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Making Australia and Afghanistan accountable: UN Security Council Resolution 1325

By Jocelynne Scutt - posted Thursday, 2 August 2012


SCR 1325 further calls on 'all actors involved' in peace agreement negotiations and implementation to 'adopt a gender perspective', including but not limited to:

  • the special needs of women and girls during repatriation and resettlement and for rehabilitation, reintegration and post-conflict reconstruction;
  • measures supporting local women's peace initiatives and indigenous processes for conflict resolution, and that involve women in all of the implementation mechanisms of the peace agreements;
  • measures ensuring protection of and respect for human rights of women and girls, particularly as relating to the constitution, the electoral system, the police and the judiciary.

According to WILPF (Denmark), withdrawal of Danish troops from Afghanistan has the limitations that appear to be so for Australia's planned withdrawal. The Helmand Plan 2011-2012, programming Denmark's withdrawal sets as its 'overall objectives':

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  • Danish combat troops out of Afghanistan by the close of 2014;
  • Support in strengthening the capacity of Afghan to take over responsibility for security;
  • The latter aim to be achieved by increased training of the Afghan army and police.

As WILPF (Denmark) emphasises, 'Nowhere are women mentioned in the Helmand Plan description of overall Danish objectives.' This limitation is universal, for the plan is 'based on co-operation with NATO, UK and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)'. The intention is to ensure an orderly and constructive withdrawal by Denmark and the UK. WILPF (Denmark)'s concerns should be heeded by the Australian government in its own plans for ending military engagement in Afghanistan.

The Helmand Plan gives a nod to 'strengthening the civilian effort', noting that the civilian effort 'has a much longer perspective than the military withdrawal'. However, WILPF (Denmark) wants more attention paid to women's part as central to 'the civilian effort'. Informally women's place is affirmed to some degree in that, for example, Denmark 'wants to promote women's legal rights through more women in the police force', and women 'are included in the Danish micro-loan arrangement, with 80 percent of the funds going to women'. Nevertheless, no requirement mandates this under the Helmand Plan.

Only in the Helmand Plan's reference to 'basic schools' do girls come into the picture. Yet positive stipulations are needed for an assurance that girls' rights to education will be promoted and maintained. WILPF (Denmark) notes there is no demand for women's participation in the governorship of schools, nor acknowledgement that to ensure girl's education, 'infrastructure has to be strengthened so that girls are able to get higher-level courses'.

As for public sector governance, the Helmand Plan incorporates 'capacity building' of the civil administration 'to ensure ownership for the process is established among Afghans', but reference to women is entirely lacking.

Only in the section on the Penal Code are women and women's rights in focus, concentrating upon violence against women. Yet here, the aim is to maintain the conditions of women as 'accomplished since 2001', a goal lacking ambition and not, as WILPF (Denmark) says, consistent with government commitments as a signatory of SCR 1325. Furthermore, if violence against women is to be ended or at least ameliorated, more than attention through the Penal Code must be paid. Women will ever be vulnerable to attack, whether in the home or on the street, so long as economic, social, cultural and political equality for women are absent. Hence, even if the sole nod toward women vis-à-vis withdrawal should be to end violence against women, reconstruction with women involved every step of the way, and women being equally engaged in every area, is essential.

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Back in October 2011, the Afghan Women's Network (AWN) published 'Listen to the Women: The Recommendations from the Afghan Women'. 'Listen to the Women' is based on communications between AWN and 500 women leaders from more than 20 Afghan provinces, representing 500,000 women throughout Afghanistan. As a follow-up, at a major international conference in December 2011, AWN issued the Bonn Declaration affirming, amongst other matters, that Afghan women's future 'can and must evolve in a different Afghanistan from the past'. The reconstituted Afghanistan must be one 'in which our daughters and their daughters will be able to actively engage in peace building and nation building in an equitable environment'.

AWN sets out the demands of Afghan women as relating to:

  • Women and Good Governance
  • Women and Transition
  • Women and Peace and Reintegration
  • Women and the International Commitment to Afghanistan
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About the Author

Dr Jocelynne A. Scutt is a Barrister and Human Rights Lawyer in Mellbourne and Sydney. Her web site is here. She is also chair of Women Worldwide Advancing Freedom and Dignity.

She is also Visiting Fellow, Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Jocelynne Scutt

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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