WOMEN’S
CONCERNS AND THE PEACE PROCESS
Recommendations
International
Women’s Mission to the North East of Sri Lanka
12th
to 17th October 2002
INTRODUCTION
The Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is a welcome first step towards seeking a just and sustainable
solution to Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict. The resultant ceasefire provides
a respite from armed confrontation and war, which the country and its peoples
so desperately need. Two rounds of negotiations have now been concluded between
the GOSL and the LTTE with the facilitation of the Government of Norway and
it is to be hoped that this constructive process will continue, for the benefit
of all the country’s peoples.
Peace negotiations are never
simple and all members of society must share the burden of peace making and
peace building. Agreements reached in any peace process must be transparent
and address the concerns of civilians and civil society. A peace process
needs to have the active participation of the people most affected by conflict,
the people who have paid the price of war.
Among those who have been most
deeply and traumatically affected by the conflict are women: women who have
lost family members; who have been forced from their homes to live impoverished
lives as displaced persons; who have found themselves as heads of households
as a result of their losses. Such women are often the most marginalized amongst
the many who suffer the consequences of war. It is thus all the more important
to ensure that the voices and needs of women will not be ignored or forgotten
during these early stages of the peace process, and that their needs will
be addressed.
Women are often portrayed as
passive victims of violent conflict, but at times of war many women in fact
adopt new activist roles. Civilian women often become providers for their
families, assuming sole responsibility for family welfare and holding fragmented
communities together. In Sri Lanka many women joined the LTTE and became part
of their fighting cadre.
As displaced people, as refugees,
as survivors of military offensives, landmine injuries and sexual violence,
as mothers and girls, and as soldiers and combatants, women experience conflict
differently from men. Women are affected disproportionately by the consequences
of war and need to be involved in shaping the contours of peace. Yet women
have had very little influence over the decision-making processes that determine
the course of conflict and they continue to have little influence over peace
processes. We believe that women must have the right to participate in and
help shape the making of peace.
It is in this context that a number of women’s organizations
in Sri Lanka, co-ordinated by the Women and Media Collective, facilitated
an international women’s mission to the north east of Sri Lanka with the following
objectives:
- To promote a gendered and rights-based
approach to the peace process, so that all agreements and accords resulting
from the process will be based on a framework guaranteeing the protection
of fundamental human rights for all, including the rights of women.
- To promote the values of pluralism, democracy
and equality as being fundamental to a rights-based approach.
- To highlight the importance of bringing
a women's perspective to bear on all aspects of peace making, peace building,
rehabilitation and reconstruction.
- To assist in identifying women's concerns,
needs and interests so that they can be integrated into the peace agenda,
influencing the formulation of policy and administrative and legal reform
in this transitional period.
- To highlight the need to ensure that human
rights are fully protected at every stage of the peace process, thereby
building a rights-based peace and reconstruction agenda which is sensitive
to gender issues.
The various teams constituting
the international mission visited the following areas of the north-east: Jaffna
and Kytes, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Puttalam, Mannar
and border villages
in Polonnaruwa District. Members of the mission talked to a wide range of
women and men from different communities and different walks of life in these
areas.
This document does not attempt
to report on the mission’s findings in full. Instead, it concentrates on
the recommendations for both the peace process and for policy formulation
that flowed from these findings. It is intended as a first step towards highlighting
the need for a gendered and rights-based approach to peace making, rehabilitation
and reconstruction.
The recommendations are divided
into two main sections. The first is addressed to the two parties to the
peace talks: the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam, and addresses issues pertaining to the Memorandum of Understanding
and the formal peace process itself.
The second section addresses
all those involved in policy formulation and implementation relating to rehabilitation,
resettlement and reconstruction.
A. Recommendations relating to the MOU and the Peace Process
To
the Parties
United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1325 on women, conflict and peace building (October 2000) recognizes
that “civilians, particularly women and children, account for the vast majority
of those adversely affected by armed conflict, including refugees and internally
displaced persons”, and stresses the importance of women’s equal participation
and full involvement in the prevention and resolution of conflict and in peace-building.
As recommended in Resolution
1325, a gendered approach to peace building, conflict-transformation and reconstruction
is essential in contexts of transition. Such an approach works on many levels
to support and develop local capacities of women and men, while working to
transform structures of power from structures dominated by violence and militarization
into ones that promote a just and sustainable peace, protective of the rights
of all people irrespective of ethnic, gender, class, caste or religious identities.
Such an approach recognizes the power disparities built into and reinscribed
through official processes of peace building and humanitarian and development
assistance and calls for programming to be transformative in nature. In so
doing it facilitates a move away from charity or social welfare paradigms
to a model that works, with guidance from and in collaboration with local
women, to support self-reliance and social justice.
A gendered approach to peace
building is also recommended by the CEDAW Committee in its Concluding Comments
pursuant to the review of the 3rd and 4th periodic report
of the Sri Lankan Government in January 2002. Paragraph 299 of the CEDAW
Committee’s report (A/57/38 (Part I) reads “ The Committee calls on the State
party to ensure full and equal participation of women in the process of conflict
resolution and peace building.”
In order to develop a gendered
approach to peace building, conflict transformation & reconstruction,
we provide the following recommendations:
1. The Memorandum of Understanding
Findings
In the context of the fact that the MOU
is between the government and the LTTE and essentially a contract between
two combatant parties, we note that it does not adequately include civilian
concerns. We also note that the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission's role is in
the monitoring and implementation of the ceasefire. Civilian complaints regarding
conduct of the parties, on the other hand, are yet to be adequately addressed
by any mechanism set up since the signing of the MOU.
Recommendations
The process towards peace and
all future agreements between the parties must:
1.1.1 incorporate international standards of human
rights (including women's rights and children's rights) and humanitarian law;
1.1.2 recognize that these standards must remain
fundamental as the process continues;
1.1.3 ensure that these standards are not compromised in
the negotiation and the implementation of peace agreements;
1.1.4 guarantee that the interests of the civilian
population receive the fullest attention.
1.2 A parallel process to the MOU, focused on human rights,
must be established and a body with the specific mandate of resolving complaints
from civilians regarding violations of human rights standards by the parties
must be set up to monitor this agreement.
2. Right to Information
Findings
The Mission found that most people
had little or no knowledge or understanding of the peace process, the substance
or implications of the Memorandum of Understanding and the role of the Sri
Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) or the Local Monitoring Committees (LMC).
Recommendation
2.1
Accurate information must be disseminated about the MOU and the peace process
at a community level, using both formal and informal channels of communication
which can be easily accessible.
3. Sustainability
Findings
The mission found that women,
irrespective of ethnicity, expressed some level of doubt and skepticism about
the prospects for lasting peace. Such sentiments were shared by men as well
and appeared to be heightened by the July incidents in Oddamavadi-Valachchanai
and the October incidents in Ampara and Trincomalee. A sense of insecurity,
a fear of personal danger and a sense of distrust were still prevalent in
the north east, among all ethnic communities, inhibiting both mobility and
the confidence to speak out.
Recommendations
3.1
The parties to the peace process must end and no longer tolerate the
continuing
threats and harassment of the civilian population
and must immediately condemn and follow up on such incidents.
3.2
All military check
points near residential areas should be removed to enable women to travel
with a greater sense of confidence and security.
3.3
Conduct continuous
review of the need for "high security zones"
3.4
Conscription of
children for combat or forced labour must be halted immediately.
3.5
The parties to the
peace process must consider setting up a mechanism to deal a process of truth
and reconciliation to record and acknowledge the history of suffering and
to deal with issues of accountability and justice.
4. The Developing Peace Process
Findings
Members
of the mission discussed issues relating to women’s resettlement, rehabilitation
& reconstruction with both government administrators, the head of the
LTTE women’s political wing and other LTTE representatives. The LTTE women
appeared to be aware of the importance of these issues and the need to adopt
a gender focus. They were setting up Women's Development Centres in the north
east. Government officials met expressed little sensitivity to gender issues,
with some administrators denying that there was any benefit in adopting a
women’s perspective and claiming that there was no need for programs targeting
women.
Recommendations
4.1 The institutions created to carry the peace process
forward, must be sensitive to gender issues and take steps to ensure
that women participate effectively at the level of policy-making. They
must liase with women’s organizations representing the many constituencies
of women throughout the island to develop and implement programmes which are
appropriate to the needs of these different constituencies.
4.2
Officials and representatives of both the GOSL and the LTTE setting
up and working in community level institutions responsible for implementing
rehabilitation and reconstruction policies must ensure that both the implementing
processes and the implementers are gender sensitive and that women and women's
concerns are equitably represented.
4.3
All statistics compiled in relation to peace and reconstruction should
be dis-aggregated according to gender.
4.4
Existing institutions responsible for public security and welfare
must be made aware of gender and human rights issues and compelled to put
in place effective mechanisms to address women's concerns.
4.5
Both parties must develop plans for the demobilization of armed personnel
and the reintegration into civilian society of former combatants.
4.6
Former combatants should be offered full support in readjusting to
civilian life, and be given access to appropriate training and employment
opportunities.
4.7
Continuous monitoring of the above must be undertaken in order to
guarantee the principles underlying these recommendations.
B. Policy Recommendations Relating to Resettlement,
Rehabilitation and Reconstruction
5. Women and displacement
Findings
Thousands of people have been
forcibly displaced from their homes because of violence or the threat of violence
associated with the war or with episodes of communal violence. The majority
of displaced persons are women and children, many of whom have been displaced
repeatedly over the years. The Government and the LTTE were identified, by
those met, as the parties overwhelmingly responsible for forcing people out
of their homes through intentional attacks on civilian populations or more
generalized war-related violence. The displaced population includes Muslim
and Sinhala people, although the great majority are Tamil. All of the Muslims
met insisted that they had been forcibly evicted from their homes in the north
east and their return must be viewed in this context. Many of them claimed
that their community had been subjected to ethnic cleansing.
Recommendations
5.1 People who have experienced prolonged displacement
must be given the choice of returning or staying in their current location.
The consultation process must be structured in a manner so as to ensure that
women's views are heard.
5.2
Displaced people living in camps and temporary settlements must have
access to reliable, up-to-date information about conditions in their place
of origin and the options available to them. This must be provided in forms
accessible to women and include information on the political situation and
security considerations, the monetary and other assistance they will receive
and how they can access it, the physical conditions they will live in on their
return, training and employment opportunities and the access they will have
to basic infrastructure such as clean water, sanitation, health care, education
and transport.
5.3
Effort must be made to resettle displaced people living in camps swiftly,
whether in their host community or as returnees. Until such effort are completed,
camps must remain open and improved facilities to provide them with privacy,
dignity and security. Women in these camps need services which include proper
sanitary facilities, safe access to clean water and cooking fuel, reproductive
health needs and the reduction levels of domestic violence in the camps. Women
must have the right to be included in camp decision-making bodies.
5.4
People who choose to remain living with the host community or to resettle
in locations other than their place of origin must be ensured full voting
rights in their place of residence.
5.5
Policies on displacement must be multi faceted and responsive to the
varying needs of the different groups of displaced and be based on full consultation
and responsive to their differences.
6. Resettlement and Reconstruction
Findings
It cannot be assumed that everyone
who has been displaced from their home wishes to return. The mission met
many displaced women who wished to return, and many who did not. Many – including
displaced Muslims – wanted strong guarantees that they would never be evicted
again and that they would be secure before contemplating returning to their
original homes. Others have chosen to return before adequate infrastructure
and material assistance is available placing their faith in the continuation
of the peace process and desperate to leave the intolerable conditions in
camps for the displaced. Many of them are women heads of households and widows.
They desperately need assistance.
Recommendations
6.1
Returnees or people who are resettled elsewhere must be guaranteed
adequate assistance and personal security. This must include basic infrastructure
in place before re-settlement is effected. Returnees should be monitored to
ensure their safety and that the most needy are provided with appropriate
assistance.
6.2
All members of families of displaced including their natural increase
should be given equal consideration in resettlement plans.
6.3
Rehabilitation and resettlement programmes must take the special circumstances
of female heads of households into account and meet their needs.
6.4
Funding must be made available to provide for those who have already
returned to their homes since the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding.
6.5
Alternative resettlement options must be provided to displaced persons
who cannot return to their homes because they are being used by the military
or the LTTE.
6.6
Resettlement plans need to take into account the particular vulnerability
of widows and female heads of households in the allocation of lands.
6.7
Priority should be given to ensuring mobility for women, but with
safety, in all areas of the north east.
6.8
Women should be encouraged to participate in the planning and reconstruction
of their settlements, so that they can help shape the development of local
infrastructure.
6.9
Reconstruction and development strategies must be developed in a way
that does not fuel communal competition for resources and works to address
basic needs and rights. Women must be included in the development and implementation
of these strategies.
7. Land Rights
Findings
Land
rights appear to be one of the most difficult and contentious issues throughout
the north east. The displaced need to recliam their land and property and
receive compensation for loss and damage. Those who cannot return must be
resettled elsewhere. Those occupying land and property abandoned by the displaced
or evicted must vacate such property and be re-settled. Women and in particular
widows and women heads of household must be given titled to land and property.
Issues of inheritance for women must be clarified and women's right to land
& property protected.
Recommendations
7.1 Land laws must be reformed to ensure equal rights
of women to inherit and dispose of land and property.
7.2 Where necessary, lands
must be surveyed to establish boundaries.
7.3 Ownership rights should be respected, and persons
living in houses owned by others should be provided with alternative accommodation.
7.4 Widows and relatives of the disappeared need
assistance in accessing the documentation they require to prove their rights
to property and inheritance.
8. Compensation
Findings
Families who lost property and
belongings due to conflict and those displaced by conflict need immediate
and urgent assistance and compensation to resume some semblance of normalcy
in their lives.
Recommendations
8.1
Systems for payment of compensation and resettlement benefits must
be transparent and well-publicized so that women cannot be pressurized to
give bribes or sexual favours in order to receive their dues.
8.2
Women should be paid their entitlements directly, and not through
a male family member.
8.3
Family benefits should be allocated jointly to both spouses where
appropriate, and lands allocated to families should be granted equally to
both spouses.
9. Health
Findings
Health infrastructure and health
services need urgent improvement in most areas of the north east and health
services for women need immediate upgrading.
Recommendations
9.1 Primary and reproductive health care throughout the
north east must be greatly improved, including provision for women who have
been subjected to sexual violence.
9.2
Women should be encouraged to participate in health education and
the planning and allocation of health resources.
9.3
Health education should promote condom use as a means to prevent HIV/AIDS.
10 Education
Findings
Despite
long drawn out conflict and war a high premium was always placed on education
and schools functioned and some continue to function in extremely difficult
conditions.
Recommendations
10.1 Schools must be reconstructed as a matter of urgency
and provided with sufficient teachers and resources to enable students to
continue their education to higher levels, and to cater for the needs of displaced
students in host communities.
10.2
Measures must be taken to reduce the worryingly high drop-out rate
among such pupils including upgrading district schools to offer science, arts
and commerce streams in order to enhance educational opportunities for the
youth of the north east.
10.3
Any schools which continue to be occupied by the military should be
vacated forthwith, in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding.
10.4
Adult education and functional literacy classes should be offered
to women where necessary.
10.5
Public education programmes are needed on concepts on equality, pluralism
and human rights, and these subjects should also be taught in schools.
10.6
Volunteer teachers who have helped keep schools running during the
years of conflict should be offered appropriate training in post and absorbed
into the permanent teaching staff.
11. Landmines
Findings
There
is an urgent need to put in place a comprehensive de-mining programme so that
re-settlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction can be effectively implemented.
Women were particularly concerned about the dangers of landmines.
Recommendations
11.1 Mine awareness and de-mining
programmes must take into account the different relationships that women,
men and children have with land use as gatherers of water, food and firewood
and as farmers.
11.2 Adequate training, insurance
and compensation must be made available to those who clear landmines and international
standards maintained in the de-mining process.
11.3 The Government and the
LTTE must be urged to sign the Oslo treaty banning the use of landmines and
other ordnances as a matter of priority.
11.4 Victims of landmines need
access to appropriate rehabilitation programmes. The special needs of women
and their ability to deal with the social consequences of the loss of a limb/s
must be taken into consideration.
12. Women’s Livelihoods
Findings
The mission met a large number
of women from all communities who were living in conditions of extreme poverty.
International labour migration is increasingly common amongst among women
from displaced communities and border villages, but many migrant women were
reported to suffer violence, abuse and non-payment of salaries. In addition,
inflated dowry rates, often fuelled by remittances from relatives working
abroad, caused concern to many families without access to such funds.
Recommendations
12.1
Women must be given access to all existing and emerging employment
opportunities on an equal basis with men. A full range of appropriate skills
training should be offered to women, free from any gender bias.
12.2
Women must be given direct access to credit, raw materials and markets.
12.3
Particular attention should be paid to the needs of female heads of
households in these programmes including official recognition of female heads
of households.
12.4
Child-care services must be provided.
12.5
Remaining restrictions on fishing should be removed, enabling women,
to benefit from traditional means of forward employment in the processing
of fish and prawns.
12.6
Women migrant workers needed support to invest their earnings and
re-integrate into the local workforce on their return.
12.7
Women working overseas need safe workplaces and secure contracts of
employment secured through registered employment agencies and the Sri Lanka
Bureau of Foreign Employment.
12.8
Public awareness programmes designed to dispel negative images of
widowhood are needed to enable widows to gain in self-respect and participate
fully in the economy as valued, autonomous citizens.
12.9
If women are ensured equal property and inheritance rights with men,
as recommended above, the practice of giving and taking dowry on marriage
should be banned.
13. Political Representation
Findings
The Mission is deeply concerned by the lack of women's
participation in political bodies at local and provincial level. The Mission
noted that except in areas that are specifically reserved for women (Ministry
of Women's Affairs, LTTE Women's Wing, etc), there were very few women holding
positions of political decision-making and responsibility.
Recommendations
13.1
Women must be allowed opportunities to participate in political decision-making
in all party political structures and should be encouraged to contest for
political office at local, national and provincial level.
13.2
Affirmative action should be taken to ensure women at least 30% representation
in local government bodies.
14. Freedom of Association and of Movement
Recommendations
14.1
Women must be able to move freely and in safety to conduct daily chores,
engage in income earning activities and access health care and other welfare
services.
14.2
Freedom of association must be guaranteed and there should not be
any restrictions or ideological barriers on membership of autonomous women’s
organizations carrying out legitimate activities.
15. Disappeared and Missing in Action
Findings
The Mission found that women
continue to be badly affected by the uncertainties in relation to family members'
disappearance or are still considered missing in action. There continued to
be a demand for acknowledgement by the authorities of the fate of these people.
Recommendations
15.1 All parties responsible
for disappearances must acknowledge their roles in such disappearances and
make available to family members all information regarding the fate of persons
considered disappeared.
15.2 Parties must make all
necessary effort to clarify the fate of persons currently considered to be
missing in action and make such information available to family members.
15.3 Special attention must
be paid to families and family members of the disappeared including families
of armed forces personnel and homeguards and missing in action.
16. Violence against Women
Findings
Violence against women continues
to be an issue of concern for the Mission. The parallel systems of authority
between the LTTE's and the GOSL's law enforcement authorities have caused
confusion regarding responsibility. This may result in the issue of violence
against women receiving low priority by both groups. Women reported significant
levels of domestic violence in camps for the displaced as well as among populations
affected by conflict. There were also reports of sexual harassment, particularly
in public places. Women also spoke of the need to deal with psycho-social
trauma and to have support structures for women who have suffered sexual violence
and incest.
Recommendations
16.1 Addressing violence against women must be considered
a serious and integral part of the peace process.
16.2 Clarity in relation to areas of authority vis a vis
law enforcement and justice must be established as a matter of urgency.
16.3 Law enforcement authorities must be encouraged to continue
to liaise with victim support groups.
16.4 Programmes must be put
in place to support women victims of violence
including the provision of shelters,
medical and counseling facilities and legal assistance where necessary.
16.5
Women who have been raped or subjected to sexual violence must be
helped to reintegrate into society and be free from the trauma and stigma
of rape and incest.
16.6
Perpetrators of violent crimes against women must be brought to justice.
We
recognize that women in particular have been victimized by war and conflict
in Sri Lanka, that they have been subject to the worst forms of violence,
been displaced and made into refugees, compelled to live as war widows. Women
have seen family members disappear and or join fighting forces. They have
suffered physical disabilities and psychosocial trauma because of war. Therefore
women's experiences and women's voices must be an essential part of the peace
process in Sri Lanka.
The full participation
of women in decision making in all phases of the reconstruction,
rehabilitation and transformation process is absolutely essential.
We strongly urge the Government, the LTTE, Humanitarian and
Aid agencies to fully include women in the economic recovery
that results from the peace process.
Annex 1
Some of the organisations that assisted or were
met by the Mission
Centre for Women's Development and Rehabilitation,
Kilinochchi
Citizen's Committee, Mannar
Community Trust Fund, Puttlam
Community Development Foundation, Puttlam
Gurunagar Fishermen's Society
Human Rights Commission, Trincomalee and Jaffna
International Centre for Ethnic Studies
Law and Society Trust
Muslim Women's Research and Action Forum
Mahaweli Kulangana Samithi
Mahaweli Latha Mandapa
Mannar Consortium
Mannar Association for Relief and Rehabilitation
Neeraviyadi Maathar Sangam, Jaffna
Peace Committee, Batticaloa
Rural Development Foundation, Puttlam
SEED, Vavuniya
Social Scientists Association
Sunile Kantha Sammelanaya
Suriya Women's Development Centre, Batticaloa
UNHCR, Trincomalee and Jaffna
Vannarpannai Maathar Sangam, Jaffna
Vocational Training Institute for Women, Kilinochchi
Widows Society, Gurunagar
Women's Development Federation, Mannar
Women's Development Centre, Jaffna
Women and Media Collective
