ersistent and exclusionary patterns of power are preventing women from participating in peace processes and in the rebuilding of societies after war. Despite a general acceptance of women’s contribution being crucial

for peace and reconciliation, women are still rou-tinely excluded from both national and international decision-making bodies with responsibility of shap-ing the future of a post-conflict country. According to The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation report, Equal Power – Lasting Peace, based on a unique mapping of five different contexts of conflict, there is an urgent need for an increased recognition of the power structures behind women’s exclusion.

true peace. On the contrary, formal peace may bring more insecurity and enhanced poverty.

Little has changedMore than a decade after the adoption of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security it is obvious that on the ground, little has changed. The female activists all testified that, at the end of the day, the gap between official rhetoric and grim reality is as huge as ever. Of all five contexts studied, it was only in Liberia that women had been invited to play an active part in formal peace negotia-tions, as well as in the political process afterwards. Resolution 1325 calls for states to not only work for the protection of women in war and conflict, but to also work for their participation in peace processes. Whilst a lot of attention rightfully has been given to the crucial issue of security, the concrete results concerning the equal participation of women and men in peace-building processes are discouraging. Peace negotiations are a case in point. Peace nego-tiations constitute one of very few moments when a window of opportunity is opened for achieving a better and more just society. Still, women have made up only eight percent of peace negotiation delega-tions since the mid-1990s – a number that actually seems to have decreased since the adoption of UNSCR 1325. Another telling example is the adoption of national action plans (NAPs) to implement UNSCR 1325. So far, only 36 countries worldwide have adopted NAPs. Among EU Member States, 13 out of 27 have adopted NAPs for the implementation of UNSCR 1325.

Recognition without actionIn most conflict areas in the world women are actively involved in laying the ground for peace. Women put their own safety at risk to collect food and water for the children, they create networks and they build alliances at grassroots level with women across the front line. They are also the ones most committed to the reconciliation process after the war. This is not because women are naturally more peaceful than men, but because of their societal role which makes them responsible for the survival of their family and thus in need of security. Yet, when time has come for formal peace negotia-tions and for laying out the map of the future, women are marginalised or totally excluded. Present at the negotiations table are representatives from the armed fractions. Since almost half of all wars relapse into further wars, peace negotiating is a practice that needs to be challenged: apparently, it is difficult to turn warlords into peacelords overnight.

Striking similarities The report Equal Power – Lasting Peace is about women’s participation in peace processes and the particular challenges of building a gender-equal and sustainable peace after a violent conflict. In a unique mapping of the experiences among female activists in five different contexts of conflict, the pattern of exclu-sion and marginalisation becomes strikingly clear. These women live in different parts of the world, and are faced with conflicts at different “stages” of peace processes. Still, their situations bear striking similarities. According to the 79 interviewed women in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq and Liberia, women’s peace work is not only ignored or belittled – for many women, the aftermath of war does not bring

PSummary / Equal Power – Lasting Peace

Demonstration to remember the genocide in Srebrenica, Belgrade, 2009. Photo: The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation.

National Action Plans: Only 36 countries worldwide (15 per-cent) have adopted NAPs for the implementation of UNSCR 1325. Among EU Member States, 13 out of 27 (48 percent) have adopted NAPs.

line they often find their position as head of house-hold occupied by a woman – a change in the power balance that most men are unhappy with and try to change, possibly with force. Some of the women participating in the focus groups for this study recalled the risks they them-selves had taken in order to come to the meeting – negotiating roadblocks in Iraq and exposing them-selves to the possibilities of mugging and rape by travelling through parts of the DRC. Even when measures have been taken to facilitate for women to take part in political processes – like introducing gender quotas in national parliament – informal obstacles may still make it impossible for them to actually exercise power. In Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iraq, women who were inter-ested in politics and who had potential to influence were often kept off the party lists. Instead, political parties chose women with less knowledge who were used for “window-dressing”.

Poverty and corruptionAnother very efficient excluding mechanism is pov-erty. In Liberia and the DRC, women could hardly afford to travel to meetings or finance election cam-paigns. Sometimes they could not get involved in any activities beyond mere survival. According to the women in the DRC, keeping women poor was a conscious strategy planned by men with power. Thus, very little was done to improve the women’s economic situation. Corruption was another obstacle which severely limited women’s access to participation. This was tes-tified by the women from the South Caucasus region where male networks have managed to maintain power in nearly all decision-making bodies.

The fight for power According to the findings presented in this report, the issue of power – and the fear of losing it – is one of the most important factors that contribute to the exclusion of women from decision-making foras. At all levels of society – local, national or international – women’s lack of power prevent them from taking part in the political process. The obstacles may be formal – like in Iraq – where an article in the Constitution gives religious law precedence over family law. This has a direct impact on women’s right when it comes to marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance.

Slander and threats More often, however, the obstacles are informal and linked to cultural and social norms about the gen-dered nature of society. One striking example is the risk of being subject to slander. A woman’s reputation is sometimes considered her most valuable asset and by getting involved in politics she may be con-sidered “dirty” or even a “prostitute”. Slandering can thus serve as an efficient way of preventing her from participating. Additionally, all women in the study had experience of receiving various kinds of threats – including death threats.

Sexual violenceAnother very powerful obstacle to women’s par-ticipation is violence – including sexual violence. Perpetrators of sexual violence are often able to continue with impunity, which sends out a signal that violence against women is not illegal or con-demnable. In post-conflict societies the violent acts committed against women may change shape or even increase. When male relatives return from the front

Summary / Equal Power – Lasting Peace

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THE QUESTION OF POWER

In conflict ridden countries women face a series of obstacles when trying to partici-pate in peace building. Some of the major obstacles are:

Discriminatory laws and norms

Slander and threats

Sexual violence

Poverty and corruption

Neglect by international actors

sensitive way, implementation still remains a key challenge. If women are to gain access and be able to fully participate in peace processes, there is an urgent need to more carefully take into account the power dynamics that fuel exclusions – and learn to recognise the way power travels through formal and informal settings. Only then will it be possible to deal with the multifaceted obstacles that create and maintain the exclusion of women.

Neglect by international actorsHowever, the obstacles to women’s participation were not only found at the national level. According to the study there is also a striking absence of women in peace negotiations initiated by various interna-tional actors. Many women expressed gratitude for the support they had received from international actors during the conflict – not least economically – and for raising the issue of sexual and gender-based violence. However, by the time formal peace accords were taking place, hardly any women were invited to the table. The learning curve was more or less flat, as the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina illustrates. In the Dayton peace process in 1995, there were no Bosnian women present, and neither were there any Bosnian women present in the so-called Butmir process 14 years later. In the negotiations over Nagorno-Kara-bakh, there have been some women involved in the early process – but all the international representa-tives have been male. The exception is Liberia, where representatives from a regional women’s organi-sation – who played an important role in getting the combatants to the peace negotiations table – were invited to participate as observers. They later received formal status as civil society participants at the table.

Image of “the mother”Another important observation in the report is that women in all five cases managed to find a limited space to exercise power and influence by using the image of themselves as “mothers” – e.g. inherently peaceful and neutral. Women in Azerbaijan and Arme-nia stressed their image of mothers as “naturally less corrupt”. In Iraq several activists asserted that women are “by nature” more peaceful than men. In Liberia, “a woman as a mother is respected”. The identification of themselves as mothers was a powerful drive for women’s initiatives towards recon-ciliation. Nevertheless, since “mothers” traditionally look after the household and stay away from politics, this role may simultaneously serve as an effective excluding mechanism.

The key challengeTo conclude, as demonstrated in Equal Power – Lasting Peace, women could play a crucial role in the peace process and the reconstruction of soci-ety afterwards. However, as women in all contexts stated: women are not recognised as relevant actors and the multifaceted peace work that they perform is neither noticed nor recognised. Even where legal frameworks have been revised in a more gender-

Equal Power – Lasting Peace was produced by The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation as a part of the project Women and Conflict Resolution, financed by the European Commission’s Instrument for Stability Crisis Response Component. The

content of this document is the sole responsibility of The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the EU.

The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation

Slakthusplan 3121 62 Johanneshov, SwedenTel +46 (0)8-588 89 100info@kvinnatillkvinna.se www.kvinnatillkvinna.sewww.equalpowerlastingpeace.org

The international community should:

1. Address all levels of violence against womenViolence against women is a major obstacle to women’s participation in peace and democ-racy processes. Violence takes many forms and is present at different levels and in all parts of society – from the domestic sphere to the national political arena. It includes domestic violence, sexual violence, threats and violations of human rights.

2. Address gender inequality and power imbalancesThe different actors within the international community, such as the EU and the UN, should lead by example and be role models for wom-en’s participation and women’s human rights. They likewise have a key role to play in bring-ing the voices of women from conflict-affected regions into policy making, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

3. Increase funding for women’s organisations and make it more strategicWomen’s organisations are a key factor in implementing peace agreements, laws and regulations in a society. Women’s organisa-tions have the best knowledge of local needs and problems. They are essential for demo-cratic development, and should not be made into service providers for international insti-tutes or the society.

HOW TO MAKE A CHANGE

Summary / Equal Power – Lasting Peace

Front page photo: Wom

en’s rights activists from the organisation

FAD

I in DR Congo. Photo: The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation/Ida U

dovic.