Women as peacemakers.

• Author: Ruffin, Fayth A.
• Position: 10 Stories the World Should Hear More About

As the international community adjust to implement UN Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), adopted by the United Nations on 31 October 2000, innovative women peace-builders make inroads across the globe. Negotiating peace and rebuilding societies is nothing new for women--it is a reaffirmation of it, not its conception, as embodied in the resolution. We have yet to meet a human being not born of a woman, or a mother who did not undergo the most personal of physical trauma in negotiating peace while delivering a new life.

Resolution 1325 reaffirms and assures that women assume their decision-making role in conflict prevention and resolution, as well as peace-building. One of the main themes of the 48th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSD), held in New York in March 2004, was women's equal participation in global conflict prevention, management and resolution, and post-conflict peace-building. While the shift in human consciousness to fully adopt and incorporate the gender mainstreaming contemplated by resolution 1325 is more easily achieved by some, women-driven peace initiatives are occurring. Governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are also making conscious efforts to implement the resolution.

The Mano River Women's Peace Network arose at the height of the Liberian crisis in 2001 as women of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone came together to manage, resolve and prevent conflict. The Network--2003 awardee of the UN Prize for Human Rights--single-handedly opened the pathway of communication between warring factions, which led to tri-national leaders eventually settling their differences, the reopening of borders and restoring diplomatic relations. This regional regime complained, however, that male leadership traditions still bar women from full participation at decision-making levels of peace negotiation, confidence-building measures and conflict resolution. Yet, undaunted, the Network sensitized Liberian peace negotiators to use human rights instruments in negotiating and building peace; its members also teach conflict resolution to NGOs, the media and rebels while advocating for the special needs of refugees.

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On the other hand, the indigenous women in Nepal are preventing, managing and resolving conflict at the community level while pushing for women's elevation to mediators and negotiators at the official decision-making level. Stella Tamang of the Tamang, one of the largest...