Photo by Gary Raynaldo /  Ana Maria Menéndez, United Nations Under-Secretary General, Senior Adviser on Policy, speaks at International Peace Institute policy forum  ‘Mobilizing Men as Partners for Women, Peace and Security’ Mar. 20,  2019 New York City.

By Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

There are serious barriers that need to be smashed through to assure women’s equal participation in high-level international peacemaking. Although some inroads have been made, progress remains slow. The International Peace Institute (IPI)  held a forum in Manhattan last week entitled: “Mobilizing Men as Partners for Women, Peace and Security” to address this issue. The IPI is an independent, international not-for-profit think tank dedicated to managing risk and building resilience to promote peace, security and sustainable development. 

According to a 2012 United Nations report,      between 1992 and 2011, just 2 percent of chief mediators and 9 percent of negotiators in peace processes were women. 

According to the IPI, so few women participate in high-level peacemaking because that landscape presents a number of barriers to women’s participation. First, if the goal of a peace process is only to end violence, then women-who are rarely the belligerents-are unlikely to be considered legitimate participants, according to IPI. Second, women’s different security needs and priorities for peace challenge the dominant understanding of peace and security in the international system, which remains largely focused on state security rather than human security. Third, multilateral organizations like the UN that have made commitments to women’s participation in peacemaking have less power to influence the structure of a peace process in today’s changing mediation landscape.

According to the IPI,    new evidence from the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Broadening Participation Project shows that when women’s groups were able to effectively influence the process, a peace agreement was more likely to be implemented. 

Ana Maria Menéndez, United Nations Under-Secretary General, Senior Adviser on Policy, stated that “Pushback”  from powers that be to  the  gender parity  effort is also a problem for women’s participation in peacemaking.  Menéndez is of the opinion that there is pushback and backlash at the  UN to the gender parity goal. The former Spanish diplomat currently oversees the gender parity strategy at the UN. Menéndez’ goal is to reach a 50-50 parity among all UN staff by 2028.

“We need more women in our international institutions starting with the UN because we really need to set the example.  Parity? We are not there yet. We are not even close to having more women in the peace and security world. We know that most of the gatekeepers, the mediators, the blue helmets, the diplomats, the arms dealers, the arms bearers are all men.”

Ana Maria Menéndez.

 “Male allies use their power to provide a platform to amplify the voices of women.”  Ana Maria Menéndez continued, adding the broad goal was to have “more women leading their communities, changing the face of the security sector and having an equal say in how we reconstruct societies, how we heal from conflict, and how we prevent it in the first place.”  She added:  “We’re not even close.”

However,  Menéndez is in a key role in her position as she works with and is in direct contact with the U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.  She said the Secretary-General has already appointed a majority of women in upper level peacemaking positions at the UN during the past year. 

Video by Gary Raynaldo /  Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury explains the importance of mobilizing men as partners for women in peace and security at IPI forum New York Mar. 20, 2019.

“I Am A Feminist.    I Am Proud To Be A Feminist”!

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury

Photo by Gary Raynaldo /  IPI Forum left to right: Ambassador Donald Steinberg,  Executive Director,  Mobilizing Men as Partners for Women, Peace and Security,    Mirsad “Miki” Jacevic,  Vice Chair, Institute for Inclusive Security,  Dr. Sarah Taylor, Senior Fellow, IPI, Karin Landgren, Executive Director,  UN Security Council Report,  Fatima Kadhim Al-Bahadly, Director, Al-Firdaws Society,  Basra, Iraq; Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership, and Ms. Al-Bahadly’s interpreter.  For right at podium, is Adam Lupel, VP of the IPI.

Photo by Gary Rayanldo  /  IPI  policy forum Manhattan  Mar. 20, 2019.

Photo by Gary Raynaldo  /  Karin Landgren, Executive Director,  UN Security Council Report,  Fatima Kadhim Al-Bahadly, Director, Al-Firdaws Society,  Basra, Iraq; Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership

“I’m convinced that men hear other men more effectively than they hear women. Like it or not, the world over, there seems to be widespread male discounting of truth spoken in a female voice. One way forward is more female voices, but for now it galls me, if we want effective communication and outreach, there need to be more male voices not simply relating the evidence but persuading others at a more visceral level of the value of women holding power.”

  Karin Landgren, Executive Director,  UN Security Council Report.

Fatima Kadhim Al-Bahadly, Director, Al-Firdaws Society,  Basra, Iraq –  pointed out that the fact that women are rarely the perpetrators of horrific crimes in war-torn countries, it hinders their participation in peacemaking. In addition,  Al-Bahadly observed that many women who have been victims of horrific war crimes are often reluctant to come forward to report the incidents. 

Donald Steinberg, the executive director of Mobilizing Men as Partners for Women, Peace and Security, said the failure to involve women at all levels of leadership constituted “an emergency.”