'Hold military to account'

Women activists in the Asia-Pacific region have asked the governments to “limit defence budgets” and ensure “accountability and transparency” in defence spending to ensure women rights.

Nurul Islam Hasibfrom Bangkokbdnews24.com
Published : 17 Nov 2014, 10:02 AM
Updated : 17 Nov 2014, 12:05 PM

They also asked the governments to ensure that the military was not engaged in civilian functions.

At least 400 NGOs working on women issues in the regional countries including Bangladesh joined this call in a joint statement issued before the opening of the senior officials meeting of the ‘Beijing+20’ review on Monday.

They observed that women are the most vulnerable during the armed conflicts in the region.

Beijing+20 is the review process of the 20 year old Beijing declaration . In 1995, global activists and experts met in the Chinese capital to devise strategies for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The review at the regional level began at the UN regional headquarter in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand now ruled by the military generals, ahead of the global review in March next year.

‘Women and armed conflict’ was one of the 12 areas the Beijing conference identified to address to ensure gender equality in 1995 when the world focus was on Bosnia where rape had been used as a weapon of war.
“Now we want to look at how much progress countries in this region made (on preventing armed conflicts),” Kamala Chandrakirana, Executive Board Member of Indonesia for Humanity said at a press briefing on the sidelines of the review process at the UN regional headquarter.
“The reality is that many of the countries do not recognise the armed conflicts,” she said, on behalf of the NGOs platform.
She said the Asia-Pacific region has “the highest numbers of sub-national conflicts in the world, but many of which are not recognised by the governments”.
“Some of the world’s most protracted armed conflicts are in the Asia Pacific region,” she said.
“Globalised militarisation coupled with regional and global vested interests in our region has made parts of the region a theatre of war”.
Bangladesh in its Beijing+20 review paper submitted at the meeting mentioned that the country was not in an armed conflict situation excepting “some internal conflicts arising of law and order, political violence and communal violence at times”.
It, however, mentioned Bangladesh’s leading role in peace-keeping under the UN.
Founder of Sri Lanka based NGO Women and Media Collective Kumi Samuel, however, pointed out the presence of military in Chittagong Hill Tracts. “So you are in a kind of conflict situation,” she said.
She said in Bangladesh military had a presence in public functions.
“We don’t want military at public functions. It’s the job of elected governments,” she said.
She said “entrenched militarism has fostered suspension of the rule of law, poor governance, legitimisation of violence, and repression” in many countries.
“It also creates a culture of impunity,” she said.
The NGOs platform that play the role of observer at the review process also observed that rising religious fundamentalism, extremism and the radicalisation of societies in the name of religion had “significantly impacted on women’s human rights”.
They called for engaging women at all levels of “formal mechanisms” of peace-keeping.
“We must redefine the meaning of ‘peace’, ‘justice’ and ‘security’ from the perspective of women to challenge the current State-centric definitions, so that women can reclaim their rights,” the statement called.
In the statement women activists highlighted the need for governments “to provide information and guarantee consultation” processes with women’s organisations as means for accountability.
They reiterated that States should promote women’s participation in political spaces, in particular the participation of those women who are traditionally marginalised.
They also expressed the importance of engaging with regional mechanisms to advance women’s human rights in the region.
The two-day ministerial segment of the review process will begin on Wednesday after ending the senior officials’ part on Tuesday.