This article was written by Kirthi Jayakumar, the Founder of REF.
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| Image from here |
In many conflict zones, men and women struggle
the consequences of war. It is hard to tell which group suffers more – and it
is a tough assessment to make across the board. The most logical conclusion,
therefore, is that conflict leaves a lasting impact on men and women. The
aftermath of a conflict often
results in a peacebuilding effort – either at the behest of the conflicting
entities involved, or with the intervention of an outside entity. In most such
initiatives, the role of women has tremendous potential, but is seldom given
importance.
No matter how many experts there may be at the
peacebuilding initiative, it will not succeed fruitfully if a whole demographic
is excluded from participation. Even with UN Security Council Resolution
1325 (2000) having been passed to the effect that women have a role to play
in preventing and resolving conflicts, in most peacebuilding initiatives, women
tend to be conspicuous by their absence – or at the most, they are
under-represented.
The involvement of women in peacebuilding is
driven by two key factors: that they are approximately half the demographic
structure that forms the stakeholder community in the future of a
conflict-zone, and, that they suffer discrimination, violence and violations on
a large scale in a conflict-setting. Peacebuilding
generally does better if and when women are actively involved in the process. Women
bring many qualities to the negotiation table: inclusiveness, sensitization to
the overall need for peace, and an attention to social and economic issues that
are otherwise seldom taken into consideration. Women bring an alternative,
gendered view to peacebuilding that leads to transformation at all levels.
The invisibility of women in peacebuilding
initiatives stems from many factors.
Primarily, the continual occurrence of violence and discrimination that occur
in conflict and post-conflict societies isolate women continues to be a barrier
in the path of including women in the negotiation table. A society caught in
conflict and a society recovering from conflict focuses on survival – the
challenge to survive keeps women occupied in a struggle of sorts as they try to
bring back some semblance of normalcy for their families. In the process, they
themselves do not give a process of peacebuilding priority, because their
urgent need is to find a way to stay safe, secure and free of violence. Secondly,
the general invisibility of women as a result of patriarchal tendencies in
social structures tends to keep women away from the peacebuilding process. Many
a time, the role of women is neglected because they are perceived as
unimportant, or not valuable to the overarching peace process. This stems from
a misconstrued notion built on the foundation-stone of masculinities of
violence.
To address the former issue, the access to a
peacebuilding process should be opened up more amicably and easily. Women
should be given the right support in the form of training, funding, security
and a sense of inclusion. Most women do not realize that peacebuilding is a
priority – and that achieving a state of peace will give them the long-lasting
security that they want for their families. Secondly, the men in the
communities themselves must be sensitized to the greater cause of
peacebuilding. A community cannot transition from conflict to peace if there is
no means for half the population to make that transition with their rights,
needs and requirements being duly accounted for.