The activities of women peace builders during conflict

ABSTRACT

This research project is on the activities of women peace builders during conflict: The case of the armed conflict in the Anglophone regions. It addresses issues of peace and how women can get actively involved in providing peace in their homes, communities and the world at large. With the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1325 the role women play for peace and security was affirmed. The main aim of this resolution was to protect women during conflict, prevent them from gettimg hurt or sexually assaulted and to involve them in participating in peace processes as equal to men as well as their involvement in the maintainance and promotion of peace. The resolution recognised women to be largely excluded from the peace processes in the aftermath of a conflict and so aimed at establishing the important roles that women can play in the prevention and the resolution of peace both in negotiating and building. It can thus be valuable to explore if the implementation of the resolution has created a larger acknowledgement of women in the peace agreements and to see if women are limited to and by the roles they are assigned to in the peace agreements in their peace work. The study had three Objectives with the main objectives which was to investigate the reason for the limitations of women in peace building activities. Specifically, the researcher seek to identify the activities of women peace builders in the Anglophone conflict, to examine the extent to which these activities are profitable to women peace builders and to investigate the challenges faced by women peace builders which limits their activities. The main theory used here was the Feminist Theory. The Feminist theory focuses on the fact women should be involved when building peace as the suffer the most during conflict. There should be equality between men and women in politics as women can also be involved in it. Women should not be limited at any levels be it through patriachal norms or any form of inequality. Women are not only victims of conflict but are also agents. The study used  quantitative method research with a questionnaire which contained both closed ended and open ended questions, where the respondents were allowed to answer the required questions.  The key findings of the study showed that women engage in all types of peacebuilding work and even thoughwomen suffer and are victims of war they are also agents of change and when they are limited by the gender roles that exist, they use what agency they have within the frame of their roles as women to implement change. 

The researcher could conclude that women have great roles to play in maintaining peace in Cameroon and thus should be at the fore front of peace processes. With the Cameroonian women being involved in peace processes, their main issues will be handled and the laws put in place to protect them can be well put tongether therby being profitable to them and the community. Women face patriachal and hegemonic challenges that limits their participation.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background to the Study

In the year 2000, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) implemented a new resolution called UNSC Resolution 1325 concerning women, peace and security. The resolution consists of four pillars which are prevention, participation, protection and peacebuilding and recovery. This resolution followed after the recognition that women are to a larger extent often excluded from the peace process in the aftermath of a conflict. The resolution was created to establish the important role women play in the prevention and resolution of peace, both in negotiating for and building (UN Women, 2016). The adoption of the new resolution was the first of the kind concerning women and their role in the achievement of peace and peace building. It aimed at promoting women’s participation in the peace building process as equals to men as well as their involvement in the maintenance and promotion of peace (Tryggestad, 2009).

The adoption of Resolution 1325 was unique in the sense that the UNSC for the first time put all their attention towards women in armed conflict and identified women as agents in negotiating and maintaining peace instead of only victims. The resolution showed the recognition of women’s role in peacebuilding and the impact armed conflicts have on women. One important part established by the adoption of the resolution were that it showed that the exclusion of women from the peace process was a threat to the peace itself Bell and O’Rourke, (2010).

Women play a role in the peace process basically at the informal level or setting. This is because women’s roles in the formal sphere is threatened based on conservative and patriarchal cultural practices. Women who are participating in peace processes and who advocates for gender equality are targeted for slander, abuse and threats. This actually limits women in how they can act since they do not act on as an individual but on behalf of the whole family Larsson & Mannergren, (2014).

In Africa, Women played great roles as peace builders in resolving conflicts especially in some African countries like Zimbabwe, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya in order to bring back and maintain peace. They played the role of dismantling illegal checkpoints that were controlled by different armed militia groups and creating groups that consisted of women and youths that worked for peace and security in the communities. The Sudanese women contributed to the peacebuilding process with the use of songs, dances, peace missions and marriage. They also made use if threats of their nakedness to force impact since women’s nakedness is regarded as a curse in Sudan. Furthermore, some women played the role of combatants or smuggled arms. They decided to serve the combatants by delivering food and water to them, caring for the wounded and also engage in humanitarian relief, napping internally displaced persons (IDPs) and providing aid by smuggling medicines. Women also played the role of advocating for the end of harmful cultural practices, these being Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), child marriage, affirmative action and the use of effective conflict resolution mechanisms. Again, women have been able to bring the opposition parties together to start the reconciliation process both on a local and a national level and have also demonstrated for the detained civilians and kidnapped persons to be released, negotiated for the released of detainees who have been kept on all sides (Anderlinis, Jarhum, Allam & Cowick, 2017, safer world,n.d). In addition, Women from these African countries were involved in Non- Governmental Organisation which got them engaged in non- violent protest and demanding for a better future for themselves. In Libya, the Libyan Women’s platform for peace (LWPP) was created in the year 2011 with women from several different cities being active to engage in a work which was centered around Women’s rights, leadership by the youth in the country as well as advancement and security regarding women’s empowerment in the political and economic sphere (LWPP 2016).  The Somali Women Development Center (SWDC) that works for the women in Somalia can be found in many areas. Amongst these, one can find peace building and reconciliation where they work with female volunteers. One of their projects between the year of 2011 & 2012 went through a first sphere where women from five different distinct were engaged in strengthening the peace and security between the neighbourhoods in their districts. In Yemen, there was the creation of the Yemeni Women Pact for Peace and Security (YMPPS) which goal was to increase the number of women to participate in the formal peacebuilding process.  Equally, there was the creation of the Women’s Action Group Zimbabwe (WAG) which worked for women and their rights and the prevention of violence and sexual abuse towards women. Women Empowerment for Peace and Development Network in Sudan has worked for women’s democratic rights and encourage women to take a bigger role in decision making.

Moving down to the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon which is the researchers main focus, the Cameroonian women have gotten themselves engage in so many activities and are still brining up new ways of building and restoring peace in Cameroon. The Cameroon conflict which is termed basically as an ethno national conflict which is conflict of identity in terms of language, can not be resolved but can be managed. Women’s role in conflict resolution and peace building has long been underestimated especially in societies where patriarchy is the order of the day (francis tazoacha ; gender perspectives), specifically in the Cameroon society but women have been able to put in efforts in order to restore peace back in Cameroon. Women are doing so much as peace builders in order to put an end to the Anglophone conflict which has been ongoing for over 4years in the North West and South West region of Cameroon which has caused maleficent obliteration of human lives and property. Firstly, With the insecurity situation worsening fast in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon, a group of courageous women have emerged under the auspices of South West and North West Women’s Task Force. These individual women and their foils in civil society have been mustering and campaigning for the end of the Anglophone crisis. They call for a ceasefire or total end of the meaningless conflict and meaningful participation of all stakeholders to find sustainable peace to the violent conflict.  Moreover, they also played the role of active combatants or as part of the separatist militia support structure either for political reasons or for revenge. Again, the Cameroonian women organised press conferences, radio and television talks and marched on the streets of major towns and cities in Cameroon protesting for an end to the conflict.  These women equally participated in the mourning exercises in order to express extreme discontentment and to draw the attention of stakeholders, especially policy makers, particularly men, so that they may go to the drawing board to resolve the disastrous conflict sustainably. The conflict has made women to be active on social media and have kept apprising and supporting each other with WhatsApp messages (gender perspective; the role of women in peace building processes). They also created a Hear Me Too campaign on it days of Activism against Gender-based violence to end violence against women and children. Women both at home and abroad have pressed with some success for relief measures such as reopening schools that separatist boycotts forced to close and extending the reach of humanitarian aid (Francis Tazoacha & Ancel Langwa, 2021: Gender perspective: the role of women in ending the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon). Thereby showing what women are doing as peace builders in the Anglophone crisis.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

• Research questions

General Research Question

 The limitation of women in peace building process in the Anglophone Crisis?

Specific Research

• What are the activities of women peace builders?
• To what extend are these activities profitable to women peace builders?
• What are the challenges faced by women peace builders that limits their activities?

• Objectives of the study

General Objective

• To investigate the reasons for the limitation of women in peace building activities

Specific Research Question

• To identify the activities of women peace builders in the Anglophone Conflict
• To examine the extent to which these activities are profitable to women peace builders
• To investigate, the challenges faced by women peace builders which limits their activities