Source: The Guardian
As the Nato summit gets under way, the government’s promise to ensure women are fully represented is being put to the test
In June, Britain’s then foreign secretary, William Hague, and Hollywood actor, Angelina Jolie, co-hosted the much-publicised Ending sexual violence in conflict summit in London. The UK government boldly committed to ensuring that women are “fully and meaningfully represented at any international peace-building event or summit hosted by the UK, by encouraging government delegations to fully include women representatives”.
Fast-forward three months to this week’s Nato summit in Wales and the government’s promise was put to the test. The future of Afghanistan hangs in the balance, yet it seems Afghan women have again been excluded from crucial discussions on the future of their country.
The timing could not be more critical. The imminent withdrawal of international troops and reported power-sharing negotiations with the Taliban are placing Afghan women’s rights on a knife edge. The fragile and uneven gains made for women over the past decade are in danger of being overturned.
Evidence has emerged of women being systematically targeted with violence in areas where the Taliban insurgency is gaining ground, while vital progress in women’s access to health and education is being reversed. Research conducted by ActionAid (pdf) in 2011 – when troops had already begun to pull out – showed 86% of women were worried about a return to Taliban-style government, with one in five citing their daughter’s education as the biggest concern.
The Nato summit is the largest gathering of international leaders held in the UK. David Cameron is hosting President Barack Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President François Hollande, along with a government delegation from Afghanistan, which did not include the new president as the election process is still in limbo.
But despite Afghan women’s rights being frequently cited as a justification for the war, including by members of the government of the time, it seems they have again been largely excluded from critical talks to establish security and peace. Just one woman was reportedly listed among Afghanistan’s delegation of 10 (the delegation lists are yet to be published) and it’s unclear if she actually attended. No mention was made of women’s rights or development in Cameron’s invitation letter to leaders of Nato member states, which framed the Afghanistan agenda item for the summit. Fewer than one in 40 of signatories to peace deals are women.
The exclusion of Afghan women from the summit is a far cry from Hague’s speech at the meeting in June, which recognised the need to build new norms around women’s participation:
“I am saddened that women and women’s groups still have to ask to be included at the negotiating table, as if it were a concession to be granted, or a right to be begrudgingly accorded, when in fact it is the only route to better decisions and stronger and safer societies.”
Hague’s speech marked the launch of the UK government’s strategy for implementing its action plan on UN security council resolution 1325. This legally binding resolution – now 14 years old – explicitly recognises the disproportionate impacts of violent conflict on women and girls, the essential role women play in conflict prevention and resolution, as well as their right to participate equally in all such processes, and urges member states, including the UK, to act accordingly.
The UK’s 1325 strategy promises to work towards ensuring women’s full and meaningful representation at international peace-building events hosted by the UK by encouraging government delegations to fully include female representatives.
Hague did host a discussion on women’s participation in conflict resolution at the Nato summit with the Nato secretary general’s special representative on women, peace and security, Mari Skåre, and foreign ministerial leads on preventing sexual violence in conflict. Referring to Nato’s own action plan, Hague again stated the importance of women’s participation in conflict resolution. Echoing this, the Nato declaration of Afghanistan issued on 4 September emphasised the importance of including women “fully in political, peace and reconciliation processes”. And yet where were the voices of Afghan women in the summit discussions?
The failure to include women at the Nato summit reflects and further fuels the tendency to ignore and devalue the dynamic, creative efforts of women in conflict-affected countries all over the world, who put their lives on the line to broker peace and foster reconciliation in highly volatile circumstances. In Afghanistan, Liberia, Nepal, Pakistan and Sierra Leone,ActionAid has documented and supported women’s vital peace-building roles, sustained in the face of discrimination, high levels of violence, and a lack of funding for women’s organisations.
Women in Afghanistan, such as the Afghan Women’s Network, rightly point out that peace and development cannot be inclusive and sustainable, and women’s rights safeguarded, if women are prevented from taking part in decision-making processes.
It is not enough to talk about women and girls. Nato heads and host countries of future summits – including an international conference onAfghanistan due to take place in the UK this year – must uphold their commitments to involve women directly and ensure Afghan women have a voice and a place at the table.
Without this, all the past and future work of impressing upon the Afghan government the importance of upholding rights stands to be undermined by the message being sent from this summit: that it is acceptable to exclude women from decision-making. For the women of Afghanistan more than anyone this could be the difference between life or death.
