IREX Liberia's Cerue Garlo presents on women, peace-building and UNResolution 1325 at US Mission to the UN

Cerue_garlo_-_unscr_1325_panel

IREX Liberia’s Cerue Garlo contributed to a panel on women, peace-building and the on-the-ground implementation of UN Resolution 1325 today at the US Mission to the UN. The event launched an assessment timed for the 10th anniversary of UNSCR 1325, which calls on all actors to support and increase women’s participation in decisions on conflict mitigation and resolution as well as reconstruction and also outlines protections for women and girls amid conflict. Cerue’s contribution from Liberia joined those by counterparts from Sri Lanka, Palestine/Israel, Colombia, Aceh and Uganda in the assessment, which was organized by the International Civil Society Action Network and the MIT Center for International Studies.

Cerue talked about how although – or perhaps because -- Liberian women were so engaged in the pushing for peace and the country has a woman president, there now is a certain complacency about gender issues. She said that grassroots organizations focused on gender don’t have resources, and civil society doesn’t have the means to monitor government implementation of 1325, the national action plan on women and related mandates. She also said that land disputes are now critical in Liberia, and women need to gain the skills to address these issues and negotiate so that their communities benefit from natural resources. She said there is no way that a strong government can be built when there is only a weak civil society.

Among the points from other the presenters:

·         Participation is the missing piece in the implementation of UNSCR 1325; the focus is on the protection or – as the study’s principal author, Sanam Anderlini of ICAN said -- “making war safer for women.”  Women still are excluded from the negotiating table, meaning their concerns and potential contributions are sidelined. Instead of being actors and stakeholders, women are seen mainly as victims. The AP reported on this aspect of the study.

·         While there is lack of awareness about 1325 in local areas in some countries, at the national level in others, and even among UN personnel, it has been used effectively. Lina Zedriga of Uganda described how women in northern Uganda had used it as a “door opening tool’’ during peace talks. A magistrate whose husband had disappeared in 2001, she said did not know until 2007 that 1325 was “at my disposal to hold my government accountable.” (She also mentioned a telling case of unintended consequences: a program that gave women bicycles so they would not have to be unsafe walking turned out to turn them into victims when their husbands took them, sold them, and used the money to buy new cows and take a younger wife.)

·         It is hard for women struggling in the aftermath of violence to see (male) ex-combatants “rewarded” with land and payments through demobilization programs.

The report also comes as the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women — to be known as UN Women — gets started after its creation by the General Assembly last July. Cerue asked if the new UN body is “old wine in a new bottle,” and the panel generally agreed that it is not yet clear whether this UN body will prove more effective in making the participation of women – especially in peace-building and development processes – the norm.

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Drusilla Menaker

Director, Communities of Practice/IREX

Senior Media Advisor/IREX

Associate Director/IREX Europe

E: dmenaker@irex.org

T: +1 845 664 4729

Skype: drusillamenaker

Twitter: @irexmedia @drumenaker

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