Photo from Radio Free Europe website http://www.rferl.org/content/Kyrgyzstan_Anatomy_Of_A_Conflict/2089464.html
Aizhamal Bakashova
Recently, in February 11-13 of 2015, I participated in the Asia-Pacific Regional Consultation for the Global Study on the Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Now for me Resolution 1325 is not just a tool which can be used to protect women and sustain peace. It is also a testament to strong women who face challenges in their daily lives and in spite of it keep the inspiration to struggle for their families, communities and the future. Events and action inevitably impact women, sometimes without their consent.
When we started to work with women refugees who fled from Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan in early 2000, we did not know about SCR 1325. But being women and feeling women’s pain, despair and their need to protect children, we tried to develop support activities, to involve them in social activity, to help them to be integrated into our communities and build peace in their hearts, families and new home country.
Ethnic conflict that erupted in south Kyrgyzstan in 2010[i] were accompanied by large-scale acts of violence against the civilian population, especially young women. According to the official data provided by the regional hospital, 18 cases of sexual violence during the conflict were documented, and 17 of women were killed. These statistics are low, as according to the data of workers of four crisis centers in the region, there were 70 recorded cases of sexual violence during conflict, including those based on witnesses’ testimonies. As stated by the victims and witnesses, rapes were targeting to intimidate, humiliate, and demonstrate the strength and power.
The ethnic conflict of 2010 exposed many challenges and once again proved that it is necessary to closely work on developing a system of assistance to victims, including in crisis situations and post crisis period. A lack of social services increases the discrimination of women-victims of violence. A lot of issues remained unresolved after the conflict, including the assessment of sexual and gender-based violence.
I remembered these stories when I participated in a 2-day meeting for regional alliance building on women, peace and security on 11-12 February 2015. This was held back-to-back with the Asia-Pacific regional consultation of the Global Study on the implementation of SCR 1325 with Ms Radhika Coomaraswamy, lead author of the Global Study, on 13 February 2015. During the two day meeting we had chance to talk about women and peace, women and conflict issues from different angles.
We talked about structural inequalities and their link to development policies and practices; rising cultural and religious fundamentalisms; militarisation, small arms and continuum of violence in everyday life; accountability and combating impunity; survivor/victim recovery, and justice processes; women’s full and meaningful participation in building peace and security.
First we analysed our experiences, concerns and thoughts; based on that we developed perspectives and contributions we would like to input for a global Survey on SCR 1325. We had was amazing discussions, as we, 45 women and men actively engaged in conflict transformation and peace building at the local level from diverse conflicts, came from different background, from different sub regions of Asia Pacific: Central Asia, South East Asia, South Asia, East Asia and Fiji.
From my background I saw a direct connection between SCR 1325 and APWLD’s Breaking out of Marginalisation (BOOM) and Climate Justice programs. The results of BOOM feminist participatory action research (FPAR) made by young women researchers in 2013 in Bangladesh and Philippines (and Thailand) prove that violations of grass root women’s rights in cultural, social or economic content are very much related to insecurity and using of arms. Indigenous young women in Chittagong Hill Tracts, who face daily violence from armed military forces in Bangladesh, women farmers in the Cordillera community who suffered from military presence protecting the interests of Chevron corporation in Philippines. More recently Climate Justice FPAR conducted in Papua New Guinea show that natural disasters in small islands lead to armed conflict for resources and women are most violated and have no protection whatsoever.
All these issues and concerns were shared with Ms Coomaraswamy during the consultation. We talked about challenges and perspectives, fears and our strength, we stressed issues of inequalities of women during peace building processes, inequalities for women activists, women victims or women former rebels, who are also victims in specific circumstances. Also, we shared our success, good practices and vision for perspectives.
The experience and strength of local host organisation Saathi (Nepal) raised quite a lot of interest among participants, as Saathi has the most successful in advocating for SCR 1325 realisation in Nepal. Saathi has been doing great job for many years now and it can be stated that while SCR 1325 already being realised in Nepal.
I want to commend the meeting organisers, as the regional consultation was not held in official meeting style, but rather in an atmosphere of friendly dialogue as Ms Coomaraswamy was really interested to know concerns and thoughts of participants. She she also shared her own concerns about the global study, as well as peace and security issues for women. In spite of being too busy (as she had day long meetings during her visit in Nepal) Ms Coomaraswamy also spent an evening meeting with women activists after Regional Consultation. I was honored to know that Ms Coomaraswamy worked with APWLD and has warm memories about their collaborations.
During these days of regional meeting and consultations we had an opportunity to bring our experiences to light, to review achievements, and to recommend ways forward for the full implementation of the women, peace and security agenda, and the achievement of lasting peace and security for women around the globe.
The meeting was really important and useful, taking into consideration the current local and global challenges to keep peace, security and stability. I will for sure use obtained new knowledge in my work, I’ll continue to support our international networking.
[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_South_Kyrgyzstan_ethnic_clashes
