24 Nov 2008: ISS Workshop, Pretoria: Women and Peace-Building in Africa, 24-25 November 2008

ISS Workshop: Women and Peace-Building in Africa
Pretoria, 24-25 November 2008

 

Closed event - by invitation only

 

The efforts to eradicate gender discrimination, to protect women and children against gender based violence, mitigate the differential burdens that women bear during conflict situations and to ensure their participation in peace-building and their overall empowerment has borne fruit through substantive legal frameworks and architectures at international, regional and national levels. In the peace and security sector, UNSC Resolutions 1325 and 1820, which build upon numerous other interventions such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action, CEDAW and the Windhoek Declaration, marked a major break through for women’s participation in peace processes. 

 

UNSC 1325 affirms the importance of women in peace-building and urges member states “to ensure increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management and resolution of conflict.” It furthermore “calls on all actors involved, when negotiating and implementing peace agreements, to adopt a gender perspective, including, inter alia:  the special needs of women and girls during repatriation and resettlement and for rehabilitation, reintegration and post-conflict reconstruction; measures that support local women’s peace initiatives and indigenous processes for conflict resolution, and that involve women in all of the implementation mechanisms of the peace agreements”.

 

The African Union’s Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development Framework (PCRD) and the AU Women’s Protocol are key regional instruments to give effect to women’s participation in peace-building. These instruments have been promoted and accompanied by a growth of women’s organizations and peace-building initiatives. However, though we have progressed in creating a legal environment for women’s participation in peace-building, women are still largely marginalized in current peace initiatives. A reassessment is therefore needed to determine progress and challenges and to chart a way forward which prioritises the implementation of agreed upon frameworks for the acknowledgement and facilitation of women’s contribution to peace-building. Importantly, too, is the ability to compare experiences in different African countries and draw out the lessons learnt. Part of the engagement must reflect on the gains made by women and the impact on the peace process itself, when women are part of the undertaking.

 

This workshop will bring together about 25 policy makers, practitioners and researchers engaged in women and peace-building activities on the continent to:

 

a)         Engage in constructive dialogue on the current status of women’s participation in peace-building in Africa
b)         Identify the critical challenges that continue to impede women’s participation in peace-building
c)         Share experiences and draw out the lessons learnt
d)         Collaboratively identify where policy research and capacity building are needed
e)         Strengthen collaborative research and activist networks on this issue.

 

The themes to be covered in the workshop are:

 

  1. Peace, Security and Gender in Africa

  2. Women’s Participation in Peace-Building in Africa

  3. Women’s Participation in Peace Missions

  4. Challenges to incorporating women in Peace Negotiations

  5. Gender and Defence Reform

  6. Gender and Post-Conflict Reconstruction

  7. Implementing UNSCR 1325 in Africa

 

The proceedings of the workshop will be captured in the form of a widely distributed report and set of recommendations that will elicit where the stumbling blocks for participation in peace-building are, and suggest concrete ways to overcome these.

 

Date: 24-25 November 2008
Venue: Kievitskroon Hotel, Pretoria

 

Enquiries: Dr Cheryl Hendricks, Senior Research Fellow, Security Sector Governance Programme, ISS Tshwane (Pretoria)
Tel: (012) 346 9500; Email: [email protected]

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