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Government leadership in improving women’s role in peacebuilding essential: Forum
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Standing up for rights: Women's rights activists stage a peaceful rally to commemorate International Women's Day in Malang, East Java, on March 5. (JP/Aman Rochman)
C
ivil society organizations have called for Indonesia to show its leadership in linking women to the peace and security agenda, as women continue to be underrepresented in peacebuilding.
Asian Muslim Action Network country director Dwi Rubiyanti Kholifah said even though Indonesia had a 2014 national action plan on women's protection and empowerment in conflict-prone areas, more work was needed to translate it into concrete efforts at the local level.
Issued in 2014 after seven years of deliberation, the action plan was mandated by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, which was adopted in 2000 and focuses on the impacts of conflict on women and their participation in preventing conflict and building peace.
The action plan has three pillars -- prevention, conflict handling, and participation and empowerment -- which according to Rubiyanti, have served as guidelines for government bodies, particularly the Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry.
But without concrete implementation and seriousness in advancing women's role in peacebuilding, such an action plan was mere words on paper.
“Government leadership is key. Civil society has no authoritative power; we can only try to push the issue," she said in a discussion held by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Indonesia on Monday.
According to UN data in 2018, women only accounted for 2 percent of mediators, 8 percent of negotiators and 5 percent of witnesses and signatories in major peace processes between 1990 and 2017.
