“It is now more dangerous to be a woman than to be a soldier in modern conflict.” Major General Patrick Cammaert, former UN Peacekeeping Operation Commander in DRC.
Margot Wallström, Mary Robinson & Colm O'Gorman at the Royal Irish Academy Yesterday
Enraged by this, one delegate challenged the NGO to collate this evidence to build a criminal case against the perpetrators and hold them accountable. This would prevent further horrors. The NGOs response was that their funding had been cut to such an extent that this was simply not possible. Mary Robinson and many others are convinced that holding perpetrators accountable for such actions is far more affective in addressing and eradicating gender based violence in conflict than simply fire-fighting and living with the consequences of shattered societies.
According to the Irish Joint Consortium on Gender based Violence, up to 90% of causalities in contemporary conflict are civilians, most of them women and children. Violence against them is often sexualised. Peace brings scant relief. Crime rates and violence against women and girls soars after war as returning combatants inflict their trauma and frustration on them. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, it is estimated by the UN that over 200,000 women have been raped since the beginning of the war.
Dr. Thelma Awori
Dr. Thelma Awori is a consultant on gender and development and a board member of a number of prominent African civil society organizations. She says, “Women continue to pay a heavy price in both conflicts and post-conflict situations around the world. Too many women have become shocking statistics of one horror or another, be it rape in Eastern Congo; acid thrown in the faces of girls walking to school in Afghanistan; impunity for crimes against women in conflict-affected countries. When women stand up and make their voices heard in peace negotiations and post-conflict reconciliation they often face security risks, they are denied seats at the table, and are excluded from planning and resources that determine their futures.”
Women, so often the victims of conflict, have little input into its resolution. One in forty peace negotiations have a woman present and, according to www.unifem.org, just 2.5% of signatories to peace agreements have been women. Although many post-conflict countries now have much improved female representation in government, unequal participation in parliament, civil society and business means that women’s voices are largely absent.
After listening to the experiences and perspectives of women from conflict zones, the UN unanimously adopted Security Council Resolution 1325 in October 2000. This resolution addresses the disproportionate and unique impact of armed conflict on women and recognizes that the contribution women make to conflict prevention, peacekeeping, conflict resolution and peace-building is significantly undervalued. The UN has called for equal and full participation from women as active agents in achieving peace and security and has officially endorsed the active participation of civil society groups, in particular woman’s organizations, in peace processes and peace talks. A key element is the call for an end to impunity in relation to conflict-related violence against women.
All nation states, including Ireland, whether they are affected by conflict or attempting to resolve it, must now implement the resolution and are legally obliged to take responsibility in four key areas in relation to women, peace and security.
- The protection of women and girls during conflict
- The participation of women in decision making in relation to prevention, management and resolution of conflict.
- The inclusion of gender perspectives in conflict analysis and training of military and civilian personnel in peacekeeping. (Women account for just 5.7% of the Irish permanent defence forces and just 2.5% of peacekeepers serving in conflict regions worldwide are women according to the UN. Yet, these women perform a vital role in winning the trust of local civilian women who are more likely to report gender based violence to them)
- Gender mainstreaming in the UN implementation of UNSCR 1325 and related resolutions 1820, 1888 and 1889
A high level task force of UN heads of agencies is progressing the implementation of resolution 1325 along with the Civil Society Advisory Group, co-chaired by Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative and Bineta Drop, Executive Director, Femmes Africa Solidarité.
Mary Robinson was in Dublin in her role as special advisor to the Joint Consortium on Gender Based Violence. The consortium is comprised of 16 bodies, including human rights, humanitarian and development organisations, together with Irish Aid and the Defence Forces and is charged with formulating Ireland’s implementation plan (due by March 2011). In the midst of our deepening crisis it may seem that Ireland has little to offer the rest of the world in any respect. Yet there are areas in which we are still well regarded and one of these is conflict resolution. Ireland has a role to play in a wider EU context as one of a handful of countries developing an implementation plan.
As a northern European nation with a recent history of conflict, a close connection with NGOs operating in the worst conflict zones and a respected peace-keeping role we are uniquely placed to help rebuild some of the most damaged societies on the planet. The focus in achieving this has now been place firmly on the experience and role of women in the process. Joint Consortium Chairperson and Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland, Colm O’ Gorman, is certain that “Ireland can play a key role in working to eliminate gender-based violence”. Our plan will be the result of a long, complex and “unique globally” process requiring “civil society and the state to work together.” The final stage involves consultations with women living in Ireland who have been affected by conflict and whose experiences and opinions will feed into our final plan.
The Irish plan is not being developed in isolation. We have a unique opportunity to learn from the experiences of others and avoid the pitfall of implementation deficit disorder. Mary Robinson believes that, “Ireland is well positioned to prepare an exemplary plan”. We are in a position to draw on our recent experience of conflict on the island of Ireland. But, in addition, there is now a strong working relationship between a number of government departments and NGOs on the issue of gender-based violence. This can be leveraged to produce a strong and effective plan that protects women in conflict and gives them a meaningful role in conflict resolution”, she adds. A strong plan alone is not sufficient. Colm O’Gorman stresses the importance of incorporating an effective mechanism for monitoring and evaluation into the process.
Sitting alongside Mary Robinson yesterday was Margot Wallström, UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict. She spoke of the role of Resolution 1325 in “establishing a context to put women into the picture for peace and security issues” and views the initiative as an integral part of a wider plan to tackle sexual violence. The adoption of the resolution amounts to a clear admission that not enough was being done to eradicate what is still “a tactic in most areas of conflict”. Margot Wallström stresses that, “this is not a women’s issue rather a security and human rights issue and one relevant to wider society”. She believes that, “It is vitally important that Ireland gets its plan right. Having a plan would greatly bolster Ireland’s human rights record and, by involving the widest range of stakeholders and putting in place strong monitoring, the plan would be very significant in advancing the protection of women in conflict.”
The five point agenda adopted by the UN in this respect and reflected in any plan focuses on: fighting impunity; empowering and supporting women to move from being victims to becoming agents for change; mobilising leaders; deepening our knowledge of the incidence and effects of sexual violence in conflict; and co-ordinating and harmonising UN efforts to tackle and prevent such actions. Mary Robinson wants to see the Security Council “use all of the tools available to it – naming & shaming, freezing assets, sanctions, visa bans – to implement policy”.
This is a two-way process and Ireland can benefit hugely from participation. As Colm O’Gorman eloquently puts it, “Ireland is very progressive when we are out in the wider world. What is it that stops us translating those values back into our own society?” Mary Robinson emphasises the importance of treating our involvement as a “cross-learning process”. Ireland has already participated in a ground-breaking cross learning initiative on women, peace and security with representatives from Liberia and Timor-Leste, chaired by Baroness Nuala O’Loan, first Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - President of Liberia
Ireland should look to Liberia and other African nations such as Rwanda when it comes to gender representation in government too. Mary Robinson passionately describes a meeting in the Angie Brooks centre in Liberia where she witnessed “the expectant enthusiastic faces of young women who wanted desperately to be involved in the political process”. Their participation makes a difference. Liberian president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has pledged to tackle the scourge of rape using new legislation that came into force the day after her inauguration in 2006. “I know of the struggle because I have been a part of it,” she said. “I recall the inhumanity of confinement, the terror of attempted rape.”
Little value is placed on women in many conflict and post-conflict zones. Rape and sexual violence are often treated as the lowest crime on a scale of war horrors that puts death and torture at the top. There is no link made between the perpetration of these acts and the way in which they impede the building of a working, healthy society. Any economic consequences are disregarded. When soldiers in DRC were asked what they felt the cost of raping a woman was they answered perhaps the loss of a goat or a few days in prison. For this reason Margot Wallström is keen to measure the economic impact of intergenerational rape and sexual violence. Women, often the backbone of an economy, become totally depressed and are impeded from assuming their traditional coping role. Peacekeepers are now advised to assume rape and be watchful for the early warning signals. Although prepared to report the rape of children, many women are still too ashamed or disillusioned to report their own experiences. Resources can also be thin on the ground. Liberia has asked for help in developing an anti-rape campaign. Finally, attitudes have to change. In the past “enticement” was too often considered a legitimate defence.
This shift in focus has already produced results and Margot Wallström attributes the arrests of a number of players on charges of perpetrating and facilitating such crimes to the implementation of UNSCR 1325 and related resolutions. Change is essential. Dr Thelma Awori is adamant that “communities rebuilding after conflict cannot afford to omit more than 50% of their population in these efforts. To do so would mean institutionalizing inequality and that is a recipe for further conflict and instability.” There is still a long road to travel but by developing and implementing a strong, workable and measurable plan Ireland has an opportunity to help create a better and fairer world.
Anthea McTeirnan
Croí na Duibhlinn
Aoife Barry
Aoife McLysaght
Arlene Hunt
Attracta McCarthy-McKenna
clairehennessy
Ann Cronin
Amanda Brown
Eleanor Fitzsimons
Edel Coffey
Anna Carey
Lauren Murphy
Jennie Ridyard
Jude Leavy
Hazel Katherine Larkin
Léan Ní Chuilleanáin
Leigh
Lisa McInerney
Laura Slattery
Maman Poulet
Megan McGurk
Clare Kleinedler
Molly
Rosita Boland
Catherine Crichton
Sinéad Gleeson
sarahefranklin
siobhandowling
Susan Daly
theantiroom
Nuala Ní Chonchúir
Thanks for this Eleanor, am reading it and will post it
to some FB contacts who work in the area.
Another great post, Eleanor. You have given an excellent and succinct overview of the issue. Well done for raising awareness of this crucial topic.
Hazel
Also the appalling issue of DRC is still only emergent, with
reporatge being skimpy at best. France24 has a useful
Congo archive.
Ireland will particpate in the 16 day Campaign, through
Womens Aid and Take Back the Tech , I am adding
both links here :
http://www.womensaid.ie/campaigns/16days.html
http://takebackthetech.net/
There have been acknowledged failures, I recommend
people read UNIFEM on Resolution 1325
“In contemporary conflict, up to 90% of causalities are civilians, most of them women and children.”
Are you sure about this? A 2006 study by the John Hopkins University found that 10 times as many males died violently in Iraq after the invasion than females.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001442_pf.html
Another study by the American National Center for Injury Prevention and Control looked at deaths from suicide, homicide and war-related violence everywhere in the world in 1990. For all three males were more likely to be victims than females. They estimated 211,000 female war deaths and 291,000 male war deaths.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/epi_of_violence.htm
Another, Pennsylvania State University, 2005, found that men suffered higher mortality rates during the war, while female mortality rates rose only in the long term (suggesting that more males were victims of immediate violence while females suffered lingering negative side-effects).
http://jpr.sagepub.com/content/42/4/471.abstract
The International Peace Research Institute lists a bunch of studies into the sex of war victims. One study observes a decrease in the usual gender gap in life expectancy following wars (i.e. women live longer than men almost everywhere, but after wars this advantage declines). The authors suggest this implies more female deaths than men, or else YOUNGER women are being killed relative to the male victims. However another study shows that 8.9 times more men died violently in Kosovo than women:
http://www.prio.no/sptrans/-279933708/Armed%20Conflict%20Deaths%20Disaggregated%20by%20Gender.pdf
Why these differences? One possibility is that in terrible ethnic wars with a great weakening of central state control, male soldiers consider males from the opposing group a real threat. So these males are immediately killed. Women, however, are of some use as sex slaves, so more women may survive the initial war, but die later from abuse.
This is an ancient trend. See the Old Testament:
“So the assembly sent twelve thousand fighting men with instructions to go to Jabesh Gilead and put to the sword those living there, including the women and children. “This is what you are to do,” they said. “Kill every male and every woman who is not a virgin.” They found among the people living in Jabesh Gilead four hundred young women who had never slept with a man, and they took them to the camp at Shiloh in Canaan.”
- Judges 21:10-12
Shane, Thanks for your very considered comment and the links too.
That statistic of 90% comes from the Irish Joint Consortium on Gender Based Violence – I have attributed it accordingly. When they refer to “casualties” they are using the broader sense of the definition to include both killed and injured. It is likely that this accounts for the discrepancy.
That makes sense Eleanor.
I see a few useful goals. One is to protect ALL civilians from war, regardless of sex. This might include the promotion of anti-racist ideas, the concept of UNIVERSAL human rights that apply to enemies as well as friends. (Though without some strong top-down power to enforce these ideals perhaps little will change. When police power breaks down in developed countries there is sometimes looting, rape, etc. Without enforcement some otherwise well-behaved people revert to barbarism.)
Another is a more focused emphasis on promoting anti-sexist views, attacking any cultural tolerance for rape, etc.
I wonder though if there is a danger that some nationalists in war zones may see these campaigns as further arrogant “Western imperialism”? This is where non-NATO Ireland, with its lack of an imperial history, could be useful.
Lastly I know a woman who founded a charity that sends sexual health aid to disaster zones. That kind of charity could be promoted, both to help ordinary people and victims of war or disaster, but also to slow the spread of STDs and avoid unsustainable population growth.
Brilliant gruelling info. It’s a planet of the apes situation that such horrendous gender-based brutality happens ‘automatically’ alongside war. Unimaginable suffering and even more revolting that men affected by fighting come home and take it out on their wives/young girls, etc. I can never take that in. When I was based in Northern Ireland, I also heard some shocking tales from a woman who worked in the rape crisis sphere, about how paramilitaries had ‘arranged’ for their wives to be raped while they were inside to stop them going out to shebeens and living it up “making a show of them” while they were locked up in prison. She had heard this from women ‘on both sides’ a few times. But when it came to trying to talk to people about it, I was told it never happened. It sounds far-fetched or is it? The stats in your piece are truly shocking. In Bosnia it was a very deliberate calculated act of war encouraged by the Serb military leadership. But that leadership was never held accountable because of a pragmatic peace agreement. That begs the question ‘are women and children going to be the last item on the agenda on a realpolitik agreement between the warring parties – anywhere in the world – to end the conflict?
Thanks June, Such terrible stories out there. Bizzarly the session with Mary Robinson, Colm O’Gorman & Margot Wallström was positive & uplifting due to the quality and commitment of the people involved. However, they face such an enromous challange in implementing anything on the ground when coping with the inertia of many national governments etc.
Again I’m puzzled by the emphasis on “women and children”. In Bosnia men made up the vast majority of violent deaths. This European Population Conference paper estimates that males made up around 90-92% of all deaths in the Bosnian war, including the vast majority of civilian deaths.
http://epc2010.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submissionId=100880
I understand that “casualties” can refer to survivors who suffer injuries or rape, so casualty statistics may differ from fatality statistics. But the statistics above indicate that massive abuses were perpetrated against males as well as females.
Hence I question the idea that women and children are the main victims of war.
I agree that we need to deal with and preferably prevent all conflict and prevent/rehabilitate all casualities regardless of whether they are women or men. The initiative outlined above does not take away from the importance of resolving and preventing conflict globally in any way.
However, as I understand it, the particular emphasis on women in this context has much to do with the lack of representation in any formal way of women in parliament, the defence and peacekeeping forces and as negotiators of peace treaties. Women’s voices are rarely heard in conflict prevention and resolution despite the reality that they are often the victims of conflict.
That seems positive, Eleanor. I’m not trying to be contrary!
When I was younger I accepted without question some of the things people were saying about the world, that “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”, that women and children are the main victims of war and so on. I internalised these ideas and argued with people who disagreed. So when I found out that they were untrue, or only half-truths, I was quite shocked and a little resentful for being misled. The world apparently wasn’t as messed up as I’d been led to believe! I guess that’s why I question (noisily) some of these ideas now.
(Anyway perhaps this discussion can show how frustrating it can be to not be a feminist, while reading feminist articles. Imagine a conflict where 90% of the fatalities were female. If men complained about how badly treated men were during that conflict, I suspect some feminists would be annoyed!)
Shane, I don’t think you are being contrary at all! You are absolutely right to challange information in the way you do and I really value your comments on my posts as they always make me think deeper about the issues involved and see new perspectives. I really hope my answer didn’t seem short or dismissive – the truth is I have 5 little lads here (2 of my own & 3 friends) and am making their dinner but wanted to respond to your comment – I should have waited until after bedtime and not just dashed something off! Apologies.
I am a feminist but the fact that I have sons really makes me want to look at issues from a male perspective too. Call me idealistic but I just want the world to be a better, fairer place for everyone.
No apologies needed, your replies are reasonable and worthwhile, thanks!
That’s not the point…it’s the use of women and children – the non-combatants in war – who were used as weapons. It may well be true that the stats of men are higher, no-one is disputing that, but there’s a massive difference with civilians being killed by shells & mortar fire, than individually targeted women and children. It’s a category mistake. In any overall war, men are always the main casualties, but in recent conflicts there has been a trend to single out women and children in particular to terrorise the entire population through what would normally be regarded as ‘breaches’ of the rules of war.
June, in Bosnia, male non-combatants were deliberately targetted for execution. The Srebrenica massacre saw 8,000 men and boys butchered (civilians and prisoners), but only a few dozen females.
As I pointed out, this is an ancient trend, as enemy women were kept alive for rape while enemy men were massacred.
I think that Ban-Ki-Moon has been calling for increasing
women’s political participation with regard to VAW since
2006 (?)
In many ways they are completely left out of post-conflict
resolutions. The speeches about creating measurable
political reform are obtainable online via UNIFEM and
web concerns such as http://www.isiswomen.org
I dunno , I reckon that victims should have a say in
judicial remedies and in post-conflict resolution. The
women of DRC have done some remarkable work on
getting the impact of gender-violence to the media
this year.
Just wanted to say thank-you, Eleanor, for another compelling post. Still drinking it all in, and trying to swallow it down without screaming and beating my fists against the wall in fury.
Thanks Jennie,
Know the feeling. Delighted that people of the calibre of those I met are involved & really hope they can make a difference and save you from further bruising of your fists!
I’m absolutely up for more to be done in this area and the post is great but I’m a little worried that we are now taking responsibility for “The protection of women and girls during conflict”. What about the boys? How would this work in practice. Resolutions in this area need to include all children not just female children. There are so many child soldiers, mainly boys. What about them?
I absolutely agree and there are other initiatives dealing with male victims and child soldiers – more can of course always be done. This initiative works in tandem with others and has the dual mandate of not only protecting woman and girls but also involving women in conflict resolution where their input is uniquely and disgracefully lacking.
Thanks for the response Eleanor. It’s great that women are being involved eventually and it’s indeed very positive. I still find it a pity that this initiative is omitting boys. It’s the first time I’ve ever read ‘women and girls’ and not ‘women and children’. It unnerves me a little, the segregation.
unfortunately this is being reported on CNN now>
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/06/congo.rapes/index.html?eref=edition
So terribly sad to read about this. The only positive we can draw is that at least it is being reported and that wonderful agencies such as MSF are in there doing what they can. We must do all we possibly can to combat such atrocities, be it raising awareness, raising funds or physically helping on the ground. Such a distressing situation.
I caught it on twitter last evening, more resources have got
to be put in publicising this issue. the fact that the UN admitted
failures is a step toward getting information out and help in.