Africa-Press – South-Africa. Women have always played a central role in peacebuilding in their communities, writes the Centre for Mediation in Africa’s Dr Quraysha Ismail Sooliman, Dr Ashleigh Shangare, and Professor Cori Wielenga.
As the festive season takes place, it is likely that driving social issues will be placed on the back burner. Yet war and violence are an everyday occurrence in the lives of many vulnerable people. On Sunday, 16-year-old Jana Zakarneh was shot and killed by the occupying Israeli forces as she climbed to the roof of her home in Jenin to look for her cat. Jana’s death will not get the true coverage it deserves because of the bias prevalent in many media outlets that dehumanise Palestinian lives. These truths need to be told, over and over again, especially since the war and conflict experiences of women are different to those of men. In most instances, women experience the “worst” effects of war and violence – though highlighting this is not to minimise the experiences of men.
War has a gendered impact. The most significant is “rape as a weapon of war”. Yet women are usually the first responders to conflict and the first to seek peace in polarised communities. They are strategic to any long-term peace-making, but often, like the Palestinian voice, remain glaringly absent from peace processes.
In a report on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stated that “the world is experiencing a reversal of generational gains in women’s rights while violent conflicts, military expenditures, military coups, displacements and hunger continue to increase”.
The report also highlighted the increase in violence and discrimination because of misogyny and authoritarianism in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity.
Fifty countries
It is significant that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, a UK government organisation, recently hosted a conference on preventing sexual violence in conflict. More than 50 countries agreed that urgent action was needed to end sexual violence in conflict. Although significant, one wonders why it has taken so long to appreciate these realities and recognise that something needs to be done, “yesterday” as women are vulnerable due to sexual violations and harassment during conflict.
In 2022, South Africa and Switzerland co-chaired the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Focal Points Network. The WPS Focal Points Network was launched in 2016 to assist UN member states and regional organisations, in close collaboration with civil society, to facilitate for the implementation of the WPS agenda at the origin of decision-making processes.
This co-operation was visible during the 5th Capital Global Focal Points Network Meeting held between the 6 and 7 Dec ember at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco). In the keynote address Minister Naledi Pandor recognised the UNSC’s support of Resolution 1325 but stated that it had not translated into implementation and deliverables. Minister Pandor also used the opportunity to reiterate South Africa’s support for the reform of the UNSC.
The meeting was a pivotal moment where women in all their diversity had their voices heard and worked towards providing practical solutions that would contribute to more inclusive, just and peaceful societies.
Peace
Although there are common perceptions of peace across the various languages and cultures most definitions of peace in the global North place a strong emphasis on the absence of war and other overt acts of violence. In contrast, the global South considers peace through the existence of attributes like balance, harmony and wholeness, rather than only the absence of violence. It is these nuances that were discussed at the 5th Capital Global Focal Points Network Meeting.
As they hand over, both South Africa and Switzerland have a powerful opportunity to interrogate the status quo and advocate for quality interventions which should be designed to enhance the capacity of women in many aspects of conflict that are key to peacebuilding opportunities. What came out strongly was that a careful interrogation of alternate non-Eurocentric approaches will give coherence firstly, to the way in which a matter is understood and evaluated, and secondly, to the approach that is to be implemented.
Women have always played a central role in peace-building in their communities. It is at the higher political levels that they are excluded, to the detriment of achieving sustainable peace. Peace building processes need to be radically transformed in order to allow women’s contributions to be felt as women play a critical role in contributing to peace building through their own structures and engagement.
Their voices matter. Their inclusion is a must.
The words from a poem written by members from the Global Network of Victims and Survivors of Wartime Sexual Violence whose slogan is “Nothing about us without us” is perhaps a fitting conclusion to what the WPS Focal Points Network Meeting and Agenda1325 needs to bring to the fore. It is a powerful poem, which reminds us of the power of women.
“I have hope and I rise… My voice says no more war, it says peace, it says healing. Wickedness does not win… we heal, we sit, then stand to hold hands and resist.”
– Dr Quraysha Ismail Sooliman, Dr Ashleigh Shangare, and Professor Cori Wielenga is from the Centre for Mediation in Africa.
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