Lifeforce

Advancing Women Peace and Security Resolutions and the fight against COVID19 in Lake Chad Basin and Sahel regions

ChilDreN4Peace — Fri, 24 Dec 2021 14:11:00 +0000

Introduction

The growth of violent extremism in Africa- and the devastating impact of groups espousing violent ideologies – is not only setting in motion a dramatic reversal of development gains already made, but threatening to stunt prospects of development for decades to come. Attacks as a result of religiously-inspired violent extremism have reached unprecedented levels, and the impacts are far reaching; from 2011 to 2015, over 21,245 fatalities are estimated. The presence and operations of Boko Haram have displaced over 1.2 million people internally and forced more than 200,000 Nigerians to flee to Cameroon Chad and Niger. Conflicts have been causing a great toll on the situation of child and girls rights. Thousands of children have been involved as combatants, mine testers, messengers and cooks some of them, used as human shields or as sex slaves for military leaders. Violent extremism has decreased school enrollment rate, increase illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons and has also disproportionate impact on women and girls. Coupled with the impacts of the COVID19 violent extremism is undeniably one of the biggest impediments to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the convention of elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and the implementation of the agenda 2063 of Africa Union. In this article, we will explore violent extremism and violence against women and girls before focusing on girls’ participation in protection of girls/women’s rights; preventing violent extremism; gender-sensitive relief/recovery and fighting COVID 19 and its impacts. We highlight the need of a whole of society security approaches gender and rights based.

Violent extremism and violence against women and girls

The 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (Fourth World Conference on Women) states that ‘while entire communities suffer the consequences of armed conflict, [political instability] and terrorism, women and girls are particularly affected because of their status in society and their sex’ (Sigsworth, 2008, p. 4). Violent extremists are seen as being most likely to victimise women because of their often conservative or reactionary gender agendas. The patriarchal that characterizes Sahel and Lake Chad basin regions where cultures of gender-based violence and gender discrimination exist prior the insurgency of Boko Haram exacerbate during the conflict. Effects of violent extremism on girls can be seen in efforts to limit girls’ access to education, curtailing access to healthcare and services and perpetrating acts of violence. Violent extremist groups also target female victims for their violent acts, because of the emotional impact of female casualties. During and in the aftermath of conflict girls/women are targeted with forms of human trafficking, sexual violence (including rape, forced pregnancy/prostitution/marriage, and sexual slavery) and also face domestic violence and extreme economic vulnerability.

Understanding women as perpetrator of violent extremism

Girls and women are not always victims of violent extremism; they act also as perpetrators. Though the common sense considers violent extremism to be a man’s activity, the threat of women’s terrorist radicalisation cannot be neglected and has to be taken seriously because of violent extremist attacks perpetrated by women. Boko Haram targets girls and women for recruitment and drives of violent extremism, as they arouse less suspicion and can engage in community outreach efforts with greater access to families. In some cases, girls and women’s motivations to join terrorist groups include: adherence to a particular political ideology; grievance and concern with injustice; avenging personal bereavement; a desire to improve one’s social status. Sometime, girls and women join or are forced to join violent extremist groups because of families ties with terrorists or to overcome poverty. Also, personal trauma, most notably rape, is one of the fundamental motivations for women’s involvement in violent extremism. However, in Sahel and Lake Chad basin regions, female involvement in violent extremism is at a formative stage but it is on the rise, with women and girls following generally a gender-specific interpretation of the radical ideology, the female Boko Haram, by acting as facilitators, supporters, and educators for the movement. Women’s participation has evolved from auxiliary roles supporting their male counterparts, to gathering intelligence, providing healthcare, and maintaining safe houses, to direct engagement in violent acts, including suicide bombings.

Understanding women’s and girls’ role in peacebuilding, preventing violent extremism and addressing COVID19 pandemics in Lake Chad Basin and Sahel region, through the storytelling of Children for Peace.

Although girls and women have a key role in countering violent extremism. Most of the times, counter-terrorism interventions have tended to ignore gender perspectives. The Women Peace and Security (WPS) resolutions reaffirm the important role of women in conflict and post-conflict situations and promote women’s active and meaningful participation in decision-making and the integration of gender perspectives into all peace and security efforts. There should be a shift in thinking about women/girls and the role of girls/women in fostering peace. The involvement of girls and women as ‘policy shapers, educators, community members and activists’ is essential to prevent terrorism (OSCE, 2013, p. 2).

Regarding the increasing security crisis, we have created Children for Peace (C4P) which is a girl led movement committed not only to increase the number of children and girls in peacebuilding, reduce their role as perpetrators of violent extremism and address gender inequality. We have been mobilizing, mentoring, building the capacities and accompanying children and girls in diverse conflicts affected areas in Sahel and Lake Chad Basin regions. While working with girls, we have realized that they can increasingly ‘provide crucial feedback on the counter-terrorism efforts of the international community, pointing out when preventive policies and practices are having counterproductive impacts on their communities’, and they are ‘effective undertakers of initiatives and shapers of narratives to counter violent extremist and terrorist propaganda and may carry special weight with women audiences’. Girls and women can de-mystify the life of a terrorist by speaking about the hardships involved such as those of separation, insecurity, loss of income, and anxiety. In our campaigns, we use mixed messages drafted on the basis of stereotypes (such as emphasizing women’s maternal role) in counter-terrorism narratives. In several countries, we have focal points and members, committed to work to democratize public sphere for inclusive governance and more political and economic expression of children and girls in public policies. We have been fruitfully engaged for the global ceasefire, the full internalization of UN convention on the rights of the child, the UNSCR 2250 and 1325, the UN Conventions on the rights of the Child and Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and specifically the girls.

Over the past years, our strategy has been focused on volunteering, interactive communication, capacity building, community mobilisation, advocacy, advancing policies, awareness raising, mentoring, networking, technology and digital, Art work, psychosocial support, entrepreneurship and partnership for children and girls. With the outbreak of COVID 19 and its impacts especially on girls/women, we now take into account the nexus biodiversity, health and safety as vital key in building peaceful communities.

Impacts of our actions so far are as follows: over 50 000 children trained and 5 000 000 people sensitized on thematic related to violent extremism, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration and human rights (focusing on children, girls and women rights, gender equality), illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons and COVID 19. Over 5 000 girls and children have been fruitfully directly engaged in related topics through local, nation and continent-wide activities and through 80 gender-environment-peace clubs (led by girls) we have set and operationalise. We set up 7 multi-stakeholders networks (constituted of at least 550 religious and traditional leaders and 700 children; 75 political leaders and 650 community members working closely together in community sensitization and advocacies) and have been engaging community leaders and civil society to work with children, girls and women against identity-based differences; mobilizing them in community-led initiatives to find gender sensitive approaches to dealing with these issues.

Recommendations

To better fight against violent extremism, we highlight the need for a gendered approach; strategies that address poverty, cultural and governance barriers; and interdisciplinary, context-specific, and autonomous child protection systems. There is a need of more rights-based, integrated, and multifaceted approaches to tackle the interrelated threats to the security of children, girls and their families affected by the conflict. This requires a strengthened institutional framework, increased cooperation with civil society; strengthened mechanisms to encourage exchanging information and sharing best practices, specific measures to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse, enhanced protection of children, women and girls from human trafficking

A whole of society Gender Perspectives must be addressed in efforts and strategies related to Emerging Security Challenges. Gender equality must be integral part of policies, programmes and projects. In line with the Policy, there is a need to mobilize stakeholders at local, national and regional level for the complete the internalization of the WPS resolutions through the drafting and synergistical operationalization of an Action Plan focusing on collective defense, humanitarian, crisis management and cooperative security while emphasizing on integration, inclusiveness, integrity, monitoring and accountability.

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CHILDREN ENGAGED IN MILITARY DRILLS IN ENGLISH-SPEAKING CAMEROON

ChilDreN4Peace — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 09:53:44 +0000

This is a worrying image coming from a community where children have been prohibited from going to school over the last five years in Cameroon due to the Anglophone crisis. There are lots of communities where this phenomenon is perpetrated and becomes the more more recurring.

Children are still instrumentalised in many conflicts. Their role is not limited to fighting. Some children are abducted and beaten into submission, others join military groups to escape poverty, to defend their communities, out of a feeling of revenge or for other reasons.

Many girls and boys are also used in support functions, serial slaves, that also entail great risk for communautés and our society giving that their jailors are formatting their mindset to kill.

Involving children in conflicts is depriving them of their future. This is a serious problem to human rights, democracy, sustainable peace and development we need and aspire.

Although there are many ways for children to become associated with armed forces and groups, whatsoever the reason, this is unacceptable.

Human rights law declares that 18 years is the minimum legal age for recruitment and use of children in any form of conflict or hostilities.

The recruitment and usage of children under the age of 15 as soldiers is prohibited under international humanitarian law – treaty and custom – and the International Criminal Court defines this as a war crime.

We call upon urgent implementation of these international law dispositions.

We call upon warring parties powerholders, international community to put an end to the ongoing conflicts in Cameroon and especially the anglophone crisis.

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Hidden survivors of conflict related sexual violence: children born of wartime rape

ChilDreN4Peace — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 08:47:22 +0000

I am the one in the margins, nameless, faceless, silenced. Yet it is those of us on the fringes who give shape to things. Hear my story, feel my life, reshape yours!

Women are often the spotlight of Conflict Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) due to associated vulnerabilities and as the majority victims/survivors of such violence. Consequently, national, regional and international responses to CRSV are developed to predominantly incorporate women’s experiences of conflict into decision and policy making.

Regrettably, other victims, including children born as a result of wartime rape, are often overlooked in post-war reparations, reconstructions and reconciliation programmes. This is perceptible in the absence of an international public policy and legal framework to address the specific needs and vulnerabilities of these children. However, it is imperative to systematically address the needs of all vulnerable populations affected by conflict and CRSV if meaningful peace, reconciliation and justice are to be achieved by states globally.

Empirical research and scholarship on children born as a result of CRSV and its subsequent impacts has gained tremendous global traction in recent years. This blog seeks to highlight the interrelated status of children born of wartime rape, as victims-survivors of CRSV, in efforts to strengthen awareness campaigns within regional and international spaces.

Campaigns aim to draw the attention of relevant expert committees established under various human rights treaties, the United Nations and the African Union, including, the Office of the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict; Committee Monitoring the Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child; Office of the UN Commissioner for Human Rights and; the African Union Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, in legally addressing the needs and vulnerabilities of children born as a result of CRSV.

Children born of wartime rape are victims-survivors of CRSV as a result of intertwined vulnerabilities they face at birth and during their transition to adulthood. The United Nations and the broader international community both recognise children born of rape as victims-survivors of CRSV.

According to the United Nations, victims of CRSV include persons who, individually or collectively, suffered such violence, family members (partners and children) and children born as a result of pregnancy from rape. Similarly, the Principles for Global Action—a UK-led initiative that seeks to prevent and address stigma associated with CRSV, clearly underscores children born of rape as a category of victims-survivors of CRSV.

International recognition is arguably related to the lived experiences and complex realities of victimhood endured by this vulnerable group, stemming from social stigma and the dilemma of identity. For instance, in Uganda, approximately 6,000 children were born as a result of rape during the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebellion. Subsequently, when mothers returned from captivity with their children, families and communities generally perceived these children as surrogate members of the LRA and are often stereotyped as ‘’symbols of misfortune’’ or unequal members of society.

Resultantly, integration into society has proved difficult because their identities are contested among traditional lineages as children born out of wedlock to unknown fathers. In Rwanda, systematic rape was used as a strategy to obliterate the ethnic Tutsi population during the 1994 Genocide. As a result, approximately 250,000-500,000 women of Rwandese descent were raped culminating in the births of approximately 2,000 to 5,000 babies.

Children born of genocidal rape in Rwanda have been outrightly rejected by both their maternal and paternal families as social outcasts who are living reminders of genocidal crimes and obstacles to community reconciliation. Furthermore, while Rwanda is globally applauded for its post-conflict transitional justice model, children born as a result of CRSV have been largely overlooked in post-war reparation efforts. This is perceptible in their lack of recognition in Rwanda’s historical narratives of the genocide; that they are excluded from accessing the government fund for neediest survivors of genocide; and the absence of their voices and testimonies presented in public memorials and commemorations.

Far-reaching implications of questioned identities and marginalisation are entwined with citizenship and economic well-being. The right to identity in the African context is closely knitted to the right of citizenship and access to land. Therefore, a lack of belonging puts an individual at the risk of being stateless and poor.

In Uganda, for instance, the process of securing a national identification card and birth certificate necessitates the mandatory provision of information pertaining to both your maternal and paternal lineages. Having contested identities poses the likelihood of lacking legal identification, which provides access to civil, political, economic and social rights.

Additionally, Uganda and many countries in the African Great Lakes region, including Rwanda, are largely patrilineal, meaning children inherit their descent through male (fathers) lineages, which gives them access to land through inheritance and succession. Where a child is rejected by their paternal side there is a high likelihood of poverty because land in Africa is a key source of livelihood and food security.

The development of a legal framework in international policy, specifically addressing the needs and vulnerabilities of these victims-survivors, is envisaged to provide guidance and oversight to states in undertaking their primary responsibility towards such children.

Caroline Obbo

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African youth call for a ceasefire and nuclear weapons cuts to help address Covid-19 pandemic

Tue, 22 Jun 2021 09:55:38 +0000

Young Africans from Children for Peace and the African Network of Young Leaders for Peace and Sustainable Development (ANYL4PSD) have given strong support for the UN Secretary-General’s call for a global ceasefire. And they have joined the Move the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign to cut nuclear budgets in order to help fund the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and address the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a detailed statement Armed conflict, corona virus pandemic and a ceasefire: Impact on children in Africa, Divina Maloum (pictured above), founder of Children for Peace and co-winner with Greta Thunberg of the influential 2019 International Children’s Peace Prize, outlines the impact of armed conflict on children and on public health systems in Africa. She warns about the dire humanitarian consequences if governments and militias continue fighting rather than cooperating to prevent spread of the coronavirus and mitigate its impact on public health and the economy

‘Healthcare systems across Africa could collapse under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic since conflict-hit regions have many hospitals that have already been damaged and the basics such as clean water and soap necessary to fight the virus are in short supply due to armed conflict. The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war. The global ceasefire is absolutely essential for an effective response to the crisis in areas of conflict. War doesn’t make any sense when we have an epidemic that affects us all.’
Divina Maloum, founder of Children for Peace and winner of the 2019 International Children’s Peace Prize.

The Guardian reports that eleven countries that are locked in long-term conflicts have now responded to the UN call for a worldwide ceasefire, and the total number of countries supporting the ceasefire call has risen to 70. (Click here for a joint statement from 53 supporting countries). However, the UN Secretary-General notes that “there was still a distance between declarations and deeds in many countries”. He has asked his special envoys across the globe to redouble their efforts to persuade combatants to lower their guns to allow humanitarian workers to combat the coronavirus.

A global petition supporting the ceasefire has already gained over 1.6 million endorsers. Click here to add your support.

Divina and other members of Children for Peace and ANYL4PSD, have also submitted memes for the Move the Nuclear Weapons Money social media campaign, making the connections between nuclear disarmament, peace, sustainable development and public health. Below are a few of these.

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Youth Action and Intergenerational Cooperation on Peace and Disarmament.

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 18:09:09 +0000

The conscription, recruitment and use of children in armed forces constitute one of the most egregious human rights violations due to the defencelessness of the victims. As former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan stated in his 2000 Report on Children and Armed Conflict, ‘[children] depend, even more than adults do, on the protection afforded in peacetime by family, society and law’. There are approximately 300,000 child soldiers in the world, with African nations largely considered the hardest hit by this practice. Recent reports have estimated that 3,000 child soldiers are being held by armed forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), while the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) has recruited an estimated 2,500–5,000 children in the conflict in Darfur the civil wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Mozambique notoriously involved children in the conflict. The escalation of violence and insecurity perpetrated by terrorist groups like Boko Haram, Al Shabaab and the various affiliations of Al-Qaeda , the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa ,Ansar Dine , the ongoing conflicts in the East of Cameroon by the Seleca and Anti Balaka groups from the Central African rebellion ,the northern part of the Cameroon by the terrorist group Boko Haram, the Anglophone crisis specifically in North West and South West of Cameroon through a battle launched by separatist rebels for their own state, asking for the separation of the country has involved a thousand of children as combatants ,mine testers, messengers and cooks some of them have even been used as human shields or as sex slaves for military leaders . In this presentation we are going to showcase the conclusions of the study we have been implementing on children to understand the reasons of their recruitment as child soldiers and the psycho consequences of that recruitment (i) before focusing in the contribution of children for democracy, human rights, and peace in the security crises context in Africa (ii)

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How Cartoons Combat Extremism in Africa?

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 17:56:39 +0000

Over the past two decades, the threat posed by violent extremist groups that espouse fundamentalist religious narratives has grown substantially across Africa. The colonial era and the undemocratic rule that characterized many post-independence governments generated anti-Western and jihadist movements across the Middle East and the wider Islamic world. These movements advocate conservative religious rule as a cure for modern societies’ social ills. By the 1990s, these ideologies had begun to spread to Africa, where porous borders, poor security apparatuses, weak governance, corruption, ethnic divisions, and high youth unemployment created conditions under which violent extremist groups thrived. In Nigeria and Somalia, for example, violent extremist organisations began as ethnically homogenous movements with purely domestic concerns the overthrow of their respective governments. Over time they have evolved toward more ambitious political goals and established an active presence in neighbouring states. These groups generally favour border regions due to lower levels of government presence and security, which facilitate illicit networks and vulnerable border communities. Such a situation challenges not only the internal stability of many countries, but also the stability of the broader region. Moreover, links between national and international jihadist groups have increased over the past decade. In 2012, al Shabaab declared allegiance to al Qaeda, but there has been recent infighting over whether to shift this allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). In early 2015, the Nigerian group Boko Haram publicly declared allegiance to ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. These international networks not only help these groups with material and operational support, but also build their credibility within the broader jihadist movement, thereby facilitating international recruitment. Security-led approaches have largely failed to contain the geographic footprint of violent extremists in sub-Saharan Africa. This has prompted the emergence of more development-oriented approaches, such as countering violent extremism (CVE) and preventing violent extremism (PVE) initiatives, which seek to address root political and socioeconomic causes of extremism. In the past two years, both the United States and the European Union have officially outlined their approaches to CVE. Several initiatives have also emerged on the African continent, including Nigeria’s Soft Approach to Countering Terrorism (NACTEST) and Children for Peace Countering Violent Extremism trough cartoons. These development oriented approaches place emphasis on the environments in which violent extremism thrives.

This presentation seeks to explain the violent extremism in Africa, (I) and to present the cartoon oriented approach of Children for peace to mitigate the effects of violent extremism in Africa (II)

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Children for Peace

Wed, 28 Nov 2018 13:32:34 +0000

Cet article Children for Peace est apparu en premier sur Lifeforce.