GAPS Newsletter: April 2019

30 April 2019

Updates

UN Security Council Resolution 2467

On Tuesday 23 April 2019, under German presidency, the UN Security Council held the annual Open Debate on Sexual Violence in Conflict and adopted a ninth UN Security Council Resolution as part of the Women, Peace and Security agenda: UNSCR 2467.

Read WILPF’s analysis of the debate and the resolution here.

CSW63 Agreed Conclusions

The Commission on the Status of Women adopted agreed conclusions on “Social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls” on 22 March 2019.

APPG-WPS hosts event marking 4th year of conflict in Yemen

On Monday 18 March 2019, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Yemen, the International Rescue Committee, Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS) and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Women, Peace and Security co-hosted the event “Paying the Price: women and girls in Yemen’s war”.

Equality in law for women and girls by 2030

More than 2.5 billion women and girls around the world are affected in multiple ways by discriminatory laws and the lack of legal protections. In response, UN Women, the African Union, the Commonwealth, Inter-Parliamentary Union, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, and Secretaría General Ibero-Americana have jointly issued “Equality in law for women and girls by 2030: A multi-stakeholder strategy for accelerated action” in close collaboration with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Equality Now, Global Citizen, Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, International Association of Women Judges, International Development Law Organization, Muslims for Progressive Values, and Women’s Learning Partnership to tackle persisting discrimination in law.

Between 2019 and 2023, this strategy seeks to fast track the repeal of discriminatory laws in six thematic areas—comprehensive reforms, women’s economic empowerment, minimum age of marriage provisions, nationality rights, discriminatory rape laws, and family and personal status laws—in 100 countries and is expected to address the legal needs of more than 50 million women and girls.

Research & Resources

Beyond Consultations: a tool to promote more meaningful engagement of women in fragile and conflict-affected states

GAPS, and GAPS members Women for Women International UK, Amnesty International UK, Womankind Worldwide and Saferworld, launched Beyond Consultations at the UN Commission on the Status of Women held in New York in March 2019. Beyond Consultations is designed to support actors to move towards more meaningful engagement with women in fragile and conflict-affected states in response to feedback that many consultation exercises tend to be extractive, tokenistic and disempowering.

The tool enables a self-assessment of current consultation practices and provides a best practice framework to ensure that women and women’s organisations are fully engaged in decision-making processes. It should be used as early as possible during the planning and design phase of engagement, and regularly revisited throughout the participation activity and its evaluation.

Inclusion in Practice: examining gender-sensitive conflict analysis

Conciliation Resource’s practice paper examines the experiences of peacebuilding practitioners and policy actors in undertaking gender-sensitive conflict analysis and integrating that analysis into programming and policymaking in conflict-affected contexts. It aims to identify and promote good practice by exploring the challenges faced by different actors in doing this work and identifying lessons learned from their experiences.

Justice for Women

The High-level Group on Justice for Women has launched a report on Justice for Women as part of a broader ongoing work of the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies.This report provides a global overview of legal discriminations that exist both on paper and in practice, and brings together evidence demonstrating that investing in justice for women – and especially eliminating legal barriers, reducing gender-based violence and child marriage – produces high returns to the economy and society.

Achieving Social Protection for all Adolescents

Gender and Adolescence Global Evidence (GAGE) has published the policy brief “Achieving social protection for all adolescents: how can a gender norms lens support more effective programming?” Upholding the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) ‘leave no one behind’ framing will necessitate adopting a wider perspective on adolescents’ well-being, and ensuring that social protection programme design and implementation is informed by an understanding of specific life-cycle, gender and other intersecting vulnerabilities (e.g. disability, ethnicity, caste) as well as opportunities to fast-track social change.

State of Civil Society Report 2019

Since 2012, CIVICUS has published the annual State of Civil Society Report to analyse how contemporary events and trends are impacting on civil society, and how civil society is responding to the major issues and challenges of the day. This is the eighth edition of the report, focusing on civil society action and trends affecting civil society in 2018.

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the Refugee Context

The SEREDA project has launched a series of working papers focusing on some of the key aspects of the gendered refugee experience. This has been co-authored by SEREDA team members from the universities of Bilkent, Uppsala, Melbourne and Birmingham.

Gender and Disarmament

The International Gender Champions Disarmament Impact Group has published a resource pack on gender and disarmament to contribute to the goal of achieving gender equality in multilateral disarmament forums. It includes basic information on gender equality and its relevance to arms control,
non-proliferation and disarmament, as well as practical ideas that can support diplomats in
applying a gender lens to their work.

Gender Balance in Arms Control, Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Diplomacy

UNIDIR has published the report “Still Behind the Curve“, which presents quantitative analysis and key figures illustrating the gender balance in multilateral forums dealing with arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament. Drawing on focus group discussions with diplomats and practitioners, the study also offers reflections on gendered patterns in the diplomatic field.

Events

Exploring cash transfers’ potential to prevent violence and increase women’s economic empowerment in crisis contexts

Monday 13 May, 10:30-12:00, Broadway House, London, SW1H 9NQ

The International Rescue Committee are pleased to invite you to the launch of their research report alongside other organisations working on humanitarian cash and gender. This study seeks to understand whether cash can improve protection outcomes for women and girls in acute settings, or whether it may put them at further risk. In addition to showcasing What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls research, the event also offers the opportunity to reflect more widely on key gaps and good practice for integrating gender-sensitive and gender-transformative approaches into humanitarian cash transfer programming. The event is a timely opportunity to highlight priorities and recommendations ahead of key processes for the Grand Bargain cash workstream in May and June 2019.

Please RSVP before Friday 3 May to Jean.Casey@rescue-uk.org

International Day of the Peacekeepers 17th Annual Conference: The Thin Blue Line

Thursday 23 May, 09:30-16:30, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), London, SW1A 2ET

This annual conference, jointly organised by UNA-UK, UNA-Westminster and RUSI, is the UK’s most authoritative public review of UN peacekeeping activities. It brings together UN practitioners, diplomats, military and the public for an expert discussion of the most pressing issues in peacekeeping today. The conference fee of £25, with a special rate of £15 for students, includes related documents, morning refreshments and lunch.

LSE events

Friday 3 May, 15:00-16:00: Women’s Peace Activism: Iran, Iraq & Syria

Wednesday 22 May, 18:30-20:00: Rethinking Human Rights: a southern response to western critics

Kofi Annan: his life and legacy

Monday 3 June, 18:00-20:00, Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, SW1H 9NH

UNA-UK is hosting an evening to celebrate the life and legacy of Kofi Annan. Mr Annan played a major role in international affairs for almost half a century, becoming one of the world’s most celebrated diplomats. Working at the heart of the UN, including ten years as Secretary-General, he was at the helm grappling with some of the biggest crises of the 21st Century. The venue is wheelchair accessible and an induction loop is available. Tickets cost £10, and £8 for students.

Opportunities

Voices of SDG16+

GAPS member Saferworld, together with the TAP Network and the International Peace Institute, have launched a new campaign to showcase the best examples of work to implement SDG16+ around the world. This is a call for YOU to showcase your work on building peace, on creating an inclusive society, on working for access to justice, on promoting the role of young people, on action to push for gender equality.

This campaign is asking people to submit a short video to explain how they are using SDG16+ or working on issues related to SDG16+. It might be very local work or a national initiative – whatever it does to build a peaceful, just and inclusive society – we want to hear about it. Videos can be submitted in English/Spanish/French/Chinese/Arabic and Russian. To submit a video, visit this page.

The chosen entries will be showcased at an event at the UN High-Level Political Forum in New York in July 2019. Campaign partners will be sponsoring individuals who submitted the best videos to come to New York and present at this event. So please submit your work for a chance to be considered for this opportunity! If you need to be sponsored, please submit the video before May 15th, 2019.

Join the network of Women Mediators across the Commonwealth

Women Mediators across the Commonwealth (WMC) is an innovative new network of women mediators coming together to exchange and learn from each other, and to advocate for the increased representation of women in peace processes globally. Membership is open to any women involved in mediation at the community, national, regional or global level; who are interested in sharing their experience and expertise; and who are citizens of a Commonwealth country. WMC encourages young women to apply from the Caribbean, Africa and the Pacific, and would be particularly interested to hear from indigenous women from these regions. Unfortunately, WMC is no longer able to accept applications from Pakistan, India, Australia, Canada or the UK as they already have the maximum number of members from these countries.

The window for applications to the WMC network is now open and will close on 20 May 2019.

Call for papers!

Justice and Accountability for Sexual Violence in Conflict: Progress and Challenges in National Efforts to Address Impunity

Jobs

Gender and Development Network:

Policy Manager, apply by Monday 20 May