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Written by Lawrence R Gelber,
vice-president of I Declare World Peace, Inc., for the Red Elephant Foundation towards the 16 Days of Activism against Violence against
Women.
Many
parts of the world recently rejoiced when the Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded
to a Pakistani teenager, Malala
Yousafzai, and an Indian “senior”, Kailash Satyarthi.
The
International Business Times of India recently reported that Mr. Satyarthi’s
organization has determined that the sex trade in India is a £215 billion a
year “business” and its primary victims are young girls. Thus, Mr. Satyarthi’s two-sentence
statement: “Child slavery is a
crime against humanity. Humanity itself is at stake here,” can readily be placed
in the context of the need for gender equality.
And,
of course, Ms. Yousafzai is famous for saying “education is my right and education is the right of your
daughter and son as well. And I’m speaking up for them. I’m speaking up for
peace.” Her statement unequivocally ties the notion of peace to equal treatment
of sons and daughters, of boys and girls, of men and women.
These views, though expected, because the speakers are lauded
social activists, are nevertheless widely supported by ever increasing social
research. So the views expressed are more than mere lip-service to advance a cause;
they express a demonstrable reality. Accordingly, the need for sex-based
equality can no longer be ignored, and its implementation can no longer be
delayed, because sustainable peace requires equal treatment of the sexes,
socially, academically, and economically. It is literally a matter of life and
death.
In
a previous article for The Red Elephant Foundation’s “16 days of activism”
project, we noted that UNESCO, at the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in
Beijing, China in 1995, stated:
“Ensuring equality of educational access
and opportunity between
the sexes is a prerequisite for achieving the changes of attitudes and mind-sets on which a culture of peace depends."
Now
almost 20 years after that conference in Beijing, with the world population
comprised of approximately 3.61 billion males and 3.56 billion females, a
research paper by Saferworld and Conciliation
Resources called “Gender, Violence and Peace – A post 2015 development agenda”
cites to a broad range of research studies confirming the “strong correlation
between levels of conflict and gender inequality.” And while the Saferworld
paper notes that it is sometimes difficult to tell if it is the inequality that
fuels the violence or the violence that fuels the inequality, it pointedly
notes that, indeed, “gender inequality can drive conflict and violence,
particularly where militarized notions of masculinity are present,” and the
paper goes on to provide concrete examples.
A few years earlier, in the
United Nations’ “2004 report of the Secretary-General on Women, Peace and
Security” the Secretary General, referring to UN Security Council Resolution
1325 said:
Resolution 1325 holds a promise to women across
the globe that their rights will be protected and that barriers to their equal
participation and full involvement in the maintenance and promotion of
sustainable peace will be removed. We must uphold this promise. To achieve the
goals set out in the resolution, political will, concerted action and
accountability on the part of the entire international community, are required.
I urge the Security Council, Member States, United Nations entities and civil
society organizations to reaffirm
their commitment and strengthen efforts to implement fully resolution 1325, and
call for regular monitoring of implementation through the Security Council.
Thus, the
world’s preeminent body for the promotion of peace, expressly recognizes the
reality being discussed here – world peace, sustainable world peace, depends on
gender equality. In fact, the UN has regularly
reasserted the principles of Resolution 1325.
Most recently, it adopted, on October 18, 2013, UN Security Council Resolution 2122, in which it confirmed two points key
to this discussion: (i) that women’s and
girls’ empowerment and gender equality are critical to efforts to maintain international
peace and security and (ii) sustainable peace requires an integrated approach
based on coherence between and among political, security, development and human
rights - including gender equality - issues.
We note that humanitarian movements in
the past have developed some enduring slogans, one of the most memorable being
“no justice, no peace”. Putting the ever growing numbers of studies aside for
the moment, it is crystal clear that the suppression of one-half of the world’s
population for no reason other than its sex is fundamentally unjust. No justice no peace. If we can muster the collective will to overcome archaic and ignorant traditions, and treat men
and women equally, then our chances of achieving an equitable and just human
condition will rise dramatically. And
with that justice, and only with that justice, we will have a chance to sustain
peace.
Lawrence R. Gelber is a lawyer
living in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife Rita. Lawrence
& Rita operate
the I Declare World Peace
project, described at www.ideclareworldpeace.org.