How Norway and Finland promote conflict resolution with gender equality

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Your Majesty, Madam President, Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Before I start, I would like to thank the Finnish Government for hosting this conference.

And let me also say how much I appreciate being back here at Hanaholmen – a Swedish-Finnish cultural centre where even Norwegians feel at home!

And thank you for putting such a critical question – the role and fate of gender in conflict resolution – on the agenda.

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Think for a moment of the pictures we have seen of late night negotiations – on the Horn of Africa, in Sudan, between Palestinians and Israelis or here in Europe, for that matter. How many women do you see when deals are negotiated? When agreements are signed? When reconstruction starts?

We do not need a Nordic perspective on gender equality to agree that the lack of gender balance in peace and reconciliation processes is a problem. Because we know the facts.

Women bear the heaviest burdens in times of war. They bear the heaviest burden in times of reconstruction. So their almost total absence is unacceptable, unfair – and unwise.

We know that women are key agents of change in post conflict situations where peace agreements are to be implemented. When societies are to be rebuilt. When people are trying to get their lives back to normal.

Let us agree on this: peacemaking should not just be an exercise that only involves combatants. It must involve the other half of society, the other part, all of society.

It must include women.

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So what can we do, we who live in peace but who have aspirations to assist in building peace?

Norway for its part is working along several dimensions – in cooperation with our Nordic partners, NGOs and the UN – to increase the participation and representation of women in peace processes.

Our motivation is the simple fact that involving women ensures broader support for changes that affect people’s everyday lives.

Friends,

Change is coming. Because committed people, brave people are engaging – not least women who have been exposed, women who have been victims, women who have taken up the challenges facing them. But also because a sense of solidarity among women and men all over the world has helped set a new political agenda.

One such person is today’s chair – Elisabeth Rehn. I have spoken on the issue of gender and peace three times in recent months – and on all three occasions Elisabeth has been on the podium.

Elisabeth Rehn and others have made crucial contributions to efforts to ensure that UN Security Council resolution 1325 was practicable for UN member countries.

Including women in ongoing peace processes and negotiations is important.

But first women must have basic security. Resolution 1325 is an important instrument in both regards. Although the resolution is widely known now, implementation is slow and fragmented. The accountability and monitoring mechanisms for its implementation are still weak.

On 8 March last year the Norwegian Government launched the Norwegian Action Plan for the Implementation of Resolution 1325.

The action plan spotlights our ambitions and set benchmarks for our efforts to increase the participation and representation of women in local and international peacebuilding processes. That also goes for our own teams of mediators.

Finland, Sweden and Denmark are our most natural partners. A strong and coherent voice from the Nordic countries will make a difference.

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Friends,

Since the early 1990s, Norway has engaged in several efforts to promote peace and reconciliation. Our involvement in Sri Lanka, Sudan and the Middle East is well known. Some of you might also be familiar with the Norwegian involvement in the Philippines, Haiti, Somalia and Colombia.

As facilitators we are not in a position to force parties to increase their proportion of women in their negotiating delegations.

However, what we can do is to continuously remind the parties of the importance of this gender perspective.

And, to be legitimate, we must intensify our efforts to ensure a better gender balance between our own participants in peace and reconciliation processes.

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Today’s seminar put a special focus on Sudan. Let me backtrack a little.

In April 2005, the Norwegian Government hosted the International Donors’ Conference for Sudan in Oslo. Before that, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs initiated a conference and a symposium on the inclusion of Sudanese women in the peace process.

Both these events were part of our longstanding, wide-ranging involvement in Sudan.

The first conference was held in January that year, just a few days after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). It gathered women from South Sudan in Oslo, and was followed up with a symposium of women from both South and North Sudan.

Think about this fact: in Sudan, women are not simply half the population; they are in fact the majority. It is estimated that women constitute 65% of the population.

Can we afford to miss out on their perspectives and their resources in the rebuilding of Sudan? Of course not.
 
I am delighted that Mary Apai and some of the other resource persons who participated in that symposium were able to come all the way to Finland today.
 
They were among some 50 Sudanese women, from the North and the South, who took part in the symposium. They came from very different backgrounds, and had very different and sometimes even conflicting experiences of the war.

Nevertheless, they have shown a strong engagement in the efforts to ensure a peaceful future for their country. And they have demonstrated a remarkable ability to build bridges between the North and the South after decades of war and division.

I have seen how women can act as agents of change in my meetings with Israeli and Palestinian women. And they bring compelling perspectives on the conflict that continues to haunt their peoples.

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Friends,

To sum up: women are security providers in their communities; but to be effective, their own basic security needs must be met.

Women are needed as partners in conflict prevention and peacebuilding. But then their particular ways of organising their efforts and solving problems have to be taken into account.

There are numerous examples of women coming together across dividing lines created by war to find ways to put an end to violence and to work for peace.

The international community has an obligation to provide economic, political and logistical assistance for these efforts.

And we, the Nordic countries, pledge to be at the forefront in the fight to promote this cause.

Because this is peacebuilding in practice.