Speech by Dr. Stefanie Babst, Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy at the Euro-Atlantic Council of Macedonia Conference on UNSCR 1325

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen

Dear friends,

First of all I would like to thank you for inviting me to your beautiful country. I may not have come at the best time of the year, since it is almost as cold here than in Belgium where I live and work.  But it gives me great pleaure to address this important conference on an issue that is very dear to my heart.

I would also like to say a personal word of thanks to Lazar Elenovski and the Euro-Atlantic Council of Macedonia for organizing this event. You and your team are doing a terrific job in engaging people on transatlantic security issues here in this country and throughout the entire Balkans region.

On Valentine’s Day, it is perhaps opportune to discuss the empowerment of women and the contributions that women can make in the field of security and peace building.

Wouldn’t it be great if today, women all over the world were offered not only flowers and chocolates, but also a greater role in conflict prevention, crisis management and peace building?.

One thing is clear -- such a greater role is long overdue..

Over the last few decades, dozens of conflicts have persisted because peace efforts were unsuccessful. Talks broke down, agreements were broken, parties found it easier to fight than to negotiate. And far too often women were marginalized in these failed efforts, making up just eight percent of all peace negotiators.

When we look around the world, we see how hard it is to make peace under any circumstance. But the exclusion of women, I argue, makes it even harder.

But of course, the issue is not only about including women in peace talks.

We also must protect them better. When it comes to armed conflicts, we see time and time again that women and children are not only affected more seriously by such conflicts – they also end up as victims without voices.

They loose access to healthcare, education and economic opportunities.  They are the biggest proportion of refugees and internally displaced persons. And they are increasingly subject to sexual violence by combatants, sometimes as a direct weapon of war.

My point is this: yes, women are victims of conflict. But they are not just victims. They must also be part of the solution. If women are not active participants in peace building, reconciliation and redevelopment, then the views, needs and interests of half of the world’s population are not represented, and solutions may not last for very long.

There are, in essence, four reasons why greater participation by women will help to build a better, more lasting peace:

First, because it broadens the peace process to larger constituencies beyond the fighting parties. This engages not just the people with guns – the ‘spoilers’. It engages the people who can ensure broad social acceptance of, and commitment to, any peace deal. In other words, the ‘survivors’, those who invest in peace.

Second, women’s specific concerns, if answered, can help speed a more rapid return to the rule of law. Often the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators during war will continue to trigger high levels of sexual violence after the conflict. Failure to signal zero tolerance through immediate prosecutions of commanders who either organized or condoned sexual violence can encourage others to commit these crimes. The mere suggestion of impunity when it comes to crimes against women will make a complete mockery of any efforts to reassert the rule of law.

Journalist Ann Jones has said that: ‘For women, the war is not over when it is over’. Since 1989, only 6 ceasefire agreements following 45 conflicts have mentioned sexual violence as a prohibited act. That means that sexual violence continues after the guns fall silent. And if the war is not over for women, the peace cannot start for them or their children.

Third, women’s participation in all aspects of peace building, including disarmament processes, transitional justice, constitutional reform commissions and the like, will ensure that a greater diversity of views is reflected in decision-making. This is good for the quality of decision-making, and it is good for democratization.

Finally, attention to women’s needs in post-conflict situations can help to speed economic development. Conflicts typically produce a surge in households headed by women. If these women have no livelihoods, they are pushed into low-reward, high-risk work, which is deepening their poverty. With some degree of economic security, they are faster to invest in child welfare and education, faster to build food security, and faster to rebuild economies.

The upshot is clear. Given the benefits of women’s participation to the quality of governance, the rule of law, and recovery, it is unacceptable that they remain marginalized from peace talks and reconciliation processes. This has to change.

A week ago I attended the annual Munich Security Conference.  And I was pleased that US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton took the time to meet with the few female participants at the conference to talk about United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, and why it should matter to us all.

I found Secretary Clinton’s words both extremely encouraging and inspiring. For her, UNSCR 1325 is very clearly not a nice-to-have side issue -- but rather a serious political objective that needs serious attention.

I agree with her completely. More than ten years after the adoption of UNSCR 1325, the situation is far from satisfactory. As we saw in the short introduction video, women have indeed come a long way over the past decades.

However, there is still some way to go before the glass ceiling will be completely broken, and women across the globe have assumed their rightful place in matters of war and peace.

So let’s have a quick look at what NATO, the organisation that I represent, has done to promote UNSCR 1325.

At NATO, we are looking at the role of women in conflict resolution and peace-building in a comprehensive way.

We have produced our own directive for guiding the implementation of UNSCR 1325 throughout NATO’s military structure. This directive is founded upon three “p's” – prevention, protection and participation. We want to prevent armed conflict from having a disproportionate impact on women and children; we want to protect women and children; and we want women to participate in all aspects of operations and at all levels of command.

So what does this means in practice?  It means, first of all, that we devote considerable attention to gender-related education and training, especially for those forces that are about to be deployed on operations. We want to develop better awareness and understanding of the culture, role and influence of women in local communities, and how their security concerns are different from those of the men in those communities.

In Afghanistan, this approach has already produced very positive results. The gender advisors deployed to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force try to ensure that commanders at all levels take women’s perspectives into account when formulating their operational and development strategies. Many of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams across the country have come to employ gender experts as well. They provide additional lines of communications to local communities which are not open to male soldiers.  They help to build trust and confidence in ISAF. And they alert commanders to the specific needs of women in local communities, including for basic services and health and education.

And we are doing more. The United States, for example, sends its own teams of female soldiers, as do other NATO-ISAF countries, to curb violence against women, honor killings, female immolation, etc., as well as to pursue certain security functions such as inspections and personal examinations.

The presence of female soldiers can make a real difference in many ways. Take, for example, UK police constable Amanda Henderson, who set up a basic police and firearms training programme for women in Helmand province. She helped Afghan female police officers how to use a gun – and in addition made sure that they were given suitable uniforms – a little thing, but something the men around her overlooked.

NATO remains committed to support this process and, together with other international organizations and NGOs, seeks ways to empower and protect Afghan women and girls. Yet part of what we have to do as we try to test whether peace is possible in Afghanistan, is to make it very clear that peace will not come at the expense of women's rights and roles. They have suffered too much for too long.

Ladies and gentlemen,

As we meet, more than 30 countries have approved national action plans on implementing UNSCR 1325, including recently the United States.

Our host country has yet to approve its national action plan, but I understand that such an agreement is currently being discussed, and we all look forward to welcoming you into the “1325 club”.

It will be essential that you have a comprehensive road map for accelerating and institutionalizing efforts across the Macedonian government to advance women's participation in making and keeping peace.

Dear friends and colleagues,

I am not here to tell you that all women are more committed than men to promoting the greater good. Not all women are attached to peace or well connected in the communities they live in. Like men, they are exposed to political, ethnic, or religious tensions. And just like men, they may contribute to violence and participate in armed groups.

But more than men, women have direct experience of the brutal consequences of violent conflict. And they often bear the extra burden of a vastly lower social and economic status. As the first victims of sexual violence, they often see more clearly how conflict stretches from the beating at home to the rapes and killings on the streets and the battlefield. And because of this, they also are critical in bringing peace back to the communities

In spite of the resistance that women often face when they want to make their voices heard, they continue to find creative ways of expressing their concerns in peace processes.

When excluded from the peace talks, they have held parallel processes of their own. When locked out of the rooms where decisions are made, women have pushed their position papers and their recommendations through the gaps under the doors.

When ignored, they have approached decision-makers on airports or barricaded the meeting room to force the delegates to reach a settlement, as in Liberia in 2003.

When silenced, they have taken to the streets to make themselves heard.

However, too many of these initiatives remain small-scale, ad hoc and under-funded.

If women’s contribution to conflict prevention and participation in the peace process is not significantly increased, and the vicious cycle of their exclusion broken, our pursuit of sustainable and equitable peace is in danger.

That is a challenge to NATO countries.  And it is a challenge to NATO partner countries -- especially those who wish to join the Alliance.  I am confident that this message is fully supported by the government and parliament in Skopje.  And that you all agree how important it is to underpin our words with concrete actions.

Thank you.  I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have.