We are happy to introduce the first issue of the GWNP newsletter Connecting for Peace.
In this issue read about the Afghan women’s concern about the Peace Jirga and the reconciliation process with the Taliban, discover how Ugandans hold stakeholder workshop to consolidate efforts on UNSCR 1325 work, and find our more about the work of GNWP member Afghan Women’s Network.
Congratulations to our member Center for Women in Governance (CEWIGO) in Uganda, who proposed the winning name Connecting for Peace in a contest held earlier this year.
Global News
Afghan Peace Jirga Took Place: Good News for Women?
By Lu Chen
After several postponements and with high expectations, the Afghan national consultative Peace Jirga convened by President Hamid Karzai finally took place in Kabul from June 2 to June 5, 2010. The Peace Jirga drew attention and support from members of the international community. However, Afghan women’s groups were not allowed to fully and equally participate in the planning and in the actual Peace Jirga1.
Due to deteriorating security in the past two years, the slow peacebuilding progress drove the Afghan leaders to consider a new policy strategy which suggested reconciliation with the Taliban. But Afghan women worry that such approaches might potentially undermine their efforts of pursuing equal rights. “We cannot allow our rights to be sacrificed in the name of reconciliation,” a member of the Afghan Women’s Network stated. It is anticipated that frustrations and setbacks in the peace efforts would lead to disappointment and impatience of the Afghan leadership and the public. However, under no circumstance should women’s hard-earned rights be compromised. “There would be true peace only when Afghan women’s rights are ensured,” Afghan women’s organizations assert.
The Afghan Women’s Network and other women’s groups have consistently sought to consolidate their equal rights to participate in politics and national policy-making. However, their active involvement in public activities and demands for their rights are considered by conservative sectors in Afghan society as being “too western” and disrespectful of their religious traditions2, despite the fact that the constitution guarantees a percentage of women’s seats in the policy-making and governance bodies. As a result, Afghan women’s civil and political rights are still fragile and are constantly threatened.
Despite the limitations, the Peace Jirga provided yet another platform for Afghan women activists to raise attention to their fundamental role and contribution in rebuilding their society. They used this opportunity to stress that although there are women actively participating in peacebuilding and policy-making at provincial and national levels, the representation of women from all regions and all social backgrounds is still lacking. Faced with such challenges, the Afghan women activists underscored the need to diversify their advocacy efforts and work in different arenas through which women’s issues and concerns could be heard. They emphasized that women should not only be involved with women’s advocacy groups, but also in various entities, such as government offices, civil society, media and local communities that impact on their role in decision-making and nation-building3.
The Afghan Women’s Network and other women’s groups and civil society organizations in Afghanistan are committed to continuously engender peace processes in their country.
1Motevalli, Golnar: Women worry Afghan peace jirga will harm rights
2Hassan, Palwasha: The Afghan Peace Jirga: Ensuring that Women are at the Peace Table
3Mojumdar, Aunohita: Afghan Women Fear Violence in National ’Peace’
News From the Ground
Center for Women In Governance (CEWIGO), Uganda Holds 2-Day1325 Stakeholder Consultative Workshop
By Helena Grönberg
Thirty-five participants from national level civil society organizations (CSOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), representatives from the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), and UN agencies, the Child and Family Protection Unit in the Uganda Police as well as media practitioners came together for the 1325 stakeholder consultative workshop in Kampala, Uganda on April 29-30, 2010.
The objective of the two-day residential workshop was to share with the Civil Society Organization 1325 Task Force the indicators for monitoring progress and results of 1325 implementation developed by the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders. It also hoped to secure the commitment and participation of more NGOs in the 1325 monitoring project in Uganda.
Following her attendance in the indicator development workshop in New York in February, CEWIGO Director Robinah Rubimbwa realized that monitoring progress and results of 1325 implementation in Uganda was a project that needed to involve a broader set of stakeholders. “CEWIGO did not have the capacity to reach every corner of Uganda and yet we wanted to have data from each region of the country,” says Rubimbwa. She adds that partner CSOs who work on 1325 in different parts of the country form the Uganda 1325 Task Force, and that it was important to get everyone on board in order for the process to be as consultative as possible, and the final report equally owned and shared. The participants were introduced to the indicators as well as a draft monitoring tool developed by a consultant in Uganda. Possible sources of data for each indicator were identified followed by a mapping exercise to establish which CSO worked where and who would collect which data. “We were able to receive commitments from CSOs and CBOs that would participate in data collection in each region. The workshop managed to get CSOs here very excited about the project,” Rubimbwa says.
Following the workshop eight CEWIGO trained research assistants in collaboration with local CSOs collected data in different regions of Uganda. The consultant gathered secondary data at the national level, visiting various institutions, collecting documents and interviewing selected individual government and CSO officials and the first draft of the in-country monitoring has now been completed.
Featured Member: Afghan Women’s Network
By Yama Fadera
Inspired by their participation at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China in 1995, a group of Afghan women from various organizations and UN agencies formed the Afghan Women’s Network (AWN), a network that promotes unity and cooperation among women in Afghanistan. According to Executive Director Afifa Azim, the conference “opened a path for Afghan women to focus on the creation of a network to bring women from different parts of the Afghan community around the table to discuss women’s human rights.”
Consisting of 3200 individuals and 72 women’s NGO members, AWN functions as a primary disseminator of information on policies, programs and projects on women’s rights and women’s empowerment among its members. It facilitates research and analyses issues of concern to its members; and develops and implements capacity building programs. AWN is also engaged in policy advocacy at the national level, at the UN, at the European Union and other relevant policy-making spaces to advance Afghan women’s status and ensure their meaningful participation in peacebuilding and reconstruction. At the community level, AWN has established committees and sub-committees that include working with men, to raise awareness about women’s rights.
Azim points out that conservative Muslim countries such as Afghanistan discourage women’s participation in decision-making. Azim notes that AWN challenges the entrenched views of women’s inferiority. It encourages parents to attend meetings with school principals and encourages them to work together with teachers and school authorities to support their children’s schooling.
According to Azim, the 24 years of conflict in Afghanistan is one of the main reasons for the low status of women. “No significant attention has been paid to women although their potential for becoming active members and contribute to society is massive,” Azim states. In order to effectively promote women’s political participation and put them at the forefront of decision-making, AWN facilitated a workshop for the women nominated in the national consultative Peace Jirga and lobbied actively for women’s full and equal participation in the Peace Jirga. It facilitated several meetings with national and international stakeholders who were involved in the process and organized the Afghan Women Information Forum to convene 270 women from all over Afghanistan and discuss the Peace Jirga. The purpose of the Forum was to make sure that women from different parts of the country are aware of the important events affecting their lives and ensure that their voices are heard in these discussions.
AWN’s future plans include the establishment of a legal institute that will enable them to conduct courses in Women’s Rights and the Law, Intellectual Property, Juvenile Law, to name a few. This is in response to the lack of legal practitioners in the country as well as to open new professional avenues for women. AWN also plans to increase their outreach to the international media.
The AWN maintains offices in Kabul and Peshawar, Pakistan. Recently, an office in the Netherlands was opened to reach out to the Afghan Diaspora and civic education for women’s political participation.
