patel have been directly named as leading mobs that murdered and looted and committed unspeakable crimes. The Central government too, by refusing to intervene and put a stop to the violence is culpable in the Genocide, especially in its justification by constantly harking on a ‘Pakistan plot.’ Worst of all is the increasingly evident partisan conduct of the Indian police that has been increasingly displaying an anti-minority bias in its functioning. In the on-going Gujarat Genocide, the conduct of the vast majority of the Gujarat police force was dictated by political influence and considerations; the few who stood by their uniform and the Indian constitution were punitively transferred. Internationally well-travelled office bearers of the Vishwa Hindu parishad (World Hindu Council) like Ashok Singhal and Praveen Togadia have been identified and named for being at the helm of the hate speech, venom and aggression carried on by their cadres.

The Indian sub-continent and South Asia as a region sits on a precipice. Internal conflicts have external ramifications due to the ethnic compositions and divisions within the countries of the region. The region is that much more volatile and fragile due to the aggressive militarisation and nuclearisation pursued by India, followed by Pakistan. Sri Lanka stands wounded after over two decades of a bitter civil war. India’s northwestern and north eastern states are also regions where internal alienation has resulted in conflict, often supported and spawned by a hawkish Pakistan. India is a significant factor, a source of either balance or counter-balance in the region. A democratic, secular, internally conflict free India is vital for a stable, peaceful South Asia. A Hawkish India that screeches hate and venom against a section of it's own populations spearheads it’s own and the region’s de-stablisation and poses a threat to international peace and security.

In Bombay 1992-93, we saw a similar (but not so vital) pogrom against Muslims unleashed. Three months later serial bomb blasts took innocent lives in an act of retaliation. In Coimbatore in South India in 1998, following the singular targeting of the city’s minorities, similar bomb blasts three months later showed us what the ‘tit for tat’ kind of politics can mean in real terms. After the Gujarat Genocide, the attack on the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar at the end of September, has opened one more state to the vulnerability of terrorism. Before these planned and perpetrated attacks on the country’s minorities, constantly labelling them ‘anti-national’ none of these three states within India would have been vulnerable for any Pakistani led or bred infiltration. India and Indians blame the rabid band of Hindu fanatics who attack innocent Indians through terror and violence, simply because they happen to be Muslims or Christians, for welcoming with open hands the possibility of terror squads within our borders.

Responsibility therefore rests surely with the global community to ensure that the circumstances that allowed the Gujarat Genocide 2002 to occur are mitigated, that justice is done to the victim survivors of the carnage, that the guilty are brought to trial and punished. We have serious information about the huge source of funding that the friends of the BJP raise overseas, often in the name of charity. These funds are, however, used for aggressive, anti-minority and anti-national activities back home. Should not the source of these funds be investigated??

In every sense, the events in Gujarat as described above is Genocide according to Art.2 of the UN Convention of Genocide. Moreover, the reports of victims and survivors being intimidated from going back to their homes and livelihood amounts to imposing conditions of life calculated to bring upon destruction of the community thereby constituting a continuing crime of Genocide. As a representative of the politically active, feminist and human rights community within India and as a passionate believer in peace and democracy within South Asia, I urge that the UN Security council passes a Resolution wherein the Council
¸ Condemns the Genocide in Gujarat
¸ Call upon the Indian State to ensure that Justice is Delivered to the Victims and Survivors
¸ Ensures that Speedy and Effective Short and Long term Rehabilitation of the Victim Community takes place
¸ Call upon the Indian State and the State of Gujarat to provide reparations for the victims of Genocide in Gujarat 2002 and allow International Teams and Observers to Visit Gujarat to make this possible.
¸ Call upon member states to investigate and freeze the funds of groups like the Hindu Seva Sangh, the Sewa International, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad wherever they exist.
¸ Call upon the member states to perform their obligation under the Genocide Convention exercising universal jurisdiction to prosecute those responsible for the crimes in the event of inability or unwillingness by the Indian states to do so.

We Indians have a myth about ourselves. Every civilization has a myth about itself. Ours is that we are the most non-violent and tolerant people in the world. The events of the past months have exploded this myth. The India of Gandhi and Nehru is no more. For leaders of the international stage, now is time to act before events unfold that could shock the conscience of the world. If the international community fails now, let it be prepared to take in the moral responsibility of letting yet another holocaust happen.*Teesta Setalvad is a senior journalist, educator feminist and women’s rights activist. She has recently been co-awarded the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award 2003 for her work in Gujarat following the Genocide

Statement of Sabine Sabimbona of the Collective of Burundian Women’s Associations, CAFOB to the UN Security Council Arria Formula on the Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325
23 October 2002

I would like to thank the United Nations Security Council for their untiring efforts to find a lasting solution to the Burundian crisis. Their two visits to Burundi have demonstrated their solidarity with the Burundian people in their quest for peace.
Peace and security are dependent on the equal participation of men and women in all areas of public life, including decision-making.

If the political representation of women has not progressed in Burundi as it has done elsewhere, that is because the way politics is done has not much evolved.

Women are not just victims in the socio-political crisis facing Burundi. They have also contributed to the peace process. Unfortunately our role has not always been given due recognition.

Security Council Resolution 1325, if it were fully implemented, would revolutionise many things. Burundian women did not wait for this Resolution to act or to speak out.
When conflict broke out in Burundi in 1993, a number of women’s associations representing women from different ethnic groups emerged and united for peace at a time when men were prisoners in ethnic ghettos.

In 1994, Burundian women, convinced that they would be stronger if united, decided to create the Collectif des Associations et ONGs Féminines du Burundi (CAFOB). CAFOB’s main objectives are to strengthen the operational capacities of member associations and to support the role of Burundian women in peace-building, national reconciliation and development. There were 7 associations when CAFOB started out, now there are 52.

CAFOB, along with the women’s organisation, Dushirehamwe, working for the peaceful resolution of conflicts, has worked in the field of rapprochement, bringing together displaced women and those who have stayed in their villages. Visits to and meetings with the Burundian diaspora have been organised.

CAFOB has lobbied persistently for women to participate in the Burundian peace process. CAFOB has engaged on this subject with Burundian politicians, the President of the Regional Initiative for Burundi, his Excellency, Yoweri Museveni and with other mediators in the Burundian conflict.

The result of this lobbying is the Government and Transitional institutions now include women in peace and development activities.

In the Arusha peace talks women from CAFOB were able to attend as observers. Throughout the process they made written contributions and recommendations about the questions being debated and also about the draft peace agreement, signed 28 August 2000. Women are represented in the transitional institutions, albeit in small numbers. Even though women are not signatories to the Arusha Accord and in spite of the weaknesses of the Accord, Burundian women consider it to be an important step towards peace.

Your Excellencies, if it is true that Burundian women’s engagement for peace is a reason for hope, it is also true that women are up against many challenges, which risk compromising the peace movement. These challenges include:
Ý Continuation of war, even though the cessation of hostilities was the dividend that the majority of Burundians, particularly women and children, were expecting.
Only further negotiation and the signature of a ceasefire agreement will restore hope. Although we deplore the fact that Burundian women have not been included in the ceasefire negotiations, in spite of our insistence, we welcome the signature on 7 October of a ceasefire agreement between the government and two of the armed groups. We hope that in the near future, the other parties will sign up.
Ý Insufficient material support to women’s peace initiatives
Ý Under-representation in decision making
Ý Feminisation of poverty
Ý Weight of tradition which undermines women’s role
Ý Low levels of education – 70% of women are illiterate
Ý Negative solidarity from menYour Excellencies, although these challenges lessen women’s capacity for peace-building in spite of their good will, we would like to share with you the hopes of Burundian women:
The continuation of the war in Burundi constitutes a major handicap to the peace process. If a short-term solution is not found soon the efforts of the majority of Burundians, by the UN and the rest of the international community will be compromised.

The violence that imposed on innocent civilians by fighting factions is a challenge not only for Burundians but also for the UN whose mission is to keep world peace, including Burundian peace.

This is why I ask the UN, the Security Council and the rest of the international community, on behalf of Burundian women, to put pressure on, force and sanction the fighting forces so that they renounce violence, for it is unacceptable that a tiny proportion of Burundians take hostage a peace agreement that is so dear to the rest of the population.
Burundian women ask again that you continue to support the ceasefire negotiations in order to reach a sustainable peace where there are no winners or losers.

There will only be peace in the Great lakes region when each country in that region lives in peace. Whilst we welcome the international community’s efforts to restore peace to the democratic republic of Congo, our neighbour, we ask them to ensure that this peace process does not impact negatively on Burundi.

Excessive poverty in Burundi is killing as many people as the war. Promises were made in Paris and Geneva. The non-release of these funds leaves the Burundian people under embargo and can only serve to exacerbate the conflict.

We assure you that, as women and mothers, experiencing the realities on the ground, the best way to demobilisation is through development. This is why we ask you intervene for Burundi so that the funds are released and targeted at the social sectors, which impact upon grassroots communities, in particular rural women, in whose hands lies the development of the country.

Burundian women ask you to help them obtain a quota of at least 30% in decision making positions. They ask that the UN and the donor community further support their peace initiatives.

Burundian women welcome the World Fund to fight HIV/AIDS. Burundi is a country greatly affected by the disease. Burundian women ask for easy access to medication at an affordable price. Finally, we welcome the establishment of the office of the High Representative for the least developed states, developing countries without coastline and insular states. Burundian women ask the Secretary General to lead by example in the implementation of 1325 and to nominate women to positions of responsibility within this office.
Finally, Burundian women ask that resolution 1325 be made into a pact so as to engage all countries.

THE NAIROBI DECLARATION

We, women of the Democratic Republic of Congo, representing the different components in the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, that is, Government, the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie (RCD), the political opposition and civil society, meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, from 15th to 19th February 2002,
Conscious of the fact that we represent 52 per cent of the Congolese population, which constitutes an inescapable force in the restoration and the maintenance of peace and the development of our country;
Considering the real impact of atrocities of the war on the entire population;
Considering women, children, the aged, the sick and the handicapped under their care, are the most vulnerable groups and victims of this war;
Profoundly pained by the blind violence against women and the girl child, such as rape, forced prostitution, abductions, mutilations, and the killings, looting, psychological and mental traumas, HIV/AIDS infections and sexually transmitted diseases;
Noting the tribal wars, massive dislocation of populations;
Deploring the recruitment of child soldiers in the armed conflict and the difficulties related to their social and familial reintegration;
Considering the terrible consequences of the war on displaced and refugee populations, the growing number of orphans and children resulting from rape;
Convinced of our wish and determination to become active in peace-building in our country,
Considering that, as mothers of the nation, we have a right, a duty and a responsibility towards the Congolese people;
Considering the innate capacities in mediation, as mothers and spouses, and as custodians of our traditions and our cultural values;
Reaffirming our total support for all initiatives geared to reestablishing total and sustainable peace in the DRC, and to its reconstruction and development;
Saluting the multidimensional efforts engaged by Congolese women themselves, the development partners and all those who have demonstrated their solidarity to these struggles (the African Women’s Peace Committee, Femmes Africa Solidarite (FAS), UNIFEM. the agencies of the United Nations, diplomatic missions,);
Convinced that women’s rights are human rights;
Considering about the under-representation of women in decision-making;
Convinced about the effective holding of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue;
We thus appeal to all parties involved in the Congo crisis to take account of the ardent wishes of Congolese women, expressed in this Declaration and the attached Action Plan.
We call for the immediate halt to the hostilities and the immediate and effective withdrawal of foreign troops from the Congolese territory;
We insist on the reunification of the country and respect for its territorial integrity;
We demand the application of good governance and the stability of the institutions;
We demand the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, ratified by the DRC, is mentioned in the preamble of the new constitution to be adopted by the DRC;
That access to land and resources for women be legislated and instituted;
That affirmative action, such as a 30 per cent quota recommended by the Beijing Platform of Action, be instituted as demonstration of good governance and democracy in order to guarantee significant representation of women in all instances of decision-making;
That gender-sensitivity be mainstreamed across the entire Inter-Congolese Dialogue and that its various components accept to take this into account.
We demand the institution of an emergency humanitarian programme, which should include women’s organizations at all levels of its implementation.
We exhort all delegates to secure the reintegration and the rehabilitation of demobilized child soldiers, street children and orphans, and the care of women and girls victims of the atrocities described above.
We commit ourselves to address the priorities of women, children and other vulnerable groups in all points in the agenda of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, to ensure that there is no impunity for all criminal acts, and that rape is legislated as a crime against the humanity of women.
We ardently appeal to the international community to appropriately take charge of the Declaration and Action Plan of the women of the DRC, with budgets for its implementation.
We demand that the facilitator, His Excellency KETUMILE MASIRE, to incorporate the Declaration of Nairobi and the Action Plans of the Congolese women in the Agenda of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue.
Adopted in Nairobi: Tuesday, February 19, 2002


THE BRUSSELS PROCLAMATION
Afghan Women’s Summit for Democracy
4-5 December 2001

The meeting of the Afghan Women’s Summit for Democracy came up with the following demands with respect to the reconstruction of Afghanistan :
EDUCATION, MEDIA AND CULTURE
Infrastructures in Afghanistan for the past 23 years have been destroyed. People of Afghanistan lost their basic human rights including the right to live, to be educated and to work, as well as their culture. Two generations of Afghans are illiterate and there was no adequate schooling available due to the war and the repressive regime, which banned girls from school and taught boys only about ‘political’ Islam so that these boys were brainwashed and became extremists. These ideas are contrary to Islamic values.
Afghan women are in dire need of education and information through the media. Education, information and culture empower women. Women are the shapers of society; they have to be educated and have access to information in order to raise responsible children. Women should participate fully in the current and future development of Afghanistan.
We need to re-open the schools in major cities of Afghanistan, starting from Kabul the capital, and bring back to the people our cultural heritage. Particular attention should be given to orphans living in the streets, both in respect of shelter and education.
We need to bring hope and a bright future to our people. It is our duty as Afghan women to help and support our people in order to bring to the fore the important contribution of Afghan women as the torch-bearers of a culture in peril.
For the past 23 years, Afghan people have been living in the dark. We the Afghan women should join our efforts to establish a civil society in our country and bring back democratic values through education and culture. Education and culture transcend the reality of our lives. Their healing power and creative energy could act as a catalyst for peace and as an antidote to our national wounds by safeguarding our cultural heritage from disappearance. By reviving education and culture, we Afghans can all have something common to share and be united.

Recommendations
Ý Sending a group of women to Afghanistan for assessing the schools’ condition
Ý Developing an emergency plan for re-opening schools by March 2002 for both girls and boys and reconstruction of the schools that have been damaged or destroyed
Ý Reopening of institutes of higher education
Ý Provision of all the necessary means for schools so that they will be able to function properly
Ý Transfer of students taught at home to schools
Ý Provision of a comprehensive school curriculum based on international standards and the relevant supplies
Ý Provision of teachers’ training including refresher courses for teachers
Ý Creation of structures for sheltering and educating orphans
Ý Ensuring fair salaries for all staff in education
Ý Inclusion of educational professionals in the Ministry of Education
Ý Ensuring inclusion of conflict resolution courses in education
Ý Afghan journalists living abroad to assess the situation in Afghanistan
Ý Reconstruction of TV satellites and radio stations, in particular in the major cities of Afghanistan that were already equipped
Ý Provision of cameras and necessary equipment
Ý Provision of training for personnel in the area of technical backing and production
Ý Recuperation and re-purchase of the ancient literary works which have been dispersed around the world, with the help of UNESCO and private donors
Ý Reprinting of rare books of literature, poetry, etc
Ý Translation of Afghan literature into English and other languages so that the Afghan children living abroad will be able to regain their cultural identity
Ý Establishment of a prize-award system in literature for young writers, poets and artists HEALTH
Women should participate fully in the current and future development of Afghanistan, particularly in the field of health. We volunteer to do a comprehensive survey in order to specifically identify and point out the needs if concrete support is provided. In order for the group members to conduct a comprehensive survey in the following areas, the group members request the European Commission and the donor agencies to provide the means for a team to conduct a survey of the medical needs of Afghans.
Recommendations
Ý Provision of critical medical equipment, medicines and vitamins
Ý Rebuilding of water and sanitation systems
Ý Restarting of the food program
Ý Vaccination programs
Ý Medical teams be sent to Afghanistan to provide hands-on training and mentoring to Afghan doctors and other medical staff
Ý Afghan doctors and other medical staff be provided with the opportunities to get training abroad
Ý Scholarships be provided to medical students to study abroad
Ý Awareness raising through media, distribution of health related material, including but not limited to mother and child health, malnutrition, hygiene, contagious diseases, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases
Ý Re-establishment of health centers in urban and rural areas
Ý Re-establishment of training centers and training programs for the medical personnel
Ý Rebuilding of medical faculties in Kabul, Herat, Nengrahar and Mazar-e-Sharif
Ý Rehabilitation of psychological hospital in Kabul
Ý Expansion of orthepedic centers for handicapped people
Ý Expansion of clinics and treatment centers for Malaria and Leshmenia
Ý Establishment of counselling and health centers in schools
Ý Provision of family planning programs
Ý Establishment and rebuilding of medical laboratories
Ý Re-introduction of health insurance
Ý Provision of centers for HIV/AIDS patients and drug addicts
Ý Provision of blood banks
HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE CONSTITUTION
Recalling the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Beijing Platform for Action, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), The Cairo Programme of Action, and the UN Convention Against Torture, we the participants of the Afghan Women’s Summit for Democracy make the following recommendations:
Recommendations
Ý Making all support, including monetary, from the international community conditional on the rights and treatment of women
Ý The cessation of using Pakistan as a proxy for Afghanistan and the subsequent recognition of Afghanistan as an independent state in reconstruction negotiations
Ý Guaranteed recognition of the returnees to Afghanistan as legitimate citizens of Afghanistan
Ý Central inclusion of women in the Loya Jirgah (Grand Assembly) and all peace processes and matters related to reconstruction
Ý Inclusion of Afghan women lawyers in the development of a new constitution based on the 1964 constitution and resulting legal frameworks
Ý Critical focus on disarmament in all areas of Afghanistan and a wide demining campaign
Ý Ensuring that the principles of non-discrimination according to gender, age, ethnicity, disability, religion, and political affiliation in all aspects of political, social, cultural, civil and economic rights are central to the new legal system
Ý Ensuring the protection of women from forced/under-aged marriages, sexual harassment, trafficking in people and all other types of abuse
Ý Ensuring a safe and secure environment for women and girls
Ý Ensuring equal rights for women including the right to vote, equal pay and equal access to education, health care and employment
Ý Elimination of child labor and child soldiering
Ý Wide utilization of Afghan women experts, their knowledge and experiences
Ý Establishment of an umbrella/coalition under which a number of organizations will jointly work on projects or programs
Ý Donor funding to be channeled through local Afghan Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and a transparent system of accountabilities be established
Ý Ensuring examination of the economic involvement of regional actors in the context of promoting sustainable peace
REFUGEES AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED WOMEN
According to UNHCR in the past two decades Afghan refugees constitute the largest refugee population in the world. Due to the current war in Afghanistan, approximately 300,000 more refugees have been added to the refugee population. More than 65% of refugees are women and children. Afghan refugees in the first country of asylum, especially in neighbouring countries, including Central Asian countries, have very limited rights. The safety and security of most refugees, especially women, is extremely limited. Under the current circumstances, due to the presence of landmines and destruction of infrastructure in residential areas, Afghanistan does not have the capacity to provide sustainable living conditions. The political and security conditions in Afghanistan are not considered to be safe for some refugees. For those refugees who cannot return and are in need of international protection according to the 1951 Geneva Convention, resettlement should be provided as a tool of protection.
Recommendations
Ý Avoidance of forced repatriation of refugees as it violates basic human rights according to UNHCR guidelines on repatriation
Ý Provision of a durable resettlement solution for those refugees who cannot return to Afghanistan for security reasons
Ý Increase of educational, training, capacity building and income generating programs to enhance the special needs of refugees and internally displaced women and children.
Ý Provision of basic needs of internally displaced and refugee women required for human existence. These needs include:
o Security and protection
o Health care services
o Education on prevention of sexually transmitted diseases
o Education on birth control and family planning

DECLARATION OF SOLIDARITY
In solidarity with the Afghan women gathered in Brussels December 4-5th, women’s rights activists from Belgium, Croatia, France, India, Italy, Jordan, Morocco, Netherlands, Pakistan, Palestine, Somalia, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States met in parallel session in Brussels to formulate support strategies for the implementation of the Brussels Proclamation issued by the Afghan Women’s Summit. A number of initiatives were devised by this group, which included activists from war-torn countries, artists, lawyers, funders and a parliamentarian. Also working with the group was the Gender Advisor to the UN Secretary-General and the Executive Director of UNIFEM. The group was deeply moved and inspired by the clarity and brilliance of the Brussels Proclamation and the vision of Afghan Women for the future of their country. In support of this vision, the group made the following commitments:
Ý To undertake an advocacy campaign to ensure that the funds allocated by the international community for the reconstruction of Afghanistan are conditional on (i) the participation by women in decision-making over the granting of the funds; (ii) the inclusion of women’s non-governmental organizations among recipients of the funds; and (iii) the use of the funds for implementation of the priorities outlined in the Brussels Proclamation.
Ý To declare on International Women’s Day 2002 that for women "Afghanistan is Everywhere", which means that we are joined in solidarity with the women of Afghanistan not only because we all identify with their suffering but also because we understand that the same conditions of violence, oppression, invisibility and other forms of inequality that plagued Afghanistan are universal. We will use March 8th to mobilize a worldwide demand for the implementation of the Brussels Proclamation issued by the Afghan Women’s Summit.
Ý To create an international task force of women’s rights lawyers with particular expertise in drafting legislation and constitutional law.
Ý To provide political support to the Ministry of Women created by the Bonn Agreement, and to undertake efforts to foster voter education and the participation by women in elections.
Ý To coordinate a funding effort to support grassroots community initiatives by and for women in Afghanistan and neighboring countries, which will make available at least $1 million over the next three years.
To promote United Nations recruitment of women for employment in the various agencies within the UN system operating in Afghanistan and neighboring countries.
Statement of Cora Weiss
To United Nations Non-Governmental Organizations/Department of Public Information Annual Conference
11 September 2002
"Women, to make peace last: The recipe for a lasting peace requires many ingredients. I will urge us to consider just two. No women, no peace is easy to say, why has it been so hard to achieve? Women are over half the population. We are the first teachers of our children and through stories hand down our experiences and values.
"A coalition of international organizations has nurtured and seen the unanimous adoption of SC resolution 1325 on women, peace arid security. We have a copy for every one of you. It calls for women at every table where the fate of humanity is at stake. It calls for women, not a woman, for one woman does not women make, to be protected in armed conflict, to have their rights respected, to have States put an end to impunity for war crimes especially those relating to sexual violence against women and girls. It calls for recognizing the special needs of women fofmer combatants and the needs of their children and for women to be represented at all decision making levels. Including peace processes and in conflict resolution.
"We should never forget Mary Robinson’s special tribute to the role of women’s groups in peace building. Her Irish poet’s verse, should be on every man’s desk...women need to be written back into history, finding a voice where they found a vision."
"I am delighted to be sharing this platform with the Under Secretary General for Peace Keeping, the very place that desperately needs a gender unit, and gender sensitivity training through the ranks of all peacekeepers and their leaders.
"We especially call on you, Mr. Under -Secretary General Guehenno, to create a gender unit in the DPKO, and gender units in every peace keeping operation. Why can’t that be done now, what is there to wait for?
"When women are respected, when women are part of the solution they become part of the glue that makes the peace agreement stick. No women, no peace. We are simply asking to share the responsibilities and the opportunities. It’s never happened in history. And the present ways are failing. We saw what a difference two women made at the Good Friday Agreement table in Ireland. We can not afford to ignore the abilities and rights of women. All of us here can take 1325 home to promote, and to monitor its implementation."

Resolution/Statement from the International Forum of the Association of Women's Rights in Development (AWID)
6 October 2002

We the undersigned who are gathered at the AWID international conference in Guadalajara, Mexico, are united against the proposed United States-led aggression against Iraq which is contrary to international law and violates fundamental human rights.

We come from more than 100 countries from all regions of the world and work for women's human rights and development. We express our concerns for those of our constituencies who are alarmed by and opposed to the increased militarization of the United States and other governments around the world.

We urge the United States to immediately desist in its policies of military and economic aggression and to collaborate with the international community to promote peace, human rights and economic justice.

Memorandum to the Government, the LTTE, and the Norwegian Facilitators From Women's Organizations of Sri Lanka

We, the representatives of women's organizations in Sri Lanka came together in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 7 June 2002 to make recommendations regarding women, conflict, and the peace process. In our deliberations we came to the following conclusions:

1. As Sri Lankan women, we accept the common destiny of all the people living in the island of Sri Lanka and recognize the multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multilingual nature of our society. Women and women's organizations in Sri Lanka have been working steadily and consistently for peace during the last two decades. We therefore welcome the Ceasefire AGreement between the government and the LTTE and the opportunity it provides for a lasting peace based on a just and honourable settlement. We fully support all efoorts at
peacemaking nad peace building and urge the parties in the peace process to be includisve and fully involve all levels of society in the peace process.

2. As women concerned about the peace process, we are determined to ensure that:
(a) Women are included in all aspects of the peace process
(b) Women's issues and concerns for an integral part of the peacea genda
(c) Human rights are fully protected at every stage of the peace process

3. We welcome the United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 which reiterates the importance of brining a women's perspective to bear on al aspects of peace making, peace building, rehabilityation and reconstruction. We urge the Sri Lankan Government, the LTTE, and all those involved in peace building, rehabilitation and reconstruction initiatives to fully implement this resolution.

4. We recognize that women in particular have been victimized by war and conflict in Sri Lanka, that they have been subjec tot he worst forms of violence, been displaced and made into refugees, compelled to live as war widows, and forced into prstitution and sexual slavery. Women have watched their family members disappear and their children conscripted into the fighting forces. They have suffered physical disabilities and psychosocial trauma because of the war. Therefore, women's realitities and women's voices must be an essential part of the peace process in Sri Lanka.

5. We are concerned that as of date women are not part of the formal peace process. We insist that women be given equal participation and full involvement in all efforts of peace negotiations between the government and LTTE. Women must be an integral and essential part of the discussions leading up to the formal negotiations, in the monitoring of the ceasefire and other interim arrangements, in the formal negotiations between the government and the LTTE, and in the post-conflict arrangements.

6. The full participation of women in decision-making in all phases of the reconstruction, rehabilitation and transformation process is absolutely essential. We strongly urge the Government, the LTTE, and Humanitarian Agencies to fully include women in the economic recovery that results from the peace process.

7. Women have distinct priorities and specific needs regarding the role of the state and the constitution. Women should be included in all constitutional deliberations and the views and the preferences of Sri Lankan women should be actively solicited and taken into account in the formulation.

8. We call on the Government and the LTTE to address the substantive issues and formulate specialized programs for areas that are of particular concern to women, including:
Violence and Sexual Violence Against Women
Refugees and Internally Displaced Women
Protection of the Rights of Women During Resettlement
Property Rights and Repossession of Homes, Land, and Title
Women in Custody
War Widows
Families of Detainees
Families of the Disappeared
Families of Soldiers, Combatants, and those Missing in Action
Women Combatants and Women in the Armed Forces
Provision of Food, Housing, Clean Water, Healthcare, Education, and Basic Services
Trauma and Counseling
Economic and Social Rights of Women
Trafficking of Women
Forced Prostitution

9. We call upon all parties to the armed conflict to fully represent international law applicable to the rights and protection of women and of children, especially as civilians, in particular the obligations applicable to them under the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Additional Protocols thereto of 1977, the Refugee Convention of 1951 and the Protocol thereto of 1967, CEDAW and the Optional Protocol of 1999 and the UN Convention on the Rights of Child 1989 and the Protocol thereto of 25 May 2000 and to bear in mind the relevant provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The Parties should also respect the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Sri Lankan Women’s Charter.

10. All efforts toward peace must take place within the norms and standards of human rights and humanitarian law. International norms of human rights law must not be compromised in the negotiation and implementation of peace agreements and the interests of the civilian population must received the greatest attention. The Government and the LTTE must agree to address the following human rights concerns through a Human Rights Agreement:

Extrajudicial Killings
The Government and the LTTE shall refrain from extrajudicial killings including murder, summary executions, political assassinations, and causing disappearances.

Arrests and Detentions
No person shall be arrested or detained except according to a law that meets international standards. Those arbitrarily detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act should be released as soon as possible, and the Act should be repealed.

Rape and Torture
No person shall be tortured or raped, and parties should agree to a full investigation of the allegations of rape or torture.
Free Movements of Goods and People
The Government and the LTTE shall allow people to return to their homes with minimal intrusions on their movement, and maximum protection of their security. The Government and LTTE should ensure the free movement of people and the free movement of goods to all parts of the island.
Extortion
No one should be subject to extortion of illegal levies. All taxes shall be open, transparent, and imposed only pursuant to legitimate authority conferred by a representative body that is recognized by both parties to the conflict.

Child Conscription
The Government and the LTTE shall agree not to conscript children into their fighting forces. Children in the fighting forces shall be released forthwith.

Abduction and Kidnapping
The Government and the LTTE shall ensure that there is an end to abduction and kidnapping.

Women’s Rights
The Government and the LTTE shall recognize women’s rights as human rights and monitors all those under their command for any abuses against women. Both parties should ensure conditions that are conducive to the full enjoyment of the rights of women.

Political Freedom
The Government and the LTTE shall respect the freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, the right to vote free from intimidation and violence, and inclusiveness in political representation. All parties shall agree to respect the right to political dissent and refrain from political violence.

Economic and Social Rights
The Government and LTTE should recognize economic and social rights as human rights, and ensure that all individuals can enjoy basic levels of food, housing, clean water, education, and healthcare. The economic and social rights of women should be protected. They should fully participate in the labor force and have access to all the economic opportunities provided by the peace process.

Monitoring and Enforcement
Women should be represented in the monitoring committees, and all members of the monitoring committees should be trained to respond effectively to the complaints brought by women. The monitoring committees should be given full powers to enforce the ceasefire agreement so that they can act quickly and effectively. Monitoring committees should be accessible to civilians and the present Sri Lankan monitoring committees should be restructured to include independent monitors.

11. We call on all those who are involved in the peace process to ensure that the rights of local communities and ethnic groups and the rights of women within these communities are protected. The participation of the Muslim community in the peace process must be ensured to guarantee that all sections of society are duly represented. The value of diversity and the special needs of different communities including those living in the border areas, the plantation community, and other ethnic and cultural minorities must be reflected in a final constitutional settlement.
We call upon the Government and the LTTE to respect the autonomy and independence of the media and civil society institutions which include women's organizations. These organizations should be allowed to function freely in all parts of the island.

12. We urge the Government, the LTTE, and the Norwegian facilitators to consider the creation of institutions such as Truth and Reconciliation Commissions to record and acknowledge the history of suffering of all communities due to conflict and to deal with issues of accountability and justice.

13. As women, we are deeply concerned about the militarization of society due to armed conflict. The high levels of domestic violence, rape, and sexual harassment are directly linked to a climate of impunity encouraged by the war. Peace efforts should directly address this problem and special measures should be taken to counteract militarization and its negative effects.

Women and the Peace Process in Sri Lanka: Proposed Plan of Action
Proposed follow-up to the meeting of women and women’s organizations initiated by the International Centre for Ethnic Studies, the Women and Media Collective and the Social Scientists Association
7 June 2002.

1. The Memorandum to the President, Prime Minister, a representative of the LTTE’s Political Wing in Vavuniya and the Norwegian High Commissioner will be finalized and translated in the week following the meeting.
2. Appointments will be sought from the relevant parties of the 20th or 21st of June and arrangements made to inform women and women’s organizations who wish to be part of the delegations.
3. Delegations to meet at ICES to keep the Colombo appointments and the delegation wishing to travel to Vavuniya to contact Dulcy Silva at the Women and Media Collective for travel details.
4. The Memorandum will be released to the press on the day of the appointments. The Memorandum will be handed over to the relevant UN offices subsequently.
5. The ICES/WMC and SSA will create a list serve of all the women and women’s organizations attending the meeting of the 7th and extend it to any other women and organizations wishing to be included.
6. The list serve will be a site for the collection and dissemination of information on women’s activities and activism on peace making, peace building and seeking a political resolution to the conflict.
7. Information will be shared on special focus groups such as the displaced, communities living in the "border" areas, female headed households, women victims of violence, etc.
8. A human rights framework will be lobbied for and information on human rights violations will be shared and referred to relevant authorities.
ICES, WMC, SSA : 10 June 2002