In January 2009, ICAN worked in partnership with the Association of War Affected Women (AWAW) of Kandy, Sri Lanka and the Program on Negotiation at the Harvard Law School to provide a 5 day intensive skills-building training programme for a Cross-party coalition of women politicians in Sri Lanka, as they prepared for participation in political processes for the promotion of a just, inclusive and lasting peace in Sri Lanka.
Context
In 2002 Sri Lanka’s 20 year conflict came to a brief and fragile pause as a ceasefire was agreed upon and a Norwegian-mediated peace process was initiated. Civil society based track-two mediation efforts – led by women – contributed to the ceasefire. Sri Lankan women also successfully advocated for the inclusion of women in the peace negotiations as mandated in UNSC 1325. A ‘Gender Sub-Committee’ was formed comprising women selected by the government and those representing the LTTE.
The process did not continue however and negotiations were soon suspended. By 2005 Sri Lanka’s ceasefire had come to an end. The country plunged back into conflict. The levels of violence were unprecedented in parts of the country. At the time of writing there were some 200,000 people displaced in the north and eastern regions. The impact of conflict on women was significant and levels of sexual and gender based violence extremely high. The lack of security however, prevented many women from seeking assistance or support. Grassroots NGOs filled the void through provision of services as and when they could.
Among them, ICAN’s lead partner, AWAW lead an innovative and strategic programme with a view to mobilizing women for political office and peace. In 2007 AWAW initiated a two-pronged approach to promoting women’s participation in peace and security decision making.
- Strengthening National Women at the Regional Level: Working with and network of women activists from all 25 provinces across the country AWAW has led the formation of Team 1325. The women are community leaders. Their efforts range from providing assistance to internally displaced populations (IDPs) and running resource centers for war affected women in the worst hit areas to leading community based organizations dedicated to the empowerment of women. The individuals were selected on the basis of their work, their regional and ethnic diversity and their track record and interest in UNSC 1325. Throughout 2008 the group has received training in a range of skills including advocacy, communications skills and coalition building. They have been taught about good governance and power sharing. In September 2008 they participated in a workshop on peacebuilding and UNSC 1325 in partnership with Sanam Anderlini, Co-founder of the International Civil society Action Network (ICAN) and Dr. Paula Green of the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding. They are committed to returning to their communities to share their learning and mobilize women for local elections and in support of good governance and peace. In 2009 funding has been secured for support to ten members of Team 1325 to pursue their women’s mobilization efforts at the regional and community level. This work is supported by governmental and private funders.
- Building a Cross-Party Coalition of Women Politicians: The lack of political will to ensure women’s full participation in the peace talks was evident across all political parties in Sri Lanka. To raise women’s voices and build their capacities, with support from Norway, AWAW launched a project on cross-party women’s coalition building in 2008. AWAW led a group of elected women politicians to visit South Africa in April 2008 for a week long study tour conducted by the Law, Race and Gender Research Centre of the University of Cape Town. The women were introduced to constitution drafting and conflict resolution processes. During the trip they met a cross section of leaders ranging from Ministers, former ministers from all political parties and parliament members and those who were in peace building in South Africa.
The participants were inspired by the South African experience, and had the opportunity to build personal relations among themselves. This tour was the first time that most of the women had come together as individuals across the political lines. They quickly realized and became committed working together as women to bring peace to Sri Lanka. On their return they have met all political party leaders to make their case and seek support for their future efforts.
Recognizing that the GoSL would be moving forward to resolve the conflict and reach a political settlement ultimately, AWAW sought ICAN’s support to maximize chances of the cross-party coalition of women politicians of gaining seats in the formal process. With this in mind, ICAN reached out to the PoN at Harvard and together designed a 5 day tailored training workshop for 12 women politicians from across the political and ethnic spectrum as well as different levels of political activism – from the national to the provincial.
The sessions combined negotiation skills training with substantive/knowledge based trainings on core issues pertinent to the Sri Lankan context (inc. peace processes, governance models, and coalition building). Sessions were led by renowned experts at the Harvard Law School including Dr. Susan Hackley, as well as Prof. Mari Fitzduff the Executive Director of the Coexistence Programme at Brandeis University, and Swanee Hunt, Founder of the Institute for Inclusive Security.
The group formed a strong sense of unity and continued its work in Sri Lanka throughout 2009. ICAN Co-Founder Sanam Anderlini will continue developing this initiative with AWAW.