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We support traumatised
women and girls
in war and crisis zones

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Human rights

We monitor

When a war draws to a close, the consequences for women and girls usually linger on. Once the conflict is over and global public interest in war and crisis zones fades, medica mondiale begins to tackle a less spectacular but enormously important challenge.

 

For example:
medica mondiale calls for German Defence Ministry to adopt a zero tolerance guideline for Bundeswehr soldiers


© dpa

Male helpers in post-conflict areas provide welcome assistance in reconstructing countries devastated by war. Many years of experience have shown that in several post-war societies such assistance has also gone hand-in-hand with the development of a secret sex industry for army personnel. Trafficking in women, forced prostitution and the incidence of AIDS surge wherever soldiers assert male needs, ensuring that these can be “relieved”. In Kosova too the sex industry, which was scarcely present before the conflict, really took off as a result of the presence of UNMIK and KFOR after 2000. The brunt of this problem is borne by women who suddenly find themselves confronted with the helpers in uniform as clients for prostitution.

 

For years medica mondialehas called for the German Bundeswehr to develop a set of training guidelines: members of the armed forces and civilian staff should be trained before deployment on the rights and protection of women and girls in war and crisis zones and be handed a set of binding provisions on how to behave. That means: zero tolerance for helpers who coerce women and girls into sexual actions by exploiting their vulnerable situation.

We monitor governments, institutions and international organisations to ascertain whether and how they develop and implement women-specific standards for their work. We urge politicians in post-war societies to involve women in the democratic reconstruction of the country and in forming the government, both directly and indirectly.

 

An example.
medica mondiale calls for implementation of UN Resolution 1325 through the Women’s Security Council

A milestone for feminist peace policy: for the first time in the history of the United Nations, the UN Security Council has adopted a resolution, which is binding under international law, to involve women in decisions about war and peace and take the gender perspective into account.

-> Resolution 1325 was adopted unanimously on 31st October 2000 by the Security Council of the United Nations (UN). In this resolution, the UN Security Council calls on UN member states to ensure greater participation of women at all levels in institutional conflict prevention, management and resolution.

A full five years after Resolution 1325 was adopted, there has been scarcely any progress in national and international implementation:

  • The number of women in senior UN posts or among security staff on UN peace missions is not increasing.
  • Women’s participation in forming the government in Afghanistan (Loya Jirga) or Iraq, as well as in peace negotiations in Somalia or in the Middle East, has been and remains negligible, and indeed virtually impossible.
  • Experience has shown that women who have experienced sexual violence do not disclose what has happened to them to male staff, out of a sense of shame and a justified fear of social exclusion. As a result these war crimes usually go unpunished.

 

The ->> Women’s Security Council (WSC in German), which medica mondiale also belongs to, keeps a critical eye on the work of the German government in the UN Security Council. By pooling know-how on women’s issues, the WSC aims to admonish politicians to include the gender perspective in foreign and security policy and to provide an impetus for national implementation of UN Resolution 1325. The WSC upholds international law and human rights standards. That entails redefining the term “security” to take gender-specific aspects into account and devising a catalogue of criteria for civilian peace missions with a gender-specific focus. These criteria aim to increase governmental organisations’ awareness of and support for women in crisis regions.

The Women’s Security Council is made up of around 50 women from peace and development organisations, political foundations and peace studies institutes.

The Women’s Security Council has expressed an own-initiative opinion on German 1325 policy and has drawn up an alternative -> shadow report PDF . This was presented at a press conference in Berlin on 21st October 2004.

On 31st October 2005 a series of symbolic measures were used to once again urge European foreign ministers to implement the resolution. (-> Call for action in German)


->> IPS- article „Wenig Rückenwind für UN-Resolution 1325 – Nationale Aktionspläne gefordert“ (25.5.2005 in German)

 

Help us to support women in war and crisis zones all over the world by -> making a donation!

© medica mondiale e.V. ·  21.11.2006