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Celebrating Feminists’ Voices, Inspiring Global Peace

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Join Our Social Media Campaign #WomenLead2030

4 July 2017

The Second High Level Political Forum, an annual accountability mechanism for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), will be hosted at the UN Headquarters in New York from 10 to 19 July 2017.

This year, the forum will be reviewing the SDGs implementation, with a specific attention given to gender equality (Goal 5), as well as the means of implementation (Goal 17).

As part of WILPF’s work to strengthen conflict prevention and promote accountability on gender equality and peace, our Women, Peace and Security Programme will be monitoring the forum for gender and conflict issues and identifying current opportunities and challenges for leveraging action on gender equality and feminist peace.

Our partners from India, Sweden and elsewhere will join our team to bring attention of the international community to the ongoing barriers and systems of oppression for feminist movements that prevent meaningful participation for national action on gender equitable development and peace for all and everywhere.

To support our action, we today launch a social media campaign aimed at mobilising recognition by member states, the UN and the international community of local women’s important work and strengthening action that implements the SDGs in a way that works for women in conflict situations.

What is WILPF’s SDG social media campaign about?

Each day, women peace activists and women human rights defenders around the world contribute – directly and indirectly – to developing and mobilising local action to ensure sustainable development across all SDGs, basing their actions on disarmament, women’s meaningful participation, political participation, and human rights.

WILPF Nigeria has pioneered the award-winning Women’s Situation Room in Nigeria, which contributes to strengthening women’s political participation and building sustainable communities (SDG11);

WILPF Colombia trains survivors of sexual and gender-based violence to strengthen livelihoods and support job creation and entrepreneurship (SDG8);

WILPF’s partner ABAAD in Lebanon utilises innovative media outreach and advocacy to transform violent masculinities, and has contributed to repealing controversial and discriminatory laws and ensuring equal justice for all (SDG16).

Research now shows that gender equality is the number one predictor of peace, and feminist movement building is the number one predictor of policies on reducing violence against women.

However, only 2% of aid on peace and security directly targets gender equality. Further, annual global military expenditure increased approximately 60% from 2000 to 2015, while OECD data indicates funding for women civil society dropped by about half during this time.

Our demands: What do we want?

WILPF believes the SDGs can be an important tool for addressing conflict prevention gap and moving from political economies of war to political economies of peace and gender justice. The SDGs should be implemented within a human rights framework that addresses other obligations, including disarmament, women’s human rights, and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.

  • This includes shifting the balance of power in the international financial architecture to address systemic issues and create the conditions to respect, protect and fulfil human rights.
  • This requires Member States to recognise their extra-territorial obligations when it comes to supporting the SDG implementation in conflict countries.
  • This demands regulating arms that risk gender-based violence, consistent with both SDG 5 and 16 as well as UNSCR 1325 and the Arms Trade Treaty.
  • This is based on reorienting peace work around local women’s experiences and voices for justice and rights.

Goals can only be successful if structural barriers, including gendered inequalities, are addressed for every person everywhere, including in conflict areas.

Key messages

A universal agenda means SDGs that work for women and girls in conflict. This requires:

  • Women’s meaningful participation: Political and financial support for national, regional and global civil society engagement mechanisms to ensure local women’s meaningful participation for justice with impact (consistent with Rio Principle 10);
  • Extra-territorial accountability: National reporting and action to eliminate SGBV (SDG 5.2) due to arms (16.4) (consistent with the Arms Trade Treaty gender criterion);
  • Peace financing: National reporting on military versus social expenditure (SDG 17.2) and action to #MoveTheMoney from war to gender equality (consistent with Beijing Platform (E2) and Agenda 21 (22.16));
  • Enabling environment: International financial architecture that creates the conditions to respect, protect and fulfill human rights by addressing systemic issues, including gender inequality and arms proliferation.
How to support WILPF SDG social media campaign?
Download the social media package

We have developed  for you to use on social media to raise awareness: one for each SDG. Each visual highlights some of our many local WILPF and partner actions. We will be posting 1-2 visuals per day during the High Level Political Forum (10-19 July) and we hope you will join us!

  • Download the visuals you wish to share below;
  • Use our WILPF and the SDGs image as your Facebook profile picture during the campaign
  • Share visuals on your social media channels; and
  • Tag WILPF and our Women, Peace and Security Programme (Twitter: @WILPF and @Peace_Women; Facebook: @WILPF and @WILPFPeaceWomen; Instagram: @wilpf).
  • Use hashtags: #WomenLead2030; #MoveTheMoney

 (please note that we have made each visual is downloadable in dimensions fitting to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to make it easier for you!)

>> Download the WILPF and the SDGs image (and use it as your Facebook profile picture)

>> Download our social media package for the HLPF 2017 campaign

Some sample tweets and facebook posts to get you started:

SDG 5:

Facebook: #Civilsociety organisations like @WILPF know how to enact the Dayton Peace Agreement for the Bosnia and Herzegovina #conflict. Discover how by reading #MoveTheMoney #WomenLead2030

Twitter: Read about how #civilsociety organisations think #peace agreements should happen: @WILPF #MoveTheMoney #WomenLead2030

>> Download the visual for SDG 5

SDG16:

Facebook:

#Civilsociety and #feministorganisations like @abaadmena helped abolish the #rapelaw in #Lebanon. Read how they did it http://bit.ly/2gwazqS #MoveTheMoney #WomenLead2030

Twitter:

Read how #feministorganisations helped abolish the #Lebanese #rape law: http://bit.ly/2gwazqS @AbaadMENA #MoveTheMoney #WomenLead2030

>> Download the visual for SDG 16

SDG17:

Facebook:

Lack of funding for #feministorganisations affects #women and contributes to the #feminisation of poverty and deepening #genderinequalities within #society. Read more here http://bit.ly/2so3uAj #MoveTheMoney #WomenLead2030

Twitter:

Read how the lack of #feministorganisations funding affects #womens #participation http://bit.ly/2so3uAj #MoveTheMoney #WomenLead2030

>> Download the visual for SDG 17

 

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Berit Aasen

Europe Alternate Regional Representative

Berit Aasen is a sociologist by training and has worked at the OsloMet Metropolitan University on Oslo. She has 40 years of experience in research and consultancy in development studies, including women, peace, and security, and in later years in asylum and refugee studies. Berit Aasen joined WILPF Norway five years ago. She is an alternate member of the National Board of WILPF Norway, and representing WILPF Norway in the UN Association of Norway, the Norwegian 1325 network and the Norwegian Women’s Lobby. Berit Aasen has been active in the WILPF European Liaison group and is committed to strengthening WILPF sections and membership both in Europe and relations across continents.

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Thank you!

Melissa Torres

VICE-PRESIDENT

Prior to being elected Vice-President, Melissa Torres was the WILPF US International Board Member from 2015 to 2018. Melissa joined WILPF in 2011 when she was selected as a Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women as part of the WILPF US’ Practicum in Advocacy Programme at the United Nations, which she later led. She holds a PhD in Social Work and is a professor and Global Health Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine and research lead at BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program. Of Mexican descent and a native of the US/Mexico border, Melissa is mostly concerned with the protection of displaced Latinxs in the Americas. Her work includes training, research, and service provision with the American Red Cross, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Centre, and refugee resettlement programs in the U.S. Some of her goals as Vice-President are to highlight intersectionality and increase diversity by fostering inclusive spaces for mentorship and leadership. She also contributes to WILPF’s emerging work on the topic of displacement and migration.

Jamila Afghani

VICE-PRESIDENT

Jamila Afghani is the President of WILPF Afghanistan which she started in 2015. She is also an active member and founder of several organisations including the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organisation (NECDO). Elected in 2018 as South Asia Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board, WILPF benefits from Jamila’s work experience in education, migration, gender, including gender-based violence and democratic governance in post-conflict and transitional countries.

Sylvie Jacqueline Ndongmo

PRESIDENT

Sylvie Jacqueline NDONGMO is a human rights and peace leader with over 27 years experience including ten within WILPF. She has a multi-disciplinary background with a track record of multiple socio-economic development projects implemented to improve policies, practices and peace-oriented actions. Sylvie is the founder of WILPF Cameroon and was the Section’s president until 2022. She co-coordinated the African Working Group before her election as Africa Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018. A teacher by profession and an African Union Trainer in peace support operations, Sylvie has extensive experience advocating for the political and social rights of women in Africa and worldwide.

WILPF Afghanistan

In response to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and its targeted attacks on civil society members, WILPF Afghanistan issued several statements calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with Afghan people and ensure that their rights be upheld, including access to aid. The Section also published 100 Untold Stories of War and Peace, a compilation of true stories that highlight the effects of war and militarisation on the region. 

IPB Congress Barcelona

WILPF Germany (+Young WILPF network), WILPF Spain and MENA Regional Representative

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Demilitarisation

WILPF uses feminist analysis to argue that militarisation is a counter-productive and ill-conceived response to establishing security in the world. The more society becomes militarised, the more violence and injustice are likely to grow locally and worldwide.

Sixteen states are believed to have supplied weapons to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020 with the US supplying 74 % of weapons, followed by Russia. Much of this equipment was left behind by the US military and is being used to inflate Taliban’s arsenal. WILPF is calling for better oversight on arms movement, for compensating affected Afghan people and for an end to all militarised systems.

Militarised masculinity

Mobilising men and boys around feminist peace has been one way of deconstructing and redefining masculinities. WILPF shares a feminist analysis on the links between militarism, masculinities, peace and security. We explore opportunities for strengthening activists’ action to build equal partnerships among women and men for gender equality.

WILPF has been working on challenging the prevailing notion of masculinity based on men’s physical and social superiority to, and dominance of, women in Afghanistan. It recognizes that these notions are not representative of all Afghan men, contrary to the publicly prevailing notion.

Feminist peace​

In WILPF’s view, any process towards establishing peace that has not been partly designed by women remains deficient. Beyond bringing perspectives that encapsulate the views of half of the society and unlike the men only designed processes, women’s true and meaningful participation allows the situation to improve.

In Afghanistan, WILPF has been demanding that women occupy the front seats at the negotiating tables. The experience of the past 20 has shown that women’s presence produces more sustainable solutions when they are empowered and enabled to play a role.