AWCPD PRESENTATION
"Regional Consultation on Enhancing Women's Participation
in Peace Building", 23-25 April 2001, Addis Ababa-Ethiopia
In spite of the trauma of wars and displacement, women have always
been the stabilizing factor in their families and communities. Women
struggle to create stability in the lives of their families and to
promote reconciliation and peace even under very difficult and traumatic
situations.
However, women's peace building potential have had no significant
impact on policies and decision relating to conflicts because of their
absence from the decision making processes and bodies in the Region.
This fact and the increasing number of violent conflicts in Africa
in which women have been the major victims led to a widespread concern.
African women greatly contributed to the continent wide recognition
that a sustainable peace can not be attained without the participation
and empowerment of women by sensitizing and lobbying their governments.
African women's long search for peace culminated in April 1998, upon
the establishement of the African Women Committee on Peace and Development
which was announced by the Secretary General of the OAU after consultations
with the Executive Secretary of the ECA during the opening ceremony
of the International Conference celebrating the 40th Anniversary of
the ECA.
The Committee is made up of sixteen members and its originality is
that it combines members nominated by government with members appointed
in their personal capacity and members selected from African women
NGOs.
Appointment of members is through submission of candidacy and selection
takes into consideration among other things , the proper representation
of the five OAU regions. Members serve for a period of three years.
The Committee has been constituted as an advisory body of the Secretary
General of the OAU and the Executive Secretary of the ECA.
The rational behind the establishment of the African Women Committee
on Peace and Development is to give the women of Africa a platform
to voice their concern over war and peace, to strengthen their role
and mandate in the promotion of Peace and Development in Africa.
Since its establishment, the Committee has held several meetings
devoted to constituting the Committee's Board, adopting its rules
of procedure, discussing its priorities and adopting its program of
activities and despite its limited resources, AWCPD has focused its
activities in the following areas:
- Establishing its Work Program. Since its Launching, AWCPD have
been mainly concentrating on its operationalisation and on the identification
and formulation of the strategic interventions of AWCPD interventions
which have been developed into a three year a Plan of Action to enable
it pursue its objectives and carry out its mandate.
- Building an African women agenda for peace and networking with
African women peace organizations: AWCPD co-organised together with
UNESCO the Pan-African Women Conference on a Culture of Peace which
was held in Zanzibar (May 1999). The Conference enabled the Committee
to dialogue and share its vision with several peace organizations
and with over three hundred women from all over Africa and to build
with them an African Women Peace Agenda, "The Zanzibar Agenda
for Peace".
Bringing women's voices to the peace process: The African Women Committee
on Peace and Development has been lobbying for the inclusion of women
in the current peace negotiations. Letters requesting systematic inclusion
of women have been addressed to the Secretary General of the Organization
of the African Unity as well as to the Leaders of the conflict torn
countries. This request has been successfully complied with in the
case of Burundi. Members of the Committee had earlir on, supported
the Burundian women to build their platform and facilitated their
talks in Kampala Uganda in October 1998 as well as in the Arusha Negotiations.
Moreover, the AWCPD organized a series of activities within the process
of the evaluation of Beijing +5 to sensitize Leaders on the centrality
of women's role in peace building.
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Supporting women's peace initiatives: At the Sub-Regional level, the
Committee co organized a peace program initiated by FAS, for the women
of the Mano River Region, namely Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
The objectives of the Mano River Meeting was to assist the women of
Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea establish a common agenda though
consultations, build a sub-regional peace-building program for the
women and thereby confidence among the peoples of their respective
countries. The Meeting gathered women from these three countries and
relevant Sub-Regional and Regional Organizations such as OAU, ECA,
ECOWAS and WAWA. They created their Network, the MRWPN, discussed
working modalities and built a Plan of Action to engender the peace
process in the Region and particularly in the ECOWAS Mechanism.
- Advocating for women's involvement in the peace process: The African
Women Committee on Peace and Development (AWCPD) has participated
in the Six African Regional Conference as well as in the Special Session
of the General Assembly Beijing +5 as the Regional Wmen's organization
designated to monitor the implementation of the Regional and Global
Platform for Action with regard to Peace on the African Continent.
AWCPD had, thus, the opportunity to advocate for women's involvement
in the peace processes and identify with other stakeholders the obstacles
encountered to translate commitments made in Beijing into effective
programs of action.
Networking: The preparatory meetings of Beijing +5: the Six African
Regional Conference on Women held in November 1999 in Addis Ababa
and the PrepCom of Beijing +5 held in New York in March 2000 as well
as the Special Session of the General Assembly of Beijing +5 provided
excellent networking opportunities for AWCPD and allowed AWCPD to
get first hand information from countries in conflict like Burundi,
Sierra Leone, DRC etc..
One should note that the Committee has engaged in these activities
despite very limited resources. Therefore the Committee intends to
assume its responsibility as soon as it finalises it funds mobilization
program. The main components of its three-year program of activities
are:
· To promote the inclusion of African women in the decision
making positions in their respective governments as well as in regional
and international organizations and ensure the participation of African
women in conflict prevention and resolution processes.
· To organize a series of consultations with major African
organizations in the field on a sub-regional basis in a conference
or symposium format (west, north, east, and central and south) culminating
in an all-Africa one.
· To network with African women peace organizations. The Committee
will establish a network with all the women peace organisations for
information, support and interaction purposes in each sub-region of
the continent. The Committee shall receive and process reports from
such organisations and the information thus gathered is expected to
support the Early Warning System of the OAU. This requires to define
modalities and a collaboration framework with them and encourage their
creation in countries where such organisations do not exist.
· To keep track of the performance levels of governments, institutions
and organisations vis-à-vis :
· The maintenance and protection of due process of law and
constitutionalism in each African countries.
· African Governments' performance in increasing women's memberships
in governmental decision making institutions
· African governments' social service expenditures that go
to women.
To that end, the Committee shall establish a data bank and a base
line to monitor the performance of African governments. The Committee
intends to carry out this exercise on a continuing basis and in partnership
with the UN and OAU. These datas will be published annually under
the auspices of the OAU and will be an authoritative and easily accessible
reference on African governments' investments in bettering women's
social and economic conditions.
The African Women Committee on Peace and Development has also been
specifically mandated together with the ECA by Decision # of the Council
of ministers of the OAU to promote, the incorporation of a gender
perspective in the African unification process. It shall thus devise
mechanisms that would facilitate and ensure women's participation
in the electoral process of the Pan-African Parliament, or their appointment
to these new structures (the African Central Bank, the African Monetary
Union, the African Court of Justice) and other leadership areas;
In conclusion, I would like to emphasis the magnitude of the Committee's
possible contribution to the decision making instances in view of
the total lack of women's contribution or perspectives in the deliberations
of these instances in the Region.
Therefore the Committee needs the support of all to pursue its struggle
for equitable contribution to the development of Africa.
I thank you all for your time.
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