Statement by
Rebecca Joshua Okwaci,
Secretary General,
Women Action for Development (WAD) and
Executive Producer, Sudan
Radio Service
“UN Security
Council Resolution 1325: Recognizing Women’s Vital Contributions in Achieving
Peace and Stability”
House Committee on
Foreign Affairs
May 15, 2008
Mr. Chairman, thank you for inviting me to address you today
on the critical topic of women, peace, and security in Sudan. It is a
great honor. The US has
contributed enormously to ending Sudan’s conflicts and improving the
lives of our people. Without US
assistance, many more would have lost their lives.
My remarks will focus on the specific ways Sudanese women
were instrumental in ending the north/south war, as well the vital
contributions women are making to implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
(CPA) and to resolving the conflict in Darfur.
Sudan
has been governed by a series of Islamic-leaning military regimes since gaining
independence from the British in 1956. Northern economic, political, and social
domination of has fueled several civil wars. The signing of the CPA in 2005
ended over two decades of war between the North and South. The agreement, which
provided a framework for peace for the entire country, carried the promise of a
new era of stability.
Unfortunately, peace and stability remain elusive. The CPA,
which the US
did so much to help us achieve, is in peril. Implementation of the agreement is
severely behind schedule. Key decisions about boundaries, power, and wealth
sharing have yet to be made. Tensions are rising in the south and insecurity is
growing because people are desperate to see peace dividends. Compounding the
challenges is the conflict in Darfur, which
has killed more than 300,000 people, displaced more than two million, and
ensnared neighboring countries since erupting in 2003.
Women have been most severely affected by Sudan’s
conflicts and underdevelopment. They have suffered systematic rape and gender
based-violence; lost their own lives and those of family members; and assumed new roles as heads of household,
all while being denied access to land (which is provided for in the
constitution but not really implemented), health care, and education. Women’s
quality of life indicators in Sudan
rank among the worst in the world. In southern Sudan, only one in five children is
in school, with three boys for every girl. Only 12 percent of women are
estimated literate. Southern Sudanese women have a one in nine chance of dying
during pregnancy or childbirth.
Despite the challenges they face and the hardships they
endure, women are not passive victims. They provide humanitarian services, sustain
and reconcile communities following generations of conflict, assume new roles
in government, and press tirelessly for peace in Darfur and in Eastern Sudan.
Negotiating the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
I was extensively involved in efforts to negotiate the CPA.
I can tell you firsthand how critical women were to ending the war.
Thousands of women joined the political struggle for peace
with justice. They left their homes, not just to accompany their husbands but
also to fight for freedom, democracy, and justice—the very same values that
form the foundation of the United
States. Women organized themselves into
networks, and non-governmental organizations on both sides of the political
divide. Though the war was at its height by then, they made an effort to
contribute to the Beijing Conference in 1995 calling for an end to conflict in
their country. They also organized and participated in many national and
international conferences, such as the Hague Appeal for Peace and the
International Conference on Sudanese Women and Peacemaking in Maastricht, The Netherlands, to highlight the
urgency for peace. They engaged in dialogue, worked on reconciliation among the
leaders, and helped develop issue papers that formed the basis for the Machakos
Protocols. They kept constant check to ensure that talks did not stall. Three
women participated in the negotiations in Naivasha that ultimately culminated
in the CPA. Women were the inspiration beheind the series of agreements that
led to the CPA.
As negotiations dragged on, we became determined to
participate in the talks themselves. We convinced the Sudanese People’s
Liberation Movement/Army to nominate a handful of women leaders as formal
delegates. Making a difference was difficult. We were few in number. We were
expected to contribute to a gender-blind party-position; and were ill prepared
for debates with seasoned politicians who intimidated anyone who dared to focus
on gender issues. Nonetheless, women made important contributions. We developed
the Sudanese women’s minimum agenda in which we called for one-third women’s
representation in decision making bodies. When the talks grew tense, women
pressed men to keep negotiating. We worked across party lines to find points of
compromise. We organized visits to the talks and sent strong messages to the
mediator, who was always understanding. We grew savvier as time went on and our
impact grew. Thanks to our efforts, the CPA recognizes the need for positive
discrimination for women and the importance of recognizing women’s equal
rights.
Implementing the Agreement
Political Representation
The CPA created new democratic, political space, which
provided a window of opportunity for women’s participation. Women today hold
key executive positions in the Government of National Unity (GONU) and the
Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS), including federal minister of health and
governor of Western
Equatoria State,
ministers, members of Parliament, and heads of commissions. Women successfully
advocated for a precedent-setting 25 percent quota in the constitution of the GOSS,
which guarantees women’s participation in government. Women across the country
have used this quota to press the GONU for a similar guarantee, and I am proud
to tell you that the current draft electoral law maintains the quota for
women’s elected representation in the national assembly.
In 2007, women formed a caucus in the GONU, the Assembly’s
only cross-party grouping of parliamentarians. Its executive committee
includes members of four political parties including the majority National
Congress Party and Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM). All 86 women
parliamentarians in the Assembly comprise its membership. When the SPLM
suspended its participation in the GONU in fall 2007, the women’s caucus kept
meeting. Women kept pushing for peace.
Economic reconstruction
With the support of the Government of Norway, the United
Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), and The Initiative for Inclusive
Security, I was member of a diverse delegation of Sudanese women that attended
the Oslo
donor’s conference in April 2005. We established a common agenda and asserted
our role in Sudan’s
post-conflict reconstruction and peace efforts. Women made recommendations that
offered concrete proposals for promoting gender equality in all aspects of
peace building. We urged donors to reflect strong gender-responsive principles
in the allocation of resources for Sudan's recovery and
reconstruction. Specific areas requiring immediate attention were access to
basic health and social services; support for economic policies to improve
women's livelihoods and to ensure food security; removal of gender
discrimination in education and training; and confrontation of rampant
gender-based violence.
I applaud the US Government and the US Agency for
International Development (USAID), which heard the call. That strategy
recognizes the key role women will play in the recovery and reconstruction of Sudan and
called for gender to be a primary crosscutting theme in all programs. USAID
required 50 percent women be beneficiaries of its Localizing Institutional
Capacity in Sudan (LINCS) program (being implemented by Mercy Corps and
International Rescue Committee). I further commend the US Government for
supporting the women’s caucus in the GOSS through the International Republican
Institute (IRI). IRI has helped this nascent caucus organize and begin
achieving results. This visionary decision to prioritize women’s leadership has
enhanced women’s capacity to stabilize the country. I would urge its
replication in USAID programs to rebuild following conflict around the world.
Unfortunately, there has been little overall progress toward
achieving the Oslo
priorities. Again with support from Norway,
UNIFEM, and Inclusive Security, a delegation of women recently participated in
the Sudan Donor’s Consortium meeting in Oslo.
In reiterating women’s priorities it was noted that there has been very little
progress in advancing women and girls’ literacy, increasing access to capital,
reducing maternal mortality, ensuring economic and political empowerment, and protecting
women from gender-based violence. Similarly, there is significant scope for
improving efforts to better facilitate the repatriation and reintegration of
returning women refugees, internally displaced people, and former combatants.
The positive
discrimination promised in the CPA is not reflected in resource flows or
in the results of peace building and development to date. Many of the critical
needs identified in the framework for reconstruction in southern Sudan have not
been met. The relevant national ministries lack sufficient resources and
influence in decision-making. Women’s real access to justice is limited by
significant constraints in the judicial sector including the absence of family
law reform and adequate criminal law provisions for addressing violence against
women; legal reform must be accelerated to bring judicial processes in line
with constitutional equality provisions. Women are not given the opportunity to
lead and to own peace building and development; they are insufficiently
represented on the oversight committees of trust funds and the peace
negotiations in Darfur.
Pressing for Peace in Darfur
Let me turn now for a moment to Darfur
where women are severely marginalized in efforts to resolve the conflict.
Despite efforts to organize, articulate priorities, and press for
participation, women were only sporadically involved as consulting experts in
the seventh round of negotiations around the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) and
were a very small minority of the members of formal negotiating delegations.
That said, the women who did participate in the peace talks did so because they
received political and financial support from the international community,
specifically the African Union (AU), who mediated the talks, UNIFEM, and the
governments of Canada, Norway, and Sweden.
The AU-UN Road Map for Peace, initiated in the summer of
2007, included a means for civil society and women’s involvement in talks.
However, negotiations stalled in the fall of 2007 and efforts to revive them
have focused only on armed rebel groups and the Government. Lessons from South
Sudan can help achieve peace in Darfur and
women can be the inspiration.
Despite their repeated exclusion, Darfuri women continue to
press for peace. For example, in January 2008, Darfuri women joined more than
60 women from across Sudan
and Africa to create an action plan for peace in Darfur
at a meeting convened by Femme Africa Solidaritié. Women at the meeting echoed
previous findings from consultations organized by The Initiative for Inclusive
Security, that achieving security in the region is women’s highest priority.
As in the wars between North and South, rape and other forms
of sexual violence in Darfur have been used as
a weapon of war to humiliate, control, create fear, and displace women and their
communities. Women are not, however, passive victims; they are vital actors in
the provision of security. In Resolution 1769, the UN Security Council charged
UNAMID with the protection of civilians and the provision for safe humanitarian
access. To successfully fulfill this mandate, UNAMID must involve women in all
efforts to provide protection, humanitarian access, camp security, and
undertake community policing. Specifically, UNAMID should expand patrols to
protect women when they leave camps to collect firewood, increase the number of
women peacekeepers and civilian police, involve women in all security related
committees, and consult with them separately.
Looking ahead
Two dates loom large in Sudan’s future. National elections
are scheduled for 2009 and a referendum over the South’s secession is scheduled
for 2011. Throughout the country, women within political parties and in civil
society are looking ahead to elections, preparing to participate as voters,
organizers, and as candidates. They recognize the need to increase their
representation in legislative assemblies at state and national levels to
address poverty and to change the way laws and budgets are drafted and
implemented. In addition to consolidating democracy and increasing their role
in post-conflict reconstruction, women hope to enshrine their rights in law and
ensure access to justice.
Women will need assistance to achieve these goals. We hope
you ensure a significant percentage of US
support for Sudan’s
transition to democracy goes directly to programs to support women’s political
leadership.
Sudan
will not achieve security and prosperity without the full participation of
women. Overcoming the many obstacles they face will require internal and
external support—in the form of resources, education, and access to
decision-making. As Sudan is
the US Government’s highest priority country in Africa, we hope the US will do
everything possible to facilitate its transition to democracy. Strengthening
women’s leadership will be an essential step.
Specifically, the US Congress can:
·
Appropriate funding for programs that strengthen
women as candidates and voters so they engage in the electoral process and hold
representatives accountable;
·
Appropriate funding for Sudanese women-led NGOS
to provide critical health, education, and legal services;
·
Encourage the Government of National Unity and
Government of Southern Sudan to fulfill quotas guaranteeing 25 percent women’s
participation in public office, on commissions overseeing peace building, and
negotiating peace in Darfur and elsewhere including in the Elections Law,
Political Party laws and by-laws, and in the post-election constitution of Sudan
·
Require US Agency for International Development
contractors and grantees to ensure a minimum of 50 percent women as
beneficiaries and staff of projects (international and local), to guarantee a
minimum 50 women-led organizations as implementers, and to assess the impact of
funds spent on women’s empowerment and gender equality; and
·
Press the US Administration to engage the
National Ministry of Finance with the ministries responsible for women to
institutionalize gender-responsive budgeting across government budget processes.
Peace is possible. We have made important progress that must
not be lost. The moment to invest in women as drivers of reconstruction and
stability in Sudan
is now.
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