Did you know that one third of all femicides involve small arms and light weapons? Yet despite this fact, the gendered aspect of small arms control is often ignored in conventional approaches to disarmament.
To draw attention to the impact of small arms and light weapons on women’s safety and well-being, the Gender Equality Network for Small Arms Control (GENSAC) – a partner of WILPF – decided to launch the #bulletproofinclusion campaign on International Women’s Day 2021.
Envisioned as a series of events organised by GENSAC’s partners, the campaign aimed to promote the leadership of women and the inclusion of their perspectives in small arms control efforts. WILPFers played an active role in the campaign, with 17 WILPF Sections across Africa organising events in partnership with GENSAC, which funded these online and in-person conferences, panels, and workshops.
Before we share highlights from the campaign, let’s take a closer look at the gendered impacts of small arms and light weapons.
Why is it important to address the interlinkage of small arms and gender?
Small arms – weapons created for individual use that can be easily transported by a person – are estimated to cause approximately 46 per cent of all violent deaths worldwide.
Small arms affect people of different genders in very specific ways, both as perpetrators and as victims, and often in relation to gender roles and expectations. WILPF’s disarmament programme, Reaching Critical Will, has repeatedly shown how small arms can increase women’s vulnerabilities: they make it easier for men to commit sexual violence, make domestic violence more deadly, and facilitate human trafficking.
But the possession and use of guns are also linked to the perpetuation of violent masculinities and the militarisation of communities, which in turn affect women and men alike. Small arms have come to symbolise power, domniation, control, and strength – concepts that are commonly seen as attributes of masculinity. This view of masculinity inherently links it to violence – often leading young men into situations where they must use or are victims of light arms.
The interlinkage of small arms and gender is true everywhere: from the streets of the United States, where transwomen and gender non-conforming people of colour are routinely murdered, to Iraq, where small arms are increasingly used in cases of domestic violence, to Mexico, where domestic violence is worsened by the steady stream of guns coming in from the United States.
Recognising the profound impact of small arms on their lives, families, and futures, women have long been at the forefront of efforts to remove these weapons from their communities. Yet despite their leadership and a growing body of evidence demonstrating the devastating gendered impacts of small arms and light weapons, most policies and programmes addressing small arms proliferation do not take gender into account at all.
As part of GENSAC’s efforts to raise awareness of the importance of creating gender-sensitive or gender-transformative programmes in small arms control, the network reached out to WILPF to offer support for related projects being undertaken by Sections or Groups across Africa.
The end of a war or conflict does not always mean the end of the use of small arms. And as sub-Saharan Africa has witnessed increasing amounts of conflicts in the past decades, so too has it increasingly suffered from the negative impacts of small arms and ammunition flows. Given this context, many of our African Sections decided to participate in GENSAC’s #bulletproofinclusion campaign.
Together, the 17 Sections and Groups organised many events funded by GENSAC as part of #bulletproofinclusion – so many, in fact, that it would be impossible to talk about all of them. Most focused on raising awareness of the gendered dimensions of the proliferation of small arms and of the key roles women can play in the prevention of small arms proliferation and use.
We wanted to share a few with you, and highlight the innovative ideas that some Sections developed – which we hope will inspire you to take action!
WILPF Ghana: Photographs to start conversations
WILPF Ghana organised an online event – complete with a photographic presentation and online campaign – on women’s participation in disarmament.
Using visual materials, they kickstarted a critical discussion on effective strategies to connect arms control, gender, human rights, and peacebuilding at the local level and to push for women’s leadership in small arms control decision-making nationally.
During an online seminar, participants discussed their experiences, knowledge, and advice on the inclusion of women in disarmament programming.
WILPF Sierra Leone: Radio debates
WILPF Sierra Leone, which is part of the Sierra Leone Action Network on Small Arms (SLANSA), also organised a meeting with other women and youth-led partner organisations in Kenema, one of the districts most affected by violence.
Together, the participants discussed strategies to mainstream gendered perspectives into small arms control programmes, map out areas of concern so as to plan their future work, and reach out to new members and key people in the work against small arms proliferation.
They also hosted a radio round table that offered listeners an opportunity to participate via text message! Radio remains one of the primary channels of communication in sub-Saharan Africa, so we can be sure that this show reached a wide audience!
WILPF Burkina Faso: Going to the community
WILPF Burkina Faso held educational activities for young people in the country’s border regions with Mali and Niger, where there is a vast proliferation of small arms.
WILPF Burkina Faso created a number of educational materials on the intersection of gender and small arms proliferation, as well as on the key role women could play to stem it. WILPFers then separated into small groups that canvassed the various villages of Toussiana and Toma to distribute these flyers and start discussions.
Moreover, in Toma, a discussion and debate session was organised by WILPF with members of local women’s organisations. Together, they discussed the importance of women’s leadership in small arms control. They came to understand how social class also plays a role in the way small arms can affect a population, and that women often know about the circulation of weapons in their communities – and, as such, can play a crucial role in stopping it.
Read the full report!
We could only share a few examples of the amazing work that our National Sections and Groups undertook thanks to GENSAC’s funding.
Through creative multimedia and community engagement, WILPF Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, and Ghana helped spark conversations about the gendered impacts of small arms and about the importance of women’s leadership in these areas. Other Sections involved high-level officials and other civil society actors in their discussions.
Find out more by reading Reaching Critical Will’s report on the various activities in the Small Arms Monitor (p.11)
If you are a WILPF member and have access to myWILPF, then you can read the final reports:
For more information:
And of course, make sure to read WILPF and Asuda’s report on The Correlation Between the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapon in Iraq and Rates of Violence against Women, as well as the corresponding webinar.
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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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 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 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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
