Gender & mediation : Women at the Peace Table - Asia-Pacific

Despite repeated calls and increasing commitment from governments for improved representation, the presence of women in informal peace processes as mediators, advisers, or members of conflict parties is still strikingly low. The inclusion of gender considerations in decision-making to end conflicts also remains limited. Within Asia, in particular, this is perplexing given the high degree of acceptance of women in political positions. The HD Centre believes that through greater representation of women in peace processes, consideration of gender-related issues will improve and peace can be more sustainable.

What is the HD Centre doing to address this?

Since 2005, the HD Centre has been exploring ways to improve women's representation in peace processes and, in particular, enhance the role of senior-level women. Activities have included meetings and opinion pieces, as well as advice and support to conflict parties and mediators on gender issues. The HD Centre has also formulated policy guidance around this issue.

In 2009, the HD Centre launched a new project, 'Women at the Table', which brings together women mediators, negotiators and advisers in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region to identify and implement strategies for improving women's participation in peace processes. The first activities took place in November 2009 in Africa. A similar process began in early 2010 in the Asia-Pacific region with a specific country focus on Indonesia as well as the wider region.

Key activities of the Asia-Pacific component

Regional roundtable meeting

The HD Centre held a three-day roundtable meeting in Nepal, on 27-30 September 2010. The meeting was co-organised, with the India-based Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP) and the Alliance for Social Dialogue in Nepal (ASD). It brought together approximately 40 senior women including mediators, advisers to peace processes, members of negotiating teams and government representatives from across Asia and the Pacific. The roundtable was a forum for open exchange of experiences as well as practical and creative discussions (see agenda). It builds on the HD Centre's experience in convening other senior-level roundtables for mediators such as the Oslo forum retreats and similar Women at the Table events in Africa and Indonesia. The HD Centre produced a short video clip that explores some of the challenges women face in this area, their personal achievements and experiences in their own words.

Indonesian Peace Table meeting

In Indonesia, women have played various roles in managing conflict at the community level, yet their involvement at the political level remains minimal. Working in partnership with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the State Ministry for Women Empowerment and Child Protection, the HD Centre is documenting the experience of Indonesian women in conflict resolution and developing strategies to promote their role at a more senior level.

A roundtable was organised in Jakarta on 24-26 March 2010. It brought together 30 people from both government and non-governmental sectors, to discuss ways to enhance, and better co-ordinate, efforts to promote women's involvement in conflict resolution. This first roundtable was closely followed by additional meetings with government officials and stakeholders, as well as a workshop in Aceh on policy suggestions. Drawing on these meetings and their outcomes, the HD Centre and LIPI have produced a report, Women at the Indonesian peace table: Enhancing the contributions of women to conflict resolution, also available in Bahasa.

Publication

In April 2011,  the HD Centre released the publication, Peacemaking in Asia and the Pacific: Women's participation, perspectives, and priorities. The publication is a collection of articles from women across the region. It explores issues of women's rights, gender, inclusivity and peacemaking in the Asia-Pacific region, and offers practical recommendations on those issues for those involved in peace processes. The publication also provides a set of annexes with a list of suggested resources; explanation of key international standards related to women's rights; and a set of ‘pointers' for mediation teams on issues they should be focusing on.

Opinion pieces

The HD Centre has commissioned five opinion pieces from leading practitioners, scholars and analysts in the fields of mediation, peacemaking, gender, and international security. These opinion pieces are being published separately and their content will feed into the collection of articles on women and peacemaking in the Asia-Pacific region.

The first in the series, A mediator's perspective: Women and the Nepali peace process, has been written by Ambassador Günther Baechler, the former Swiss Special Adviser for Peace Building in Nepal (2005-2007). He looks closely at the challenges which Nepalese women faced in being represented at the negotiating table and how mediators can support the inclusion of women in peace talks, as well as gender content in peace agreements.

The second opinion piece in the series, The importance of autonomy: Women and the Sri Lankan Peace Negotiations, takes a close look at the creation of a Sub Committee for Gender Issues (SGI) within the framework of the 2002-2003 peace process between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). This Committee represented the first attempt by the two sides to advance the involvement of women in formal peacemaking. This second opinion piece was written by Kumudini Samuel, Director of the Sri Lanka-based Women and Media Collective.

The third opinion piece, Nepali Women seize the new political dawn: Resisting marginalisation after ten years of war, analyses how the Nepali peace process has opened the door to a new era for women, and unprecedented progress in the fight for their rights and political representation. It has been written by Rita Manchanda, Research Director at the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR).

The fourth opinion piece, UN Security Council 1325 and Peace Negotiations and Agreements, is an abridged version of a lengthier piece published in October 2010 by Dr Catherine O'Rourke and Prof. Christine Bell of the Transitional Justice Institute (Ulster University). The authors explore the impact of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (SCR 1325) on the peace agreements, through the exhaustive study of 585 peace agreements.

The fifth and final opinion, G is for Gendered: taking the mystery out of gendering peace agreements, looks at historical peace agreements for Bougainville and Aceh to show what textual changes could have been made to realise gender inclusivity. Author Antonia Potter looks at the language used in agreements and suggests how inclusion can help improve the practice of peacemaking. She provides drafters of peace agreements with some suggestions for achievable ‘quick wins'.

Blog

In 2010, to mark the 10^th anniversary of SCR 1325, ten blog posts were commissioned from women across the region. All have been posted on the HD Centre's online discussion forum, PeaceTalks, and some on the MacArthur Foundation Asia Security Initiative blog, which hosts discussions on current events and security challenges in the Asia-Pacific region. The HD Centre is one of six organisations selected to contribute to this blog.

The first blog post was written by Shadia Marhaban, the only women to have participated to the 2005 peace talks that led to the ‘Helsinki Agreement'. It focuses on the consequences of peace for women in Aceh, Indonesia.  

The second blog post in the series, Setting the Fiji Islands Peace Table, was authored by Sharon Bhagwan Rolls, co-ordinator of FemLINKPACIFIC (a women's media organisation). She looks at the efforts of women from the Fiji Islands to improve women's representation in Fijian politics and peacemaking.

The third blog post, written by Dr Rama Mani, a renowned author and international expert on peacebuilding, justice and security, focuses on the challenge of substantial police reform in Afghanistan. Dr Mani argues for greater commitment to accountable policing and the rule of law in Afghanistan while describing the recent rise in sexual violence. She also outlines six major lessons mediators can learn from the Afghanistan experience on how to better incorporate policing and the rule of law in peace talks and agreements.

In the fourth post, Dr Rita Manchanda, Research Director at the South Asia Forum for Human Rights, provides an account of the inspiring efforts of women, against overwhelming odds, to engage in the future of a peaceful Kashmir.

In the fifth blog post, Kumudini Samuel, Director of the Women and Media Collective, reflects on women’s participation in Sri Lankan elections in recent years and considers the consequences for peacemaking. This is set against the backdrop of the disappointing though unsurprising absence of women from formal peace negotiations over many years in Sri Lanka.

The sixth blog post looks to Nepal with Sharada Jnawali of the Asia Development Bank pointing to the failure during the peace talks “to ensure women’s participation at the formal negotiating table.” Instead, she instills some hope in the contribution and the example set by the Nepal Transition to Peace Initiative and the Women Peace Building Network, which worked to foster the inclusion of women more broadly in the peace process.

The seventh blog was written by Wahida Samad, head of the Social and Cultural Affairs Department of the Office of Administrative Affairs and Council of Ministers Secretariat. In her article, 'Women and peacemaking in Afghanistan: Room for optimism?', Ms Samad looks at the Afghan peace process. She argues that much more needs to be done to ensure Afghan women are empowered in the peace process and their rights respected. She underlines in particular that women's rights should not be 'traded away in a deal with the Taliban'.

In the eighth blog in the series, 'The Mindanao peace talks: what has gender got to do with it?', Irene A. Santiago, head of the Mindanao Commission on Women, analyses how the Filippino Supreme Court's decision in 2008 which put a halt to the peace process between the MILF and the Government of the Philippine, was in fact a great opportunity for women to create new momentum for the inclusion of gender concerns in the agenda of the Philippines peace negotiations.

In the ninth blog, The Armed Forces Special Powers Act in relation to women and gender in peace processes, civil rights activist Binalakshmi Nepram describes women's struggles to have their rights, as victims of the conflict in north east India, protected and recognised.

The final blog in the series, Women's Exclusion from the Peacemaking Process in Nepal, was written by Nepali parliamentarian, lawyer and women's rights activist Sapana Pradhan Malla. In her short article, Ms. Malla reflects on Nepali women's progressive exclusion from Nepali politics, despite initial high hopes that they would be fairly represented in Nepal's post-war society.

Donors

The HD Centre would like to thank the Open Society Institute and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) for their support to the region-wide project and its activities. The HD Centre is also grateful for the support of SERASI, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) affiliate in Indonesia, and AusAID, for their support for the Indonesia-specific activities.