The Struggle for Agency: Women in
Post-Conflict Countries
Authors: Tiffani McCoy, Ashley Nicholes and Jessica Vargas
The New School University Graduate Programme in International Affairs
Advisor: Ambassador Rafat Mahdi
New York, May 2013
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Introduction...... 3
II. Challenges...... 6
III. Stakeholders...... 10
IV. Case Studies A. Bosnia and Hercegovina ...... 11 B. Colombia ...... 16 C. Guatemala ...... 20 D. Iraq...... 24 E. Liberia ...... 32 F. Nepal...... 36
V. Lessons Learned ...... 40
VI. Recommendations ...... 42
2 Globally, women are a vulnerable population in society. Conflict exacerbates this vulnerability and places women at risk of violence, sexual assault and trauma. These are old truths which devastatingly continue today with impunity. The United Nations, the United Nations Security Council and other supraterritorial bodies have for decades passed resolutions, statements and other binding agreements condemning violent acts against women. Though, here we are, the year is 2013 and women’s vulnerable status during times of conflict, and their invisibility in policy and country decisions in the post-conflict setting, still continue without repercussion or accountability. In order to shed light on the continuing disregard for women, this paper seeks to highlight the status of women in post-conflict settings. Addressing vulnerabilities of populations is difficult during times of conflict, but once the conflict has ended and the country is focused on rebuilding, reconciliation and development, there is no excuse for women’s absence in these discussions and the newly formed power structures. We analyze Bosnia and Hercegovina, Colombia, Guatemala, Iraq, Liberia and Nepal. We examine women’s political participation, violence in the domestic and public sphere, the emotional and psychological effects of the conflict, access to health care, and other country specific indicators of women’s status. We give praise when it is deserved, and scrutiny where warranted. First, it is important to understand the theoretical background and framework for women’s participation and protected status. We use two Security Council Resolutions as our theoretical background and framework for this paper. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 passed in 2000, recalls past resolutions and commitments pertaining to the protection of women during times of conflict and reaffirms “the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and peace building.”1 Resolution 1325 calls on 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.”2 This resolution stresses the importance of incorporating women, and women’s perspectives, into all governing structures and decisions relating to times of peace, conflict, and post-conflict. Further, Resolution 1325 calls on all parties during conflict to “take special measures to protect women and girls from gender based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse.”3 Additionally, the Resolution emphasizes “the importance of their equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security, and the need to increase their role in decision-making with regard to conflict prevention and resolution.”4 Perhaps recognizing the ineffectiveness of Resolution 1325, and in light of continued attacks against women during times of conflict, the Security Council passed Resolution 1820 in 2008. This resolution mirrors the same regretful tone that these acts continue to be perpetrated against women, as stated in past resolutions. Resolution 1820 affirms that “states bear primary responsibility to respect and ensure the human rights of their citizens,”5 thus calling on states to
1 United Nations Security Council. Resolution 1325. (2000), 1. 2 Ibid, 2. 3 Ibid, 3. 4 Ashild Falch. Women’s Political Participation and Influence in Post-Conflict Burundi and Nepal. Peace Research Institute Oslo. (2010), 6. 5 United Nations Security Council. Resolution 1820. (2008), 1.
3 protect its population and recognizing states as a stakeholder necessary to create security for women in times of conflict. Where Resolution 1820 differs from Resolution 1325, is its call to exclude sexual violence crimes from amnesty provisions. “Rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute a war crime, crime against humanity, or a constitutive act with respect to genocide.”6 The criminalization of rape as a crime against humanity and an act of genocide resulted from the Foca Rape Case at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the Akayesu Case at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. These were landmark decisions that finally recognized, and criminalized, rape and sexual violence as tools of war. Resolution 1820 furthers this milestone by seeking to exclude amnesty from “provisions in the context of conflict resolution processes…”7 If this exclusion were to be adopted by the member states and thoroughly enforced, the era of impunity amongst peacekeeping forces deployed in conflict areas would cease to exist (See The Whisteblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors, and One Woman’s Fight for Justice). Both these Resolutions highlight, address and seek to end violence against women during times of conflict and reverse their absence in the political sphere and policy discussions once the conflict has ended. These Resolutions send a strong message to member states, and those stakeholders who read and enforce these recommendations and calls for action. However, the numerous resolutions that convey strong messages and calls for action have resulted in little change to the status of women. Women of the world need more than strong language, and their continued suffering during times of conflict deserve immediate attention and a concerted effort to end their grief. We write this report in hopes that one more set of voices are heard on the international stage. We researched and presented our material in good conscience and do not seek to degrade the past actions taken by any United Nations body, agency, or any other organisation that has sought to interrupt the vulnerability of women worldwide. We simply feel it is time that actions follow statements and promises.
METHODOLOGY In order to properly represent the status of women, we wanted to cover as many regions as possible. We recognize that there are many examples of women’s status post-conflict, but as you will see from the report, we chose not to focus on two countries in one continent. In order to offer recommendations for the betterment of women worldwide, we needed to assess women’s status in several regions. Based solely on this report, we do not intend to portray that we are intimately familiar with women’s issues in every country. We utilized secondary sources to complete this report. While primary sources are ideal, due to lack of funding and time restraints, we supplemented our research with credible reports and sources. Many reports have been written on the targeting of women during conflict, the status of women post-conflict, and the absence of women in the post-conflict development agenda, decision-making and peacebuilding efforts. We seek to enhance this past research with a critical
6 Ibid, 2. 7 Ibid, 3.
4 perspective on the legitimate efforts of the international community to address these issues, but the ultimate failure to halt these issues. When selecting indicators to analyze women’s status post-conflict, we tried to be uniform in our case studies. However, while women in our selected countries face similar situations, it was important to highlight issues that were specific to one country. For instance, trafficking is a much larger issue for women in Nepal than it is in Colombia. Therefore, indicator uniformity could not be maintained if we wanted to present an accurate description of what women face in each country. Post-Conflict “Post-conflict states vary in the nature and degree of destruction.”8 For the purpose of this report, the term post-conflict refers to a situation in which warfare has officially ended, but real peace has yet to be realized.9 We chose countries in which conflict was mostly domestic and officially ended almost two decades ago, such as Guatemala as well as countries in which conflict was caused by outside forces and just recently ended, such as Iraq. In the case of Colombia it is distinct from the other case studies because there is still an ongoing-armed conflict within the country. Colombia and all the countries in this report are experiencing the negative outcomes of war. It is a country that is dealing with humanitarian crises and neglecting the rights of women. Agency The term "agency" refers to an individual's ability to act within the world. It refers to the capacity of the individual to make a choice to act or not act, to engage with the social, political and economic structures that exist around the individual in a meaningful way. Within the post-conflict countries in this report, women are systematically denied agency. Individual women are devalued, discriminated, and seen as less than human. They lack the capacity to equally engage in the socio-political sphere due to a constant and omnipresent denial of their shared humanity at the hands of men. This lack of agency is at the heart of the consistent inequality between men and women and the driving force behind the widespread violence perpetrated against women. Each of our challenges laid out in the next suggest encompass what an individual needs to be a full “agent” within society and the world. The “struggle for agency” implies that every gain made by women in post-conflict countries is a step forward toward equality.
8 United Nations Development Programme. “Capacity is Development in Post-Conflict Countries.” (New York, NY: 2010), 6. 9 G. Junne and W. Verokren, Post-Conflict Development: Meeting New Challenges (Boulder, CO: 2005), 1.
5
CHALLENGES
Post-conflict countries present obstacles to women's personal, public, and private lives. Addressing these challenges can positively impact individual lives and the societies in which they live. The lives of women within countries and across the globe differ greatly and the challenges an individual woman faces might vary depending on a variety of factors. Most of our challenges are in relation to the non-affluent women living in post-conflict countries.
1. GENDER BASED VIOLENCE
A common and prevailing issue within all the case studies in this report is the widespread violence perpetuated against women. Gender based violence is violence targeted at individuals or groups on the basis of their gender. Gender based violence is often divided into two interlinked categories, interpersonal and structural/institutional violence. Interpersonal violence refers to an act of economic, sexual, psychological or other violence perpetrated by an individual against another individual. Structural/institutional violence refers to any form of structural inequality or institutional discrimination that maintains a woman in a subordinate position, whether physical or ideological, to other people within her family, household or community.10 Women who suffer this violence hardly ever have access to or seek justice.
2. ACCESS TO JUSTICE
Once the conflict has ended, structures and institutions charged with maintaining law and order are weak, corrupt or non-existent. Women are often granted rights within the newly formed governments and constitutions that surface in the wake of war, but most of these rights are hardly ever secured and enforced. A variety of obstacles stand in their way to seeking justice for crimes perpetrated against them, most of which are outlined throughout the rest of this section.
3. POLITICAL CORRUPTION
Often, governments that come to power in the wake of a conflict consist of the very individuals who organized and perpetrated the violence against the citizenry. These individuals have not been convicted for their crimes which creates a hostile political environment that prevents reconciliation. Rectifying the continued impunity of political leaders is necessary for nations to move beyond the conflict. The government must lead the way in reconciliation and rebuilding efforts. If individuals who committed genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and/or sexual violence against women remain in positions of power, it remains difficult to improve the status of women within these nations.
4. LACK OF POLICY IMPLEMENTATION
10 Governance Social Development Humanitarian Conflict, “Gender” accessed May 13, 2013 http://www.gsdrc.org/go/topic-guides/gender/gender-based-violence
6
In the wake of civil strife and peace talks, lots of government policies are created, many of which are intended to create greater equality for women. However, there is generally a lack of political will to implement those strategies. As women are generally excluded from becoming powerful agents in the new state, traditional structures prevail that maintain women’s inferior status to men. Therefore, many of the new laws and policies that would mandate equality only exist on paper. Quotas are instrumental in women’s involvement in government, yet these policies are hardly implemented in a just and equitable manner.
5. LACK OF WOMEN’S POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
As stated in the Security Council Resolutions, women must be a part of ending the conflict, promoting peacebuilding, and represented in post-conflict decision making. Unfortunately, women are typically underrepresented in the peacemaking and rebuilding process, as well as the political sphere which helps shape the future of their respective country. Peacebuilding and rebuilding processes cannot succeed when an entire population is absent from, discriminated against, or left out of these discussions.
6. LIMITED CIVIL SOCIETY
Civil society in a post-conflict situation is typically weak and ineffective. In its absence, non- governmental organisations have come into these countries of the local and national level. In most cases, these NGOs have little to no ties to the local population and operate with limited accountability to the communities they seek to serve. Local populations can become dependent on these organisations, grassroots efforts at the local level are silenced and sustainable and real progress toward better conditions for women and society are perpetually suppressed. In many situations, civil society is not allowed to function, lack capacity, or simply does not exist after decades of war and violence.
7. LACK OF EDUCATION AND AWARENESS
Literacy directly leads to increased utilization of health care and awareness of health for women. With increased education, women’s access to health care and political participation increases.11Education of women and girls not only benefits the individual, but leads to higher levels of education and less malnutrition in children, and thus, more whole societies. In regard to access to health care for women, education of men is just as important in creating and maintaining access to health care for women.
11 United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. “Women and Health. The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women.” Beijing Plan of Action. (1995), 6. 11
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8. DECISION MAKING POWER WITHIN THE FAMILY
The power that women hold within the family greatly influences their roles in the public and private sphere. In most circumstances, women have very little influence in decision making in the home in regards to economic and child-care decisions. This may be due to culture, tradition, societal pressure, or another factor. In these cases, men are seen as the head of household and have the power to prevent women from seeking health care, education, financial gains outside the house or a social group. If women are to be part of the larger society, they must have decision making power within the home.
9. TRADITIONAL AND SOCIO-CULTURAL MORES
In the wake of violence and strife societies often revert to traditional values that are harmful to women while forming newly emerging democratic states. While new civil law structures might be egalitarian in nature, many women are unable to access the rights granted to them by the new constitution and civil reforms. Women's lives then become dictated by customary laws which place them in vulnerable positions within the private and public sphere, subjugating them to harsh patriarchal structures and cultural scripts. The resurgence of tradition into the value system of a society during, and post, conflict further impedes women’s access to health care, education, and political positions.
10. LACK OF EMPLOYMENT
The formal employment sector in post-conflict nations is generally weak. Normally, jobs that do exist are given to men. Women make up large proportions of the informal sector, such as selling things in the marketplace and domestic labor. These roles provide women with little economic security and very little, if any, rights or protections.
11. LACK OF ACCESS TO QUALITY HEALTH CARE
Although there are many government initiatives and non-governmental organisations attempting to promote, provide, and educate women within post-conflict nations to the benefits of health care, there remains a gap between available care and access to care. Economic poverty, lack of education, corruption, weak civil society, and the degradation of women within cultural traditions all play important roles in preventing women from accessing the health care they need.
11a. SEXUAL & REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH RIGHTS
8 The promotion of reproductive health services is vital for women’s agency as it strengthens their self-esteem, constraints and choices, and most importantly their autonomy. Often in many post- conflict countries issues related to sexuality are considered taboo and in regards to reproductive decision-making it is either silenced or determined by men.
11b. STIGMATIZATION OF MENTAL HEALTH
Even in the most industrialized nations, there remains a stigma around individuals who seek mental health services or suffer from mental illness. While processes of healing after a conflict and/or trauma differ between cultures, nations, genders, ethnicities, religions, and so on, those healing processes chosen by the individual need to be respected and supported. Society as a whole must be able to heal without restrictions, judgment, or stigma. The psycho-social trauma of continued conflict leads to large portions of the population suffering from PTSD. This kind of damage is unique in its lack of visibility.12
11c. STIGMATIZATION OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE
Survivors of sexual violence face extreme scrutiny, judgment, and stigma in society. Culture, religion, and tradition impact women’s ability to communicate their trauma and suffering. These impediments also stifle women’s ability to seek psychological or mental health care. In some cases, women feel unable to tell their spouse that they were sexually assaulted they fear tarnishing the honor of the husband’s family and retribution for being sexually assaulted. If women are to be active members of the post-conflict society, they must be able to express crimes committed against them and others without fear of upsetting cultural, religious, or traditional norms.
12 Ibid, 7.
9 STAKEHOLDERS
Our stakeholder analysis focuses on those who must be part of the equation/immediate solution in the struggle for women’s agency.
PRIMARY STAKEHOLDERS:
● Civil Society ● Local Grassroots Advocacy Initiatives ● Men ● National Governments ● Religious Groups ● Tribal Structures ● Women
SECONDARY STAKEHOLDERS:
● International Community ● International Human Rights Organisations ● Local Academia and Research ● Media ● United Nations Organisations and Agencies
10 BOSNIA AND HERCEGOVINA
There is much difficulty in describing the current state of affairs in Bosnia and Hercegovina. While Bosnia is one country, it is important to recognize that Bosnia houses two seemingly independent entities, the Bosnian Federation and the Republika Srpska. Each entity has its own constitution, its own judicial system, and its own legislative system. The governance structure in Bosnia is immense. Bosnia’s two political entities have “5 presidents, 13 governments and jurisdictions, over 130 ministers, and 148 municipalities. Approximately half of the nation’s GDP goes to running this enormous bureaucracy.”13 The Bosnian Presidency has three rotating members who serve four year terms, one Croat, one Serb, and one Bosniak.14 Nebojsa Radmanovic, is the current chair of the Bosnian Presidency; he will serve for eight months as chair before it rotates to the next member.15 Republika Srpska has its own President, Milorad Dodik.
From 1992 to 1995, the Bosnian Serbs perpetrated genocide16 against the Bosnian Muslims. After the Bosnian Serbs set out to establish the Republika Srpska, the “Serb-dominated Yugoslav National Army teamed up with local Bosnian Serb forces, contributing an estimated 80,000 uniformed, armed Serb troops and handing almost all of their Bosnia-based arsenal to the newly created Bosnian Serb Army.”17 The genocide “damaged or destroyed much of the economy and infrastructure in Bosnia, caused the death of about 100,000 people and displaced half of the population.”18 Sexual violence against women was endemic during the genocide; approximately 20,000 to 50,000 women and girls were raped during the Bosnian genocide.19 While some rapes were committed on an individual basis, the majority of rapes on Muslim women were gang rapes. These rapes were meant to dehumanize and humiliate the Muslim populations, in efforts to “cleanse” this group out of the Republika Srpska.
13 Violeta Krasnic, “Women of Bosnia and Hercegovina: 20 Years Later” Foreign Policy in Focus, April 11, 2012, accessed January 2, 2013, http://www.fpif.org/articles/women_of_bosnia_and_Hercegovina_twenty_years_later. 14 Central Intelligence Agency. “Bosnia.” The World Factbook, accessed January 31, 2013, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bk.html. 15 Ibid. 16 We describe the aggression in Bosnia from 1992-1995 as a genocide purposefully. While we recognize that international courts have only found Srebrenica to constitute genocide, Srebrenica was one piece of a wider systematic campaign of genocide perpetrated against the Bosnian Muslim population. Therefore, we call the systematic attempts to exterminate the Bosnian Muslim population what it truly was, genocide. 17 Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide (New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2002), 249. 18 U.S. Department of State, “Bosnia and Hercegovina” accessed March 1, 2013, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2868.htm. 19 UNHCR, Amnesty Urges Justice for Bosnian Rape Victims, September 30, 2009, accessed March 1, 2013, http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?page=printdoc&docid=4acb41a3c.
11 The 1995 Dayton Peace Accords ended the genocide in Bosnia. This Peace Accord was negotiated between the United States, the Bosnian leadership, the Republika Srpska leadership and the President of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic. Women were not a part of this discussion on how to carve up their country to end the aggression, which rewarded the Bosnian Serb aggression with their own territory. While the Bosnian Serbs did not win all the territory they invaded and occupied throughout the course of the genocide, they still were given a significant part of the country’s territory for their own Serb Republic.
WOMEN’S POLITICAL REPRESENTATION AND PARTICIPATION
In 2003, Bosnia adopted The Gender Equality Law, which established the Agency for Gender Equality, charged with state gender equality.20 The law “prohibits direct and indirect discrimination on the basis of gender.”21 Though this law established a statewide agency, Republika Srpska and the Bosnian Federation each have their own gender centers with their own laws and governance structure. The main role of each center is to monitor “the implementation of the Gender Equality Law and tasks relating to state obligations under CEDAW.”22 Further, the Gender Equality Law requires a 40 percent quota for women within Public Administration, but this has not been met.23
Presently, Bosnia has few women leaders at the state, regional and local party level. As mentioned earlier, assessing the status of women in Bosnia is difficult, as there is little harmony legislatively with the two separate entities, the Brcko district, the national level and over 180 municipalities. At the national level, Bosnia runs on a parliamentary system. The Lower House of Parliament has 42 seats, of which women occupy nine (21.4 percent).24 The Upper House has 15 seats and women occupy two (13.3 percent). There are 148 mayors in Bosnia and women only occupy three (two percent) of those positions.25 However, women occupy significant positions in the High Courts, constituting 17 (47.2 percent) of the 36 seats.26
TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN AND GIRLS
20 United Nations Development Programme, “Enhancing Women’s Political Participation,” (2010), 33. 21 Ibid, 33. 22 Ibid, 33. 23 European Commission, “Bosnia and Hercegovina 2012 Progress Report,” October 10, 2012. 24 Inter-Parliamentary Union, “Women in National Parliaments” (2013) accessed April 2, 2013, http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm. 25 Council of Europe, “Sex-disaggregated Statistics on the Participation of Women and Men in Political and Public Decision-Making in Council of Europe Member States” (2008), 32. 26 Ibid, 48.
12 Trafficking has remained a significant problem for decades. Once the aggression ended, peacekeepers were sent to Bosnia to help implement the Dayton Peace Accords. This peacekeeping mission gained world-wide attention when Kathryn Bolkovac, a U.S. peacekeeper employed by DynCorp, blew the whistle on U.S. and U.N. peacekeepers for eliciting, and participating, in the sex trade and trafficking of women and girls for prostitution and sexual slavery.27 The very individuals who were sent to Bosnia to enforce the Dayton Peace Accords perpetuated the climate of sexual violence against women endured during the aggression. Today, the trafficking of women and girls is only getting worse.
One of the most significant reasons that trafficking continues in Bosnia is the lack of harmony on laws relating to the prevention, criminalization and prosecution and of trafficking between the two entities, Republika Srpska and the Bosnian Federation, and the Bosnian National Government. According to the organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), “Bosnia currently has legislation banning human trafficking only on State level, but not in the two entities—the Bosnian Serb dominated Republika Sprska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation—and Brcko district, which is hampering prosecutions.”28 In 2009, national government adopted a law that penalized human trafficking which resulted in the U.S. State Department ranking Bosnia in the top 32 countries in the world in the fight against human trafficking.29 Unfortunately, this state level law was unsuccessful in being adopted by the two entities which resulted in Bosnia losing its ranking according to Aleksandra Pandurevic, President of the Bosnian Parliament's Human Rights Committee. At a recent OSCE Conference in Sarajevo focusing on trafficking, the US ambassador to Bosnia, Patrick Moon, “explained that Bosnia lost its rating because in 2011 there were no prosecutions for human trafficking at the state level.”30 The fact that there were no prosecutions for human trafficking in 2011 “is partly due to a lack of political support for anti-trafficking activities and NGO’s and lack of a national budget during the reporting period.”31
The two entities, the District of Brcko, and the national government must work together and harmonize their plans to combat trafficking. Additionally, impunity for those perpetrating these crimes must end. According to the U.S. Embassy’s 2012 Trafficking in Person’s Report for Bosnia, they received continued reports “of police and other government employees’ facilitation of trafficking, including by willfully ignoring trafficking offenses, exploiting trafficking victims
27 Kathryn Bolkovac and Cari Lynn, The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors, and One Woman’s Fight for Justice (Palgrave MacMillan, New York, NY: 2011). 28 Denis Dzidic, “Bosnia Urged to Fight Human Trafficking” Balkan Insight. January 23, 2013, accessed April 3, 2013, http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/bosnia-asked-to-fight-human-trafficking. 29 Ibid. 30 Ibid. 31 Embassy of the United States Bosnia and Herzegovina, “2012 TIP Report: Bosnia and Herzegovina (Tier 2)” accessed April 23, 2013, http://sarajevo.usembassy.gov/tip-2012.html.
13 and actively protecting traffickers or exploiters of trafficking victims in return for payoffs.”32 The sexual violence perpetrated against women and girls during the genocide has not ended. The perpetrators have simply changed.
SEEKING JUSTICE
Genocide denial pervades Bosnia, especially in the Republika Srpska. This denial prevents individuals from seeking justice, compensation for disability and/or loss of property, reconciliation and accessing quality health care for wartime trauma and rehabilitation. Since the end of the aggression, 18 years ago, “fewer than 40 rape cases have been prosecuted…and legislation at the state level to extend compensation and rehabilitation rights to rape victims of the war, is gathering dust, hostage to ethnic politicking.”33 In addition to this gross lack of judicial recourse, legislatively speaking, “at least three separate bids have been made in recent years to enshrine the rights of wartime rape victims in state law, so far without success.”34
In terms of compensation, some women who feel safe enough to report the lasting effects of their trauma receive some financial support from the Bosnian Federation. However, inhabitants of Republika Srpska receive no compensation “because the law there only recognizes those who can prove damage to at least 60 percent of their body as civilian victims of war, disregarding psychological trauma.”35
MENTAL HEALTH AND STIGMATIZATION
Bosnia’s population continues to suffer from traumatization from the war. According to the World Health organisation, “ten percent of Bosnia’s population, or 400,000 people, have been diagnosed with PTSD. Associations who help people with PTSD, however, claim that the true number is close to 1.7 million people, nearly half of the country’s population.”36 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can be a debilitating disease if not treated, and in Bosnia people with PTSD and other mental health issues are stigmatized. The increasing levels of PTSD in Bosnia are attributed to the high rate of unemployment.37 According to Dragan Sajic, President of
32 Ibid. 33 Reuters, “Bosnian War Rape Victims Suffer in Silence, Wait for Justice” (2012), accessed April 19, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/12/19/world/europe/19reuters-bosnia- rape.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&pagewanted=print. 34 Ibid. 35 Reuters. 36 Amina Milic, “Bosnians Still Traumatized by War” Institute for War and Peace Reporting, (April 2011), accessed February 20, 2013, http://iwpr.net/report-news/bosnians-still-traumatised-war. 37 Milic.
14 Jedinstvo, the association of PTSD patients in Banja Luka, “one of the most important elements of therapy and rehabilitation of people suffering from PTSD is employment and integration into the community...However, we are still far from reaching this goal, due to the country’s bad economic situation and the high rate of unemployment.”38
Women in Bosnia would benefit greatly from psychological services. According to a report by Amnesty International “Whose Justice? The Women of Bosnia and Hercegovina are Still Waiting,” many survivors suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and “many survivors are unemployed, often for reasons related to the physical and psychological injuries they have suffered.”39 The current psychological care system in Bosnia is insufficient. This report points out that “on average there is one Centre for Mental Health for each 40,000-50,000 people.”40 While writing their report, Amnesty International was “informed by a local NGO that in the municipality of Jajce, with some 45,000 inhabitants, only one psychologist is employed and one psychiatrist visits the town once every two weeks for one day.”41
In order for mental health services to be successful, outside groups (such as NGO’s and UN branches) residing, or working in Bosnia must understand the political, social, and cultural landscapes in order to be effective. It is also important for outside groups to break away from a western mindset of mental care, and to speak with local psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health experts about their approach and work to integrate these approaches into their work. The colossal issue of stigmatization must be addressed in order for these women to seek mental health services, health care services, and community support without fear of social reprisal. We believe the only way to de-stigmatize this situation is for the governments and local communities to openly discuss what took place during the genocide, and to not blame the victim for the sexual violence inflicted upon them. This is certainly a difficult task with no clear guidelines on how to move toward an open discussion, but without this, the survivors will continue to live in climate of denial.
38 Milic. 39 Amnesty International, “Whose Justice? The Women of Bosnia and Hercegovina are Still Waiting” (2009), 3-4. 40 Amnesty International, 54. 41 Amnesty International, 54.
15 COLOMBIA
Colombia is located in the northwest corner of South America with an estimated population of 45 million people.42 Colombia is currently the setting of an armed conflict that has continued for more than 40 years in an extensive history of struggles for political, economic, and social rights. From 1949 to 1958, in the midst of widespread internal unrest, a partisan civil war emerged and claimed the lives of an estimated 280,000 people.43 This period is known as “La Violencia,” a feud between two political parties, the Conservatives (Partido Conservador Colombiano, or PCC) and the Liberals (Partido Liberal Colombiano, or PL).44 La Violencia lead to the formation of both the first guerilla movements and paramilitary groups. The two main guerrilla groups that emerged in the period of La Violencia are the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN). The guerilla groups have expanded their forces and continue to fuel violence and corruption throughout the country. Human rights organisations estimate that approximately 500,000 people have been victims of forced displacement and 44 percent of the displaced populations are in women-headed households.45
GENDER BASED VIOLENCE IN COLOMBIA
In recent years, more information on sexual violence and other gender-based violence has been made available.46 Displacement is one of the factors that cause sexual violence. A social-judicial analysis of the conflict in Colombia provides evidence that sexual violence remains systematic and constitutes a general pattern. The joint submission highlights: 1) sexual violence against internally displaced women; 2) forced recruitment and sexual slavery during the internal armed conflict by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – FARC) and by members of the now demobilized paramilitary organisations; and 3) the State’s failure to investigate, punish and prevent reported cases of sexual violence and enforce the recent legislative measures.47 Many women in Colombia do not report these cases of
42 Central Intelligence Agency, “Colombia” The World Factbook, accessed March 2, 2013, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html. 43 Giselle Lopez, “The Colombian Civil War: Potential for Justice in a Culture of Violence,” Jackson School Journal of International Studies (2011): 7, accessed April 20, 2013 http://depts.washington.edu/jsjweb/wp- content/uploads/2011/05/JSJPRINTv1n2.-Lopez-G.pdf. 44 Ibid, 7. 45 Piedad Cordoba Ruiz, Women in the Colombian Congress, Case Study (2002), 1, accessed April 1, 2013 http://www.idea.int/publications/wip/upload/cordoba-CS-Colombia.pdf. 46 Donny Meertens, “Forced Displacement and Gender Justice in Colombia: Between Disproportional Effects of Violence and Historical Injustice” Project on Internal Displacement (2012), 9, accessed April 5, 2013 http://www.peacewomen.org/assets/file/disp__forced_displacement_and_gender_justice_in_colombia- _between_disproportional_effects_of_violence_and_historical_injustice.pdf. 47 European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, “Sexual Violence Against
16 sexual violence because of fear of stigmatization and the lack of trust in the police system. A recent survey on the topic, carried out by several women’s organisations and supported by Intermon/Oxfam in 407 municipalities with the presence of an armed actor (public force, guerrilla, or paramilitary), found that 17.58 percent of the adult female population of those territories reported having been the victim of sexual violence during the period 2001-2009, although less than 20 percent reported it to the authorities, mainly because of fear.48
Domestic Violence
In 2010, a quarter of the 1,444 women murdered in Colombia were killed in their homes, according to Colombia’s National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences.49 Nearly 60 percent of the 51,182 reported incidents of domestic violence against women that year took place in their homes.50 Colombia’s machismo problem is a key factor to domestic violence. Women who suffer from domestic violence have little trust of police agencies and often keep their situation behind closed doors. This form of violence is usually dealt as a private matter and most often women believe that they are at fault if they suffer violence.
Jineth Bodeya Case
Due to the conflict in Colombia many women have united with organisations that address issues of violence. Jineth Bodeya was a journalist for a daily newspaper “El Espectador,” in Bogota, Colombia and while working on an investigation she was kidnapped, raped, and tortured. Her story was ignored for almost a decade until she addressed her case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).51 She was joined by a number of petitioners who helped her voice her story and enforce the Colombian government to prevent and penalize sexual crimes against women. In Colombia thousands of women have fewer resources and resort to silence when they have been victims of sexual violence. The Colombian government has recognized recent favorable Constitutional Court cases but the government has not increased women’s access to justice or decreased the utilization of impunity for perpetrators.52The few cases that do go to court rarely end in convictions or appropriate penalties. Petitioners were
47Women in Colombia” (October 2012), accessed April 7, 2013 http://www.ecchr.de/index.php/gender- based_crimes/articles/sexual-violence-against-women-in-colombia.html. 48 Ibid. 49 Anastasia Moloney, “Interview Domestic Violence: Colombian Women’s Worst Enemy” Thomas Reuters Foundation (2012), accessed April 15, 2013, http://www.trust.org/item/?map=interview-domestic-violence- colombian-womens-enemy-no1/. 50 Ibid. 51 Katelyn Winslow, “Violence Against Women in Colombia” The Human Rights Brief Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (November 2011), accessed April 15, 2013, http://hrbrief.org/2011/11/violence-against- women-in-colombia/. 52 Ibid.
17 concerned that the system’s focus on perpetrators’ confessions, instead of proper investigations and evidence gathering, has lead to systematic prejudices against women and sexual crimes.53
SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH RIGHTS
One of the most controversial issues in Colombia is abortion. Society and religion play a major role in the issue of abortion. Since 2006, the country's Constitutional Court permitted the procedure in cases when the pregnancy endangers the life or health of the mother, or results from rape or incest, or if the fetus is unlikely to survive.54 There have been efforts to strengthen civil society and implement programmes to educate women of sexual and reproductive health and services.
WOMEN’S POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Many displaced women have to assume social and economic responsibility for their families due to a combination of factors, including assassination of husbands, family ruptures caused by the tensions of violence and uprooting; the burden of an anonymous life in the cities, different perceptions of rural security among women and men; and new labor dynamics in the cities that affect the traditional gender division of labor.55 Stable work in the government or private sector can be a promising avenue for women but Colombia is one of the lowest-ranking Latin American countries of women participating in politics. Colombia has a presence of 16 percent of women in the Senate, and 13 percent in the House of Representatives.56 Although women make up 52 percent of the population and 52 percent of the voters who actually go to the polls, only 14 percent of council members, 17 percent of deputies, 9 percent of mayors and 12 percent of congressional representatives are women.57 When it comes to the inclusion of women to participate in the organs of political representation the numbers illustrate gender discrimination. Often there are a higher percentage of women in the lowest level of congress and a low participation of women in the highest levels of congress. Political parties often explain women’s low participation is due to limited education that does not allow women to access management and leadership positions in congress. Women account for more than 50 percent of university
53 Ibid. 54 New York Times, “Abortion Ruling in Colombia” (May 2006), accessed April 15, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/24/opinion/24weds3.html?_r=1&. 55 Ibid. 56 Global Database Of Quotas for Women, “Republic of Colombia” (March 2011), accessed May 1, 2013, http://www.quotaproject.org/uid/countryview.cfm?CountryCode=CO. 57 International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, “Women’s Political Participation in Colombia: A Challenging Road Ahead” (December 2009), accessed April 15, 2013, http://www.idea.int/americas/colombia/womens_participation.cfm.
18 graduates; therefore, it is not lack of education or suitability for carrying out major responsibilities that keep women from acceding to Congress and performing effectively there.58
HEALTH CARE
Women displaced by conflict in Colombia are facing rape and domestic violence as well as obstacles in obtaining health care. Uprooted from their homes and mostly impoverished, displaced women and girls who become victims of rape and domestic violence are often unfamiliar with health and justice institutions in their new locations.59 Young woman who live in poverty might not have the money to travel long distances to seek services. There are many reports that displaced women are mistreated by health care providers, denied services, and delayed in health care facilities. Interviews from displaced women have discussed that health facilities delayed care beyond when time-sensitive treatment to prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections would work.60
58 Ibid. 59 Human Rights Watch, “Colombia: Obstacles to Care for Abused, Displaced Women” (November 2012), accessed April 15, 2013, http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/11/14/colombia-obstacles-care-abused-displaced-women. 60 Ibid.
19 GUATEMALA
The official end to the Guatemalan civil war was in 1996, but the systematic and institutionalized violence against women that took place during the war continues to wreak havoc on the nation. During the Guatemalan civil war, 200,000 people died; 83 percent of them were of the indigenous Mayan population, and women accounted for a quarter of them.61According to the Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH) established in 1994, almost all of the violence committed against women during the war was committed by government forces on indigenous populations.62
The legacy of this violence still permeates Guatemalan society. In 2008, the Guatemalan government passed the Law Against Femicide and Other Forms of Violence Against Women in attempt to create a legal framework to prosecute crimes. However, the Guatemalan government remains weak in the aftermath of almost forty straight years of civil war. The CEH issued a report in 1999, entitled Memory of Silence, and concluded that the Guatemalan army committed genocide against indigenous populations.63Widespread political corruption, lack of infrastructure and resources has made it nearly impossible to implement this law in any meaningful way.
GENDER BASED VIOLENCE
In 2008, 700 women were raped, murdered and left in public view. Almost none of those crimes have been dealt with judicially.64 The lack of education for women, especially in the most vulnerable Mayan communities which speak very little Spanish, create a culture in which women remain unaware of their rights, unable to report crimes and entrenched in a "machismo" culture that holds little concern for the rights of women. Most women in Guatemala do not have access to the judicial system and would not be able to report any acts of violence perpetrated against them even if they were aware of their right to do so.
IMPUNITY OF POLITICAL LEADERS- THE TRIAL OF EFRAIN RIOS MONTT
The impunity of political leaders contributes greatly to the culture of violence that Guatemalan women currently live in. By condoning the violence attributed to the orders of leaders, the
61 Ryan Villarreal, “Half the Sky is Falling: Systemic Violence Against Women in Guatemala Ripples from Brutal Civil War” International Business Times, (January 2013). 62 Ibid. 63 Amnesty International, “Justice and Impunity: Guatemala’s Historical Clarification Commission Ten Years On” (February 2009). 64 Imani M. Cheers “Violence Against Women is Epidemic in Guatemala” PBS NewsHourExtra (February 2011).
20 acceptance of violence ever increases the violence. Women are taking leading roles in setting new precedents for Guatemala by advocating for justice for crimes committed during the war. Claudia Paz y Paz is the country's first female Attorney General. In the two years she has held the position, she has targeted known perpetrators of violence and the overall murder and crime rate within Guatemala has fallen.65 She successfully tried former President, Efrain Rios Montt for Crimes Against Humanity. In the years after the war, Montt was allowed to remain an active member of the government despite presiding over the most brutal acts of state terror, including genocide. He was recently found guilty of genocide during a trial that greatly divided Guatemala. Bringing justice to Montt has the potential to change the culture of violence and is a major victory in the fight to ending impunity.
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN
Women within Guatemala make up almost 52 percent of the population, yet greatly lack in political representation.66 Currently, of the 158 member Congress, only 21 are women.67 Currently, all of them are from the elite, Ladino class that rules Guatemala of Spanish descent. Since the conflict ended, Guatemala has never instituted a quota system to ensure that women receive a proportion of seats within the government. Of these 21 women, none of them are from the indigenous population, which makes up a majority of the country. Indigenous women remain the most marginalized sub-population with little opportunity to positions of power and limited ability to utilize the rights given to them through the Constitution. In fact, indigenous women have lost representation since the Peace Accords were signed:
Of the tiny portion of representation women have within the government, indigenous women make up just a fraction and have lost representation. In other post-conflict countries, instituting a quota system is necessary in keeping women involved in the operation of the state and working
65 “Guatemala’s Most Dangerous Job” Aljazeera (March 2013), accessed May 1, 2013 http://www.aljazeera.com/video/americas/2013/03/201331617949375156.html 66 Meeylyn Lorena Mejia Lopez, “Indigenous Women and Governance in Guatemala. FOCAL” Canadian Foundation for the Americas (March 2006), 8, accessed March 20, 2013, http://www.focal.ca/pdf/mujer_indigena_e.pdf. 67 Villarreal.
21 to improve women’s rights. In addition to creating a quota for women, Guatemala would also benefit from an additional quota for promoting the involvement of the indigenous population. The indigenous population suffered the most from the violence of the war and make up a majority of the population, yet they remain almost entirely absent from government.
ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE
In the years since the Guatemalan civil war, the status of women in Guatemalan society has only improved for women of the higher economic classes68. These women have much more access to education, which allows them to have more opportunities and importantly, more access to health care. Women's agency can be equated with her access to health care and control over decisions regarding sexual and reproductive health.69 Over 40 percent of the population does not have access to health care services.70 Access to health care means something different to each individual woman depending on her economic status, race, and education. Due to geographical restraints, some women do not physically have the ability to receive health care. Others might have the ability to physically access health care, but lack the education and economic autonomy to use it.
Decision-Making Power Within the Family
When it comes to health care, education and earning power are two of the most important factors in determining a rural, indigenous women's access to health care.71 Guatemalan men remain in charge of family decisions, including expenses. In a survey conducted by John Hopkins on the relationship between women’s decision-making power and its effects on health behavior “the husband’s education and occupation were predictive of the wife's use of health care.72 Therefore, when trying to improve women’s access to health care, not only does infrastructure and services need to be in place, but also education must be provided to both men and women as to why the services are necessary and beneficial.
Many women who took part in a survey were aware of the health services and believed that they should receive services from a skilled provider.73 Therefore, the percentages of women receiving
68 Encyclopedia of the Nations, “Guatemala-Health” (2010), accessed March 13, 2013, www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Americas/Guatemala-HEALTH.html. 69 Stan Becker, Fannie Fonseca-Becker and Catherine Schenck-Yglesias, “Husbands’ and Wives’ Reports of Women’s Decision-Making Power in Western Guatemala and their Effects on Preventive Health Behaviors,” John Hopkins University, 5. 70 Encyclopedia of the Nations. 71 Becker, Fonseca-Baker and Schenck-Yglesias, 19. 72 Ibid, 20. 73 Ibid, 22.
22 and having access to health care is not an adequate indicator of empowerment and agency, or even access to the services.
For health care systems to function adequately, people must not only be aware and motivated to seek this care, but also be sufficiently empowered to use these services. Agency comes from education of both men and women in the importance of such services as well as an adequate infrastructure that makes them accessible.
Access to Abortion
Abortion is illegal in Guatemala except in cases in which the woman’s health is in danger. However, the practice is widespread. There is one abortion for every six births.74 From these illegal abortions, about 21,600 women were hospitalized for treatment of complications.75 These statistics verify that Guatemalan women, especially indigenous women, suffer at even higher rates are ultimately failed by the Guatemalan state and health care. The Guatemalan government must legalize abortion immediately and work to make these services open and safe to drastically improve the health of women.
74 Susheela Singh, Elena Prada and Edgar Kester, “Induced Abortion and Unintended Pregnancy in Guatemala” Guttmacher Institute (September 2006), accessed March 6, 2013, www. guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3213606. 75 Ibid.
23 IRAQ
In 2003, the United States, without the necessary authorization from the U.N. Security Council, invaded Iraq. Premised on supposed evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), and the faulty link between Saddam Hussein and the September 11 attacks against the U.S., the Bush Administration successfully rallied the People and Congress to support an unlawful invasion against a sovereign nation. The invasion toppled the government, devastated the infrastructure, disemboweled the military and police forces and their respective structures, thus paving the way for sectarian violence and a resurgence of fundamentalism. The American invasion and subsequent occupation persisted for nearly ten years. American troops have pulled out of Iraq, leaving the Iraqi people and new government to mend the divisions, rebuild the infrastructure, the government, military and police, and hopefully quell the rising religious fundamentalism. Regrettably, women have been largely absent from these discussions, policy-making decisions, peacebuilding efforts, and societal reconstruction.
WOMEN’S STATUS BEFORE THE GULF WAR
Historically, Iraq has been viewed as the most progressive of the Arab world in regards to women’s equality, empowerment and political participation. Iraq had “the first female cabinet minister in the Arab World, and women enjoyed the liberty to pursue their profession.”76 Prior to the Gulf War with the United States, “Iraq enjoyed the highest female literacy rate across the Middle East, and more Iraqi women were employed in skilled professions, like medicine and education than in any other country in the region.”77
Though President George W. Bush was dedicated to persuading Americans, and the International Community before the U.S. invasion in 2003, that Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator that needed to be removed by any means necessary, the status of women in Iraq rose under his regime. Equal rights for women were solidified by the 1970 Iraqi Constitution, “including the right to vote, run for political office, access education and own property.”78 Saddam Hussein held women’s education in such high esteem that Iraq received the 1982 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Education Award for eradicating illiteracy. These statements should not, nor should this report, be seen as unequivocally supporting Saddam Hussein’s regime. This reflection on women’s status is important to understanding the current status of women, and clarifying misconceptions that may arise about women’s status under Saddam Hussein.
76 Al Arabiya News, “Iraq’s Unveiled Women Face Rising Crackdown” (December 2012), accessed February 20, 2013, http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/11/22/251194.html 77 PeaceWomen, “Iraq: Female Trafficking Soars in Iraq” (September 2011), accessed March 14, 2013, http://www.peacewomen.org/news_article.php?id=4028&type=news. 78 Rania Khalek, “Was Life for Iraqi Women Better Under Saddam?” Muftah (March 2013), accessed April 1, 2013, http://muftah.org/was-life-for-iraqi-women-better-under-saddam/.
24
One of the decisive turns in Iraqi history which harmed women’s status was the Gulf War. Following the war, the United Nations imposed devastating sanctions on Iraq that disproportionately harmed women and girls. For instance, with the economy strained by the economic sanctions imposed, “in an effort to ensure employment for men the government pushed women out of the labor force and into more traditional roles in the home. In 1998, the government reportedly dismissed all females working as secretaries in governmental agencies.”79 Additionally, Saddam Hussein started to “embrace Islamic and tribal traditions as a political tool in order to consolidate power.”80 By the end of Saddam Hussein’s reign, most of the women and girls in Iraq “had been relegated to traditional roles within the family.”81
TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN AND GIRLS
Trafficking of women and girls in Iraq is a rather new phenomenon. According to the Organisation for Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), “ousting the government and all systems of security left Iraqi cities vulnerable in the following months to gangs of men who kidnapped women and girls and assaulted them sexually.”82 As of now, OWFI estimates that “more than three million women and girls with no source of income or protection...make[s] them vulnerable to trafficking, sexual exploitation, polygamy and religious pleasure marriages.”83
Senior Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Migration and Displacement in Iraq, Judge Asghar Al- Musawi, stated that the Ministry had reports about trafficking, both inside and outside of Iraq. To the Inter Press Service News Agency, he admitted that the “Iraqi government Institutions are not mature enough to deal with this topic yet.”84 According to Human Rights Watch researcher Samer Muscati, trafficking was not “a phenomenon prevalent in Iraq in 2003.”85 Though human trafficking is illegal according to the Iraqi Constitution, “there are no criminal laws that effectively prosecute offenders.”86
IMPRISONMENT AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM
79 Human Rights Watch, “ Background on Women’s Status in Iraq Prior to the Fall of the Saddam Hussein Government” (November 2013). 80 Ibid. 81 Ibid. 82 Khalek. 83 Khalek. 84 Rebecca Murray, “Female Trafficking Soars in Iraq” Inter Press Service News Agency (August 2011). 85 Ibid. 86 Ibid.
25 Detention centers, such as Abu Ghraib, were erected during the American occupation to question and house potential terrorists, criminals, and persons with potential information. To the chagrin of the Iraqi people, these detention centers continue with crushing levels of torture, rape and executions without trial or recourse. There is no transparency with these detentions and often, when an individual is taken into custody; family members have no way of knowing where their loved one was taken. In December 2012, Human Rights Watch “documented several instances of torture of female detainees. Their families reported that security officers and judges collaborated to keep women detained on specious “suspicion of terrorism” charges, then demanded bribes to secure their release.”87
Sexual violence and torture run rampant in these detention centers. In a recent report by Al Jaazera, one woman confessed to being “tortured and raped repeatedly by the Iraqi security forces.”88 This woman told Al Jaazera that she wanted the world to know what has been happening to women in Iraqi detention centers for the past few years--“it has been hell.”89 Iraqi detention, prison centers and criminal justice system have become confession based, which “encourages the practice of torture as a legitimate method to extract confessions.”90 Rape and other forms of sexual violence have become a powerful tool in extracting ‘confessions’ from women based on the social stigma that results from their bodies being violated. As in other country cases of sexual violence women experience, these women often do not tell family and friends what happened to them for fear of being stigmatized. Therefore, “women detainees are in a particularly vulnerable position as any allegation of rape in incommunicado detention will be almost impossible to prove while interrogators who use the threat of rape have in it a powerful inducement to force ‘confessions.’”91
ILLITERACY AND EDUCATION
Illiteracy of women and girls continues to increase in post-conflict Iraq. The graph below shows the illiteracy and unemployment rate among women 15 years and older. According to the U.N. Inter-agency Information and Analysis Unit, now the Joint Analysis and Policy Unit, “the illiteracy rate among Iraqi women (24 percent) is more than double that among Iraqi men (11 percent). In functional literacy tests illiteracy rose above 50 percent for women aged 15-24 living
87 Human Rights Watch, “Iraq: A Broken Justice System” (January 2013), accessed February 21, 2013, http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/01/31/iraq-broken-justice-system. 88 Dahr Jamail, “Maliki’s Iraq: Rape, Executions and Torture” Al Jaazera. (March 2013), accessed March 21, 2013, http://www.aljazeera.com/humanrights/2013/03/201331883513244683.html. 89 Ibid. 90 Human Rights Watch. 91 Amnesty International, “Iraq: A Decade of Abuses” (2013), 22.
26 in rural areas.”92 Furthermore, one-third of girls aged 12-14 are not enrolled in school, and one out of ten girls aged 12-14 have never attended school.93 If women are to become fully functioning members of society, education and literacy are vital in women obtaining rights and positions of power.
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
In Iraq, 25 percent of the members of parliament must be women. As a result of this quota system, women hold a mandatory position in national policymaking. Additionally, most provinces also require women to hold 25 percent of council member seats. However, few women on the provincial ballots in 2009 voluntarily decided to run for office. “Many hail[ed] from prominent families or [were] the wives of powerful shieks or former Awakening Leaders...”94 Husbands and leaders of these religious and political groups approach the women telling them they have to run and subsequently put the women’s names on their party ballot, because without having women’s names on the ballot, these parties cannot win the elections. Some women who
92 Inter-Agency Information and Analysis Unit, “Women in Iraq Fact Sheet” (March 2012), accessed February 17, 2013, http://www.japuiraq.org/documents/1628/Women%20In%20Iraq%20Fact%20sheet%20-%20English.pdf. 93 Ibid. 94Abigail Hauslohner, “How Iraq Fills the Quota for Female Politicians” Time Magazine (January 2009), http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1870765,00.html.
27 run for office come from prominent families, both politically and economically. Others who volunteer, on their own accord, to run for office do so in hopes of giving back to their country.
Cultural and social norms have placed restrictions on women’s political participation in the more rural areas of Iraq. In Anbar province, which makes up nearly one-third of the country’s territory, “girls are rarely allowed to leave their town to pursue higher education, and active public campaigning is discouraged. Unlike their male counterparts, none of the female candidates are pictured on campaign posters.”95 One woman who ran in the Anbar provincial election in 2009, said that women could not put up posters with their photograph because Iraq is a tribal society, and that her family would have to do that for her.96 In Iraq’s more urban centers, such as the capital city of Baghdad, women’s ability to campaign on their own behalf, and put up posters with their photograph, are viewed as acceptable.
While Iraq’s quota system ensures that 25 percent of parliamentary seats must be held by women, the women who hold these positions are not always in office to pursue women’s rights. Najde Al-Ali, who wrote What Kind of Liberation? Women and the Occupation of Iraq, “argues that the women who benefit from it are the sisters, daughters and wives of the male conservative leaders who vote just like them and do not represent ordinary Iraqi women.”97 Yanar Mohammed, one of the co-founders of the OWFI, asserts that “more than half the women in Parliament are from the Religious Right.”98 When 25 members of OWFI were beaten in Tahrir Square “not a single female Parliamentarian spoke out. In other words, these women are puppets.”99
GENDER BASED VIOLENCE
Violence against women, domestic violence, honor killings and trafficking (as mentioned above), have pervaded in Iraq. Not only is violence against women on the rise, the growing dominance of Shari’ah law, religious fundamentalism and inferior status of women culturally and socially have led men, and women, to believe it a man’s duty to keep women in their place. The graph below100 shows the experience and acceptance of domestic violence among women aged 15-49. A youth survey conducted in 2009 showed that “68 percent of young Iraqi men believe that it is acceptable to kill a girl for profaning a family’s honor, while 50 percent believe wife beating is
95 Ibid. 96 Ibid. 97 Khalek. 98 Rebecca Burns, “Fighting for Gender Equality in Iraq” In These Times (February 2012). 99 Ibid. 100 Iraq Knowledge Network, “Experience and Acceptance of Domestic Violence Among Women Aged 15-19” (2011).
28 acceptable.”101 The Iraqi penal code reinforces these practices by offering “reduced sentences for honor killings and authorize[s] husbands to discipline their wives.”102
FEMALE HEADED HOUSEHOLDS: WHAT THEY WANT
This October 2011 graph103 shows the priorities of women in Iraq. While our report focuses mainly on women’s status post-conflict through their access to health care, women’s political participation, and gender based violence, internal and external policy makers must talk with the citizens of the affected country and not assume that they know what the people want and need.
101 Inter-Agency Information and Analysis Unit. 102 Ibid. 103 Inter-Agency Information and Analysis Unit.
29
This graph, compiled by the International organisation for Migration Iraq Mission, shows that Female Headed Households’ (FHH) top three priorities are: access to work, non-food items such as “blankets and generators,”104 and food. “Having endured divorce, separation, or bereavement, many women are forced to adopt the role of sole provider and caretaker for their family’s social and economic needs.”105 According to the Joint Analysis and Policy Unit, “close to one in ten Iraqi households is female-led... nine out of ten women heading households are widows.”106 Female Headed Households are highly vulnerable to exploitation and insecurity. This population is focused on the basic human needs and these needs must be elevated to the highest priority for the Iraqi government.
Health Care
Based on the graph, health ranked as the fifth priority need of Iraqi Female Headed Households. Becoming the sole income generator in the house has placed tremendous stress and pressure on these women, often resulting in the disregard of their own health. Disability and chronic illness are highly documented when these women are assessed by the International Organisation for Migration Iraq Mission and other organisations who assess women’s needs. Women state that the disabilities and chronic illness make them feel vulnerable and uncertain on how they will take care of their family if they fall detrimentally sick or die as a result of their illness. Regardless, health still ranks “relatively low on the list of priorities for FHH...this trend suggests that women
104 International Organisation for Migration Iraq Mission, “IOM-IRAQ Special Report: Female Headed Households” (2011), 5. 105 Ibid, 1. 106 Inter-Agency Information and Analysis Unit.
30 have more basic and pressing needs, such as obtaining food and shelter for their children.”107 Again, based on the decimation of the country’s infrastructure during the American invasion, sanitation and clean drinking water have suffered as a result. “Malnutrition and skin and stomach diseases are common due to the poor living conditions and a lack of food and clean drinking water.”108 Women in more rural areas are particularly vulnerable to lack of food, clean drinking water and the ability to seek medical care if needed.
107 International Organisation for Migration Iraq Mission, 11. 108 Ibid, 12.
31 LIBERIA
The West African country of Liberia has a unique and tumultuous history. Its founding as a modern nation holds lots of racially based violence as freed African slaves from the United States were sent there. It was believed that they would have a better life outside of the United States, partially because white Americans did not want a freed black population within the nation. In more modern history, Liberia has suffered a long and violent civil war, very much based on racial tensions between Westernized English speaking citizens and indigenous populations. It is estimated that over 250,000 people were murdered during the wars.109 However, women were the biggest victimized population on both sides of the war and continue to suffer from sexualized violence a decade after the war ended.
GENDER BASED VIOLENCE
Due much in part by the “reign of terror” perpetrated by Charles Taylor, Liberia suffers from a culture of violence in which rape and sexual violence are prevalent and accepted by large portions of the population. It is estimated that the proportion of women who experienced sexual or gender based violence during or after the second civil war is between approximately 80-93 percent.110 In 2006, rape remained the most frequently reported crime in Liberia.111These statistics are only based on actual reported crimes and do not measure rape or sexualize violence if the victim was too afraid to report it. A majority of victims of sexual violence are girls under 19 years old.112 “Economic poverty is a major indicator in predicting whether or not a Liberian woman or girl will be raped or suffer some form of sexual violence, however, living in an urban or rural region showed no significance in determining the likelihood of sexual violence.”113 It remains that a wide majority of Liberian women are at high risk for suffering some form of sexual violence during their lives.
Besides for the culture of violence created by Charles Taylor during the war, the Small Arms Survey indicates that it is a widely held belief that having sex with a virgin can bring about
109 Toral, Amudena. “History of Violence: Struggling with the Legacy of Rape in Libera” Time World. (April 2012), accessed April 30, 3013. http://world.time.com/2012/04/30/history-of-violence-struggling-with-the-legacy-of-rape- in-liberia/ 110 Marie-Claire Omanyondo, “Sexual Gender-Based Violence and Health Facility Needs Assessment” World Health Organisation (September 2005), accessed March 13, 2013, www.who.int/hac/crises/Ibr/Liberia_RESULTS_AND_DISCUSSION13.pdf. 111 Consolidating Peace and National Recovery for Sustainable Development. United Nations Development Assistance Framework Liberia 2008-2012. 2008. http://unliberia.org/doc/undaf_doc.pdf 112 Peace without Security: Violence against Women and Girls in Liberia. Small Arms Survey. Sep. 2012. http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/G-Issue-briefs/Liberia-AVA-IB3.pdf 113 Ibid.
32 financial and professional success for the male involved.114 Some adherents to the indigenous religion, Poro, still believe this.115 Before President Johnson Sirleaf was elected president, rape was not considered a crime in Liberia, indicating the acceptance of violence against women and the lack of agency women hold in Liberian society. The criminalization of rape has been met with backlash from some factions of Liberian society.
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN
During the first civil war, Liberian women organized through the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET ) which led to peace talks that ended the first war.116 Although the peace did not last, it set up precedent for organisation during the continued violence. However, these networks of organisation have not led to any structural changes for the mostly disadvantage women of Liberia.
Research has shown that the election of a female head of state does not necessarily translate into strong representation of women in the national legislature.117Liberia is currently ranked 110th in the world in terms of female representation in the legislature with only 13.3 percent of representatives female.118 This is despite the fact that men and women showed up in equal numbers to vote in the 2005 election.119Liberia currently has no quota system in place to ensure a comparable representation between men and women within the government.
Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace
The women of Liberia have not been complacent in the mass violence that takes place against them within Liberia. Liberian women are largely viewed as being almost solely responsible for ending the violence and the second civil war. Led by Gbowee and the current president, Sirleaf, the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace was organized and championed the cause for peace within Liberia and ending the widespread violence against women. The international community celebrates both women for bring women's rights into the fold of human rights and received the
114 Ibid. 115 Toral, Amudena. 116 Dorina Bekoe and Christina Parajon, “Women’s Role in Liberia’s Reconstruction” United States Institute for Peace (May 2007), accessed March 15, 2013, www.usip.org/publications/women-s-role-liberia-s-reconstruction. 117 Inter-Parliamentary Union, “Women in Parliament in 2010: The Year in Perspective” (2010). 118 Women in Parliaments. Inter-Parliamentary Union. April 2013. Accessed April 2013. http://www.ipu.org/wmn- e/classif.htm 119 Samuel Cole,“Increasing Women’s Political Participation in Liberia” International Foundation for Electoral Systems (July 2011), accessed March 11, 2013, www.ides.org/Content/Publications/White- Papers/2011/~/media/Files/Publications/Whitepercent20PaperReport/2011/2011_Humphrey_Fellowship_Cole.pdf.
33 Nobel Peace prize. Some of their protests have included sex strikes, as well as other nonviolent marches and grassroots organizing.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first female to be elected president of Liberia, has already made massive strides to create a new culture of egalitarian gender standards, in conjunction with increased measures by international non-governmental organisations and government policies. Since Sirleaf has been in office, she implemented a National Gender Based Violence Plan of Action, which devotes funds to education, health services, and economic empowerment for women who have suffered violence while also reforming the legal system.120 Only 45.3 percent of all reports of rape end up in court currently which is at least progressively better than the culture before Sirleaf, which only considered gang-rape to be a crime.121 She not only made it illegal, but created a special court (Court E) for victims of the crime as a way to increase prosecution. There has been significant backlash to this court from many different organisations within Liberia. Women's groups claim that it is underfunded and backlogged, while the Lawyers of the Liberia Bar Association are trying to overturn the law that makes rape illegal altogether.122 Another significant policy implemented within the Plan of Action includes operating safe houses, medical and psychiatric care within police stations around the country.123 Since many of these reforms are newly implemented, it is hard to gather any meaningful statistics to show whether or not they are working, however, it seems to indicate that they are being positively received and utilized by women. However, they only currently exist within the capital of Liberia and remain inaccessible to major portions of the population that live in impoverished rural regions.
With Johnson Sirleaf, more women hold positions of power within the government, but there remains a large gap between a small elite group of women and a majority of the female masses which reflects the massive amount of structural work that still needs to be done in order to create better living conditions and opportunities for women.
An extensive use of quotas at all levels of government is needed to increase women’s participation in government. Quotas have been proven to work in other post-conflict nations that have instituted them. The quota system must at least meet the 30 percent that the United Nations have set as standard.
120 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, “National Gender Based Violence Plan of Action” accessed March 28, 2013, http://www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/FMR27/21.pdf. 121 Small Arms Survey. 122 Peter Toby, “Liberia: Lawyers Denounce Rape Laws As Unjust” allAfrica (August 2010), accessed March 31, 2013, www.allafrica.com/stories/201008310721.html. 123 Sirleaf.
34 ACCESS TO JUSTICE
Liberia has two bodies of law; the official civil code as written out in the post-conflict constitution and customary law that is carried out by tribal and religious structures. More often, women are subjected to customary laws of tribal structures because they have very little access to the weak judicial system in place, mostly due to economic reasons and a lack of education that makes them aware of their rights. In 2004, 36 percent of girls between 15 and 19 years of age were married, divorced or widowed.124 This is despite the civil law that mandates marriage is legal at the age of 18. Women also have no claim to children if the husband dies, no inheritance rights, and men quite often take part in polygamous marriages despite it being illegal in civil law.125 While Liberian civil law would allow for these things, customary law continues to dictate women's lives.
A more powerful judicial system with equitable representation of women would help to set precedent for the criminalization of rape. It will also allow women to access their rights under the civil code instead of under the customary code, which is mostly detrimental to their well- being.
ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE
Health care remains out of reach for most of the population. Liberia continues to struggle with providing adequate health care to its citizens. Women and girls in rural area suffer the most due to low levels of literacy that can be a major obstacle in preventing women from identifying health problems.126 Liberia generally has high levels of adolescent heterosexual activity, pregnancy, and abortion.127 As stated earlier, women generally marry young, after which contraceptive use drops off, making married women more susceptible to sexually transmitted diseases and unsafe abortions. Not only providing health services to women, but providing them with education on the importance of health services and sexual health practices would greatly improve the state of women.
124 The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development,“Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Liberia” accessed March 9, 2013, http://genderndex.org/country/liberia. 125 Ibid. 126 United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. Women and Health. The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. Beijing Plan of Action. 1995, 6. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/beijingat10/C.%20Women%20and%20health.pdf 127 “Teenage Mothers (% of women ages 15-19 who have children or are currently pregnant).” indexmundi. Accessed April 2013. http://indexmundi.com/facts/indicators/SP.MTR.1519.ZS/compare?country=rw#country=lr:rw
35 NEPAL
The Nepal civil war was a ten-year insurgency between the government and the Communist Party of Nepal-Moaist. The aim of the conflict was to overthrow the Nepalese monarchy and establish a “People’s Republic.” The war cost the lives of more than 13,000 people and the displacement of another 200,000.128 The conflict had severe consequences for women, who became susceptible to rape, torture, trafficking and all other forms of violence.
GENDER BASED VIOLENCE IN NEPAL
In Nepal as in many Asian countries the prevalence of violence against women is high and its consequences severe. In 2011, Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) studied women's experience of gender based violence at the national level for the first time in Nepal. The NDHS showed that, among women age 15-49, 22 percent had experienced physical violence and 12 percent had experienced sexual violence at least once since age 15.129 Among married women, one-third had experienced emotional, physical, or sexual violence from their spouse in their marital relationship, and 17 percent had experienced it within the last 12 months.130 Nearly one- half of Nepalese women have experienced violence at some point in their lives, and three- quarters of the perpetrators were intimate partners, including husbands.131
TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN
Nepal has one of the highest incidence of trafficking of women in the sex trade in the South- Asian region.132 Many of these women are trafficked into India and other parts of the world. Women in Nepal that are victims of trafficking endure the pain of rape, exploitation, sexual abuse, and other forms of violence. There are several serious and negative outcomes for the young women being trafficked. Nepali women are rejected by their families and communities believing they are “immoral” and “soiled” because of their involvement with prostitution, secondly there is a fear that Nepalese women are infected with HIV and community members
128 Ashild Falch, “Women’s Political Participation and Influence in Post-Conflict Burundi and Nepal” Peace Research Institute Oslo (2010), 20-39, accessed April 15, 2013, http://www.peacewomen.org/assets/file/Resources/Academic/partpol_postconburundinepal_falch_2010.pdf 129 S. Tuladhar , Khanal K.R., K.C. Lila, Ghimire P.K. and Onta K., “Women's Empowerment and Spousal Violence in 129Relation to Health Outcomes in Nepal: Further analysis of the 2011 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey” 129Nepal Ministry of Health and Population (2013). 130 Ibid. 131 Ibid. 132 Chandra Kant Jha and Jeanne Madison, “Antecedent and Sequalae Issues of Nepalese Women Trafficked into Prostitution.” Journal of International Women's Studies (2011), 12(1), 79-90, accessed April 16, 2013, http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol12/iss1/6.
36 suspect that prostitutes will infect young men of the community transmitting HIV to them.133 The sense of immorality and fear associated with HIV make the family and community isolate those women.
About 50 percent of Nepal's female sex workers have previously worked in Mumbai and more than 200,000 Nepalese girls are involved in the Indian sex trade.134 According to the working agencies in anti-trafficking activities in Nepal, there is increasing tendency in trafficking among middle class women who are being trafficked to Gulf countries under the veil of attractive jobs and handsome salaries.135 As the graph shows below many women from Nepal are trafficked into the Gulf countries. Disadvantaged groups in all spheres of Nepali society plus the one and half decade long severe political instability and internal conflict contribute to increasing vulnerability to trafficking.136 As the graph shows below many women from Nepal are trafficked into the Gulf countries.
Source: Maiti Nepal;NHRC, Trafficking in Person Especially on Women and Children in Nepal, 2008, Interpol; Press Review.
133 Ibid. 134 Sunil Kumar Joshi, “Human trafficking in Nepal: a rising concern for all,” Kathmandu University Medical Journal (2010), Vol. 8, No. 1, Issue 29, 3-4, accessed April 28, 2013 http://www.academia.edu/238653/Human_trafficking_in_Nepal_A_rising_concern_for_all. 135 Ibid. 136 Ibid.
37 BACKGROUND ON WOMEN’S POLITICAL STATUS AND ROLE IN NEPAL
Since 1951, Nepali women were given the right to vote and in 1991 the government ratified CEDAW and yet women's voices still have been silenced. Women traditionally have had minimal opportunity to participate actively in political life, with few or no women represented in the legislative, judiciary and executive bodies. Nepalese society is largely patriarchal in structure. A woman’s identity is primarily defined by her father or husband; a fact which is reflected in the practices of patrilocal residence, patriarchal descent and inheritance systems.137 There has been some concrete efforts to ensure women’s representation in local and national politics. However, women had never comprised more than six percent of Nepal’s parliamentarians before 2007, and the few women in political positions were mostly limited to the upper caste or were close relatives of male politicians, and largely subordinate to male members and leaders.138
THE ROAD TOWARDS INCREASED REPRESENTATION
Women were not included as mediators, participants, observers or signatories in the peace negotiations between the Maoists and the government in November 2006 which culminated in the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA).139 Women in political parties came together and lobbied for guaranteed women's representation. In 2007, a clause was adopted to include women in the new Interim Constitution. The new Interim Constitution stipulated that one-third of the number of total candidates to the Constituent Assembly must be women.140 The participation of women in politics has seen great changes in Nepal.
The adoption of the quota for women's representation in political constitutions marks a first step for women to take part in decision making in Nepal. In 2008, women held 33 percent of the seats in the Constituent Assembly and women have also been included in the 11 thematic committees that have been set up to draft the new constitution.141
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
For centuries abortion was banned in Nepal and many women were thrown into prison for illegal abortions while others died in the process. Despite abortion being legal since 2002, and Nepal’s constitutional recognition of reproductive rights as fundamental rights, Nepali women, especially
137 Ibid. 138 Ibid. 139 Ibid. 140 Ibid. 141 Ibid.
38 poor and rural women, are often unable to obtain abortions because of prohibitive fees, physically inaccessible facilities, and lack of knowledge of the legal status of abortion.142 In a recent decision in the case of Lakshmi Dhikta v. Nepal, the Supreme Court of Nepal ruled that the country’s government must guarantee access to safe and affordable abortion services.143 For many years Nepal has had the most restrictive and harshly implemented abortion laws in the world but it has gradually improved its laws on reproductive rights. The issue continues that often marginalized women end up paying more to end pregnancies as they risk their health and end up paying for abortion related complications, in addition to paying for the unsafe procedure.144
142Center for Reproductive Rights, “Nepal Supreme Court:Abortion is Right” accessed April 15, 2013, http://reproductiverights.org/en/feature/nepal-supreme-court-abortion-is-a-right. 143 Ibid. 144 Ibid.
39 LESSONS LEARNED
This segment takes a broad look on the programmes instituted, problems that arose, and positive outcomes within the particular case studies analyzed within this report. Therefore, the lessons learned apply on a case by case basis and cannot be regarded as universal reflections to all post- conflict situations.
1. IMPUNITY OF LEADERS WHO PERPETRATED VIOLENCE
As discussed in the Challenges section, often those who perpetrated the violence against the citizenry are the very individuals who are now in charge of the new government and formulating its reconstruction and peacebuilding effort. This arrangement poses a direct challenge to the citizenry, especially women, in seeking recourse and justice from the perpetrators of the violence. In Liberia, Charles Taylor was brought to justice and President Sirleaf has begun to change the culture of violence that persists there. In the recent conviction of Efrain Rios Montt and the work of Claudia Paz y Paz, Guatemala has already seen a decrease in violence. Convicting former leaders of crimes is absolutely necessary in the healing of a nation and a catalyst for more peaceful times.
2. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Increased political participation amongst women in post-conflict nations is difficult to fix. Despite the organisation of women in Liberia during the war that led to its end, women remain mostly unrepresented in government. Despite efforts by President Sirleaf to fill government appointments with women, she was unable to find enough qualified women to fill the spots. Liberia and Guatemala have not implemented quotas, which has resulted in low numbers of women in government on all levels.
Positively, in Nepal, there has been an increase in women’s participation in post-conflict political decision-making. Women have attained a higher level of political representation in national political institutions than ever before with percentages going from 6 percent to 33 percent in a year. Women have acquired higher positions in political office and continue to exert women's political participation in peace talks and decision-making.
3. CRIMINALIZATION OF RAPE ON A DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL LEVEL
40 As described in the introduction, the Foca Rape Case at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the Akayesu Case at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda were landmark decisions in the criminalization of rape at the International Level. Now, rape as a crime against humanity, and rape as genocide, can be tried in International Courts. This recognition finally cements the fact that women are an extremely vulnerable population and experience a different reality than men during times of conflict.
On a domestic level, Liberia has recently set up a special court specifically for the prosecution of rape. While this court is a step in the right direction to creating precedents for criminalizing sexual violence and shifting cultural perceptions, the court is very underfunded and inefficient.
4. INEQUITABLE IMPLEMENTATION OF QUOTAS
The government of all post-conflict countries is responsible for the inclusion of women within the state structure. Quotas are an attempt to rectify gender imbalances as men often exclude women. However, even if quota systems are created, they often fail to be utilized, or exist in such an inequitable fashion that a majority of women never receive any tangible benefits from women holding positions of power. Often times, as in the case of Nepal, Guatemala and Iraq, the women that hold these positions are from the upper class and often have husbands who wield political power.
41 RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Effective and Independent State-Appointed Tribunals. The legacy of violence lingers in post-conflict countries. Removing individuals that committed violent atrocities against citizens and women helps to create a more peaceful society by bringing forth justice. Without said bodies, individuals known to have committed acts of violence remain in positions of power creating distrust, apathy and more violence.
2. Legal Reform. It is necessary for the creation of laws and policies within the framework of the state that criminalizes violence against women and sets precedent to create a more equitable body of law. A more powerful judicial system with equitable representation of women will help to set precedent for the criminalization of rape. It will also allow women to access their rights under the civil code instead of under the customary code, which is mostly detrimental to their well-being.
3. Increased access to psychiatric care and mental health services. In order for there to be accessible healthcare to women, there needs to be a vibrant, well-informed, and organized civil society on the local, regional, and national level. In order for this to happen, there needs to be more participation of the local populations in the work conducted by governments and NGOs alike. Both governments and NGOs need to be held accountable to the populations they are trying to serve, and any decisions to implementing projects and programmes need to be in conjunction with the will of the local population, both women and men.
4. Promote women’s participation in political decision-making. Governments should take the initiative to work proactively and undertake campaigns to emphasize the significance of women’s participation in political decision-making. The government should focus heavily on the public’s understanding of quotas and provide informational sessions to all parties for the training of women in the skills to become political candidates and leaders.
5. Reaching out to men. Engaging men as advocates and allies to promote gender equality and women’s participation in political decision making. Women’s organisations should reach out to male public officials that are concerned with women’s rights and encourage them to promote and highlight the importance of gender equality and women’s participation in decision-making.
6. Promote women’s participation in peace talks. Resolution 1325 (2000) has ignored the absence of women in peace talks and should reexamine and urge governments to include women in peace negotiations as women work together in their homes and communities to build lasting peace, especially in developing countries that have been destroyed by violence. New
42 standardized protocols that ensure engagement of women’s civil society groups in formal peace negotiations are necessary.
7. Sexual and Reproductive Health: All women should have the right to make a decision about issues related to sexuality, abortion, and access to information and means to do so. Women should be free of discrimination, violence, and coercion. Also full access to all forms of services such as: basic and emergency obstetric services, family planning, and psychosocial services. Comprehensive services should include the prevention and treatment of STI/HIV/AIDS and immediate response and prevention to sexual and gendered-based violence.
8. The equitable implementation of quotas. An extensive use of quotas at all levels of government is absolutely necessary for increasing participation of women in government in a post-conflict state. Quotas have been proven to increase the participation of women in the government in the post-conflict countries that have instituted them. However, increased participation does not necessarily equate to social and economic rights for poor and middle class women within the country. The quota system must at least meet the 30 percent that the United Nations have set as a standard and proportionally represent women from various indigenous and marginalized groups within the country.
9. Ask women what they need. Often, the leadership that comes to power once the conflict has ended presumes to know what is best for the population during peacebuilding and statebuilding. Understanding what a countries population needs post-conflict can only be found through direct conversations with the citizenry. Therefore, it is vital that the newly formed governments and leadership structures spend ample time with the citizens, both rural and urban, to clearly understand what is needed post-conflict.
43