The growth of civilization and globalization as well as the
new wars, genocide, terrorism, religious extremism, inter and intra-ethnic
chivalry and conflicts among others have called for an increase in the role
women should play in every peace process. The fact is that just as all these
negative events are happening, the men,
The UN Security Council Resolution 1325 of
2000, provide that women should be involved in peace negotiations and that
peace agreements should incorporate a gender perspective. For any formal peace agreement to be successful anywhere in
the world, it must incorporate the capabilities of women which cannot be
measured. A
peace process is an attempt to bring political and/or military elites involved
in a conflict to some sort of mutual agreement as to how to end the conflict
with the ultimate purpose of coming to a peace agreement. Peace here could
either be positive or negative (Galtung, 2009).
Peace can be said to be
positive when there is the absence of physical violence, psychological
violence, institutional violence and the presence of justice while peace is
said to be negative when all these violence are present including the absence
of justice. In Africa, there is the concept of ‘Ubuntu’ in East, Central, Horn
and Southern Africa. It is a conception that encapsulates all that is imbedded
in peace. Although, there is no one single word that clearly captures the true
essence of Ubuntu.
According to Bishop Desmond Tutu, Ubuntu is collective
personhood that captures concepts as Love, respect, sharing, caring,
participating, and compassionate, tolerance, accommodating, empathy and other
positive ethical attributes. Peace to an African is achievable because it does
not involve the individual alone, but also his family, clan, community, elders,
kings and even the supernatural. Women have not been left out also in peace
processes in Africa. For example, after the Rwandan Genocide of 1992, the New
Rwandan government formed the Gacaca traditional court to try the perpetrators
of the Rwandan genocide that left millions of people dead and ruined the
economy of Rwanda such that the United Nations reported that Rwanda was the
poorest nation in the world. Elderly women were also involved in the Gacaca
court trials even as judges of the Gacaca court. In Nigeria too, women are not
left out in the peace process as their effort have been felt both at local
level, state level and national level.
The truth is that no women, no peace in
the world. Although, there are instances where women are deliberately left out
of the peace process such as the formation of the Nigerian Inter-Religious
Dialogue(NIREC) made up of 25 members from the Nigerian Council for Islamic Affairs
(NSCIA) and 25 members from the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). NIREC
was formed in 1999 under the Olusegun Obasanjo Administration made up of
traditional leaders, religious leaders and opinion leaders without the
involvement of women in such a key council. The earlier we started including
women in all peace processes, the better for a peaceful world.
THE PEACE PROCESS
Peace
as a concept has divergent meaning. There is a tendency in peace and conflict
studies to conceptualize peace as the converse of war. Thus, we often hear of
war and peace being two sides of the same coin. In other words, peace is
defined as the absence of war, and by logical extension, war is the absence of
peace. This way of conceptualizing peace though attractive, is inadequate for
understanding the nature of peace. For the purpose of this work we will use the
sociological, political definitions of peace and the one by Oke Ibeanu (2014).
Sociologically, peace refers o a condition of social harmony in which there are
no social antagonisms. In other words, peace is a condition in which there is
no social conflict and individuals and groups are able to meet their needs and
expectation. Politically, peace is a political condition that makes justice
possible. Most strictly, politically, peace entails political order that is,
the institutionalization of political structures. Oke Ibeanu (2014) sees peace
as a process involving activities that are directly or indirectly linked to
increasing development and reducing conflict, both within specific societies
and in the wider international community. From these peace entails:
a.
Relates to existing social conditions, rather
than an ideal state or condition
b.
Is a dynamic process (rather than a
static condition) and it is possible to precisely identify and study the
factors that drive it.
c.
Is not a finished condition, but always
a “work in progress”. It is never finished because human societies continue to
aspire to higher levels of development and less conflict.
d.
Increases and decreases depending on
objective of socio-economic and political conditions. It is also reversible,
that is, it is possible to move from higher levels of peace to lower levels
e.
Can be measured with some precision as
it increases and decreases
f.
Is not linear, unidirectional process,
instead it is complex and multifaceted.
Source: Oke
Ibeanu (2014)
The forms of peace process include Preventive diplomacy,
Peacemaking, Peacekeeping, peace enforcement and post conflict peace building. The
former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Boutros Ghali in 1992 in his ‘agenda for peace’ report provided
the following definitions for the various forms of peace process:
(a) Preventive diplomacy was action taken to prevent disputes
from arising between parties, to prevent existing disputes from escalating into
conflicts and to limit the spread of the latter when they occurred;
(b) Peacemaking was action to bring hostile parties to agreement,
essentially through such peaceful means as those foreseen in Chapter VI of the
Charter of the United Nations;
(c) Peacekeeping was
the deployment of a United Nations presence in the field, hitherto with the
consent of all the parties concerned, normally involving United Nations
military and/or police personnel and frequently civilians as well — it was a technique
that expanded the possibilities for both the prevention of conflict and the
making of peace;
(d) Peace Enforcement involves Using the armed forces to
enforce the wills of the United Nations in conflict torn zones.
(e) Post-conflict peace building was action to identify and
support structures which would tend to strengthen and solidify peace in order
to avoid a relapse into conflict.
INVOLVEMENT OF
WOMEN IN PEACE PROCESSES
The findings of the Nigerian Stability and Reconciliation
Program (NSRP) are as follows:
1. Women exclusion from formal conflict management and peace
building initiatives and mechanisms reflects their exclusion from public life
in general. Nigeria has some of the worst statistics across sub-Saharan Africa
for women’s inclusion in public institutions and this is worse in the northern
zones.
2. It is widely believed that, because women are not the
main perpetrators of violence, they are not relevant in the peace and security
discourse. Hence, women’s contribution is often relegated to the trivial,
cosmetic or logistical – reflecting their role as ‘wives and mothers’ rather
than as full citizens.
3. Nevertheless, women are active in peace building
and conflict management in all areas of Nigeria. Their type and level of
engagement and the effectiveness of their involvement depends on the local context,
including the existence, level and nature of the violence on the one hand and
the obstacles that they face on the other (such as social norms or the nature
and extent of the violence).
4. Women – like men - are motivated to be involved in peace
building and conflict management for a variety of reasons. Market women, for
instance, motivated by the need to protect their livelihoods, try to ensure
that the market is a safe and neutral
organize themselves to provide humanitarian assistance to
victims. In some cases, women recognize that their relative neutrality enables
them to leverage mediation often from traditional or religious leaders. Women
involved in organized religion and those involved in human rights work are also
motivated to prevent unnecessary death and suffering.
5. Women take action in peace building in a multiplicity of
ways. These mainly fall into the following five categories, with inevitable
areas of overlap:
i)
Participation in formal mechanisms
ii)
Autonomous ‘conflict’ women’s civil society organizations
iii)
Autonomous general women’s civil society organizations set up to address
other issues (e.g. health)
iii)
Participation in mixed ‘conflict’ civil society organizations addressing
violent conflict
iv) Ad-hoc activism in response to
specific incidences of violent conflict or to prevent conflict escalating into
violence
v)
Conflict management in organized religion
6. There are some notable examples of women individual
leaders who may or may not be associated with groups or organizations, but, as
in most countries, Nigerian women usually work collectively. The modus operandi of women’s
action falls into the following categories.
a) Traditional forms
of protest: Since the 1929 ‘Aba Women’s Riot’ when women’s protest against
unfair taxation led to a reform in colonial administrative practices, when
faced with extreme situations women have used traditional methods of protest
such as chanting and weeping or walking together dressed in black. These
methods are particularly used in the southern zones or the Plateau. Marching
semi-naked is often a method of last resort, to shock leaders into taking
necessary steps to avoid violent conflict or its recurrence.
b) Joining across
ethnic or religious lines: The way that women use religion or ethnicity to organize
on conflict is determined largely by the demography of the region, as well as
the nature of the violence. Although religion and ethnicity divides women as
much as men, women have recognized that they are more powerful when united,
particularly when male leaders are promoting divisions. In ‘Middle Belt’
states, particularly, women have joined together to demand that their
traditional leaders protect women and their families from being victimized. In
Kaduna, Muslim and Christian women have held joint prayer meetings.
c) Using traditional
roles: Women sometimes use their positions as wives or mothers to exert
influence over male decision-makers. Examples include the First Lady’s
leadership of the African First Ladies Peace Initiative, the wives of the
Northern Governor’s Forum and the Association of Police Wives. Using their
husbands’ status (even if they are educated, powerful women in their own right)
these women can be influential; through adopting their traditional roles they
do not threaten the status quo.
d) Identifying key
loci and interests: Women in the Niger Delta region, Jos and in Maiduguri
have centered protests and other activism on the local market places. This is
partly because women (particularly outside the north) often rely on markets for
their survival. It is also because markets are amongst the most neutral places
in Nigeria.
f) Formal mechanisms:
Women do play an active role in formal fora when they are able to obtain a
‘place at the table’. For instance, in the few panels of enquiry where women
have participated, they have demonstrated that they bring fresh insights and
can ask ‘gendered’ questions that may be otherwise missed. In the security
sector, women police officers can result in greater reporting of gender-based
violence (including that associated with violent conflict). Communiqués from
formalized meetings can have an impact on leaders and can obtain publicity for
particular issues.
OBSTACLE TO
WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN PEACE PROCESSES
Discriminatory social norms: While the specifics of social norms (expressed as cultural,
traditional or religious) vary across Nigeria, the marginalization of women and
girls is the single common factor and influences all other obstacles. It is,
for example, difficult for women peace builders to be recognized in the media
unless they are wives of powerful men or there is something particularly
sensational such as when women take off their clothes in protest.
Gender-based violence: Violent
conflict often involves or results in the use or threat of gender-based
violence against women and girls. This can be immediately direct (e.g. sexual
violence by armed forces or groups), less immediately direct in the form of
violence against women who contravene ‘accepted’ behavior (e.g. the killing of
a woman police officer and woman councilor in the north east), indirect (e.g.
where women and girls are prevented from going outside their homes for fear of
violence). Where violence becomes ‘normalized’, levels of gender-based violence
are likely to increase. This all militates against women taking up leadership,
speaking out or being seen to stand against the violence.
Religious interpretations are
often used to justify women’s secondary position and their exclusion from
public life. Although the Islamist radical groups in the northern zones promote
extreme versions of women’s marginalization in the name of religion, it is
conservative religious interpretations that maintain women’s marginalization.
Conservative Christian beliefs, too, create an environment where women are
expected to behave in certain ways which do not include adopting leadership
roles. There are very few women in formal leadership positions in either Muslim
or Christian structures; women activists resort to ‘flanking’ approaches
whereby they enlist the support of wives of powerful men or find ways to
influence by reference to bio-determinist constructs of women as ‘naturally’ peaceful.
The nature of the violent conflict itself can constitute an obstacle to women’s participation. In the
North East zone, women’s civil society organizations that have worked on
sectoral development issues are finding it increasingly difficult to meet, let
alone form strategies for peace-building. At the same time, women who speak out
about violent conflict risk being perceived as partisan and becoming targets
either personally or through their families.
The lack of disaggregated information – whether in recording the impact of violent conflict, the
sex of perpetrators or “who’s in the room” regarding peace initiatives means
that women’s peace building work goes largely unnoticed and is not recorded. In
turn, this feeds the myth that women ‘just don’t’ take part in peace
initiatives and prevents younger women and girls from seeing positive role
models.
CONCLUSION
If Africa and indeed the world are to enjoy sustainable
peace, women must be involved in all peace processes whether formal or
informal. The efforts of women so far have been commendable in resolving
conflict issues. Example is the effort of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in post
conflict Liberia, women organizations for peace in Africa such as the Mano
River Women’s Peace Network (MRWPN) in
Guinea and Liberia, the Sierra Leone Women’s Forum, the Sierra Leone Women’s
Movement for Peace (SLWMP), Women for Peace and Gender Equality Initiative in
Nigeria, the West African Network for Peace building (WANEP) Nigeria, African
Women Lawyers Association of Nigeria (AWLA) and a host of others which are all committed to
empowering girls and women with skills to promote sustainable peace through
inclusive gender equality and also the promotion of peace in conflict torn
zones. The fact remains that in the peace processes, no woman, no peace and the
earlier women are allowed to champion the course of peace in our societies as
mothers, the better for all of us.
REFERENCE
1. Ibeanu, O (2014) Conceptualizing Peace. In
Introduction to peace and conflict studies in west Africa. S. G. Best. Ed.
(2014). Ibadan: Spectrum Books Ltd.
2.
Galtung, J. (1996) Cultural Violence.
Journal of Peace Research. London: Sage
3. Nigerian Stability and Reconciliation
Program (2013) The Role of Women and Girls in Peace Initiatives in Nigeria.
Nigerian Stability and Reconciliation Program. Accessed on 19th
January, 2016 from http://www.nsrp-nigeria.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Women-Peace-and-Security-Study.pdf
4. Ogoloma, F. I & Ukpere, W (2011) The role of women in peacemaking,
conflict and Rehabilitation management in Elele, Ikwerre Local Government of
Rivers State, Nigeria. Rivers: Institute of Foundation Studies. Accessed on 19th
January, 2016 from http://www.academicjournals.org/journal/AJBM/article-full-text-pdf/163512521247
5. Agbalajobi, D. T (2012) The Role of African
Women in Peace Building and Conflict
Resolution: The Case of Burundi. Ogun: Redeemer’s University. Article 9.
Accessed on 19th January, 2016 from http://www.globalmediajournal.com/open-access/the-role-of-african-women-in-peace-building-and-conflict-resolution-the-case-of-burundi.pdf
6. Norwegian
Peace Building Resource Centre (2013) Women and Peace Processes, Negotiations
and agreements: Operational Opportunities and Challenges. Policy Brief.
Accessed on 19th January, 2016 from http://www.peacebuilding.no/var/ezflow_site/storage/original/application/b6f94e1df2977a0f3e0e17dd1dd7dcc4.pdf
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