Ending Violence Against Women in Armed Conflict Areas 12 March 2013, 866 UN Plaza, Suite 120, New York NY 10017

25 March 2013: According to the Control Arms 26 million people are forced to flee their homes every year due to armed conflict. UN Women states approximately 250,000 to 500,000 women and girls were raped in the 1994 Rwandan genocide and in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, at least 200,000 cases of sexual violence, mostly involving women and girls, have been documented since 1996, though the actual numbers are considered to be much higher. Feministing states 40% of the child soldiers of the world are girls.

In north east India, armed violence has taken its toll on the very notion of “normal civilian life” and led to innumerable instances of violations committed against civilian populations particularly women by both state and non-state actors. In most operations, be they cordon and search, combing, arrests, searches, or interrogation, the armed forces have, under the aegis of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 (AFSPA) done away with the basic, minimal safeguards accorded to women suspects by the Criminal Procedure Code as well as the SC directives. In Jammu & Kashmir mass rape of Kashmiri women by security forces was first documented in the Chapora (Srinagar) mass rape incident on March 7, 1990. Violations of women have also been reported from non-state groups.

At the backdrop of recent rise of women in India and around world on ending violence and the fifty seventh session of UN Commission on Status of Women (CSW), Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network and Control Arms Foundation of India successfully hosted a panel discussion on the theme “Women, Peace and Security: Strategies To End Violence Against Women In Armed Conflict Areas And Leading Humanitarian Disarmament Efforts” on 12 March 2013 in New York

The event was chaired by Dr. Swadesh Rana, Former Chief of the Conventional Arms Branch in the United Nations Department of Disarmament Affairs. Distinguished panelists included Sharna de Lacy, Young Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom YWILPF, Australia; Dr. Angana Chatterji, Co-chair of Conflict Resolution and People’s Rights, Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership, University of California, Berkeley; Ms Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director, Human Rights Watch; Dr Walter Dorn, Chair, Canadian Pugwash Group & Professor, Royal Military College of Canada, Ms Vanessa Farr, of Women International League for Peace and Freedom and Ms Binalakshmi Nepram, Founder, Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network & Control Arms Foundation of India.

 Dr. Swadesh Rana said that a major event like CSW means multiple side events adding that the panel was looking for outcomes that will made CSW took notice of them by and providing concrete actions. She congratulated CSW for completing its 57th year. She said that she was very embarrassed of the horrific gang rape happened in India recently but was happy when men started coming out in thousands in the streets for protests against that citing that violence against women ie purely gender based was no longer a concern of women only and was becoming a concerned of man folk too in the same country which was being called the capital of that molestation. She also states that gender based equality was a big thing and would continue to be and urged CSW to aim at a situation say 50 yrs/20yrs or 10 yrs from now when nothing should be denied as a women and nothing should be given because she was a women . She added that finally gender issues had been mainstreamed.

She added that UNSC 1325 could not remain in isolation citing that conflict and gender based violence is intimately linked to arms proliferation and hence needed to see strong language on that in the agreed conclusions at CSW and in the Arms Trade Treaty.

Ms Sharna de Lacy started by congratulating CAFI and MWGSN for inspiring work. She talked about 1325 and National Action Planning. She said that 1325 was developed by civil society with the support of some progressive member states and intended to directly transform what security was. She said that principally 1325 was a tool for conflict prevention and must be the driving action of National Action Planning. She said that currently national and international organisations working on it had been failed in implementing it and was right now the major challenge for it. She said that 1325 should be used as a tool across government, not to make war safe for women, but to transform conflict by preventing the conflict. She said that prevention language must be the starting point, how could it be operationalised in our national context and must link to other areas like security spending and should have a focus on domestic implementation and community consultation.

Ms Vanessa Farr stated that global militarisation had a direct impact on increased lethal violence against women worldwide. She questioned why many developed countries and emerging countries were now into arms deals. She said that women needed to be secure and wanted CSW to talked about ATT in that concerened. She emphasised on the direct link between violence against women and global militarisation. She called upon nations of the world to look into the issue of growing militarisation, globalisation and related violence against women. She added that arms deals lead to Violence Againsts Women and hence needed to say a no to it.

Ms Meenakshi Ganguly stated that the region South Asia where she was currently working was a conflict area that was mostly political in nature adding that when we talked about human rights it got embroiled in politics. She said that the conflict over there had a direct vulnerable impact to the lives and dignity of the women over there. She talked about the vulnerable conditions of the women of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Srilanka and Burmese Rohingyas for the hardships faced by women, girls and children due to the conflict.

She said that quite often Indian soldiers had told her it was difficult for them too when they were deployed internally say in Jammu and Kashmir and Northeast of India saying that they are basically fighting with their own people and they too had discomfort with that but adding that if the Government do not put an immunity that exists in Indian law for Security forces than there was a great risk that eventually could create more human rights violation. She said that AFSPA was a bit of legislation created by the British that was supposed to be an emergency ordinance just for a short period ie six months yet it was still been enforced for 60 years against their own people and is brought in a situation to a point where people began to hate it. She gave her concerned to repeal Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958. She said, “When a state holds its security forces to account, then the civilian groups start to respond more to the state. Start with the state and then empower the people to hold the armed groups to account.”

Dr. Angana Chatterji said that the use of gendered and sexualised violence as an act of power, a technique of torture or a weapon of war had a long and complex history across colonialism and post coloniality. She said that such violence that includes torture through gang and collective rape and mutilation and murder was continuous and contiguous and not isolated in terms of ideology or history as a call for systemic approach that views violence as process. She added that the prevalent condition continues to impact on the psychological health civilian population as well as of both the armed forces and armed groups.

She said in India diverse parts of the country had been set by ongoing armed conflict and mass violence. She added that the regions of Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir were differently but persistently affected by conflict as areas in central India where unresolved class issues had related in galvanise new forms of conflict in the past decade. She said that women in these areas were particularly vulnerable as they are targeted as individuals as political, as cultural communities and they were targeted as members of the subjugated group. She stated that gended and social violence against women called into focus the relation between social violence and gended violence and in danger the scope of women’s right in conflict areas even further than the already in danger vulnerable condition of women’s right elsewhere at home, society, schools and prison and hence gave them a concerned to address the women issues and their needs. She added that developing women leaders was a key to secure women rights and mainstreaming restoration of hope, safety and dignity of women. She added that all disarmament activities must include women as they were the key stakeholders in peace building where they would reflect upon.

Dr Walter Dorn spoke about the whole origin of UN in safeguarding International Humanitarian Law around the world. He also spoke about the emerging Modern International Law of the 2oth Century after World War II when UN emerged where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was made. He talked about CEDAW and 1998 Rome Stature where for the 1st time rape was prosecuted and indicated as crime against humanity and war crimes. He added about United Nation Security Council Resolution and also how in 2011, women in Liberia and Yemen were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in 1325. He also talked about today’s UN gender issues and Peace keeping activities. He concluded that violation against women is a violation of human rights and hence there was a need for respect of rule of law.

Ms Binalakshmi Nepram, hailing from the northeast Indian state of Manipur spoke of her own personal experience emphasising the issue of increased violence against women in conflict areas. She also talked about the prevailing conflict situation of the Northeast of India and its harmful impacts on the women in the region both by the state and non state actors. She said that certain law like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in India which is prevalent in the Northeast of India and Jammu and Kashmir made women in the region doubly more vulnerable further leading to violation of their human rights and gave her concerned to immediate removal of such kind of act so that VAW does not happen again and again.

The following resolutions or conclusions had been made:

1. We strongly support the facilitator’s proposal recalling Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security, and endorse links made between MDGs and peace and security, and welcome language around Codes of Conduct in military and peacekeeping forces.
2. We strongly condemn gender based violence, and recognise its root causes in militarism and the present system of militarized state security. Gender based violence is likely to endure as long as war and state violence are condoned and as long as arms and their trade are a means to political and economic ends.
3. We are strongly concerned with the backward steps being taken, and do not want a regressive Agreed Conclusions here at CSW on the already agreed language of the Beijing Platform for Action, and say no to reopening the debate on these internationally agreed standards.
4. This panel strongly condemns in unequivocal GBV, rape as act of human terror, best stopped before it occurs and calls for repeal of AFSPA
5. Legal framework and national legislation should be rigorous, with no impunity, not for citizens, nor military personnel

The United Nation’s Commission on Status of Women (CSW), this year the theme is on prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls. The Commission, under the UN Economic and Social Council, is in its 57th year. Member countries participate during the ten days and at the end recommendations are made for governments to implement in their respective countries. Apart from the states, NGOs also participated and held side events.

Link for photos: http://neiwip.blogspot.in/p/photos.html Link for video: http://www.youtube.com/user/2007cafi

For more information, please contact: Office of Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network & Control Arms Foundation of India. Websites: www.cafi-online.com & www.womensurvivorsnetwork.org