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June 2002
Vol. VIII, No.4
"A World of Women for World Peace"
 Top, left to right: Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, Harriet Hentges, and Gay McDougall of the International Human Rights Law Group. Bottom, left to right: Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini of Women Waging Peace, Deepa Ollapally, and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. |
Women peace advocates seek a greater voice in preventing and resolving international conflicts.
Many of the world's most prominent women peace advocates and a number of members of the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues gathered on May 9 at the Library of Congress for the conference "A World of Women for World Peace." Part of a congressionally sponsored "National Day of Dialogue," the event was organized by Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.).
In addition to political leaders such as Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is House Democratic whip, plenary-session speakers included such noted peace activists as Maha Abu Dayyeh-Shamas, founder and executive director of the Women's Center for Legal Aid and Counseling, which is dedicated to improving the social and legal status of Palestinian women; Terry Greenblatt, director of the Israeli organization Bat Shalom (Daughter of Peace); and Jody Williams, founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and 1997 Nobel Laureate for Peace. Following the plenary session, roundtables addressed the topics "Peace and Security," "Protection of Women," "Governance and Political Participation," and "Civil Society and Peace Building."
Harriet Hentges, executive vice president of the U.S. Institute of Peace, and Deepa Ollapally, program officer in the Institute's Special Initiative on the Muslim World, were asked to serve as moderators of the Peace and Security roundtable, in addition to Harriet Babbitt, senior vice president of Hunt Alternatives. Roundtable participants explored three major themes: "HIV/AIDS as a Security Issue," "Addressing Women's Needs and Supporting Their Efforts in Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration," and "Addressing the Role of International Peacekeepers in Providing a Safe and Secure Environment for Local Populations—Especially Women."
In response to Congresswoman Johnson's request for suggestions regarding ways to better promote international peace and increase women's participation in that process, the roundtable produced the following recommendations:
- "In order to change the nature of peace settlements and their implementation, the dynamics of the peace process need to change. This means a change in what happens at the negotiating table and who is at the table. If you change what happens at the table, you will change the process, the impact of that process on the security situation that follows it, and ultimately the sustainability of the peace. The road map for these changes is UN Resolution 1325 [which stresses the importance of women's 'equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security, and the need to increase their role in decision-making with regard to conflict prevention and resolution']. The United States should use its influence and power to ensure the implementation of UN Resolution 1325 and to include civil-society groups in the peace process.
- "An immediate and relevant opportunity exists for the international community to make concrete the objectives and reality of Resolution 1325 in the upcoming conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The United States should use its influence and power to ensure the implementation of Resolution 1325 in the Israeli-Palestinian conference so that women and civil-society groups have a place at the table in every phase of the discussions. The Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues could make special efforts to pressure this with the 'quartet' (likely to be the European Union, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and the United States).
- "The international community cannot expect to break the cycle of violence until it addresses the issues women are discussing and for which, in many cases, they bear a special responsibility: security gaps, health, education, and human rights. National security should be seen as more than military security, and the issues of human security should be integrated into considerations of national security. The prevention and elimination of AIDS needs to be seen as a security challenge. AIDS has a disproportionate impact on women; this will have significant impact on the nature of a society, affect a government's ability to govern, create orphans who are recruited as mercenaries and child soldiers, and prevent children from receiving an education. The Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues should work to create a Congressional Caucus on National Security that would redefine national security to include broad issues of human security, including those related to sustainable peace. One of the efforts of this caucus could be to organize an exchange of parliamentarians on the broad issues of human security and to create a consensus on this within the groups that can influence these issues most directly.
- "If sustainable peace is to become a reality and more women are to be brought into the peace process, the amount of resources devoted to achieving this needs to increase. This includes investing in people. The U.S. Congress should take the model of Title IX, which had such dramatic impact on women's participation in sports, and apply this model to an increased participation of women in the peace process."
Congresswoman Johnson organized "A World of Women for World Peace" to jump-start congressional efforts to increase women's role in preventing and resolving international conflicts. The Institute's expertise can help advance these efforts.
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