All posts by CPNN Coordinator

About CPNN Coordinator

Dr David Adams is the coordinator of the Culture of Peace News Network. He retired in 2001 from UNESCO where he was the Director of the Unit for the International Year for the Culture of Peace, proclaimed for the Year 2000 by the United Nations General Assembly.

Google’s ‘#metoo’ moment: Workers walk out over women’s rights

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article by Jane Lanhee Lee and Paresh Dave in Thomson Reuters (reprinted by permission)

Thousands of Google employees around the world briefly walked off their jobs on Thursday [November 1] to protest the company’s response to sexual harassment and demand that the world’s largest search engine address rising concerns about workplace inequality.

The protests took place in waves, beginning in Asia and then streaming across Europe and North America, with the final wave occurring at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California.


Frame from video on article website

The protests, which drew Google contract workers as well as employees, followed a New York Times report last week that Google in 2014 gave a $90 million exit package to a senior vice president, Andy Rubin, after he was accused of sexual harassment.

“This was the $90 million straw that broke the camel’s back,” Celie O’Neil-Hart, one of the protest organizers and who works on YouTube marketing, told reporters as she joined hundreds of other employees in the courtyard of Google’s Mountain View headquarters. “But there are so many stories that we’ve heard for so long, and it’s time for action and change,” said O’Neil-Hart as she teared up.

Rubin denied the allegation in the New York Times story, which he said contained “wild exaggerations” about his compensation. Google did not dispute the report.

Organizers said about 60 percent of Google’s offices participated, including Dublin, the company’s largest site outside the United States, as well as London, Zurich, Berlin and Singapore. They shared photographs on social media of hundreds leaving offices.

Many employees at the Mountain View walkout chanted “Women’s rights are workers rights,” and some wore blue ribbons in support of sexual harassment victims.

Seven U.S. employees who organized the demonstrations called on Google parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) to make harassment investigations fairer for accusers, share pay-equity data with workers and add an employee representative to its board.

Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai, speaking an hour later at a New York Times conference in New York, said he was taking note of the “concrete steps” workers presented to improve the company’s culture and human resources processes.

“I want to make sure Google sets the bar,” he said, noting that a lack of gender and racial diversity was part of the issue. “We’re grappling with it, as with many places.”

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Question for this article

Protecting women and girls against violence, Is progress being made?

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Organizers and other employees said Google executives, like leaders at the dozens of companies affected by the #metoo movement, have been slow to address numerous structural issues such as unchecked power of male executives.

They want Google to publicly report its sexual harassment statistics and end forced arbitration in harassment cases. They also have asked that the chief diversity officer be able to directly advise the board.

Rana Abdelhamid, who works in Google Cloud’s marketing division in San Francisco, told reporters that the walkout was “about safety of women in the workplace,” adding that Google’s historical support for women’s causes caused her to be shocked when she learned of the multi-million-dollar payout.

“The numbers and facts don’t match with the intentions” of Google on equality and safety for underrepresented groups, she told Reuters. “We need to reprioritize energy and really focus on these issues.”

MONTHS OF BUILDUP

Since its founding two decades ago, Google has been known for its motto “don’t be evil,” a dictum preserved in its worker code of conduct, and its transparency with employees about corporate strategy.

But employees have internally organized for months to increase diversity and improve treatment of women and minorities.

Those issues have been top of mind since the 2016 election of U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican, stunned Silicon Valley, where liberal and libertarian policies are popular.

Tech workers have become more vocal to protest both the president’s and their companies’ stances on immigration, defense and discrimination. Workers have said that they are driven by the sense that their technology pioneer employers should also be standard bearers on socioeconomic issues.

“We all know that the status quo is unacceptable and if there is any company who can solve this, it is Google,” said Thomas Kneeland, a Google software engineer in New York.

The dissatisfaction among Alphabet’s 94,000 employees and tens of thousands contractors has not noticeably affected the company’s share price. But employees, who warned they would demonstrate again if needed, expect Alphabet to face recruiting and retention challenges if their concerns go unaddressed.

Alphabet shares closed down 0.4 percent to $1,085.98 on Thursday.

Around the world, Google workers walked out carrying signs reading “Time’s up Tech,” “Happy to quit for $90M – no sexual harassment required” and “Not OK Google,” a reference to the “OK Google” phrase used to activate Google’s voice-operated Assistant.

Cathay Bi, a Google product manager, speaking through a megaphone before hundreds gathered in a bustling pedestrian plaza in San Francisco’s financial district, talked about the engines of change.

“This is what it means to be ‘Googley,’” she urged the crowd to chant, invoking a widely used term for the company’s culture. “People don’t change because of law and policies. Laws and policies change because of people.”

global, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

2018 “World Beyond War” Toronto Conference Included Workshop on Departments and Infrastructures for Peace

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . .

Special to CPNN by Anne Creter

I am a long-time advocate within the U.S. “Peace Alliance” Department of Peacebuilding Campaign for the current bill in Congress to establish a cabinet-level Department of Peacebuilding (H.R.1111).  Thus I am thrilled to report my favorite topic of Departments and Infrastructures for Peace (I4P) was featured at this September’s international “World Beyond War” (WBW) conference in a workshop my Canadian Department of Peace counterpart, Dr. Saul Arbess and I co-presented there.  It was a logical collaboration, in that for the last decade Saul and I have worked together promoting governmental I4P within an international organization known as the Global Alliance for Ministries and Infrastructures for Peace or GAMIP (currently in transition).  


Frame from the conference video: Karen Johnson gives report from workshop on Departments of Peace

The ambitious conference intent, as stated by its planners, was to “explore how to re-design systems to abolish the institution of war by examining existing and potential legal models, modes of governance and frameworks that can be used to curb and abolish war, such as treaties like the Kellogg-Briand Pact, Peoples’ Tribunals, peace tax funds, departments of peace, civil disobedience, the use of universal jurisdiction and the International Criminal Court.”

Our workshop was timely because it meshed with above and also with my UN NGO work whose focus this year has been on “seeking global solutions to global problems”  — per the UN 2030 “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs).  The UN Development Program, which oversees both the SDG’s and I4P, has conducted studies showing evidence that a viable solution to the global problem of “violence” is establishing governmental departments and other I4P worldwide.  This relatively new peacebuilding concept of “governmental I4P” is already operational in countries where violence has been shown to decrease (Journal of Peacebuilding & Development Special I4P Issue, volume 7, Number 3, 2012 ISSN: 1542-3166). 

Thus if I4P are a viable global solution to the global problem of “violence,” then establishing them in governments should be encouraged to provide the (missing) connective tissue links necessary to build the culture of peace.  That this topic was deemed relevant to the WBW’s provocative conference theme of Designing a World Beyond War:  Legalizing Peace was promising.  For it offered a unique international forum for how governmental I4P may be a viable alternative to war providing a “legal” institutional framework for peace that could be the “blueprint” for redesigning a world beyond war.  

(Article continued in right column)

Question related to this article:

How can we develop the institutional framework for a culture of peace?

Is a U.S. Department of Peace a realistic political goal?

(Article continued from left column)

The conference was held September 21-22 to coincide with the International Day of Peace celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose focus this year was “The Right to Peace.”  It was held outside the U.S. in Toronto, Canada to demonstrate WBW’s belief that for the global peace movement to succeed in redesigning a world beyond war, it must broaden its scope to build one unified coalition in solidarity worldwide with other peace groups.   

Most attendees were Canadian yet other countries were represented, as far away as New Zealand — home of my UN NGO, Peace Through Unity Charitable Trust — which as a founding member of the Global Alliance for Ministries and Infrastructures for Peace has long advocated for a New Zealand “Ministry for a Culture of Peace” and passage of a UN Resolution urging I4P in all member states (see PeaceNow.com).  To quote Gita Brooke, Peace Through Unity founder:  New instruments are in the planning for carrying out the guidelines contained in the UN Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace:  ministries and departments of peace will serve as meeting places for closer, more comprehensive and effective cooperation between peoples and governments; peace academies will teach and help develop communication, peacebuilding and peacemaking skills of individuals and groups within society; and the general public will hold themselves, their governments, as well as the UN, accountable for implementing promises that have been made. 

The U.S. Constitution preamble beautifully articulates the primary purpose of government – which in a nutshell is to ensure humanity’s basic Human Rights (ie. the Right to Peace). Because we live in an ever-escalating global culture of violence, government needs vital help meeting this essential purpose. My advocacy for governmental 14P stems from my conviction that I4P can greatly assist government fulfilling its fundamental “Peace” mandate.  Yet how I4P relate to the compelling WBW idea of “legalizing peace” needs further exploration.  While we only had time to scratch the surface there, our group began a lively interactive dialogue on I4P basics, such as the lack of political will for peace and on how the mere mention of I4P in some countries puts I4P advocates at risk of harm.

We are grateful to UN Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury for his short video on the conference theme, with mention of how I4P promote the Culture of Peace; also to Congressional sponsor of H.R. 1111 Rep. Barbara Lee for her welcoming letter where she states: “Now is the time to put an end to needless wars and violence and to establish a Department of Peacebuilding in the U.S. and violence prevention infrastructures throughout the globe.”  Visit WBW website to see the Ambassador’s video and Congresswoman’s letter, plus our power point and other valuable conference details at https://worldbeyondwar.org/nowar2018 … and while there, be sure to access your copy of their scholarly publication – A GLOBAL SECURITY SYSTEM:  An Alternative to War.

In conclusion, I learned of other possible frameworks that could redesign a world beyond war which I found hopeful at this time of unprecedented global political upheaval.  They included such compelling models as: Kellogg-Briand Pact (WBW Director David Swanson), Divestment from War Profiteers (Medea Benjamin), Peace Education  Approaches (Tony Jenkins), World Citizenship & Global Rule of Law (David Gallup) to mention a few.  Participating gave the U.S. “Peace Alliance” National Department of Peacebuilding Campaign the opportunity to enlarge an important “peace education” dialogue alongside our Canadian Department of Peace brothers and sisters.  Hopefully it will continue so “Departments and I4P” may appear inside next year’s 2019-2020 edition of A Global Security System!

To continue this conversation, please write with comments or questions to Anne at annecrets@aol.com .

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, North America

English bulletin November 1, 2018

NOBEL PRIZE: END SEXUAL VIOLENCE .

It was an important step forward that the recipients of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize were recognized for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict. The history of the culture of war tells us that: “Rape and other violence against women has been fundamental to the culture of war over the course of history.”

The Nobel Committee joins an impressive list of organizations around the world that are making progress for women’s equality and an end to violence against women. Here are examples from CPNN during the past month.

Local NGOs

In Guatemala,  the organization Mujeres Transformando el Mundo (Women Transforming the World) has helped the “abuelas” of Sepur Zarco to obtain the conviction of military officers for their systematic rape and enslavement during the 36-year-long Guatemalan civil war, and to obtain reparations, including the promise to reopen the files on land claims, set up a health centre, improve the infrastructure for the primary school and open a new secondary school, as well as offer scholarships for women and children.

National NGOs:

In the United States, Planned Parenthood is leading the fightback to resist the attacks by President Trump and his appointees against women’s reproductive rights. They are planning a multi-million dollar, nationwide campaign to ensure that abortion remains accessible—even if the landmark decision legalizing it nationwide is overturned thanks to Trump’s choice for the Supreme Court.

International NGOs:

Plan International sponsored a campaign in which over 1000 schoolgirls become world leaders for the day, from executives at Google and Facebook to government posts and local councils. Among the posts they held for a day were the presidency of Peru and the heads of the parliamentary speakers of Zimbabwe and Western Australia.

Religious organizations

In Bougainville, an island of Papua New Guinea, the Nazareth Centre for Rehabilitation, established by the Congregation of the Sisters of Nazareth, led by Sister Lorraine Garasu, supports a network of Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs). Their work is focused on issues of family and sexual violence, community safety and security, poverty reduction, leadership, and recognition of the work of WHRDs, particularly those in rural communities. The women work for sexual reproductive health and rights, access to education and services and the need for action on climate change, among many other important issues. The initiative is supported by the International Women’s Development Agency.

Business enterprises

Software giant Adobe has announced that it has achieved pay parity between women and men globally across 40 countries. The company defines pay parity as ensuring that employees in the same job and location are paid fairly, regardless of their gender or ethnicity. “I am proud that we have taken this important step towards fair recognition of all our people’s contributions — achieving this milestone is fundamental to who we are,” said Adobe president and CEO Shantanu Narayen.

National governments

Iceland has the smallest overall gender gap of 144 countries ranked  by the World Economic Forum and has enacted the world’s first equal pay law. This has come about through grass-roots pressure and the election of women leaders, as illustrated by the recent national ‘Kvennafrí 2018’, Women’s Strike with demonstrations held in 16 towns and cities. The rally in the capital city Reykjavik was addressed by a former prime minister (a woman) and attended by the sitting prime minister (also a woman).

United Nations

The Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka presented the Secretary-General’s report on women, peace and security to the UN Security Council in October. “We commend the Nobel Committee’s recognition to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for their advocacy on behalf of victims of wartime sexual violence. It is an example of the importance of this issue . . I met many exceptionally courageous women in my recent travels to Somalia, South Sudan, the Sahel and the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. Many of them are here today. But many could not be here.  In 2017, half of the women honoured in the annual tribute of the Association for Women in Development were murdered in conflict affected countries. . . . It is my strong wish that we will find the political will to do much more about this epidemic of killings of women over the next decade than we have in this past one.

UNICEF is part of the United Nations taking positive steps at the local and national level. For example, In Ethiopia, UNICEF supports the development of girls’ clubs as part of an accelerated effort to end child marriage.

As we stated in the UNESCO draft resolution sent to the United Nations in 1998 , which became the UN Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace: “there is an inextricable linkage of peace with equality between women and men. Only this linkage of equality, development and peace can replace the historical inequality between men and women that has always characterized the culture of war and violence.”

      

WOMEN’S EQUALITY



The Nobel Prize for Peace 2018

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT



France: Several thousand students have signed a manifesto in which they pledge not to work for companies that disagree with their values

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION



Inter-Parliamentary Union: 139 parliaments demand immediate action on climate change

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION


GAPMIL gives Global Media and Information Literacy Awards 2018

DISARMAMENT AND SECURITY


Nuclear Abolition Day: Security Council session clashes with UN High-Level Meeting

HUMAN RIGHTS



Sepur Zarco case: The Guatemalan women who rose for justice in a war-torn nation

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY



Berlin: Hundreds of thousands march against racism

EDUCATION FOR PEACE



AUNOHR University unveils the “Knotted Gun” Sculpture in Beirut

Uncategorized

Women in Iceland have walked out of work to dispute the gender pay gap

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY .

An article from the World Economic Forum

Imagine if you worked a full day but stopped being paid at 2.55pm.

That’s the fate of women in Iceland, according to a protest group that organized rallies  across the country this week [October 21-27], demanding equal pay and rights and declaring “Don’t Change Women, Change the World!”


The sitting Prime Minister of Iceland, Katrin Jakobsdottir, joined the demonstration, according to the Bloomberg News Service.

While the protestors at ‘Kvennafrí 2018’, Women’s Strike, acknowledge that Iceland has made progress – it has the smallest overall gender gap of 144 countries ranked  by the World Economic Forum and has enacted the world’s first equal pay  law – they say they want faster and more meaningful progress.

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Question for this article

Prospects for progress in women’s equality, what are the short and long term prospects?

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Demonstrations were held in 16 towns and cities and the largest was in Reykjavík, where female musicians, poets, actresses and a 230-strong choir performed.

“Pay discrimination is wage-theft,” Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, former Prime Minister of Iceland told the rally

Finding a voice

Social media is creating a wave of protest where women are speaking out, repeating #MeToo and telling the world that they have had enough.

That underscores the themes in the Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2017, which estimated it will take another 100 years  to achieve gender parity at the current rate of change and 217 years to close the economic gender gap. The 2018 report is due for publication in December.

Such themes have also been highlighted on social media via campaigns including #TimesUp  and #MeToo and the Forum’s ongoing work shows how addressing these issues is more than an ethical or moral concern.

“Gender parity is also fundamental to whether and how economies and societies thrive,” the report said. “A variety of models and empirical studies have suggested that improving gender parity may result in significant economic dividends.”

Iceland has the smallest gender gap, according to the Forum’s report, which focuses on four areas: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. The nation has topped the rankings for the past nine years, reflecting a strong political and cultural will to change.

Europe, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

Adobe boasts gender equality in terms of salary across 40 countries

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY .

An article from Development Discourse

Software giant Adobe Monday [October 22] said it has achieved pay parity between women and men globally across 40 countries.

The company defines pay parity as ensuring that employees in the same job and location are paid fairly, regardless of their gender or ethnicity.


Shantanu Narayen, photo from Money Inc.

As a core element of its gender pay parity initiative, the company analysed its employees’ pay within job family and location, and then made some adjustments to employees’ pay based on that review.
(Article continued in right column)

Question for this article

Prospects for progress in women’s equality, what are the short and long term prospects?

(Article continued from left column)

These global pay adjustments, including those previously made in the US and India, impacted less than five per cent of Adobe employees and less than 0.2 per cent of global payroll costs, a company release said.

“I am proud that we have taken this important step towards fair recognition of all our people’s contributions — achieving this milestone is fundamental to who we are,” Adobe president and CEO Shantanu Narayen said.

In December 2017, Adobe announced US gender pay parity, followed by India pay parity in January this year. In 2016, Adobe announced pay parity between white and non-white employees in the US.

Adobe is committed to maintaining pay parity through its hiring, acquisition integration and annual pay review processes, the statement added.

“We are proud to continue creating a culture that fairly rewards and recognizes the contributions of all our employees across the globe,” said Donna Morris, executive vice president of Customer & Employee Experience, Adobe.

global, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

USA: Planned Parenthood Strikes Back: Preparing for the Worst in the Wake of Kavanaugh’s Confirmation

. HUMAN RIGHTS .

A blog by Miranda Martin for MS Magazine

Planned Parenthood isn’t waiting to see if the worst has yet to come for Roe v. Wade in the wake of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. Instead, they’re planning to launch a multi-million dollar, nationwide campaign to ensure that abortion remains accessible—even if the landmark decision legalizing it nationwide is overturned.


Photo John Bright / Creative Commons

Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Court  tips the scales against Roe  for the first time since it was decided in 1973; he would likely cast the fifth vote necessary to overturn the decision  and give states the power, once again, to criminalize abortion providers and their patients. Kavanaugh’s record shows that he is hostile to reproductive freedoms. Should Roe be overturned, women in over 20 states across the country could lose access to safe and legal abortion overnight.

According to Planned Parenthood, overturning Roe would leave over 25 million women with access to safe, legal abortion in their own state, including over 4.3 million Latina women and almost 3.5 million Black women of reproductive age.

Planned Parenthood has been preparing for such a moment since President Trump’s election in 2016. Trump ran on a platform of outlawing abortion and talked about “punishing” women who elect to undergo the procedure on the campaign trail; his administration has consistently attacked women’s access to reproductive health care and undermined their bodily autonomy.

“We know that we’ll need an ironclad network of states and providers across the country where abortion will still be legal and accessible,” Planned Parenthood executive vice president Dawn Laguens told the New York Times,  “no matter what happens at the Supreme Court.”

(Article continued in the right column)

Questions related to this article:

The post-election fightback for human rights, is it gathering force in the USA?

Abortion: is it a human right?

(Article continued from the left column)

The “Care for All” campaign, at face value, is simple: In states where abortion access is at risk, Planned Parenthood will mobilize against legislation that further restricts or outlaws abortion. In states where abortion access will likely remain in place even with Roe, they’ll work to expand access, opening more clinics and hiring more staff in order to keep them open for longer hours in order to accommodate women crossing state lines in pursuit of care. They’ll offer women traveling long distances transportation assistance through a Regional Access Network and push to expand telemedicine abortion access, in place now in 14 states, for those who can’t make the trip. The organization’s efforts will manifest first in states where abortion policies fall short of those in place along both coasts, specifically Illinois.

“In 2018 alone, advocates introduced 869 positive measures expanding reproductive health care—the highest number of policies introduced to advance reproductive rights in a single legislative session ever,” the organization noted in a press release announcing the new multi-pronged effort. “In tandem, advocates and pro-women’s health legislators blocked or delayed 93 percent of the state-level abortion restrictions introduced in the 2018 legislative session. Now, Planned Parenthood Action Fund will kick off the 2019 legislative session by doubling down on this work.”

Abortion access remains at risk even if Roe remains in place as long as a majority of Justices sitting on the Supreme Court are opposed to reproductive freedoms. Rulings in smaller cases on abortion and contraception are now likely to result in outcomes which further inhibit access, allow for obstruction and increase the burdens imposed on women seeking care.

In order to proactively shift cultural perceptions around abortion—and thus provide a buffer against further attacks on women’s reproductive rights—the organization also plans to engage with media more effectively and more often in order to smash stigma and break the silence around what is a safe and common medical procedure with widespread public support. A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed that Planned Parenthood is popular even amongst conservative voters: 57 percent  of Trump voters oppose women being restricted from accessing birth control, healthcare and cancer screenings.

In advance of their 2019 campaign kick-off, Planned Parenthood is doing all they can to mobilize pro-choice voters with a 20 million dollar  effort in coalition with other like-minded organizations. In total, they predict that they will engage 2.5 million voters  before the midterm elections on November 6.

“We know this is a winnable fight,” the organization told the New York Times  in a statement. “Each of us deserves the right to control our own bodies, including the right to decide if and when to become a parent.”

HUMAN RIGHTS, North America, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

Executive Director remarks at the UN Security Council open debate on women, peace and security

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY .

An article from UN Women

Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka presented the Secretary-General’s report on women, peace and security to the UN Security Council on 25 October, in New York.

Date: Thursday, October 25, 2018
(As delivered)

It is an honour to address the Security Council and to present the Secretary-General’s report on women and peace and security. I thank Bolivia for all the support they have given us in preparing for this debate

This report is a loud alarm bell on systemic failures to bring women into peacemaking in a meaningful manner.

The trend is, women are being excluded from the peace processes. The ones who do not wage war seem to be disqualified from making peace, while those who may be implicated in making war, seem to find it easier to be at the peace tables. 

I together with DPKO, have just come back from a joint UN/AU mission to South Sudan. The women we met there told us how they long for peace and to resume their lives, after nearly five years of suffering from a civil war that they are not responsible for waging. They said, “we are here because we want to reconcile even though we have never quarreled.”

While they still fear for the future, they appreciated the ‘Revitalized Agreement’ on the resolution of the conflict, which offers new hope for the country and an unmissable opportunity to build peace, with a 35 per cent quota for the representation of women. 

Their fears are however bolstered by the fact that, in these early days of the revitalized agreement, in the National Pre-Transitional Committee – there is just one woman among the ten persons nominated to be members of the committee, this is not the agreed 35 per cent. 

The report today details inescapably how this is not an exception but the rule. How there is at the same time hope for progress, and how we are failing to make it a reality.

But hope is something that we cannot and must never lose.
It shows us undeniable possibilities with undeniable failures, which are costing the lives of women and girls.

They do not wage war, but they die and suffer from it.
A year ago in this chamber, I raised the alarm at the numbers shown by the indicators we track yearly on peace processes and mediation.

Today I want to raise the alarm once more with the hope to jolt us into greater action, as indicators show numbers have stagnated or dropped again. 

For that reason, we focused this year’s report on the need for women’s meaningful contribution to peace, and we call on you to take the much-needed concrete actions. 

We need you to be vigilant about ending superficial efforts to include women that do not genuinely extend the opportunity to influence outcomes. 

We wanted to show that the extreme political marginalization at peace tables is often worse in the institutions set up to implement those agreements. 

And we wanted to spotlight the many ways in which women are keep on being active and resilient. They are active in negotiating ceasefires, civilian safe zones, demobilization of fighters, or humanitarian access at the local level, or drawing up protection plans at the community level, like in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan or the Central African Republic. 

We want the UN membership to pay due attention to these dynamics, make them visible in forums like this one, and use them to support the women’s political agency, provide financial resources and enable women to do even more.

The continued tolerance for the limited recognition of women’s expertise and lived experience is a setback for all of us. Statistics on women’s involvement speak for themselves.

Between 1990 and 2017, under our watch, women constituted only two per cent of mediators, eight per cent of negotiators, and five per cent of witnesses and signatories in major peace processes. Only three out of 11 agreements signed in 2017 contained provisions on gender equality, continuing last year’s worrisome downward trend. Of 1,500 agreements signed between 2000 and 2016, only 25 raise the role of women’s engagement in the implementation phase.

In Yemen, current efforts at resuming dialogue do not include women, beyond setting up observer bodies to advise the UN Special Envoy. Even in a consultative meeting in London this summer organized by the UN, convening 22 prominent Yemeni leaders to discuss the peace talks, there were only 3 Yemeni women invited.

In Mali, women average a dismal three per cent of the membership of the multiple national committees set up to monitor and implement the peace agreement.

In the Central African Republic, mediation efforts are focused on the presidency and the 14 armed groups and exclude women altogether.

In Afghanistan, the government and its international partners invest efforts in including women in the High Peace Council and provincial peace councils, but when it comes to actual talks with the Taliban, women’s absence is noticeable.

Undeniably, there are possibilities, but also undeniably there are failures and determined women.

In 23 rounds of Afghanistan-Taliban peace talks between 2005 and 2014, women were at the table just twice. Now that there are offers to resume peace talks without pre-conditions, Afghan women peacebuilders want to be at the table and want to make a difference.

Finally, here is a number that is more positive. Security Council decisions about country-specific or regional situations that contained language on women, peace and security increased from 50 to 75 per cent. This must lead to increased action on the front lines. 

The number of women leaders and civil society representatives who briefed the Security Council also increased significantly. 

I thank Council members for these efforts and their continued participation in the Informal Experts Group on Women, Peace and Security, currently co-chaired by Sweden and Peru, in collaboration with the United Kingdom. 

But we need to use all available diplomatic channels and political influence to ensure that these decisions in New York are making a difference on the ground. This is simply not happening in the most meaningful way.

The bigger picture of gender inequality in conflict and post conflict countries is something we need to continue to watch.

Today’s report gives us a broad picture of the many remaining areas of challenge to reach equal representation of women in the vital processes of our nations.

For example, only 16 per cent of parliamentarians in conflict and post-conflict countries are women – same as last year, and the year before that. 

There is 20 per cent representation of women in countries that use quotas and just 12 per cent in countries that do not use quotas. It is for that reason that we appreciate the leading from the front demonstrated by our Secretary-General and call for special measures in the manner in which he is driving the parity process within the United Nations.

This Council just visited the Democratic Republic of Congo ahead of crucial elections. Only 12 per cent of registered candidates are women, just like in the previous elections seven years ago. And women are suffering intimidation.

Of the 17 countries that have elected a woman head of state or government, none are post-conflict countries at this point.

I ask again, as I did last year, we need to heed the call and address the patterns these numbers show us. On our part we will continue to follow up with you on to address this situation with vigilance and make a significant difference.

(continued in right column)

Question for this article

Does the UN advance equality for women?

Prospects for progress in women’s equality, what are the short and long term prospects?

(continued from left column)

It is not only women whose opportunities are being limited. In many conflict settings, girls are one and a half times more likely to be out of primary school and whole communities are set back. The numbers of children lacking education in conflict areas calls for a concrete response and solution, with schools and second chance education.

Child marriage rates are also affected by war. In Yemen, the rate of child marriage was 66 per cent in 2017. It was 52 per cent last year. And 32 per cent before the recent conflict erupted.

Unsurprisingly, but tragically, maternal mortality rates are almost twice the global ratio in conflict and post-conflict countries. Of the 830 women and adolescent girls who die every day from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, 507 die in countries that are considered fragile because of conflict and disaster.

To address these issues and support the regeneration of families and communities, we need strong and targeted investments in women in conflict areas.

This is just not happening enough, despite undeniable goodwill towards the women peace and security agenda in countries that are affected.

The clear gender inequality in women’s access to resources is not simply caused by the presence of conflict. It is also a reflection of non-prioritization of women’s needs and the relegation of women to small-scale and local peripheral initiatives. 

In the Sahel, where we visited with Deputy Secretary-General, the African Union and Minister Wallstrom, we saw the dire poverty of women and communities in the Lake Chad basin. 

We saw households with no electricity in a part of the world which has the highest penetration of the sun on earth and is more suitable than anywhere else in the world for sustainable energy generation from solar power.

Yet clinics lack power. Women have no cold storage for their fish and the fresh produce needed for food security—which contributes in some cases even more to peace than the military.

In conflict-affected countries, only 11.5 per cent of landholders are women.

Although bilateral aid to promote gender equality in fragile country situations rose by 17 per cent compared to the previous year, it still only amounts to five per cent of total bilateral aid spent on programmes with gender equality as the primary objective.

In the DRC, for example, aid from OECD-DAC to gender equality was only 8 USD per capita last year. The same year, the UN documented a 56 per cent increase in sexual violence.

The share of the aid channeled through non-governmental women’s organizations has stagnated.

Our financial commitments do not match the extent to which we rely on these groups.

Yes, there has been undeniable progress, because the actions undertaken with civil society continue to be favoured as a way to operate. This must turn into concrete action and better investment in these groups.

Civil society and women’s organizations have been failed in the midst of record-breaking numbers of side events at intergovernmental meetings. Our plea is to refocus our energies and resources. I believe there is goodwill and we all want what is best for women and girls.

While we have disappointing indicators on women and girls, global military spending has reached 1.74 trillionUSD, a 57 per cent increase since 2000. Some countries allocate more public money to the military than to education or health.

Ninety per cent of grassroots women’s organizations working in areas directly impacted by terrorism and violent extremism state that current counterterrorism measures have an adverse impact on work for peace, women’s rights and gender equality.

We must respond to the many violations against the human rights of women and girls within these groups, and to the social stigma, economic hardship and discrimination women and girls experience when returning to their homes and communities when they have been part of violent groups.

These challenges are best addressed by actions that protect and promote the rights of victims and are fundamentally based in human rights law.

Women human rights defenders, who are on the front lines, are fighting a lonely battle. Many die a lonely death from weapons that are meant to protect them.

Let us look ahead with hope, and the knowledge of what we are capable of together.

This includes what we can do with women such as the African Women Leaders Network, which has been given a boost by the support of Germany and has focal points already in more 30 African countries.

We are already gearing up for the 20th anniversary of Security Council resolution 1325, which will be an opportunity to shape the agenda for the next decade with new commitments and priorities.

We have to start now to gear up towards better results.

We need more positive signs such as those I saw in Somalia where we need to help accelerate positive change.

There will be opportunities for everyone to weigh in, including at next year’s meeting of the Women, Peace and Security Focal Points Network in Windhoek, Namibia, which will carry a special symbolism for those that have been in this movement for a while. 

For now, I want to share three priorities for 2020.

This August, the world mourned the loss of Kofi Annan. Part of his legacy was that the UN debated and decided to stop supporting peace agreements that included blanket amnesties. I think that, two decades later, it is time for the UN to have a similar conversation about supporting, brokering and paying for peace negotiations that exclude women. This is in your hands. This was raised by women from civil society at the forum this Council was invited to earlier this week, at the initiative of Sweden.

Secondly, one of the many positive examples in the report is the UN Peacebuilding Fund’s steadily growing support to projects advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Finding ways to make the 15 per cent minimum target a reality across all relevant entities and other peace and security funds is a point we can all focus on. Joint programming on rule of law in conflict and post-conflict countries, and addressing educational and Economic resilience, or multi-partner trust funds in fragile settings, should be at the start of all conversations about financing.

And finally, we need to do much more to protect women activists, peacebuilders and human rights defenders in conflict-affected countries. We applaud the historic participation of a Palestinian woman representing civil society in addressing this Security Council for the first time. 

We commend the Nobel Committee’s recognition to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for their advocacy on behalf of victims of wartime sexual violence. It is an example of the importance of this issue, to which my esteemed colleague SRSG Pramila Patten devotes all her time and energy. 

I met many exceptionally courageous women in my recent travels to Somalia, South Sudan, the Sahel and the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Many of them are here today. But many could not be here. 

In 2017, half of the women honoured in the annual tribute of the Association for Women in Development were murdered in conflict affected countries. 

But the list is much longer when we include women political leaders, journalists, justice actors and security sector personnel, and those perceived to be LGBTI or who challenge traditional gender roles simply by their involvement in public life. 

It is my strong wish that we will find the political will to do much more about this epidemic of killings of women over the next decade than we have in this past one.

Change is within our hands. Let us work for positive indicators for the next report and let us make sure that next Secretary-General’s report will be able to show that we are turning the corner.

Thank you.

global, United Nations, WOMEN'S EQUALITY,

Women Human Rights Defenders Gather in Bougainville

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY .

An article from the International Women’s Development Agency

Almost 200 women leaders from across Bougainville have come together to advocate for peace in their communities and gender equality for all. [Editor’s note: Bougainville is an island of Papua New Guinea.]

The women leaders are part of a network of Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) in Bougainville, supported by IWDA’s partner Nazareth Centre for Rehabilitation (NCfR). WHRDs work tirelessly to defend women’s rights, acting as educators, advocates, counsellors and activists in their communities.


Women leaders gather at the 2018 Bougainville Women Human Rights Defenders Forum

The Bougainville WHRD Forum was coordinated by NCfR in partnership with IWDA. This year’s forum was unique, with local WHRD groups hosting events in several locations across Bougainville, and thousands of community members watching on.

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Question for this article

Prospects for progress in women’s equality, what are the short and long term prospects?

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Discussions focused on issues of family and sexual violence, community safety and security, poverty reduction, leadership, and recognition of the work of WHRDs, particularly those in rural communities. The women also discussed sexual reproductive health and rights, access to education and services and the need for action on climate change, among many other important issues.

Other organisations attended to share information with women leaders on critical topics, including representatives from the law and justice sector who discussed the Family Protection Act (FPA). The Act states that Village Magistrates have the power to issue Interim Protection Orders, encouraging women to access justice through the court system. The FPA criminalises family and sexual violence with these matters no longer considered a family issue.

Sister Lorraine Garasu, Director of Nazareth Centre for Rehabilitation, said responding to and preventing violence remained an urgent priority.

Participants of the forum had the chance to share their stories directly with high-level government officials, including the President of the Autonomous Bougainville Government, Honourable John Momis. Women leaders raised their concerns about the rights of women and children in Bougainville and other issues affecting their communities.

IWDA CEO Bettina Baldeschi was at the forum, and said she was inspired by the women’s courage and determination to stand up for change.

At the end of the forum, Nazareth Centre for Rehabilitation and IWDA officially launched the second phase of the From Gender Based Violence to Gender Justice and Healing  project.

This project is funded by the Australian Government in partnership with the Government of Papua New Guinea as part of the Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development program. The first phase of the project ended in March, and reached almost 22,000 people in Bougainville through counselling, trainings, awareness raising and initiatives focusing on prevention of family and sexual violence, as well as on support and services for survivors.

East Asia, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

GAPMIL gives Global Media and Information Literacy Awards 2018

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article from UNESCO

he UNESCO-linked network called the Global Alliance for Partnership on Media and Information Literacy (GAPMIL) presented the third edition of its Global Media and Information Literacy Awards this week.

The network recognised Ms Jane Tallim and Ms Cathy Wing of MediaSmarts in Canada, Jordan Media Institute in Jordan, Mr Hemmo Bruinenberg in the Netherlands, and the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos, Mexico.

The network recognised Ms Jane Tallim and Ms Cathy Wing of MediaSmarts in Canada, Jordan Media Institute in Jordan, Mr Hemmo Bruinenberg in the Netherlands, and the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos, Mexico.

The Awards ceremony was held at the Opening Session of the Global MIL Week 2018 Feature Conference in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Jane Tallim and Cathy Wing of MediaSmarts received the top prize. They have been central to MIL in Canada since they joined MediaSmarts in 1995. They both served as co-executive directors from 2008-2018. During that time, they were responsible for Young Canadians in a Wired World, one of the world’s largest and longest-running research projects on youth and the Internet. They also developed the resource, Use, Understand and Create: A Digital Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools.

Under Jane and Cathy’s leadership, MediaSmarts has also contributed to the adoption of media and information literacy in Canada by advising on curriculum and by training teachers, both personally and through the creation of self-directed professional development materials.

There was a tie for the second place of the GAPMIL Global MIL Award 2018 between the Jordan Media Institute and Hemmo Bruinenberg from the Netherlands.

In partnership with UNESCO and the European Commission, Jordan Media Institute launched a project to integrate MIL into Jordan’s schools and universities and raise awareness among the public in 2016, and has been actively engaging decision makers in advocating for MIL and succeeded in including MIL in national strategies on youth and combating extremism and violence at universities.

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Question related to this article.

Is Internet freedom a basic human right?

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Through this partnership, JMI trained 74 teachers and professors and 390 students from eight public schools and two universities. Some of the teachers and students have set up MIL Clubs for students in grades 7-9.  The JMI team drafted six documents that were based on UNESCO MIL literature including a policy paper and syllabus for schools and textbook for universities. They also succeeded in encouraging the University Al Al-Bayt to introduce MIL course this fall.
 
The other winner of the second prize, Hemmo Bruinenberg introduced a visual literacy project called Ithaka Film Festival led by his organization the Video Bakery and the Ithaka International Transition Classes. Over a three-day period, immigrant and refugee students make their own film with professional equipment from extensive research to the media creation and production.

Students not only work on media and information literacy skills, but also as social skills, empowerment, Dutch language and therefore facilitating their integration in Dutch society. The Ithaka Film Festival shows how a media and information literacy project can contribute to the development of skills among a vulnerable group of young students, and how MIL can be integrated in secondary school education in a sustainable way. The project promotes tolerance and cultural equality a better representation in Dutch society.

According to Alton Grizzle, the UNESCO Programme Specialist with responsibility for UNESCO global actions on MIL, “recognition by GAPMIL motivates, stimulates, and appropriates the sharing of MIL experiences and knowledge.” He continued: “When the hard work and innovation of actors in the MIL is celebrated by the community, this creates new MIL champions.”

The third place for the GAPMIL Global MIL Awards goes to the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos (UAEM), Mexico. UAEM initiated a Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) aimed at promoting information literacy to fight disinformation. The University is using e-learning and ICT to meet not only the needs of its students and educators, but also of the wider society in Mexico and in the Spanish Speaking part of the world.

A total of 2,775 participants registered in the first edition of this MOOC and it has potential for future editions. It educated people to develop competences as critic and reflective news consumers, and to promote harmonic interactions in social media. All content for the MOOC is originally produced by e-UAEM, and this course is part of the university’s Digital Culture Programme.

The UNESCO-led GAPMIL is a network of networks that promotes international cooperation to ensure that all citizens have access to media and information competencies. It currently has over 500 member organizations (including other networks) from over 110 countries.

 

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, global, United Nations,

Book fair in Oujda, Morocco: Ambition for the Maghreb and Africa

… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

An article by Bios Diallo for Le Point (translation by CPNN)

Oujda, the regional capital of the Moroccan East hosted from 18 to 21 October 2018 the 2nd edition of Maghreb book fair on the theme “Reinventing the universal”. It was a event full of depth.


Bordering with Algeria and gateway to Morocco, Oujda is a city rich with culture. This inspired the Minister of Culture and Communication, Mohamed Al Aaraj, to say that the Lettres du Maghreb exhibition resembles the city that hosts it: a melting pot of spiritual and intellectual cultures. Moreover, Oujda has been designated, in 2018, “capital of Arab culture”!

More than 300 writers and editors were present. And beyond the authors from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, this edition also welcomed writers and poets from Lebanon, Palestine , Syria, Iran, Latin America and Europe. Sub-Saharan Africa was also present throughout Côte d’Ivoire, a country of honor. The president of the show, Mohamed Mbarki, spoke of a “Maghreb and African ambition” to build through letters.

Towards universality

It remains to be seen how to promote and lead Maghreb literatures towards universality. Writer Jalal El Hakmaoui, who is also curator of the show, said: “It is not a question of creating universality, but of putting it into perspective through the contributions of thinkers. It means transcending the conflicts of the world and the ideologies of hate, to move towards a world that is open and respectful of the other. With “Reinventing the Universal”, the speakers invited positive ideas to combat the discourses that exploit fear.

The public was spoiled for choice of themes. The halls were filled by visitors thirsty for knowledge and debate. The subject “Islam and modernity” catalyzed many passions of the Maghreb. Indeed, between radicalization and violence, enlightenment is needed. And if Islam, as a personal faith, is not refractory to modernity, the external gaze on it is now biased. “No, Islam is not violent,” protests Algerian publisher and translator Sakhr Benhassine. And for good reason, if one investigates those who perpetrate violence, one discovers those with limited religious and human qualities. It is therefore for other motives that the ignoble is committed, and not Islam. At the round table “Sufism and the culture of peace”, rapper, slammer and writer Abd al Malik agreed: “It is our duty to enlighten those who do not really have access to the book,” he argues. “Since I am interested in Sufism, as I travel through the world of the original texts, I discover the strength and spirit of peace contained in the sacred writings. You just have to believe that people are badly informed.”

(This article is continued in the column on the right.)

(click here for the French original of this article)

Question for this article:

What is the relation between peace and education?

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Themes that challenge current events

“The Maghreb seen from elsewhere” and “Being a migrant today” overlap by the fact of departure and return, the gaze of the other and of oneself. The Maghreb, itself a land of confluences, is now experiencing many crossings to Europe. Just as it has known the loss of its youth in search of better horizons towards Europe, Canada and the United States. But because, among other things, attacks and violence often committed by individuals claiming Islam, migrants and non-migrants are stigmatized. “However,” said Fodé Sylla, a great activist of the 2000s in France and moderator of one of the meetings, “we will not give in to the fear of the other. Neither the Muslim nor the migration carries the genes of violence. The culture of violence is dishonestly imposed on them. “We must avoid rigid judgments and identities,” adds Moroccan novelist Naima Lahbil Tagemouati.

The imagination of languages, the creation, the dream of elsewhere, the edition and circulation of the book will not be left out. And if Maghreb literature comes from brilliant writers, it must be recognized that their talents evolved elsewhere, an elsewhere more attractive, but at the expense of a deprived land. This is what the show wants to correct, say the organizers. The Wali of the region, keen on the readings, questions: “Will we always be condemned to see our authors celebrate elsewhere?” Mouaad Jamai refuses to abdicate:” What are we able to value here in the Maghreb! Oujda is a favorable environment. We can express here loud and clear a common will to bring about a Maghreb edition that is coherent and solidaire on the scale of the subregion around our authors and editors.”

The junction of two worlds

Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa share the same dilemma. “Our literature is still behind, regrets the Ivorian poet Henry Nkoumo. Produced elsewhere, little disseminated and encouraged at home, it can not be otherwise. But it is time for us to be able to produce on our own, and to allow our schoolchildren and readers to have access to our productions as they should! This is no doubt why the Maghreb Book Fair focuses on youth (writing workshops, comics, news and images with writers and illustrators) and local editions.

And the necessary construction of bridges. “Designating an African country as guest of honor for each edition,” said Abdelkader Retnani, president of the Union of Publishers of Morocco and one of the mainstays of the event, is part of the will of the kingdom to mark its anchor as African. For this second edition, Côte d’Ivoire succeeds Senegal. Maurice Kouakou Bandaman, Minister of Culture and Francophonie of Côte d’Ivoire, sees this as a comforting sign: “By making the Maghrebi Book Fair of Oujda a unifying door open to the world, the organizers give Morocco beautiful colors and the expectations of our book industry. ”

The visitors left with their hands full of books, with ideas to mature before 2019!

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Mideast