Motivating EWL Webinar on “Mobilising for a Feminist Approach to Peace and Security”

September 21, 2015

[Brussels, 21 September 2015] As part of its Year of Action on Beijing+20, the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) held its second webinar on the issue of Women and Armed Conflict, to celebrate International Day of Peace. “Peace is not just the absence of war but the realization of justice & equality for all.” “It’s more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in a conflict.”

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It is also important to remember that it has been 15 years since the UNSCR1325 resolution on Women, Peace and Security and the 20th Anniversary of the Beijing platform for Action, a fundamental human rights instrument for women and girls. We launched this webinar to gather momentum and to make visible the work of EWL’s member organisations in mobilising for peace and security and from European and International organisations working on feminist approaches to justice. Key Recommendations from the Panellists

There is no other choice than to mobilise! It’s imperative to have women’s voice at the core of policies.
We need more education programmes, promoting tolerance. We need to make sure that the younger generations don’t repeat our mistakes.
Women need to get policies AND laws, and those laws need to have a gender perspective.
To whom does conflict benefit? We need to look at war and conflicts as economies and dismantle myths about their need.

Watch the webinar in full below Here we have drawn from the responses to each panellist during the webinar from twitter…

A feminist approach to justice: Rada Boric on the women’s tribunal in Sarajevo

“Women’s tribunal in Sarajevo: listening to women & their experience and challenging institutional justice” “Rada Boric talks about the feminist Women’s Tribunal Sarajevo where women are the subject of justice”

Women’s role in post-conflict reconstruction: Elizabeth Law on the implementation of UNSCR 1325 in Northern Ireland.

“3 factors for women’s equality according to NIWEP on UNSCR1325: leadership, visible commitment & women’s voices as focus” “We have failed to address the legacy of violence & the violence that continues today”

Women at the core of peace negotiations: Magda Zenon on the inclusion of women in peace negotiations in Cyprus

“Opportunities have been missed to bring forward the gender perspective” “Women have never been at conflict negotiating table. Therefore no unified voice to influence negotiators.” “Teach a culture of peace. Resolve conflicts without violence.”

Feminist leadership in peace and security: Pauline Massart, WIIS (Women in International Security)

“It’s not enough to talk about gender equality, we must do gender equality” “Pauline Massart, WIIS, urges change of terminology. Not ‘feminist vision’ of justice but ‘Global humanist’ to reflect female 50%.” “Your webinar is a great example of partnership and alliance building by women’s organisations” “A “feminist” vision of Peace & security – Partnerships – Collaborative leadership – Mutual support”

Protecting the human rights of women in armed conflicts: Stephanie Johanssen, Global Justice Center

“Women get policies, men get law” great summary of ongoing inequalities in global politics.” “Rape is a tactic of war, women need to receive their full rights and medical attention in such cases.”

A critical feminist perspective of military spending: Maria Maraver, WILPF (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom)

Watch WILPF’s video, ‘You get you pay for’ on re-defining security https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHweAld4Y9c&gl=BE “We need to think about moving from military security to human security beyond rule of a single government.” “Maria Maraver talking about critical perspectives to military spending … You get what you pay for…”

The gender dimension of the current refugee crisis: Borbala Juhasz, Hungarian Women’s Lobby

“Borbala Juhasz, Hungarian Women’s Lobby, analyses the gender dimension of the current refugee crisis.” “The feminist approach will get us to peace” “Borbala Juhasz providing a much needed gender analysis of the current refugee crisis”

Feedback from the Webinar

“Thank you so much for a very interesting webinar!” “Very interesting – there was a wide diversity of nationality of women speakers who were all very competent at explaining their viewpoint on feminism, peace activism and justice for women.” “I learnt that many European women and NGOs are cooperating to have women’s voices heard in the grown-up male world of reality politics.” “I learnt that there is unfortunately still a lot of lack of understanding, even amongst those who work on women’s and feminist issues and that there is a need to mobilise more transnationally around the issues of feminist peace politics.” Happy Peace Day!

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