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Analysis

#UniversalPeriodicReview

Women’s Rights in Yemen under Review

Yemeni women activists and human rights advocates combine their grassroots work inside Yemen and in the diaspora with regular advocacy work around the world where they bring their causes to the public eye and to the agendas of decision makers. But it is difficult for them to get their voices heard. This is the reason why they are in Geneva.

Image credit: WILPF
  • 4 min
WILPF International Secretariat
12 December 2018
Muna Luqman, Co-founder of the Women Solidarity Network and Chairperson of the Yemeni foundation “Food For Humanity”
Muna Luqman, Co-founder of the Women Solidarity Network and Chairperson of the Yemeni foundation “Food For Humanity” Picture credit: Charlotte Hooij

Muna Luqman, Co-founder of the Women Solidarity Network and Chairperson of the Yemeni foundation “Food For Humanity”, is sipping a cup of tepid filter coffee at WILPF’s secretariat in Geneva. It’s her second day in the Swiss city and the days have been busy with meetings and trainings. Together with her is Nisma Mansour, Field Coordinator for “Peace Track Initiative”, another Yemeni women-led NGO. Nisma Mansour, based in Aden in Yemen, has just arrived this morning. For the last seven days she was waiting in Jordan for her visa to be approved, not knowing if she would succeed in getting to Geneva. She did.

As Yemeni women activists and human rights advocates, they both know the drill. Despite all obstacles, they combine their grassroots work inside Yemen and in the diaspora with regular advocacy work around the world where they bring their causes to the public eye and to the agendas of decision makers. Advocacy work has become increasingly difficult with the tightening immigration laws, travel bans, and general hostilities against women from the global south, particularly those who come from conflict countries. However, they persevere,  with the goal of conveying the voices of Yemeni women and bringing peace and freedom to their country.

But it is difficult for them to get their voices heard. As usual, attention is on the men with the arms, and not on the women with the solutions.

This is the reason why they are in Geneva.

“We are not giving up”

Tomorrow, 13 December 2018, the pre-session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Yemen will take place. Muna Luqman and Nisma Mansour represent a group of Yemeni grassroots organisations that have come together in advance of the UPR to submit a report to the UPR working group. The report was written by a coalition of six NGO’s in collaboration with WILPF and has already been submitted, in June 2018, and it is now time for the pre-session, where they have been selected as civil society speakers.

“I am very excited about participating in the pre-session. Already before the session, we have received a lot of positive attention from the media and international diplomats. As we are one of the few civil society organisations that made a submission, people are eager to hear our recommendations, and also to hear from us what’s really happening on the ground,” says Muna Luqman. Having a background in communications and advocacy, she is a strong public speaker and storyteller.

Nisma Mansour eagerly continues: “In a country where nobody really wants to listen to the women, then we take every chance we get to speak. The Yemeni government has refused to include us in the peace talks. They say it’s not the time for women’s issues now, that women’s agendas are a luxury problem. Being here, recognised by the international community as speakers at the pre-session, hopefully will make them take us more seriously.”

Muna Luqman nods. “They should not underestimate us. We are here for the long haul, and we are not giving up. Should peace get a chance in Yemen, then we will need women at the table,” says Muna Luqman and she starts listing the number of international key meetings that members of the Yemeni women’s coalition, Women Solidarity Network, have been present at during the last months, from Geneva Peace Week to side events in Sweden on the margins of the peace talks, over high level dialogue with prominent Syrian women with the EU in Belgium, and now to the UPR pre-session in Switzerland. The most significant instance was  when one of their fellow activists, Rasha Jarhum, briefed the UN Security Council in November 2018 and provided a civil society perspective during the session around the situation in Yemen.

“As members of the Women Solidarity Network and as women activists, we work relentlessly to end bloody conflicts over water and land resources, to evacuate schools from armed groups, and to restore the rights of ours sons and daughters to education. We are risking our lives on a daily basis to rescue families trapped in conflict zones, and negotiating the opening of humanitarian corridors,” says Muna Luqman.

While the government of Yemen might be able to neglect the existence of these persistent women, the international community has started discovering the added value that the women are bringing to the stagnant peace talks .

Participation is essential to secure women’s rights

The work with the UPR submission had been intensive. Firstly, the organisations involved had never made a UPR submission before, and secondly, they needed to keep their focus on writing recommendations to the Yemeni government — as UPR recommendations are addressed to the State under review — knowing well that this would not give an exhaustive picture of the deteriorating situation of women’s rights in Yemen, nor would it cover the violations against women committed by other warring parties to the conflict.

“Our submission details many recommendations to the government of Yemen on six different topics. I think the international community’s focus will be on child soldiers and gender-based sexual violence, but I certainly also hope that attention will be on the need for women’s participation, enforced disappearances and use of explosive weapons,” explains Muna Luqman, arguing in a lively manner with her hands.

Ending the war in Yemen is one thing, getting transitional justice to its people another. The picture is complex, and the two Yemeni activists clearly know this.  

“It is far from a simple situation. Everything is linked. While we need to lift the blockades in Yemen and end the siege of the city of Taiz in order to get humanitarian aid into those who are suffering, we also need to speak the truth and address the drivers of famine, for example, the existing corruption in the supply chains, to ensure unimpeded and safe humanitarian access,” say Muna Luqman and Nisma Mansour, speaking at the same time.

Missing voices, not silenced voices

Tomorrow, it is time for the pre-session. Supported by WILPF, Muna Luqman and Nisma Mansour have been preparing their oral statements. They will both be speaking and have divided the topics according to their areas of  expertise.

Nisma Mansour, Field Coordinator for “Peace Track Initiative”
Nisma Mansour, Field Coordinator for “Peace Track Initiative” / Picture credit: Charlotte Hooij

“I really see it as my duty to speak and bring the voices of Yemeni women to the international community. We are also trying to speak to the Yemeni government, but they are not interested in what we have to say, so our strategy is really to get the international community to push for our inclusion. The more visible we are, the harder it is to silence us,” says Nisma Mansour.

“There is now a light in the dark tunnel of bloodshed, but if peace really happens, then we will need the right people to be part of the negotiations. Today, the negotiations are only taking place between the warring parties, namely the militias inside Yemen and the government who has fled to Saudi Arabia and has not been directly engaged with the people,” says Muna Luqman and continues: “Women are truly those who know what needs to be done. While the government has been in exile, we have been documenting what’s happening on the ground; we brought water, food, and oxygen to the hospitals, brought bread to the hungry, advocated for detainees to be released … the youth and women working at the grassroots level simply need to be part of the solution for Yemen.”

“When is it time to include women, if not now?” asks Nisma Mansour, speaking rhetorically, referring to their latest call with a High Standing Representative of the Yemeni Government, who didn’t even wanted to arrange a meeting with them, while the UN Envoy to Yemen and various diplomats spent two hours with them on a day packed with important meetings.

Publication out today

Women's position in Yemen Yemen has historically ranked at the bottom of the Global Gender Gap Index and being in an armed conflict further exacerbates the impacts on women and girls. Yemeni women are not only disproportionately impacted by the use of explosive weapons, indiscriminate shelling and mine detonations; they are also absent from the discussion on how to solve the conflict within the country.

While the pre-session of the UPR of Yemen happens on 13 December 2018, the actual UPR takes place on 23 January 2019. The UPR submission has been turned into a publication called “Changes Ahead: Yemeni Women Map the Road to Peace” and it can be downloaded on WILPF’s website. In the publication, you are able to read in detail the Yemeni women’s analysis of what needs to be done, all their recommendations to the government, case studies and infographic.

The joint UPR submission has be prepared by the following six Yemeni organisations with the support of WILPF: Awam Foundation for Development and Culture, Ejad Foundation for Development, Food For Humanity, Peace Track Initiative, Sawasiah Organization for Human Rights, and To Be Foundation for Rights and Freedoms, all of which are members of the Yemeni Women Solidarity Network.

UN Women has supported the work of the Yemeni delegation around the upcoming UPR of the State of Yemen.

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WILPF International Secretariat

WILPF International Secretariat, with offices in Geneva and New York, liaises with the International Board and the National Sections and Groups for the implementation of WILPF International Programme, resolutions and policies as adopted by the International Congress. Under the direction of the Secretary-General, the Secretariat also provides support in areas of advocacy, communications, and financial operations.

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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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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.

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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. 

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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.