The two main debaters sit on the floor leaning their backs on the sofas in level with the conference participants. The atmosphere is relaxed but concentrated when women from all over the globe discuss the key challenges of resolution1325.
How national action plans are generally weak was discussed during the Stockholm 1325 conference. Photo: Anna Erlandson
Madeleine Rees, Secretary General of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, WILPF brings up the challenge of making sure that civil women’s voices are not only considered, but also fully understood on a policy level.
She uses experiences from post-war Bosnia concerning the low participation of women in the tribunal of Haag as an example.
Women who had been displaced, without any means to feed their children, simply had no time to worry about policy issues. Pressing charges for having been exposed to sexual violence was no priority for them. Before considering legal actions the first necessary steps were to ensure women’s socio-economic rights. Madeleine Rees states that, while there is no actual need to “reclaim 1325”, neither nations nor civil society use the resolution efficiently enough.
“NAPs are Generally Very Weak”
Onstage is also Jan Fritz, “the seminar’s reality checker” as moderator Petra Tötterman Andorff calls the sociology professor from the University of Cincinnati. Fritz has done research on the National Action Plans (NAP) with two of her graduate students. They went through heavy UN paperwork to produce a useful document for people wanting to launch a creation or revision of their NAPs. They point out ideas, weaknesses and left-out details. The NAPs are generally very weak. If you say you should do something without stating when or how much, you have a problem.
“The NAPs are generally very weak. If you say you should do something without stating when or how much, you have a problem.”
(Jan Fritz researcher from the University of Cincinnati, who has revised most of the worlds’ national action plans for implementing resolution 1325.)
When the conference participants take part in the discussion, the actual need of NAPs is questioned. The concern that the NAPs might become alibis for states to hide behind and take energy from practical work is voiced. Another participant completely disagrees: It is very important for civil society to have something written in their own language by their own government. It enforces the possibility to say “you said this”.
Exclusion is Never Protection
Another important issue is that of what the 1325 resolution should cover. One conference participant argues that in some countries the participation of women is obstructed by their lack of education, and such issues should therefore be included. Another participant means that if stretched too wide the resolution will be dangerously weakened. The discussion lands in an agreement that 1325 cannot stand on its own but must be complemented.
An Amnesty representative directs some self-criticism to the weak language sometimes used in the discussion. The real answer to why participation of women is such a hard part is that it is, when it comes down to it, a change of the power structures. We do not say that often enough. Iraq, where women were told by international troops to stay home for safety, is used as a way to start discussions.
“The troops thought it was a good method to keep the women safe. To point out how that is wrong may open for discussion. We must show that exclusion of women never may be equal to protection.”
Elin Andersson
