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Strategic objective E.4.
Promote women’s contribution to fostering a culture of peace
Actions to be taken
146. By Governments, international and regional intergovernmental institutions and non-governmental organizations:
- Promote peaceful conflict resolution and peace, reconciliation and tolerance through education, training, community actions and youth exchange programmes, in particular for young women;
- Encourage the further development of peace research, involving the participation of women, to examine the impact of armed conflict on women and children and the nature and contribution of women’s participation in national, regional and international peace movements; engage in research and identify innovative mechanisms for containing violence and for conflict resolution for public dissemination and for use by women and men;
Beijing Declaration (1995)
I like this paragraph set. The focus is on the largest possible scopes of the international, regional, and national communities and organizations to work on, mainly, peace. Looking at the core issue here, and as reflected in some depth in one of the more recent articles on the Beijing Declaration, the United Nations was found with the Charter of the United Nations effective on October 24, 1945 with a focus on the need for international peace and security.
This makes sense. No need for the details once more, simply a point of recollection. Thinking about the promotion of resolution and peace, these, obviously, are hand in hand with one another. All training and education and community action geared towards peace with one practical consequence of resolution. It seems a tad like the Montagues versus the Capulets in which two warring factions make peace through finding common ground for a peaceful agreement; a resolution of the conflict.
There could be youth exchange programmes, too, which could form the basis for the next generations learning more about other places in the world and developing a tolerance for one another. The emphasis here, within the paradigm of a focus on women’s issues, is the sending of young women abroad to undergo this, often, lifechanging experience.
The majority of the victims of armed conflict as civilians are women and children, where the proportion of the civilian casualties has been increasing over time. Indeed, some of our base facts about war are the two-fold issue of forcing many men into war or coercing them into it, and then having the majority of the unarmed murdered as women and children.
The “nature and contribution of women’s participation” in the peace movements becomes integral. Long-term activists such as Ralph Nader or Noam Chomsky, or Margaret Atwood or Arundhati Roy, know this. The integral part of women in the peace movements and their longevity. The call here is, in fact, one big research project on the mechanism and gears that make for the resolution of conflict and violence with one key answer found in the representation of women and the public dissemination of this knowledge for popular action for “governments, international and regional intergovernmental institutions and non-governmental organizations.”
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- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2).
- Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3, Article 7, and Article 13.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
- Some general declarations (not individual Declaration or set of them but announcement) included the UN Decade for Women (1976-1985).
- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979) and the Optional Protocol (1999).
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984).
- The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the optional protocol (1993).
- Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), Five-year review of progress (2000), 10-year review in 2005, the 15-year review in 2010, and the 20-year review in 2015.
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000), and the UN Security Council additional resolutions on women, peace and security: 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013), 2242 (2015), and 2467 (2019).
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
- Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence or the Istanbul Convention (2011) Article 38 and Article 39.
- UN Women’s strategic plan, 2018–2021
- 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, emphasis on the entirety of the goals with a strong focus on Goal 5
- 2015 agenda with 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (169 targets for the end to poverty, combatting inequalities, and so on, by 2030). The SDGs were preceded by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from 2000 to 2015.
- The Spotlight Initiative as another important piece of work, as a joint venture between the European Union and the United Nations.
- February 6, International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation is observed.
- February 11, International Day of Women and Girls in Science is observed.
- June 19, Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict is observed.
- June 23, is International Widows’ Day is observed.
- October 11, International Day of the Girl Child is observed.
- October 15, International Day of Rural Women is observed.
- November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is observed.
- Gender Inclusive Guidelines, Toolbox, & United Nations System-wide Strategy on Gender Parity.
- Say No, UNiTE, UNiTE to End Violence against Women, Orange the World: #HearMeToo (2018), and the 16 days of activism.
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Photo by Devon Divine on Unsplash