Internal armed conflicts within states between government forces and insurgents or militant groups is a phenomenon seen throughout the world. It is widely recognised that in all these conflicts it is the women and children who are the most affected. In this context, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 of 2000, is most relevant as it addresses the impact of war on women while also recognising the contribution that women’s participation can make to conflict resolution and peace building. It calls upon all actors involved in peace negotiations to adopt a gender perspective, and urges member to ensure increased participation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions for the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts.
The Resolution expresses concern that civilians, particularly women and children account for the vast majority of those adversely affected including refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPS). It calls upon all parties to armed conflicts to respect the civilian and humanitarian nature of refugee camps and settlements and to take into account the particular needs of women and girls. The Resolution also stresses the obligation of all parties to the conflict to respect the obligations applicable to them under the ‘Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Optional Protocols of 1977, Conventions on the Rights of the Child, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) among others. It calls upon the parties to armed conflicts to protect women and girls from sexual assault and other forms of violence in situations of armed conflict. It should be noted that the case law of the International Criminal Tribunals recently constituted i.e. International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, as well as the Statute of the ICC, makes it clear that the laws of war (International Humanitarian Law) are applicable in internal armed conflicts as part of customary international law.
It has been pointed out by peace negotiators that the presence of women at the peace table can make an important difference because when women are present the talks tend to adopt a more inclusive view of security concerns and also address issues related to the reintegration of children and women post conflict. Moreover, as they are the persons most affected, they are more inclined to work towards the resolution of the conflict. It has been pointed out that while women and children have an important stake in political outcomes, they have so far had little power to shape them.
In Sri Lanka, in December 2002, a subcommittee on gender issues was established during the peace process. This was a good beginning but was not inclusive enough as it consisted of 10 persons, five of whom were appointed by the Government and five by the LTTE. What is proposed is a more inclusive consultation between women’s groups from all parts of the country and which should include women from villages, towns and IDP camps, cutting across ethnic and religious lines. Such a consultation should not be politically directed. Local NGOs with branches in the rural areas, religious bodies and other concerned parties could help to set up such groups and facilitate their travel and networking.
It is submitted that while on the one hand constitutional and political processes should go forward for conflict resolution and peace building, there should also be an alternate track whereby the affected parties too could participate and bring to the fore their concerns and priorities. Furthermore, by involving the rural women from small towns and villages across the country, we will be drawing from and tapping into the cultural and religious traditions of the people, based upon the four great religions in the country, Buddhism, Hinduism Christianity and Islam. In the rural communities and towns across the country there continues to exist a respect for the sanctity of human life, compassion for the sufferings of fellow human beings and good neighbourliness. Violence and ethnic/religious hatred have little place in this philosophy of life, neither does strident nationalism of any kind. On this basis, the Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim communities living in threatened villages, as well as throughout the island, have interacted with each other over the years.
The traditional values of a society are most evident in the woman folk who are in the greater part peaceable. This attitude is also borne out of experience, because in times of war and armed conflict it is they who suffer the most. They have to see their young children, husbands and brothers forcibly taken away by armed groups to be killed and maimed on the battlefields. They have to watch, caught between opposing forces, their homes being battered and destroyed by the heavy artillery and mortar firing. They have to salvage whatever belongings and flee from the theatre of war. They have to make the long trek through country roads and jungle paths fleeing from the bombs and fighting carrying their young ones till they find shelter in an internally displaced persons ( IDP) camp.
Here again it is a struggle to provide for their families out of the meagre rations, and amidst poor sanitary conditions. Their children are denied education, which is their right, and the normal pastimes of children, and instead live in a trauma of fear which could have long-term psychological impact. In other parts of the country are women who know the grief of sons and husbands killed or maimed in battle, family members blown up in bomb blasts, while in threatened villages, people live in fear of sudden attacks and wanton killings. People outside the theatre of war may applaud some military victory here or bombing raid there, depending on which side they support, but it is the mothers and children of all communities caught up in conflicts the world over, who know the true cost of the war in terms of suffering.
There are examples in recent times where the participation of women has had a positive outcome. In Northern Ireland, with its long history of conflict and religious animosity, over 200 women’s organisations met in 1996 to create the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, the first female dominated political party. The movement cut across religious lines and included women from both Protestant and Catholic communities, and worked as a cross-community party to promote civil, human and workers rights. George Mitchell the US Senator, who mediated the Northern Irish peace process, credits this movement with having helped achieve the successful outcome in the peace process. In other parts of the world too women’s participation has had some impact. In the Afghanistan peace process, five women out of approximately 60 delegates were included in the Bonn talks of 2001. The women’s’ representatives fought for women’s rights and one of their achievements was the creation of a Ministry of Women’s Affairs.
In Guatemala, the participation of women in the peace process of 1996 led to the creation of a national health programme for women and girls and a programme to reunite families and locate missing or separated children and orphans. In Sierra Leone, two women were involved in the peace process, and a key article of the final agreement calls for special attention to be paid to victimized women and girls in formulating and implementing rehabilitation, reconstruction and development programmes. In the Darfur Peace Agreement negotiations in 2005, a gender experts support team gathered women from a variety of tribal and ethnic backgrounds to create a unified platform of women’s priorities and gender issues. The outcome document “Women’s priorities in the peace process and reconstruction in Darfur” contains a number of key provisions related to women and children including specific protection of women and children in conflict situations provisions for secondary education in the camps for refugees and IDPs and the creation of an institution to provide legal support, psychological counselling and other relevant services to women and children (This material is sourced from the UNICEF publication “State of the World’s Children 2007”)
Similarly in Sri Lanka too women of all communities cutting across ethnic and religious barriers should come together, as in Northern Ireland. They should be able to meet and share their common concerns and voice their priorities. In this way a consensus can be built up against violence and the security concerns of all communities identified and issues critical to the well-being of women children and families, included in the peace process and political settlement proposed. Such contacts would also be a unifying factor, making people of all communities conscious that they belong to one human family.
The UN Security Council Resolution 1325 has focussed attention on critical issues which should be given effect to in internal armed conflicts, both in its call for women’s participation in the peace processes as well as its call for the parties to armed conflicts to respect the laws of war. It stresses the fact that even in war the laws are not silent. These injunctions, if adhered to, would help in creating the conditions for a just and inclusive peace building process.
(http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/06/23/feat/2.asp)
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