Welcome to the GAPS August Wrap-Up

19 August marked International Humanitarian Day:

Civil society demonstrated their support for the day, including aid workers in Gaza who paused for a moment of silence, in solidarity with fellow humanitarians and to honour the 289 colleagues killed since October 2023. GAPS joined the calls to #ActforHumanity to ensure the protection of civilians, including humanitarians, in conflict zones & ensure accountability for violations of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law. Read the full thread here. 

Development Minister Anneliese Dodds called for urgent humanitarian action for South Sudan:

During the first Africa trip, Minister Dodds has announced a package of support of £86 million for the most vulnerable people in South Sudan, Sudan and Chad, including new funding for a programme to tackle endemic gender-based violence. This trip included visits to the country’s largest internally displaced persons’ camp.

This month marks 3 years since the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan:

GAPS members have released statements and reports to recognise the three year-anniversary. Amnesty International has conducted a wide-ranging consultation with more than 150 women in Afghanistan and in exile to provide suggestions for the future. GAPS published a thread to mark this date and remind 10 Downing Street of their commitments under the WPS agenda to translate promises into solidarity for the Afghan people.

Iraq’s parliament has issued a bill to reduce the legal age of marriage for girls from 15 to 9

Civil society have expressed their concern for the proposed legislation in Iraq to lower the legal age of marriage as a grave violation of children’s rights, regression of gender equality and that it would “legalise child rape”. In a report published by Human Rights Watch ahead of this news, it was detailed that 28% of girls in Iraq are married before the age of 18. Protests have been taking place in several Iraqi cities in response to this bill, however, the government have moved ahead.

The first FCDO staff member has resigned over Israel’s genocide in Gaza:

A British FCDO official has resigned in response to the UK’s complicity in war crimes in Gaza. Mark Smith’s letter to his colleagues was made public and international media outlets have reported on this with details that the staff member had  raised concerns “at every level” in the Foreign Office, including through an official whistle blowing mechanism. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) have declined to comment on an individual case but said the government was committed to upholding international law.

The Summit of the Future is taking place in September

Next month, the United Nations (UN) is convening the Summit of the Future, a high-level event to bring world leaders together and ‘forge a new international consensus on how to deliver a better prevent and safeguard the future’. Yet again, the lack of space for civil society in multi-lateral fora is concerning. Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Geneva and the Geneva Graduate Institute have released a report on civil society engagement at the UN, noting that ‘systemic barriers and logistical challenges have increasingly marginalised CSOs, particularly those from the Global South’. On the Summit of the Future specifically, the report recognises the limited and often tokenistic engagement, including during the state-led agenda planning.

Over 350 civil society organisations which are part of the UNmute initiative issued a collective statement to the United Nations, pressing for more substantial consultation and involvement in the preparatory process. Lesley Connolly and Aaron Stanley address how both the location and the structure of these spaces are decided by those who live outside of conflict environments. These spaces often present bureaucratic hurdles, exclusionary terminology and lack of funding/visa issues that present meaningful engagement by civil society. With the upcoming WPS week and 68th session of CSW, there is a high saturation of multilateral spaces, but these happen in silo from one another and often without mechanisms for accountability. How can civil society hold these world leaders to account if they are not in the room?

August Reads

Support to Sudanese women responding to conflict and crisis 

On 15 April 2023, conflict erupted in Khartoum between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), severely impacting women and girls. This short briefing outlines the critical issues facing women in Sudan, focusing on gender-based violence (GBV), political participation, economic empowerment and humanitarian assistance. It highlights the efforts of women’s rights organisations in Sudan and offers recommendations on how to foster a more comprehensive approach to supporting Sudanese women in their efforts to ensure protection and economic and political participation during and after the conflict, and reach a more feminist and sustainable peace. Full report here.

Decolonising the field of violence against women and girls

In response to continuing legacies of colonialism, there is increasing recognition of the need to decolonise various fields of research and practice, including within work on violence against women and girls (VAWG). An emerging body of literature critiques how VAWG is framed, how prevention and response interventions may be imposed on communities as part of White Saviourism, and the existence of hierarchical approaches to data collection, analysis and interpretation. Read here. 

Civil society report to the United Nations CERD 

A joint submission from the Runnymede Trust and Amnesty International UK to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s 113th Session, has found that government legislation and policy is in breach of key articles of the United Nations treaty, the International Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). Endorsed by over 40 civil society organisations, the 50-page report shows that people of colour have faced a worrying rowback on their civil and political rights.  Read here.

LGBTQI+ Atrocity Risks in Latin America

This report outlines the findings of the community consultations with LGBTQI+ rights organisations and activists in Latin America, to better understand LGBTQI+ experiences of mass violence and perceptions of factors increasing atrocity risk for LGBTQI+ communities. Latin American civil society organisations such as Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales (CRIES), have long been sounding the alarm for rising atrocity risks in the region, citing deepening polarisation, widening social fracture, increasing repression of human rights advocates, and high rates of corruption and impunity. Read here.

In case you missed it

The final episode of ”Transforming Transitional Justice”, a podcast from the Global Initiative for Justice, Truth and Reconciliation, has been released. This is a flagship program of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, a global network of historic sites, museums and memory initiatives that support communities to confront painful pasts in order to establish more just and peaceful societies today. Listen here. 

The Lebanon Humanitarian INGO Forum and the Lebanon Humanitarian and Development NGO Forum published a statement to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the conflict in Lebanon. Read the full statement here.

The United Nations Security Council held a briefing on 7 August on “Sustaining WPS Commitments in the context of accelerated drawdown of peace operations”. Kholood Khair, Founder and Director of Confluence Advisory made a statement focusing on the impact of transitions of UN peace operations on women’s rights and participation in Sudan- the full transcript can be read here. 

The US has approved the sale of $20 billion in fighter jets and other military equipment to Israel since the Advisory Group’s verdict on Israel’s illegal occupation of the oPts. The US Secretary of State said, “The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defence capability”.

GAPS released a secretariat statement in response to the Islamophobic and racist riots in the UK. Read the full statement here.

Job Board

Peace Direct
UN Representative for Peace Direct US (London), 8th September.

Conciliation Resources
Programme Officer, Horn of Africa (Nairobi, Kenya or Jigjiga, Ethiopia), 6th September.

Saferworld
Outreach Supervisor, (Sudan or home-based), 31st August.

International Alert
Participatory Conflict and Gender Analysis of Climate Vulnerabilities in the Omo-Turkana Region, (Turkana-Omo Borderlands), 30th August.

Christian Aid 
Gender, Protection and Inclusion consultancy, (London), 1 September.

International Alert
Global Campaigns Officer, (Global), 8th September.