In October 2000 the UN Security Council passed resolution 1325
calling for increased participation of women in peacemaking,
peace-keeping and peace negotiations. This was the result of many
statements, charters and declarations on the basic principle of
equal rights for women, the right to self-determination, to
nondiscrimination and to political participation. These are
universal rights that stand for equality in matters affecting
women's lives.
The right to be part of peacemaking and peace negotiations is also
based on women's rights simply as people affected by the existence
of war and armed conflict. Women are not peripheral to conflict.
Particularly in the conflicts of today, civilians - mainly women
and children - are the major victims. The majority of refugees are
women; the majority of displaced persons are women. In World War I,
the percentage of civilian victims was 5 percent; in World War II,
48 percent; today, 90 percent. Women are especially vulnerable in
war and conflict - without weapons, without training in warfare.
They are vulnerable physically, emotionally, mentally and in every
way possible.
Women are Devalued in Societies at War
Women also suffer in another way in a conflict situation,
particularly in a situation of prolonged, armed conflict. Women are
on the disadvantaged side of militarized society. Clearly gender
relations are affected by the militarization of a society. In
militarized society you have the elevation, adulation and privilege
of the male protector. The male is seen to play an essential role
for the society, for the nation, leaving the women in a
subordinate, auxiliary position, at best a helper. In a society at
war, male qualities are those that are most respected: strength,
power, aggressiveness. These qualities are deemed more important
than the soft qualities associated with women. Further, in a
society involved in armed conflict, men have an advantaged position
by virtue of their expertise or experience in the one area most
important or most highly valued and needed: the area of security,
of warfare. Almost by definition, this is an area in which women
will have far less if any expertise or experience, an area far less
available or open to women or associated with women.
Add to this still another aspect of societies engaged in conflict:
increased violence. Societies engaged in conflict have increased
rates of family violence, of honor killings, of murders of wives.
There is an established connection between societal violence and
domestic violence. And, finally, in conflict situations women not
only sacrifice their sons and loved ones, but often, they are
called upon to sustain society, to sustain daily life, providing
daily needs in the face of the hardships of war and conflict.
But aside from the demand for rights and equality, and the argument
that women are far from peripheral to conflict and therefore should
be part of peacemaking, there is also the added value or simple
good sense of having women involved, as agents of change, providing
something different. It is not just the right to be at the
negotiating table but the positive - or at least different -
element that women may bring to the table, by virtue of their
experience.
Women Bring a Different Perspective
Women may have a different perspective connected with individual
well-being. Given the role of women regarding the very basic,
personal needs of the family, they may be more sensitive to such
issues. It is known that women perceive "security" differently from
men, viewing it in terms of shelter, food and health, while men
tend to perceive security in terms of weapons systems and arms. It
is possible that women would tend to approach peace from a human
rights perspective, which would emphasize fairness, tolerance,
respect for difference, for minorities, for "the other," because
women live as "the other," as a minority - not in numbers but in
the attitude toward them in society. Thus, they may place a greater
emphasis on the protection of personal rights, fairness and respect
for difference; these are the key elements to peacemaking and
conflict resolution.
In this connection, we might also mention the ideas of
inclusiveness and transparency. It has been found that when women
are involved in peace negotiations, in Northern Ireland for
example, what women brought to the table was greater concern for
inclusiveness and transparency, perhaps because women experience
exclusion, having been shut off from information and
decision-making.
It is not a matter of innate qualities that can be found in all
cases or all women, but it has been observed that women tend to
operate on a win-win basis. It is possible that this is due to a
background of avoiding conflict, avoiding confrontation - perhaps
as peacemakers in the home, between children or similar situations.
Perhaps this is a result of socialization. But it is apparent even
in the games children play: boys displaying distinctly competitive,
win-lose attitudes, as distinct from girls.
Women Hear What Others Say
Moreover, for whatever reason, women tend to listen, rather than
engage in monologues. They both listen and often are more willing
than men to reveal emotions, fears or concerns, as well as to hear
what others are saying. This is not just a pleasant phenomenon; it
is communication, including emotions, listening, hearing - all of
which can provide eye-openers, information, a "reality check" for
matters that may be essential or advisable for sustainable peace.
Thus they may build into a treaty or agreement other
considerations, previously unnoticed or ignored. For example, it
has been said that the Oslo Accord division of the Occupied
Territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip into areas A, B,
and C might have been different had the negotiators realized what
it might mean to break up communities; today's security fence/wall
might be conceived differently if one considered the fact that a
children's school would be on the other side of the wall from the
children's homes. Palestinian feminist Maha Abu Dayyeh Shamas has
said that the Geneva Accord would have had some discussion of human
rights protection and greater emphasis on reconciliation had women
been negotiating.
Education and Civil Society
The matter of sustainable peace and reconciliation is another point
in question. There is a tendency to think that an agreement will be
reached - and there will be separation, with each side going its
separate way. But in today's conflicts, this is rarely the case.
Sustainable peace is not simply the absence of war. There is a need
to create, in agreements, the conditions that will provide for a
decent society, equality, the possibility for human fulfillment.
There is a need also to create peace between the peoples involved.
This is not just a truism. In order to last, especially when
dealing with long, entrenched conflicts, there is a need to build
from the bottom up, there is a need for the restructuring of
conflictual relationships. This is done through education and civil
society - the two areas where women are the most active and have
the most experience.
Civil society is where we have seen women involved in peacemaking
today. While still demanding to be at the negotiating table, women
are already active in peacemaking as members of civil society. This
is being done primarily through dialogues, crossing the divide,
bridge-building. It is being done in Cyprus, Somalia, Sudan and
Palestine/Israel. Women meeting and mediating. For example, in
Sudan they have actually achieved something between warring tribes
in what had appeared to be an intractable civil war.
Women may be More Open to Bridging
It is more difficult for men to cross the divide. Men tend to be
the ones in official positions, unable to cross lines, leaving the
task to civil society, NGOs. Men have more to lose. Women are
perhaps more open to bridging, less stigmatized as the oppressor.
The women may not be seen as the soldier, the combatant - the
enemy, yes, but not the oppressor. At the very least, the starting
point among women is slightly less hostile because of the element
of shared experience - even if this shared experience is their very
exclusion from the negotiating table.
So we see Iraqi women demanding a seat at the table, such as the
group that went recently to the Woodrow Wilson Center; we see Women
Waging Peace at Harvard, where Arab and Mediterranean women, North
African, Iranian, Saudi and Israeli women meet; Cypriot women -
Greek and Turkish meeting in no-man's land in Nicosia, arguing but
trying to break down barriers; Suzanne Mubarak's Women for Peace -
Call for Action in September 2002. These encounters are not easy;
no one gives up her national identity or her national interests.
But they are attempts to find areas of cooperation. In many ways
these are efforts born of frustration - frustration over the
continued warfare that officials, leaders, the military -without
women - are not solving. But these same efforts by women can not
only prepare societies for an end to conflict, they could, if women
were allowed, change negotiations from a discourse of stopping the
war to one of creating the conditions for sustainable peace and
reconciliation.
New Women's Initiative in the Middle East
For this reason the women of the Jerusalem Link - Palestinian and
Israeli women who have been meeting for more than 15 years,
recently launched the creation of an International Women's
Commission for Just Peace in the Middle East. Designed as a
consultative and advocacy body, this commission will comprise 20
outstanding women from the international community, and 20 women
each from Palestine and Israel. Based on a set of agreed-upon
principles, coupled with the reputations and abilities of the
female "commissioners" and regularly informed by grass-roots
meetings that have already begun, the commission will seek entry
into negotiating processes and discussions of the Arab-Israeli
conflict, whether at the local or international level. Ongoing
contact with organizations such as the EU, the UN, and the Quartet
will be of particular importance. The purpose is, finally, to bring
women's voices to the negotiating table, as demanded by UN
resolution 1325, for the achievement of peace.