"1325 Award" - Advancing Gender Equality in Conflict & Peacekeeping

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PeaceWomen "1325 Award" Article:
http://www.peacewomen.org/news/1325News/Issue81.htm
The PeaceWomen Team

Women often resist the return to traditional gender roles when their society
is emerging from conflict; some seize the opportunity and advance gender
equality. We highlight several outstanding examples in this edition of 1325
PeaceWomen E-News. The work of Etweda “Sugars” Cooper, the recently
announced winner of the “1325 Award” (item 3) shows how women can further
women’s rights, particularly in this post-conflict context. Beyond her
remarkable efforts to involve women in bringing peace to Liberia, Ms. Cooper
also demonstrated how 1325 can be used as an effective tool to empower women
in post-conflict settings – she used the resolution as a justification in
lobbying for a 30% quota for women in party political nominations. This sort
of initiative is a concrete example of what is meant by 1325’s call for a
“gender perspective” in post-conflict reconstruction. The vagueness of the
term “gender perspective” and the fact that the resolution itself provides
little concrete guidance on this is should not be used as an excuse for
inaction. This newsletter features two valuable resources (item 5) in this
regard. The recent study on gender, justice and truth commissions sets out
useful lessons from several truth commissions. The popularity of this form
of transitional justice mechanism, and the fact that they are a powerful
reconstruction and reconciliation tool, necessitates that truth commissions
also incorporate a gender perspective. INSTRAW’s new guide on women, peace
and security is another welcome resource. Hopefully governments and other
policy makers will take full advantage of the recommendations, practical
steps and good examples it provides.

In bringing a gender perspective to post-conflict reconstruction, it is
vital that 1325 not be seen in isolation. It can very effectively be used in
conjunction with the Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW) to promote gender equality. PeaceWomen’s analysis of two recent
conflict affected countries reports’(item 4), the DRC and Georgia, to the
CEDAW Committee demonstrates the links between 1325 and CEDAW. Post-conflict
recovery requires development. It is vital that gender equality be made a
top priority from the start for any development to be sustainable.

Regrettably, governments did not make this crucial link between gender
equality and development during the recent general debate at the start of
the 61st Session of the General Assembly. Although the general debate
focused on “Implementing a Global Partnership for Development,” most
delegates failed to mention women and gender. PeaceWomen’s 2006 GA General
Debate “Gender Index” (item 5) includes all references to women and gender
in statements delivered during the debate. We do applaud and look forward to
advancing gender with the new President of the General Assembly, Sheika Haya
Rashed Al Khalifa. She is the first woman to hold the position in decades
and one of only 3 ever to do so. There remains, however, a serious need for
increased participation of women at all levels of decision-making (including
at the highest levels at the UN) – a fact emphasized by several of our
featured news items (item 1). Calls for participation and voices of
congratulations when a woman manages to make it to a position of power are,
however, not enough. A fully integrated gender perspective is essential in
post-conflict reconstruction and in all development. That governments do not
even acknowledge this in their rhetoric is disappointing to say the least.

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ETWEDA COOPER OF LIBERIA ANNOUNCED AS WINNER OF “1325 AWARD”

Etweda Cooper, nominated by UNMIL’s senior gender advisor, was announced as
the winner of The Dutch Women in Conflict Situations and Peacekeeping
Taskforce 1325 Award.

This award aims to honour and encourage an individual or a civil society
organization in a conflict country or region that has developed
groundbreaking and effective initiatives to promote the rights of women and
to increase their participation at decision-making levels in peace
processes. The Women in Conflict Situations and Peacekeeping Taskforce
monitors and enhances the implementation of resolution 1325 in the
Netherlands. With the 1325 Award the Taskforce wants to honour the important
work of civil society women in conflict resolution and peace movements.
Women in conflict areas are the first to raise the issue of conflict-related
gender problems and bear the greatest risks in forwarding an agenda of
peace.

The 1325 Award, comprising prize money, a work of art commissioned for the
occasion and a tour through the Netherlands to present the winner’s work, is
a one-off prize granted to an individual or a civil society organization
that has effectively and innovatively contributed to the promotion of women’
s rights and the increase of their participation at decision-making levels
in peace processes.In short, the 1325 Award aims to reward those who have
contributed to the implementation of Resolution 1325.

All nominated organizations and individuals do work that is important to the
cause of women. Sometimes their work is closely related to Resolution 1325,
sometimes organizations address gender or peace issues in a more general
way. Sometimes an organization affects the life of many, sometimes the
impact is more focused. Comparing the work of very different organizations /
individuals to one another is always very difficult. In this case, those
nominees with the highest scores on all criteria made it to the shortlist.
According to the jury, all shortlisted nominees definitely meet the minimal
requirements to be awarded. Yet, after some debate, the jury thought one
candidate scored best on all primary and secondary criteria: Etweda “Sugars”
Cooper.

Under very difficult circumstances, Ms. Cooper succeeded in advocating women
’s voices in peace negotiations, post-conflict processes and political
institutions. Furthermore, the jury thinks Ms. Cooper plays an important
part in the implementation of resolution 1325 and will continue to do so.
She uses the resolution as a legal and international ‘weapon’ for her cause,
but she also strifes to have the resolution embedded in legislative and
political bodies in her country. Because of that, she inspires local,
national and international actors to really act on Resolution 1325. She is
firmly rooted in a influential organization, she has the power to influence
large and diverse audiences and she has the charisma to unite people into
peace.

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Winner’s Profile: Etweda “Sugars” Cooper, Liberia Women Initiative

Etweda Cooper, also called “Sugars” is known for her speaking out: she shows
no remorse for her stance on issues of politics and human rights as they
relate to women and children. Because of her leadership skills and ability
to quickly organize and mobilize she proved to be the right person to let
out the frustration of women who were being victimized during the hay days
of the civil war in Liberia. In response to that and the stalemate in the
peace process, she and other women founded the Liberia Women Initiative in
1994 to advocate for disarmament and free and fair elections but also to
bring pressure to bear on stakeholders for the inclusion of women in
negotiating a settlement of the Liberian conflict.

“Sugars” was in the vanguard of ensuring that women were represented at fora
discussing the return to democratic governance in Liberia. These include the
Accra Clarification on the Liberian Peace Process in 1994 and the Liberia
Agenda for Peace, Reconciliation and Reconstruction in Monrovia in 1998.
Throughout 14 years of civil war she used mass action including picketing,
sit ins and marches involving grassroots and professional women and their
groups to attract world attention to the plight of women and children and to
urge the international community to take action to end the war.

As a strategist for the Liberian Women peace activities under the auspices
of Women In Peace building Network, WIPNET, Ms. Cooper was unrelenting in
lobbying factional leaders through visits, dialoguing and pleading with them
to resolve the stalemate in the Accra Peace Talks in 2003, urging them to
agree to a ceasefire and to constitute a transitional administration. At the
same time, she worked with and lobbied delegates, the facilitators,
representatives of the international community to ensure neutrality of a
Liberian to lead the transitional government.

“Sugars” lobbied at the Accra Peace Talks for a woman to be head of the
National Transitional Government. Although these attempts proved otherwise,
she was undaunted in ensuring a 50/50 representation in the new interim
leadership on returning to Monrovia. With little success, but bearing in
mind the perspectives women bring to the political life of a country, she
began advocating for a woman president for the October 2005 elections. Her
participation in the 2005 Women’s Political Forum which outlined 10 sector
areas of concern to women, led to the drafting of the Women’s Manifesto to
which she provided technical support.

Ms. Cooper was also at the forefront in lobbying the National Elections
Commission and Legislature for 30% party nomination of women candidates in
political parties using UN Security Council Resolution 1325 as justification
and participated in the actual drafting of said Guidelines. Part of the
strategy to enhance and increase women’s participation in the election was
training women in leadership and campaign strategies. She mobilized women to
register as voters and to vote for a woman president and women Legislators
in both rounds of the 2005 elections. The result was a 50%+50 women voters
and a woman as president.

She served as member of the Board of Directors of Habitat for Humanity
Liberian and Habitat for Humanity International Board; former chairman of
the Board of directors of NGO Women Secretariat of Liberia; former member of
Liberia Democracy Research Center; Board member Liberia rural women
Association; Board member of the Society for the Conservation of Nature of
Liberia; Board member of the Women Development Association of
Liberia(WODAL); Advisor to the Coalition of Political Parties Women In
Liberia (COPWIL);
Founding member and Regional chairman West Africa Network for Peace WANEP;
founding member and Regional Adviser Women In Peace building Network and
member of Management Committee of the Mano River Peace Forum. Ms. Cooper is
currently the Secretary General of the Liberia Women Initiative, she
oversees the management of all the organization’s activities, including fund
raising and programming.

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Shortlisted Candidates:

Seven nominated individuals or organizations were selected for the shortlist
of the 1325 Award. The other shortlisted candidates were:

• Shobha Gautam, Institute of Human Rights Communication, Nepal Nominated
by:International Alert, United Kingdom
• Yanar Mohammed, Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), Iraq
Nominated by: Hivos and Mama Cash, The Netherlands
• Isha l’Isha Haifa Feminist Center, Israel Nominated by: The Kvinna till
Kvinna Foundation, Sweden
• Justine R. Mbabazi, Afghanistan Nominated by: Next Generation Connect
International, Rwanda
• Coalition of Grass Roots Women, Somalia, Nominated by: NOVIB, The
Netherlands
• Alianza Iniciativa de Mujeres Colombianas por la Paz (IMP), Colombia,
Nominated by: Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarollo (UNDP),
Colombia

For more on the 1325 Award and the Women in Conflict Situations and
Peacekeeping Taskforce please visit:
http://www.1325award.nl/index.php?id=10&ln=en
Received on Wed Oct 11 11:58:19 2006