IMPACT OF ARMED CONFLICT ON WOMEN AND GIRLS

Understanding the impact of armed conflict on women and girls requires attention to four specific themes:

INTRODUCTION

• First women and girls tend to experience conflict differently from men and boys. There is growing awareness of gender differences and inequalities during war and in post-conflict reconstruction. Yet it is misleading to set up a dichotomy that locates women and men in totally different spheres. Women and men share expereinces and are intimately connected to each other through their families and communities. Women often see their needs and interests as interwoven with the needs and interests of their male partners and other family members.
• Second, women(just like men) are both actors and victims in armed conflicts. Women participate in armed forces as combatants and through playing supportive roles. They may assume these roles willingly or be forced to play them. As have been demonstrated by recent conflicts in the sub-region. Women and adolescent girls may also support fighting forces and prolong the conflicts in numerous ways. They may infiltrate opposition groups for the propose of passing information, hide or smuggle weapons, support or care for the fighters. For example, in Sierre Leone, women supporting the rebel forces smuggled weapons through check points in baskets of fish, under their clothing and via their children. They also infiltrated government and peacekeeping forces using social contacts. Individual women combine various roles at once, such as displaced person, community activist, small business owner, soldier and homeless person.
In many conflict situations, local civil society groups, including women’s organisations and networks, actively work to halt the fighting, or address some of its worst effects. Their activities may be limiteed in countries where women do not have full and equal rights or are considered the property of their husbands and fathers. Although these restrictions are usually tightened during armed conflict, women and adilescent girls continue to organise for change. Women and girls are also peace activists, working to heal communities and bring about sustainable peace.
• Third, each situation must be understood in its own terms. Women are not a homogeneous group and may have contradictory interests and priorities. The economic, social and political conditions also vary from country to country and it is crucial to ground programmatic responses in concrete realities.
• Fourth, gender inclusiveness in managing conflicts in the Gambia means from the home, school, community and state, women and girls must be included in peace processes, the negotiation, mediation, in peace keeping forces as being stipulated in Resolution 1325(2000).

The Secretary Council highlights the importance of bringing gender perspectives to the centre of all United Nations conflict prevention and resolution, peace building, peace keeping, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts. The Resolution invited the Secretary General to carry out a study on the impact of armed conflict on women and girls, the role of women in peace
• building and the gender dimensions of peace processes and conflict resolution.
The Gambia is a member of the newly established Network on Peace and Scurity for Women in the ECOWAS Region(NOPSWECO). The Gambia played a key role in the setting up of the Network and currently WANEP- The Gambia serves on the newly elected NOPSWECO executive.

On Gender Inclusiveness in Managing Conflicts, WANEP-The Gambia engaged in training of the NAMS Select Committee on Defence and Security and Women in the URR on peace building and peace processes for the prevention of armed conflicts has yielded positive outcomes. Women in URR have played an influential role in the laying down of arms operations.(59 illicit weapons were surrendered and in carrying out community targeted sensitisation programmes on the impact of illicit arms trafficking and the proliferation of violence.

GENDER INCLUSIVENESS IN MANAGING CONFLICTS IN THE GAMBIA – IN THE HOME

GENDER BASED VIOLENCE IN THE HOME: Gender -based Violence in the home can breed conflict, confusion, injury and in extreme cases death of a spouse. Causes of Conflict in the home can be infidelity, incompatibility, poverty, lack of resources. When a spouse flirt, it is at the detriment of the family.Its a risky behaviour which can bring ill health into the family and it destroys confidence and trust. Marriage should be based on sound principles and not on a blind sling. Incompatibility causes conflict. Poverty can cause conflict in a family because the husband cannot meet the needs of his family. The Culture of Silence and to protect the family honour made it a taboo to report rape and incest cases.

GENDER INCLUSIVENESS IN MANAGING CONFLICTS IN THE SCHOOL -
DISCRIMINATION, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, GENDER INSENSITIVITY, are some of the causes of Conflict in the school. With Discrimination, boys and girls are treated differently. In the classroom boys are given more attention than girls. Girls are turn into errand girls, sweeping teachers quarters and going for errands during school hours. The text books are gender bias and stereotyping. Male teachers are favoured and female teachers degraded.

In Sexual Harassment, girls are molested by teachers and fellow male students. Sometimes rape is experienced but brushed under the carpet.

GENDER INCLUSIVENESS IN MANAGING CONFLICTS IN THE COMMUNITY-
Women and girls are exploited, discriminated, subjugated, marginalised and oppressed in patriarchal societies. Victims of violence are being blamed for asking for it. The security forces become insensitive to violence against women and girls.

INVOLVEMENT OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN INFORMAL PEACE PROCESSES
At the global level, women and girls have long been active in peace and disarmament issues. Individually and in groups, women have lobbied for the goal of disarmament. During the First World War, nearly 1200 women from warring and neutral countries came together to protest against the conflict, and formed the Women International League For Peace and Freedom(WILPF), An Organisation that advocates for Disarmament and Human Rights. Peace Tents were a regular

feature of United Nations World Conferences on Women in Mexico, Copenhagen, Nairobi and Beijing.

INVOLVEMENT OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN FORMAL PEACE PROCESSES-
While there are many positive results of women work for peace in informal peace processes, they are seldom included in formal peace processes. Women are usually not represented among decision makers and military leaders, the usual participants in these processes. As well, formal peace processes fail to take gender perspectives into account. Questions relating to differential impacts on women and men, the voices that are listened to , and the gathering of sex disaggregated statistics
are rarely part of these initiatives.

Early Warning, Conflict Prevention and Preventive Diplomacy are important processes, but there have been little attention to women’s participation and gender differences and inequalities in these processes.

Unusual preparations by both sexes can signal that something is about to happen. Women and girls can whistle blow and alert the international community.

Conflict prevention requires a variety of approaches. Including measures aimed at building mutual confidence, reducing perception of threat, eliminating the risk of surprise attack, discouraging competitive arms accumulation and creating an enabilig environment for agreements on arms limitation and reduction, as well as military expenditures. An essential element of conflict prevention is the strenghtening of the rule of law and within that protection of women’s human rights achieve through a focus of gender equality in constitutional, legislative, judicial and electoral reforms.

Preventive diplomacy is a process closely identified with conflict prevention. It aims to prevent disputes from arising, limits the escalation of existing disputes and minimizes the spread of conflict. Effective preventive diplomacy and conflict prevention requires the full commitment and inputs of all actors of civil society, including women’s organizations. The appointment of more women as Special Rapporteurs, Representatives, Regional Directors in Peace Missions may facilitate networking with local women or women’s groups.

Sanctions can sometimes cause more harm than good. Before it is carried out a serious investigation should proceed to assess impact on Women and Children.

Women are under represented in formal peace negotiations, whether as local participants representing warring factions, or as representatives of international authorities overseeing or mediating deliberations and institutions invited to the negotiating table. Peace agreements should incorporate gender equality issues.

Some women groups e.g the Liberian Women Initiative and the Northern Ireland Women Coalition, have had success in including their proposals for peace and reconciliation in formal peace negotiations and plans. In Burundi, as a result of intensive advocacy, women were brought into the peace process, but only as observers because of the strong opposition from Burundian men. Yet, even as observers , they were able to unite across ethnic, political and class backgrounds to develop a clear agenda, and almost all of their jointly made recommendations were included in the Burundian Peace Agreement.

In South Africa, women agreed across party lines that each party should have one third within negotiating team for the formal constitutional process. This resulted in important gains for women. The South African Constitution includes a Comprehensive Bill of Rights with provisions which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender, sex, marital status or pregnancy; the right of women to make decisions about reproduction and control over their bodies; property rights; the right to health care, including reproductive health care; the right to education, the right to enjoy and practice their own cultural and religious beliefs.

INFORMAL PEACE PROCESSES
Are often small scale processes such as Peace Marches, Peace Walks, Peace competitions and Peace Prizes. One of the challenges of International actors involved in informal peace processes is to become familiar with the variety of peace related activism carried out by women at the grass root level.

Women at the grass root identified a lack of resources as a major constraint in carrying out their work.Women cite training in leadership and skills training programmes in areas such as peace education, trauma healing and counselling, as essential for carrying out their peace work.

HISTORY OF GENDER INCLUSIVENESS IN MANAGING CONFLICT IN THE GAMBIA
In the past, when communities in Banjul involve in conflicts, elders would visit the warring parties at dawn to try to resolve the conflict. The females would start the negotiation and the male elders would complete the process of bringing the parties together. The Banjul elders detested the idea of taking a family member or neighbour to the police. A child was disciplined by the community. A neighbour’s child was regarded as one’s child. This is a good practice that should be revived.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND WAY FORWARD
The Gambia Government have made some progress in involving women in peace missions but it is yet to achieve the 50% recommendation of the Security Council in 1325 Resolution.

In the Homes, parents should desist buying toy guns, knives, and other violent instruments for their kids. They should discourage watching violent films and computer games. They should discuss such issues with their kids. Make the children hate and detest violence. Make the children to be making complaints and parents to dialogue and act with justice and fairplay. Parents to treat boys and girls as equals.

At the school, Justice should be done and seen to be done. Both male and female students should not suffer from discrimination. Give them equal rights and responsibilities. Peace Competitions should be encouraged. Peace and Human Rights Education should be part of the school curricular. Peace Prizes to be given to outstanding students. There should be Zero Tolerance to Violence Against Women and girls.

In the Communities, the Media should champion Gender Inclusiveness in Managing Conflicts and its accompanying benefits to society. Role models in peace processes should be profiled as success stories to inspire society to change its perception of women and girls. The media to advocate for zero tolerance on Violence Against Women and Girls.

Government should explicitly integrate gender perspectives into the term of reference of security council visits and missions to The Gambia. To ensure that gender issues are included in Conflict situations. Maintain a data base on gender specialists as well as women groups and networks in
conflict zones.

Ensure that all peace accords explicitly address the consequences of the impact of armed conflict on women and girls, their contribution to the peace processes and their needs and priorities in post conflict context.

Ensure full involvement of women in negotiations of peace agreements at national and international levels including provision of training for women and women’s organizations on formal peace processes.\

Systematically and explicitly address relevant gender perspectives in all Secretary General’s reports to the Security Council and for that purpose prepare and desseminate a guidance note on the integration of gender perspectives in reports of the Secretary General to the Security Council.

Undertake analysis of gender perspectives in conflict prevention and peace building activities and ensure that all analyses of conflict prevention and peace building, including negotiations, preventive diplomacy and sanctions, adequately reflect a gender perspective.

Consult with civil society, including local and regional women’s and youth groups to ensure attention to needs, concerns and experiences of women and girls throughout the peace process.

Identify women’s informal peace-building initiatives and provide relevant technical and financial support and establish mechanisms to channel the outcomes of these initiatives into more formal peace proceses including the involvement of women in peace negotiations.

Increase access to information from women’s groups and networks on indicators of impending conflict as a means to ensure effective gender – sensitive early warning mechanism.

AMIE SILLAH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WOMEN FOR DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT(WODD)
Delivered at the NaNA Office