[Senate Hearing 116-197]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 116-197
WOMEN IN CONFLICT: ADVANCING WOMEN'S ROLE IN PEACE
AND SECURITY
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON WESTERN
HEMISPHERE, TRANSNATIONAL
CRIME, CIVILIAN SECURITY,
DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS,
AND GLOBAL WOMEN'S ISSUES
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
INSERT DATE HERE deg.JUNE 13, 2019
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Relations
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web:
http://www.govinfo.gov
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
40-484 PDF WASHINGTON : 2020
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho, Chairman
MARCO RUBIO, Florida ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey
RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland
CORY GARDNER, Colorado JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire
MITT ROMNEY, Utah CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware
LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina TOM UDALL, New Mexico
JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia CHRISTOPHER MURPHY, Connecticut
JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming TIM KAINE, Virginia
ROB PORTMAN, Ohio EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts
RAND PAUL, Kentucky JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon
TODD, YOUNG, Indiana CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey
TED CRUZ, Texas
Christopher M. Socha, Staff Director
Jessica Lewis, Democratic Staff Director
John Dutton, Chief Clerk
SUBCOMMITTEE ON WESTERN HEMISPHERE,
TRANSNATIONAL CRIME, CIVILIAN SECURITY, DEMOCRACY,
HUMAN RIGHTS, AND GLOBAL WOMEN'S ISSUES
MARCO RUBIO, Florida, Chairman
ROB PORTMAN, Ohio BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland
TED CRUZ, Texas TOM UDALL, New Mexico
CORY GARDNER, Colorado JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire
JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming TIM KAINE, Virginia
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Rubio, Hon. Marco, U.S. Senator From Florida..................... 1
Cardin, Hon. Benjamin L., U.S. Senator From Maryland............. 4
Shaheen, Hon. Jeanne, U.S. Senator From New Hampshire............ 5
Bottner, Andrea G., Senior Advisor to the Independent Women's
Forum; Founder, Bottner Strategies, LLC, Chevy Chase, MD....... 7
Prepared statement........................................... 8
Bigio, Jamille, Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy,
Council on Foreign Relations, Washington, DC................... 11
Prepared statement........................................... 12
Kakar, Palwasha L., Senior Program Officer, Religion and
Inclusive Societies, United States Institute of Peace,
Washington, DC................................................. 16
Prepared statement........................................... 19
Additional Material Submitted for the Record
Women, Peace, and Security National Strategy Submitted by Jeanne
Shaheen........................................................ 38
(iii)
WOMEN IN CONFLICT: ADVANCING WOMEN'S ROLE IN PEACE AND SECURITY
----------
THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2019
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Transnational
Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights,
and Global Women's Issues,
Committee on Foreign Relations,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:05 a.m. in
room SD-419, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Marco Rubio,
chairman of the subcommittee, presiding.
Present. Senators Rubio [presiding], Risch, Gardner,
Cardin, Shaheen, and Kaine.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MARCO RUBIO,
U.S. SENATOR FROM FLORIDA
Senator Rubio. Good morning. I would like to welcome
everyone to today's hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations
Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime,
Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women's
Issues. We got to come up with an acronym. This is way too
long.
[Laughter.]
Senator Rubio. It does not fit on letterhead.
Anyway, today's hearing is on a very important topic: Women
in Conflict: Advancing Women's Role in Peace and Security.
We only have one panel today, but a great panel. Ms. Andrea
Bottner is the Senior Advisor to the Independent Women's Forum
and founder of Bottner Strategies. Ms. Jamille Bigio is the
Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy at the Council on
Foreign Relations, and Ms. Palwasha Kakar is the Senior Program
Officer for Religion and Inclusive Societies at the United
States Institute of Peace. I want to thank all of you for
taking the time to be with us today and to discuss this issue
of critical importance to our national security and to
international stability.
I would like to thank first my colleagues that are here
today for their partnership and their individual work as well
on issues affecting women and girls around the world. The
chairman of this committee, Jim Risch, has been a great leader
in the Senate and chairing this committee on this topic, as
well as the ranking member, Senator Menendez. I also want to
note the work of Senator Shaheen, who has been a tireless
advocate on ensuring women around the world have equal
opportunities to succeed. She led the Women, Peace, and
Security Act of 2017 that was signed into law by President
Trump last year--2 years ago.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration rolled out the
new Women, Peace, and Security Strategy, as required by law.
And the strategy seeks to ensure women's meaningful
participation and leadership in political and civil life and
empower them to play key roles in decision-making and peace
processes. It rightfully recognizes the critical role that
women play in enacting change, resolving conflict,
counterterrorism, and advancing peace.
The United States is the first country in the world to
enact a comprehensive law on this issue. I think this is an
achievement we should be proud of, and I look forward to now,
along with all the members of this committee, supporting its
implementation in the years to come.
As we look at the map of the world today, unfortunately we
have ongoing conflicts on almost every continent. From South
Sudan to Afghanistan, to Burma, to Syria, to the major
humanitarian disaster in our own hemisphere, Venezuela, it
seems no region is untouched by conflict.
Though conflict inflicts suffering on everyone, women are
particularly and uniquely affected by conflict. Women and girls
are the most vulnerable when conflicts erupt, and they are
often targeted with violence, specifically sexual violence.
These gender-based assaults are used as a weapon of war. The
accounts are heartbreaking and harrowing.
In Burma, during the 2017 violence, Rohingya women were
subjected to unspeakable horrors. They were lined up and
brutally raped by Burmese military forces and in some cases
their babies taken from them and murdered.
In Iraq, under ISIS, Yazidi women were forced to endure
years of torture and rape. Girls were separated by eye color
and sold as sex slaves, often sold multiple times to ISIS
fighters based on the ISIS fighters' personal preferences.
In Nigeria, Boko Haram militants kidnapped girls, forced
them into marriages, and committed sexual violence, and
deployed women and girls as suicide bombers.
I could go on for hours unfortunately, but women are, more
often than not, marginalized during the end of conflict. They
are left out of discussions to find political solutions in
peace processes. They are barred from making decisions about
their own future.
However, thankfully there is a growing recognition by
international organizations, backed by research, by
policymakers and others of the links that connect economic,
social, and political stability and security with the wellbeing
of women. The protection of women and girls in conflict in
humanitarian settings should be a top priority for the United
States and for our partners, especially since this is where the
risk of sexual and gender-based violence is highest.
But as we focus and prioritize the protections that must be
in place, we need to also focus on ensuring that women are
involved in preventing conflicts from breaking out in the first
place and that they are active participants in resolving them
because women play a key role in the prevention of conflict
during and also post-conflict. Research now has proven that
when women are able to meaningfully participate in peace
negotiations and processes, there is a higher likelihood of
lasting stability.
Just to provide a few examples, one study found that peace
agreements are 20 percent more likely to last at least 2 years
and 35 percent more likely to last for more than 15 years when
women are involved.
Another study investigating 82 peace agreements and 42
armed conflicts between 1989 and 2011 found that peace
agreements with women signatories are linked with durable
peace.
Research by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and
Security finds that women from civil society helped craft more
comprehensive agreements in support of both ending war and
building peace.
So the research is clear. We need women to play a role at
the negotiating table not only exchanging ideas and leading
discussions, but also as implementers of peace agreements.
Women in civil society tend to prioritize larger social
issues beyond the cessation of hostilities. These include
reconciliation, development, education, human rights, gender
equality, justice, and democracy. Even with all of this
evidence, significant gaps remain in both the protection of
women and girls in conflict, as well as support for women's
involvement in peace initiatives and security.
It has been 19 years since the U.N. Security Council
adopted the landmark resolution 1325 which calls on member
states to increase women's participation at all levels of
decision-making. Sadly, we have not seen significant progress
on women's participation in those 19 years. Acknowledging that
women should be part of these discussions is easy, but we have
struggled to implement it.
It is in the national security interest of the United
States to have stable partners around the world who respect the
fundamental rights of their citizens, including women. Gender
equality, according to the Belfer Center, is associated with a
lower propensity for conflict both between and within states,
which is directly linked to U.S. security and global stability.
Currently the ongoing peace talks in Afghanistan provide us
with an opportunity for the U.S. to prove its dedication to
women's participation in negotiations. And I hope we will do
all we can to ensure that women have a seat at that table.
In March 2019, more than 700 Afghan women gathered to
advocate and make clear that while they support peace, they are
fearful of losing their rights they have gained. The
empowerment and equality of Afghan women are key to a more
stable and sustainable Afghanistan.
So I look forward to discussing the role of women in the
peace talks in Afghanistan further during this hearing.
But the bottom line is if 50 percent of your population is
left out of the peace process and is left out of key leadership
and decision-making roles, you are setting yourself up for
failure. Women are the backbone of society and must play an
active role in securing long-term peace and security.
The ranking member.
STATEMENT OF HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MARYLAND
Senator Cardin. Well, Senator Rubio, first of all, thank
you for your leadership in convening this hearing. And I very
much concur in your statement as to the importance of this
hearing and U.S. leadership. This hearing advances the U.S.
leadership in promoting gender equality and in promoting peace
and security. So thank you very much for your leadership.
It underscores the importance of women's equal
participation in a country's economic, social, and political
institutions. Here in the United States, we have seen the
benefit firsthand by the increased numbers of women that are in
the United States Senate. It has made an incredible difference
in the strength of our democracy here in the United States.
I particularly want to acknowledge Senator Shaheen. She is
the only woman who serves on this committee, and her
participation has made a very, very significant difference.
And I think I need to underscore this because you serve on
committees here because of your preference. You put down where
you want to serve on a committee. It is tough enough for a
woman to get elected to the United States Senate and to get
reelected. And when you make your committee selections, you do
that based upon, in part, what you think is best for your own
political future on reelection and for the people you represent
in your state.
Senator Shaheen recognized the need to deal with global
issues that affect the security of people around the world. It
may not get her votes in New Hampshire, but it has certainly
made a huge difference for the global security. So I thank her
for her leadership on this committee. It has made a huge
difference in the way that we see issues.
In this case, she partnered with Senator Capito on the 2017
Women, Peace, and Security Act, which was enacted. It sets up a
U.S. strategy for participation of women to prevent conflicts
and to resolve hostilities and to preserve peace and to develop
U.S. leadership on these issues.
Yesterday, we had, I thought, an extremely productive
meeting with Ivanka Trump as the Trump administration presented
to us their strategy for implementing the 2017 law that was
passed by Congress. I agree with Senator Rubio. We now need to
get additional information on that strategy. We have to make
sure it is executed in a way that is effective in carrying out
the goals that Congress intended. And we need to find out how
Congress and the administration can work together in order to
achieve those objectives.
This follows the success we had on the WE Act, which
provided economic empowerment for women through the use of our
development assistance programs here in the United States.
It is critically important that we incorporate women in
conflict prevention, mediation, and resolution procedures as
leaders and as decision-makers. We need to involve women in
order to get effective results. Women and girls, as the
chairman pointed out, have unique threats in conflict settings,
from sexual violence to economic isolation. Policymakers must
understand these risks to effectively incorporate necessary
protection measures. Women must have a place at the table not
just for gender equality. Women's participation in
peacekeeping, combating violent extremism, and promoting
security is absolutely critical to the success of these
efforts.
Numerous studies--as the chairman points out, that the
success of a peace process with women participation is much
higher because you are including the population, and you are
providing the input that you need so that you can have lasting
peace in an area.
Numerous challenges today. The chairman mentioned several
of those: civil wars in the Middle East, violence in Central
America, terror and conflict in West Africa, the Rohingya
issues in Asia, and the list goes on and on and on. If we are
able to successfully deal with these conflict challenges, women
must be part of the solution. That is particularly true in
Afghanistan where we have been struggling with the peace
process and we have not been able to effectively engage women
in that process. We must do a more effective job if we are
going to be able to bring peace to that troubled country which
has been at war for so long.
While the efforts like Women, Peace, and Security Act and
WE Act are positive steps, there is substantially more that we
have to do. Mr. Chairman, I will just mention one. You
mentioned that we are approaching the 20th anniversary of the
U.N. resolution 1325. Well, we are approaching the 100th
anniversary of women's suffrage here in the United States. And
it is long past time that the United States leads by their own
example first and that we pass the Equal Rights Amendment. I
have teamed up with Senator Murkowski with a resolution that
would allow us to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment with one
more state ratifying. And I would urge my colleagues that in
this 100th year celebrating women's suffrage and promoting our
leadership globally, let us get the Equal Rights Amendment in
our Constitution.
With that, I look forward to hearing from our witnesses.
Senator Rubio. Thank you.
And the chairman of the committee has joined us. I thank
him for being here. This has been a big priority for him. I
have seen his schedule. It looks like he is the Secretary of
State. So we appreciate that. I know how busy he is and he
needs to be in other places.
Senator Risch. I am not paid like the Secretary of State.
Senator Rubio. He says he is not paid like the Secretary of
State.
[Laughter.]
Senator Rubio. Senator Shaheen. Because of the work she has
done, I would like to give her an opportunity as well to have
an opening statement.
STATEMENT OF HON. JEANNE SHAHEEN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE
Senator Shaheen. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman
and Senator Cardin. Thank you both for your very kind remarks.
And thank you to all of the witnesses for being here today.
As has been pointed out, earlier this week, Senator Risch
hosted a roundtable where we had representatives of the
administration come in and actually launch the Women, Peace,
and Security national strategy. And Mr. Chairman, if I could
introduce this for the record.
Senator Rubio. Without objection.
[The information referred to is located at the end of the
hearing]
Senator Shaheen. This is the strategy that gets included.
And I was really please to join Senator Capito, Senator
Risch, and Senator Cardin, as well as Ivanka Trump, who
represented the White House, and the Deputy Secretary of State,
John Sullivan, USAID Administrator Mark Green, and Acting Chief
Management Officer at the Department of Defense, Lisa Hershman.
What I was particularly impressed with was the commitment
that each of them gave to implementing this strategy because as
you all have pointed out, we are the first country in the world
to legislatively put in place a law that says we have an
official strategy that says women should be at the table in all
stages of security situations from conflict prevention to peace
building.
And furthermore, we have actually funded that strategy.
Last year, we provided $4 million to hire gender advisors in
the Department of Defense.
So we have already begun, and the challenge now, as
everyone has said, is ensuring that we implement this strategy
in a way that is effective and that recognizes the role that
women have to play around the world.
And I was pleased that both the chairman and ranking member
mentioned Afghanistan as one of the opportunities that we have
to encourage the participation of women in any peace
negotiations. You know, if we look at what we have done in
Afghanistan, the commitment of the United States and NATO to
that country since the overthrow of the Taliban, probably the
single most effective effort has been around empowering women.
And we are at a point now where we have an opportunity to work
with Afghanistan and to ensure that women continue to be a very
important part of that country.
There are, as the chairman pointed out, so many conflict
areas around the world where having women participate will make
a significant difference. I would like to add Syria, as you
did, Mr. Chairman, when you talked about ISIS. As we look
stability in Syria, women need to be a significant part of any
resolution to the conflict there. And Ukraine is another one
where women are a critical part of any resolution.
And then there are countries where they have very
intolerant policies towards women where they do not provide
rights and protections that we are working hard to ensure in
the United States. Saudi Arabia is one of those countries, and
I think it is important for us, wherever we see that, to have
an official policy on the part of the United States where we
point out the challenges that those countries are facing and
why it would be important to ensure rights for women.
And just to add to what the chairman and Senator Risch
said, what we know from the data--you know, it is not just
because we think it is a good idea to include women. Obviously,
we do think that. But the data shows that women's participation
in peace processes, as our witnesses know, today makes a huge
difference because any agreement from a peace negotiation is 35
percent more likely to last at least 15 years. And civil
society participation, including women's groups, makes a peace
agreement 64 percent less likely to fail. And yet according to
the Council on Foreign Relations, from 1990 to 2017, women made
up only 2 percent of mediators and 8 percent of negotiators in
peace processes.
So we have an opportunity. We have legislation. We have an
implementation strategy. We have a commitment. Now it is up to
all of us to ensure that it gets implemented in a way that
helps to empower women around the world.
So thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity.
Senator Rubio. Thank you.
As we get to our testimony, I wanted to just--we have
talked briefly. You have 5 minutes, but I would encourage you
if you can abbreviate this so we can get into the questions
because we have a vote at 11:30. It has been ongoing issue
around here--these votes. They are cutting them off on time and
so forth. And so we will lose attendance.
By the way, we have got a conflict in the Senate right now
in which these votes are like 15 minutes, but they are taking
like 2 hours and messing up people's schedules. So yesterday
the Efficiency Caucus, made up almost entirely of the Women's
Caucus--I think we had a couple interlopers there at the end to
join them--but basically sat at their seats and forced us to
vote within the 10-minute time frame, led by the women of the
Senate. So there is an example of the U.S. putting these
practices to use.
Anyway, I want to thank all of you. And I guess I will
begin with you, Ms. Bottner. Thank you for being here and we
will move right to left.
STATEMENT OF ANDREA G. BOTTNER, SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE
INDEPENDENT WOMEN'S FORUM; FOUNDER, BOTTNER STRATEGIES, LLC,
CHEVY CHASE, MD
Ms. Bottner. Good morning, and thank you, Mr. Chairman,
Ranking Member Cardin, Senator, Senator. Thank you for inviting
me here today. It is an honor to appear before this
distinguished committee and to join my fellow panelists.
Today I am representing the Independent Women's Forum, a
nonprofit dedicated to developing and advancing policies that
enhance people's freedoms, choices, and opportunities.
I will draw heavily from my past experience as the Director
of the International Women's Issues Office at the U.S. State
Department during the George W. Bush administration and my work
since then with survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence,
and rape.
I want to thank Senator Shaheen particularly for her
leadership regarding the Women, Peace, and Security Act. This
bipartisan legislation that President Trump signed into law
will ensure that the perspective voices and contributions of
women will be considered and respected as conflict is addressed
and as lasting peace is sought.
Women around the world are disproportionately affected by
violent conflict. Rape is used to demoralize entire
communities. Sexual violence is used as a method of torture. It
is estimated that one in three women worldwide have experienced
physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime. Practices
like female genital mutilation occur in many countries around
the globe, and young girls are often trafficked or married off
at an unbelievably young age.
Many societies still do not recognize the contributions
that women can make to their economies, their educational
systems, and their governments. But we do. And it is in
America's best interest to continue supporting women's
participation in peace processes and subsequent post-conflict
reconstruction.
We know that women being involved increases the likelihood
a peace agreement will last longer than 15 years by as much as
35 percent. We know that women not only need a seat at the
table, but they have to exert real influence. When women are
involved in peace negotiations, we see agreements that focus
not just on an end to the fighting, but on building a lasting
peace. We have seen success in many different countries around
the world when women have been involved.
For example, the 2016 Colombian peace agreement is often
cited as a success story. I actually flew over the jungle with
the only female Blackhawk helicopter pilot in the Colombian
anti-narcotics police. This was before the agreement was
reached. But I saw firsthand the grit and the bravery of the
Colombian women.
Today we watch anxiously as Afghanistan decides upon its
country's future. Since the Taliban was toppled, millions of
women have worked to create a more inclusive society and future
for their country. The United States and the women of
Afghanistan share a very special relationship that began in
2002 with the creation of the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council. That
council continues to thrive today and is an example of U.S.
investment and support in the empowerment of Afghan women. The
ongoing Afghan peace process is a real test of our commitment
to the women of Afghanistan and indeed the world.
As we move forward and seek to implement this new
government strategy on Women, Peace, and Security, let us make
sure we try to understand the local barriers to women's
participation in each unique community, strengthen the role of
civil society, develop public-private partnerships with faith-
based organizations and businesses that can improve the status
of women, provide technical assistance and training to female
negotiators and mediators and U.S. Government personnel,
empower women and girls to be active participants in efforts to
address terrorism and violent extremism.
The United States occupies a unique place in the world and
must continue to lead efforts on behalf of vulnerable and
voiceless women. We have work to do in the months ahead to
implement this administration's robust government-wide
strategy, and I look forward to the work and thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Bottner follows:]
Prepared Statement of Andrea G. Bottner
Chairman Rubio and Ranking Member Cardin, thank you for the
opportunity to be here and discuss the critical importance of involving
women in the advancement of peace and security.
Today, I'm representing the Independent Women's Forum, a nonprofit
dedicated to developing and advancing policies that enhance people's
freedom, choices, and opportunities.
I draw heavily from my past experience as the Director of the
International Women's Issues Office at the U.S. State Department during
the George W. Bush administration and my work with survivors of sexual
assault, domestic violence and rape.
The Women, Peace and Security Act of 2017 ensures that the United
States will be a global leader in promoting the participation of women
in conflict prevention, management, and post-conflict relief efforts.
I enthusiastically commend the U.S. Congress and President Trump
for making this the law of our land.
This important legislation recognizes that including women in
conflict prevention and resolution will promote more inclusive and
democratic societies. The addition of women to these discussions is
critical to country and regional stability. It is within the national
interest of the United States to ensure the participation of women and
a true demonstration of our global leadership.
The participation of women in peace processes has contributed to
increased success in reaching agreements and the subsequent longevity
of those agreements.
According to studies conducted by the United Nations, when women
have a substantive role in peace negotiations the likelihood the
agreement will last beyond 15 years increases by as much as 35 percent.
However, it is not always easy to insert women into the peacemaking
process. Between 1990 and 2017, according to the United Nations
Executive Director of U.N. Women, women constituted only 2 percent of
mediators, 8 percent of negotiators, and 5 percent of witnesses and
signatories in major peace processes.
Only 3 out of 11 agreements signed in 2017 contained provisions on
gender equality. Of 1,500 agreements signed between 2000 and 2016, only
25 raise the role of women's engagement in the implementation phase.
These statistics underscore the point that the Women, Peace, and
Security Act is desperately needed. We need to examine the barriers and
challenges that keep women from participating fully in their societies
and work to eradicate them.
Women around the globe are disproportionately affected by violent
conflict. Women and girls face violence as they flee armed conflict and
as they strive to survive in a new place.
Rape is used as a weapon of war and other forms of sexual violence
occur before, during and after conflict. According to the United
Nations, there are eight different forms of conflict-related sexual
violence: rape, sexual slavery, prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced
abortion, enforced sterilization, forced marriage, and other forms of
sexual violence of comparable gravity.
Another human rights abuse that women and girls face is female
genital mutilation (FGM). This is any procedure involving the partial
or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to
the female genital organs. FGM is often performed on girls between the
ages of 4 and 14 to ensure their virginity until marriage.
The World Health Organization reports that FGM has no health
benefits and can cause serious and often lifelong physical and
psychological health problems. It is estimated that 200 million women
worldwide have undergone this procedure.
American women should note that while this is most predominant in
Africa, the Middle East and East Asia, it is estimated that over
500,000 young women and girls are at risk of FGM in the United States.
We need to be concerned about this rising threat and work to raise
awareness this practice will not be tolerated in the United States.
Gender-based violence exists in epidemic proportions around the
world, whether it occurs in the form of domestic violence, the
trafficking of human beings, or in the context of war and conflict,
such violence and coercion has devastating effects on women's personal
health, the families, communities and emerging societies.
A continued emphasis on fighting these atrocities needs to continue
if we want to make sure women are included in peace and security
discussions.
There are many reasons why the involvement of women can change the
outcome. These reasons have to do with how women are viewed and how
they naturally interact with others. Women tend to be more
collaborative in their approach to problem solving.
Collaboration demands working with others and would naturally
include those of different cultural, religious and other groups.
In most societies around the world, women and men still play very
different roles in their families and communities. Often, women are not
as directly associated with the power structures and are viewed as more
transparent and honest. They can be viewed as more impartial than their
male counterparts and therefore, more trusted.
When women show courage and stand up for their rights, it can make
a huge public impact. An example of this bravery is the story of the
``Abuelas'' of Sepur Zarco.
Guatemala endured a decades long civil war while indigenous women
were systematically raped and enslaved by the military in the small
community of Sepur Zarco. From 2011-2016, 15 women survivors fought for
justice in the highest court of Guatemala.
The case resulted in the conviction of two former military officers
of crimes against humanity and granted reparation measures to the women
survivors and their community.
Another example of the successful involvement of women in the peace
process is the Colombian Peace Agreement. In 2016, the Columbian
government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) came to a peace
agreement after 50 years of armed civil conflict.
The peace agreement set an international example for women's
involvement in peace building. When negotiations began in 2012, only 1
of the 20 negotiators was female. Civil society took note, organized a
summit about women and peace and a few years later about 20 percent-30
percent of the negotiators were female.
The involvement of women in the Colombian story made a large impact
in many different ways. The women helped broaden the agenda, negotiated
local cease-fires, increased accountability and helped build public
support.
In 2008, I had the honor of flying with Captain Erika Pedraza
Murillo, who was the only female Blackhawk helicopter pilot with
Colombia's anti-narcotics police. Her strength and courage reflect the
traits of so many Colombian women.
We have an ongoing peace process effort in Afghanistan today. Since
the Taliban government fell, millions of women have voted in local and
national elections.
In 2002, the United States Afghan Women's Council was created as a
Presidential Initiative under President George W. Bush. This effort was
a joint U.S.-Afghan effort to promote public-private partnerships and
mobilize resources to ensure that women can gain the skills and
stability they had been deprived of by the Taliban.
An example of the progress made by Afghan women with the support of
the United States is the Afghan Fulbright Program. This educational
program offers grants to qualified Afghan graduate students to study at
the graduate level in the United States.
In 2002, there were no women qualified to apply, due to years of
being denied access to education. Today, half the applicants are women
and the Afghan Fulbright Program is one of the largest in the world.
Coincidentally, the current Afghan Ambassador to the United States,
Roya Rahmani is a Fulbright alumnus.
The Council continues to thrive today.
Since 2010, women have played a role seeking to end the conflict.
They have been appointed to the High Peace Council, negotiated with
Taliban fighters and continued to demand women are included in the
ongoing peace negotiations.
The United States has strong influence with Afghanistan and needs
to use that leverage to ensure that women are involved in peace
negotiations in Afghanistan. Our actions in support of Afghan women
will show the strength of our commitment to the world.
As we view today's global challenges and consider the robust
involvement of women, we should continue to promote a few effective
strategies. We need to seek the input from women about their societies
before conflict occurs. We have to support women's leadership in their
communities and when conflict occurs, give them equal access to aid.
We recognize women and girls are at a disproportionate risk of
violence during conflict and must protect them and seek justice for
acts committed against them. We can work to bolster the number of women
in law enforcement and the military. We can provide support to female
negotiators, mediators, and peace builders.
We can support women's peace-building organizations and encourage a
robust civil society. We can recognize the value brought by faith-based
organizations, non-governmental organizations and businesses, as we
work to identify effective ways to empower women.
The United States has a unique role in our world. We must continue
to lead efforts on behalf of voiceless and vulnerable women, especially
those in conflict situations working desperately for peace.
We know women are essential to the development of open and
prosperous societies. When we invest in women, we are promoting peace
and stability. When we attack poverty, fight violence, combat injustice
and work for the empowerment of women, we are changing the very nature
of society.
It is in America's best interest to always remember the importance
of women, as we work to implement the United States Strategy for Women,
Peace and Security.
Senator Rubio. Thank you.
Ms. Bigio.
STATEMENT OF JAMILLE BIGIO, SENIOR FELLOW FOR WOMEN AND FOREIGN
POLICY, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, WASHINGTON, DC
Ms. Bigio. Thank you, Chairman Rubio, Ranking Member
Cardin, Senator Shaheen. Thank you for the opportunity to
testify before you today.
Let me begin by applauding the bipartisan lawmakers, led in
the Senate by Senator Shaheen and Senator Capito, for coming
together in 2017 to pass the Women, Peace, and Security Act. I
also welcome as a positive first step the Women, Peace, and
Security Strategy launched this week by the Trump
administration.
Both the law and the new strategy recognize that including
women in peace and security efforts is not just a matter of
fairness. It is a strategic imperative. Parties are more likely
to reach sustainable agreements. Women's participation
strengthens the security sector. Women can be effective
partners in countering terrorism. And we also know that
countries are more prosperous and stable as the gender gap
closes. Stability improves as more women participate
politically and as women become more empowered at the household
level.
Despite this evidence, we see that women are often excluded
from peace and security efforts. As the Council on Foreign
Relations has found, women comprised 2 percent of mediators and
less than 8 percent of negotiators between 1992 and 2017. They
are routinely under-represented in peacekeeping operations and
security forces. Local women's groups receive just .4 percent
of the aid to fragile states, and policymakers rarely enlist
women's participation in efforts to combat radicalization.
Even with few formal roles and with many barriers for civil
society to influence peace and security efforts, women continue
to make valuable contributions. But it is not without a cost.
Many face significant and targeted harassment and violence. And
in fact, we see that peacemakers and human rights activists
promoting security are themselves under growing attack with the
rise in political violence targeting women.
In Sudan's recent protests, women have accounted for up to
70 percent of the protesters, but first the regime and now the
military are using sexual violence as one of their deliberate
tactics to terrorize civilians.
Sexual violence and human trafficking are not simply gross
violations of human rights, they are also security challenges.
Wartime rape fuels displacement, weakens governance, and
destabilizes communities. Conflict, weak rule of law, and
large-scale displacement also expose civilians, including women
and girls to increased risk of trafficking from Iraq to Burma
to Venezuela. Yet, prevention efforts are plagued by
insufficient training for security officials, limited
accountability, and resource gaps.
Just as one example, while one in five women who have fled
their homes experience sexual violence, just .1 percent of
humanitarian funding addresses violence against women and
girls.
Conflict further limits women's and girls' access to
education, health care, economic opportunities. As an example,
9 of the top 10 countries with the highest rates of child
marriage are affected by conflict.
So the Women, Peace, and Security Act envisions that the
United States is a global leader in promoting the meaningful
participation of women. But there are many missed opportunities
where women could have improved the effectiveness of U.S.
operations if we had included them.
I will touch on a few suggestions here based on gaps I
observed while helping to draft the U.S. Government's first-
ever policy on Women, Peace, and Security issues.
From bilateral talks in Afghanistan and Yemen to serious
constitutional commitments and beyond, the U.S. Government
should advocate for women's participation. It is easier and
quicker to just negotiate with the men with the guns, but a
more inclusive process lends to a longer lasting agreement.
And then to strengthen its own teams and to lead by
example, the U.S. Government should likewise ensure that its
delegations have women represented.
The U.S. Government should allocate more resources to
women's groups. They are rarely considered relevant security
partners, an omission that overlooks benefits of women's
participation and the contributions of half the population.
Agencies are now developing the congressionally mandated
implementation plans for the new strategy. In doing so, they
should better connect their commitments to supporting women's
contributions to their broader security policies and programs.
It will make them more effective. That is from peacekeeping to
building security partners, capacity to combating the sources
of terrorist support. Congress and this committee can hold the
administration accountable for ensuring its efforts to advance
national security, invest in an important but overlooked
strategy, the inclusion of women. It is the right thing to do,
but it also holds the potential to significantly improve
security around the world.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to testify.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Bigio follows:]
Prepared Statement of Jamille Bigio
Chairman Rubio, Ranking Member Cardin, distinguished members of the
committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today
about advancing women's roles in peace and security.
Let me begin by applauding the bipartisan lawmakers--led in the
Senate by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Senator Shelley Moore
Capito (R-WV)--who in 2017 came together to pass the Women, Peace, and
Security Act, the most comprehensive law in the world to support
women's meaningful participation in efforts to prevent and resolve
conflict. This week, the Donald J. Trump administration fulfilled one
of the law's key requirements by launching a Women, Peace, and Security
Strategy, laying out an ambitious agenda to ensure women are part of
peace negotiations, security sector forces, and post-conflict
transitions, while addressing the effects of conflict on women and
girls.
Including women in peace and security efforts is not just a matter
of fairness--it is a strategic imperative. Research suggests that when
women and civil society groups participate in a peace process, the
resulting agreement is 64 percent less likely to fail and 35 percent
more likely to last at least 15 years.\1\ As security and peacekeeping
officials, women provide insights and information that can be mission-
critical to stability efforts.\2\ They also improve dispute resolution:
women in police forces are less likely than male counterparts to use
excessive force and far more likely to de-escalate tensions and build
trust with the communities they serve, thereby advancing stability and
the rule of law.\3\ Because of their distinctive access and influence,
women are crucial antiterrorism messengers in schools, religious
institutions, social environments, and local government.\4\ Countries
are more prosperous and stable as the gender gap closes, with stability
improving as more women participate politically and as women become
more empowered at the household level.\5\ On the other hand, allowing
gender inequality and violence against women to persist increases the
risk of instability and conflict.\6\
Despite ample evidence demonstrating the importance of women's
involvement, they are often excluded from peace and security efforts. A
Council on Foreign Relations report tracking women's participation in
peace processes found that between 1992 and 2017, women comprised less
than 5 percent of mediators and less than 10 percent of negotiators
around the world.\7\ Women are routinely underrepresented in
peacekeeping operations, even though their participation has been shown
to improve mission effectiveness and advance stability: in 2017, only 4
percent of U.N. military peacekeepers and 10 percent of U.N. police
personnel were women.\8\ And while local women's groups lead grassroots
efforts to prevent and resolve conflicts, they received just 0.4
percent of the aid to fragile states from major donor countries in
2012-2013.\9\ U.S. policymakers rarely enlist women's participation in
efforts to combat radicalization--an omission that forfeits their
potential contributions as mitigators against extremism.
Although women are underrepresented in today's peace processes,
women continue to make valuable contributions to addressing violence
and securing peace at the grassroots level in their countries.\10\
Women organize across cultural and sectarian divides and broaden the
agenda, raising issues in negotiations that help societies reconcile
and recover, like political and legal reforms, social and economic
recovery priorities, and transitional justice concerns. They stage mass
action, employing visible and high-profile tactics to pressure parties
to begin or recommit to peace negotiations, as well as to sign accords.
Drawing on their different social roles and responsibilities, they
access critical information that can inform negotiating positions and
areas of agreement.
In Colombia, for example, women improved the security situation in
local communities by mediating local cease-fires, convincing guerrillas
to lift roadblocks preventing the passage of people, food, and
medicine, and negotiating the release of hostages. Representing 33
percent of the negotiators in the final rounds of talks, women ensured
the agreement addressed some of the primary grievances of affected
communities, including land restitution and the right to justice and
reparations for victims.\11\
In Syria, women facilitated humanitarian access in areas aid
convoys had difficulty reaching, secured the release of detainees, and
have done the work local governments should do, from staffing field
hospitals and schools to distributing food and medicine to forming an
all-female police brigade that has access to areas that their male
counterparts do not and providing families with critical services. Yet
they remained underrepresented throughout the U.N.-led peace process
starting in 2012--in the 2017 talks, women comprised 15 percent of
negotiators.\12\
In Afghanistan, women negotiated directly with insurgent leaders to
support the reintegration of demobilized Taliban fighters into local
communities, mobilized local support for the peace process, including
by encouraging local insurgents to participate in talks, and worked in
schools to counter extremist narratives. They also broaden the agenda,
as Wazhma Frogh, a member of the Afghan Women's Network, recounted:
``when women engage in the process, we talk about the needs of the
communities, about justice, about schools, about health, about
education. It becomes about communities and issues, not just about men
deciding which power positions to hold.''\13\ Yet in 23 rounds of
Afghan talks between 2005 and 2014, on only two occasions were Afghan
women at the table.\14\
Women overcome social and economic inequalities to assume leading
roles in nonviolent campaigns, from Chile to Liberia to the Palestinian
territories. Nonviolent movements--driving social, political, and
economic change--are nearly twice as successful as violent ones at
achieving their objectives.\15\ In the recent mass protests in Sudan
that ousted Omar al-Bashir, women accounted for up to 70 percent of the
protestors, and one woman--Alaa Salah--became a symbol of the Sudanese
revolution when an image of her leading protestors in a chant went
viral on social media.
Women are also on the front lines when it comes to preventing and
countering violent extremism in their communities. Women are well
positioned to recognize early signs of radicalization because attacks
on their rights and physical autonomy are often the first indication of
a rise in fundamentalism.\16\ Female security officials gather critical
intelligence about potential terrorism threats, while the prominent
role that many women play in their families and communities renders
them especially effective in diminishing the ability of extremist
groups to recruit and mobilize.\17\ Women-led civil society groups are
particularly critical partners in mitigating violence, though
counterterrorism efforts too often fail to enlist them.
As women seek to contribute to peace in their countries, they face
systematic harassment and violence. The peacemakers and human rights
activists promoting security are themselves under growing attack. Twice
as many acts of political violence targeting women have been reported
during the first quarter of 2019 than in the first quarter of 2018. And
many of these acts take place in conflict-affected countries: the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Syria, Sudan, and Yemen all rank
in the top 10 countries for levels of violence targeting women.\18\
Take the example of women protesting on Sudan's streets in the last few
months: the regime, before it was overthrown, ordered soldiers on the
ground to systematically beat and rape women--a strategy continued by
military officials now in charge, with paramilitaries using sexual
violence as a deliberate tactic to terrorize civilians.
Sexual violence and human trafficking are not simply gross
violations of human rights--they are also security challenges. Wartime
rape fuels displacement, weakens governance, and destabilizes
communities.\19\ Conflict, weak rule of law, and large-scale
displacement also expose civilians--including women and girls--to
increased risk of trafficking, including forced labor, child
soldiering, sex trafficking, and forced marriages. From Iraq to Myanmar
to Venezuela, refugee women and girls are at heightened risk of sexual
exploitation and trafficking.\20\ Yet current security-sector efforts
to address sexual violence and human trafficking in conflict are
inadequate, plagued by insufficient training for security officials,
limited accountability through national and international judicial
systems, and resource gaps. For example, while one in five women who
have fled from their homes go on to experience sexual violence, only
0.1 percent of humanitarian funding addresses violence against women
and girls.\21\
Conflict further limits women's and girls' access to education,
healthcare, and economic opportunities, which contributes to cycles of
exploitation and poverty; in humanitarian contexts, for example,
adolescent girls are two-and-a-half times more likely to be out of
school than their male peers. Nine of the top 10 countries with the
highest rates of child marriage are affected by conflict; crisis
situations can exacerbate income inequality and poverty rates, leading
families to become more desperate to stay financially afloat.\22\
Yemen's conflict, for example, prompted an increase in the number of
child marriages: in 2017, more than two-thirds of girls were married
before their 18th birthday, compared to half before the conflict
escalated.\23\
U.S. government policy and programs pay little attention to the
role of women, despite their contributions to peace and security. The
Women, Peace, and Security Act envisions the United States as a global
leader in promoting the meaningful participation of women in conflict
prevention, management, and resolution, and post-conflict relief and
recovery efforts. The Trump administration's new strategy is a positive
step, but there remain many missed opportunities where women could have
improved the effectiveness of U.S. operations and advanced global
security. I've outlined here a few suggestions based on the gaps I
observed while helping to draft the U.S. government's first-ever policy
on women, peace, and security issues, and then overseeing its
implementation from the National Security Council staff.
To strengthen its peace and security efforts, the U.S. government
should pursue the following steps:
In any peace or transition process in which it is involved--from
bilateral talks in Afghanistan and Yemen to Syria's constitutional
committee and beyond--the U.S. government should advocate that women
represent at least 30 percent of negotiating bodies and mediating
teams, a threshold that research suggests affords a critical mass to
enable women's influence. To strengthen its own teams and to lead by
example, the U.S. government should likewise ensure that its
delegations have at least 30 percent women.
The U.S. government should allocate more resources to support
women's contributions in efforts to prevent and resolve conflicts and
to counter terrorism. Women's groups are rarely considered relevant
security partners, and their work remains chronically underfunded.
Investment by the United States in this area has been limited to small
grants or stand-alone programs, an omission that overlooks the benefits
of women's participation and the contributions of half the population.
Now is the time to scale successful women-led initiatives and
incorporate them into core peace and security programs and budgets.
Agencies are now developing the Congressionally-mandated
implementation plans, which can translate the lofty goals put forth in
the administration's new strategy into diplomatic, development, and
defense efforts abroad. In doing so, they should improve broader
security initiatives by ensuring they draw on women's contributions.
For example, as the U.S. government pushes peacekeeping operations to
be more effective and less costly, it should help countries to address
the barriers that limit the pipeline and deployment of female
peacekeepers. To strengthen security forces around the world, the U.S.
government should increase security training opportunities for female
officials. Courses like the International Military Education and
Training program or the Antiterrorism Assistance program should double
within 3 years the total number of women receiving training.
To combat the sources of terrorist support, the director of
national intelligence should produce a National Intelligence Estimate
and form an operational task force on the relationship between women,
violent extremism, and terrorism, including an analysis of women's
roles as recruiters, sympathizers, perpetrators, and combatants. The
intelligence community should require data collection of indicators
related to women's equality and autonomy as potential early warning
signs of growing fundamentalist influence. And given the rise in
women's participation in extremist groups, the United States can no
longer afford to ignore the ways in which women can strengthen
counterterrorism efforts.
To discourage the use of sexual violence in conflict by militaries,
police, and armed groups, the U.S. government should--for example,
through its Group of Seven (G7) presidency next year--encourage partner
countries to condition bilateral assistance and weapon transfers to
foreign militaries on the security units' human rights record,
including with respect to sexual violence. Such a commitment would be
modeled on the U.S. Leahy Law (1997) and Section 502B of the Foreign
Assistance Act, which prohibits the use of funds for units of foreign
security forces that have committed gross violations of human rights.
In parallel, the Departments of State and the Treasury should use
sanctions to apply a travel ban and asset freeze on human traffickers.
To respond effectively to modern security threats and address the
failure of traditional peacemaking methods, the U.S. government should
ensure that the rising generation of American diplomats and security
professionals recognizes that women's participation in security efforts
around the world advances U.S. stability and should nominate or appoint
the necessary leadership to guide the government's policy and programs,
including an Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues and a full-
time senior-ranking coordinating position at the Department of Defense.
The success of the Women, Peace, and Security Act and of the
administration's new strategy can only be measured through action.
Congress and this Committee can work to hold the administration
accountable for ensuring that its efforts to advance national security
invest in an important but overlooked strategy: the inclusion of women.
It's the right thing to do--and holds the potential to significantly
improve stability around the world.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to testify.
--------------------
Notes
\1\ Laurel Stone, ``Quantitative Analysis of Women's Participation
in Peace Processes,'' in Annex II in Marie O'Reilly et al.,
``Reimagining Peacemaking: Women's Roles in Peace Processes,''
International Peace Institute, June 2015, p. 34; Desiree Nilsson,
``Anchoring the Peace: Civil Society Actors in Peace Accords and
Durable Peace,'' International Interactions 38, No. 2, April 2012;
Marie O'Reilly et al., ``Reimagining Peacemaking: Women's Roles in
Peace Processes,'' International Peace Institute, June 2015; Thania
Pfaffenholz, Darren Kew, and Anthony Wanis-St. John, ``Civil Society
and Peace Negotiations: Why, Whether and How They Could Be Involved''
(background paper, Oslo Forum, 2006).
\2\ Louise Olsson and Johan Tejpar, eds., Operational Effectiveness
and U.N. Resolution 1325--Practices and Lessons From Afghanistan
(Stockholm: FOI, 2009), 117, 126-127; Tobie Whitman and Jacqueline
O'Neill, ``Attention to Gender Increases Security in Operations:
Examples From the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO),'' The
Institute for Inclusive Security (April 2012): 7-13.
\3\ Kim Lonsway et al., ``Men, Women, and Police Excessive Force: A
Tale of Two Genders; A Content Analysis of Civil Liability Cases,
Sustained Allegations, and Citizen Complaints,'' National Center for
Women and Policing, April 2002; Katherine Spillar, ``How More Female
Police Officers Would Help Stop Police Brutality,'' Washington Post,
July 2, 2015; ``Operational Effectiveness and U.N. Resolution 1325--
Practices and Lessons From Afghanistan.''
\4\ The Role of Civil Society in Preventing and Countering Violent
Extremism and Radicalization That Lead to Terrorism: A Focus on South-
Eastern Europe (Vienna: Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe, 2018).
\5\ Jacqueline H.R. DeMeritt et al., ``Female Participation and
Civil War Relapse,'' Civil Wars 16, No. 3, 2014; Women's Role in
Countering Terrorism, Before the Subcommittee on Terrorism,
Nonproliferation, and Trade, 115th Cong. (2018) (statement of Valerie
M. Hudson, Professor and George H.W. Bush Chair at Texas A&M
University).
\6\ Valerie M. Hudson et al., ``The Heart of the Matter: The
Security of Women and the Security of States,'' International Security
33, No. 3, 2008/2009, pp. 7-45; Mary Caprioli, ``Primed for Violence:
The Role of Gender Inequality in Predicting Internal Conflict,''
International Studies Quarterly 49, No. 2, 2005, pp. 161-178; Erik
Melander, ``Gender Equality and Intrastate Armed Conflict,''
International Studies Quarterly 49, No. 4, 2005, pp. 695-714; Valerie
M. Hudson et al., Sex and World Peace (New York: Columbia University
Press, 2010); James D. Fearon, ``Governance and Civil War Onset,''
Stanford University, August 2010.
\7\ Women and Foreign Policy Program, ``Women's Participation in
Peace Processes,'' Council on Foreign Relations, accessed June 12,
2019.
\8\ ``Report of the Secretary-General on Women, Peace and
Security,'' U.N. Security Council, October 2018.
\9\ ``Financing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325: Aid in
Support of Gender Equality and Women's Rights in Fragile Contexts,''
OECD DAC Network on Gender Equality, March 2015.
\10\ Jamille Bigio and Rachel Vogelstein, How Women's Participation
in Conflict Prevention and Resolution Advances U.S. Interests (New
York: Council on Foreign Relations, 2016).
\11\ Virginia M. Bouvier, ``Gender and the Role of Women in
Colombia's Peace Process,'' U.N. Women, March 4, 2016; Women and
Foreign Policy Program, ``Women's Participation in Peace Processes:
Colombia,'' Council on Foreign Relations, accessed June 12, 2019.
\12\ Nil Koksal, ``Syrian feminists fight for say in postwar peace
talks,'' CBS News, December 1, 2017.
\13\ Wazhma Frogh, ``Women and the Afghan Peace Process: A
Conversation with Wazhma Frogh,'' Women Around the World (blog), May
13, 2019.
\14\ ``Behind Closed Doors,'' Oxfam (November 2014).
\15\ Marie A. Principe, ``Women in Nonviolent Movements,'' United
States Institute of Peace, January 2017.
\16\ Karima Bennoune, Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold
Stories From the Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism (New York: W. W.
Norton, 2013); Marie O'Reilly, ``Inclusive Security and Peaceful
Societies: Exploring the Evidence,'' PRISM 6, No. 1 (2016); Valerie
Hudson et. al, ``The Heart of the Matter: The Security of Women and the
Security of States,'' International Security 33, No. 3 (2008/2009).
\17\ ``Preventing Extremism in Fragile States: A New Approach,''
Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States, U.S. Institute of Peace
(February 2019).
\18\ Roudabeh Kishi, Melissa Pavlik, and Hilary Matfess, `Terribly
and Terrifyingly Normal:' Political Violence Targeting Women,'' ACLED
(May 2019).
\19\ Jamille Bigio and Rachel Vogelstein, Countering Sexual
Violence in Conflict (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 2017).
\20\ ``The Time to Act Is Now: Addressing Risks of Exploitation for
Venezuelan Women and Children Seeking Refuge,'' Women's Refugee
Commission (April 2019; Julia Zulver, ``At Venezuela's border with
Colombia, women suffer extraordinary levels of violence,'' Washington
Post, February 26, 2019.
\21\ ``Where's the Money? How the Humanitarian System is Failing to
Fund an End of Violence Against Women and Girls,'' International Rescue
Committee (June 2019).
\22\ Child Marriage: Ending Child Marriage Progress and Prospects
(2014).
\23\ ``Falling Through the Cracks: The Children of Yemen,'' UNICEF
(March 2017).
Senator Rubio. Thank you.
Ms. Kakar.
STATEMENT OF PALWASHA L. KAKAR, SENIOR PROGRAM OFFICER,
RELIGION AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETIES, UNITED STATES INSTITUTE OF
PEACE, WASHINGTON, DC
Ms. Kakar. Thank you. Chairman Rubio, Ranking Member
Cardin, Senator Shaheen, Senator, and members of the
subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify.
I have submitted my testimony for the record, and I will
try and summarize and tell a story.
The timing of this hearing is especially important given
the escalation in violence in Afghanistan over the past few
weeks and the potential peace process.
I am a senior program officer on religion and inclusive
societies at the U.S. Institute of Peace, although my views
that I express here are my own. I focus at USIP on a
comparative country approach analyzing women, religion, and
peace-building in countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan,
Libya, Syria, Iraq, Burma, Philippines, among others.
With 10 years of experience working in Afghanistan on
women's inclusion and religious engagement, my current focus at
USIP is based on my experiences in Afghanistan where I have
found case after case of women, especially elderly religious
women, who have successfully negotiated with the Taliban. These
women have brokered local ceasefires, helped to release
hostages, and even negotiated to keep girls' schools open.
Today's hearing also comes at an opportune moment with the
release earlier this week of the U.S. Strategy on Women, Peace,
and Security. Thank you for mentioning the possibility for this
strategy to be applied to the peace process the United States
has started with the Taliban in Afghanistan. I cannot stress
enough how much Afghan women are worried about the U.S.-Taliban
talks and how the outcome might negatively impact their gains
made in women's empowerment in Afghanistan.
I would like to highlight three main points for the
subcommittee as you consider advancing women's roles in peace
and security in the case of Afghanistan.
Number one, Afghan women are essential to the success and
sustainability of a peace process. And as you all have
mentioned, it is from the beginning of the peace talks to the
end and the monitoring of agreements that it is important for
their inclusion.
Number two, Afghan women are adamant in calling for the
peace process that protects their rights and the gains made
over the last 18 years. They have started a campaign,
#AfghanWomenWillNot
GoBack, which is now 2 million strong.
Number three, Afghan women, young, old, activists,
religious scholars, and civil society, along with many men in
the same fields, called for an immediate ceasefire and an end
to the bloodshed in Afghanistan. They have also started a
campaign, #Ceasefire
ForPeace. Afghan women are urging the international community,
particularly the United States, to work with the Afghan
Government to strengthen security and rule of law, to continue
funding the Afghan National Security Forces and the police, and
provide funding for the protection of women and girls. They
support a responsible and gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops
from Afghanistan to ensure security and stability prevail on
the ground.
In the face of all the challenges Afghan women have seen,
they have made gains in the past 18 years. They have been
involved in key successful peace settlements at national and
local levels. Afghan women also have the skills and technical
expertise in negotiation, mediation, constitutional reform,
transitional justice, and ceasefire monitoring. Currently,
Afghan women are well organized and have taken concrete
initiatives towards the peace process.
Last year, the largest Afghan women's coordination body,
the Afghan Women's Network, worked with Afghanistan's First
Lady, Mrs. Rula Ghani, and her office to coordinate nationwide
consultations with women in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan.
That effort culminated this year in a Declaration of Afghan
Women's National Consensus for Peace that captured women's
perspectives across the country.
Leading up to the intra-Afghan and U.S.-Taliban talks in
Moscow and Doha, the Afghan Women's Network consulted with
their members and organizations beyond from all the provinces
of Afghanistan to construct a declaration of women's demands
and their redlines and prepare a delegation of 41 women from
diverse backgrounds of the political spectrum, including the
government, to participate in peace talks. They were well
prepared to participate, but the male political party members
and government had not come to an agreement on substance or
participation. When the process for developing a delegation
broke down between the male political opposition party members
and the government in Kabul, it was the women of the Afghan
Women's Network who went to all the groups to urge the parties
to come back to the table to move the peace process forward
while conveying women's demands. Eventually the parties were
able to come together to draw up a list of delegates and move
forward on the process before it fell through on the Doha side.
However, women's civil society organizations have not given
up hope on the peace process. They have come together from
across geographic, ethnic, and religious divides to put
together a diverse roster of women's civil society experts that
the U.S. or other international mediators could draw upon for
participation and expertise in the peace talks.
Looking back, Afghan women have been part of successful
peace processes throughout Afghanistan's history. They have had
a role in the Bonn process, which included the formation of
important institutions like Afghanistan's Independent Human
Rights Commission and the Ministry of Women's Affairs.
Let me end with a story about a woman from a village in
Helmund in the south of Afghanistan. There are many more like
her. To protect her identity, I will call her Bibi Halima. She
is a Koran teacher, and through her knowledge of religion and
her skills at conflict resolution, many families have called on
her to help resolve domestic disputes within families and
across families. An elderly woman with religious knowledge, she
is well respected.
One day a family came to her distraught and seeking her
help. Their daughter had sought to elope with her lover, and in
searching for their daughter, they found out that she had been
captured by the Taliban. They pleaded with Bibi Halima to
intercede and negotiate with the Taliban for their daughter's
release. Bibi Halima agreed and went to the Taliban checkpoint
to ask about the runaway girl. The Taliban were planning to
stone both the girl and the boy publicly and make an example of
them. Bibi Halima calmly talked to the Taliban commander,
requesting that she see the girl and to take her back to her
family. She worked to find common values that they shared
through scripture and built on their understanding of respect
and forgiveness to convince them to allow her to escort the
girl back to her family. Eventually she was allowed to stay
with the girl in captivity overnight and escorted her home
safely.
In many ways, it was a miracle. But what Bibi Halima did
was to use her skills and knowledge to courageously navigate
across lines of conflict and negotiate her way out.
We need women like Bibi Halima who know who to navigate
negotiations with the Taliban in this peace process, alongside
the women experts in constitutional law, transitional justice,
government reform, mediation, negotiation, and ceasefire
monitoring.
In conclusion, Afghan women are essential to the successful
peace process and are demanding meaningful participation in the
peace process at all levels. They are demanding respect for
their rights within the constitutional order and protection
from violence with a responsible U.S. withdrawal supporting the
Afghanistan National Security Forces to maintain security and
stability through this process to ensure a sustainable peace
for their homeland.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Kakar follows:]
Prepared Statement of Palwasha Kakar
introduction
Chairman Rubio, Ranking Member Cardin and members of the
Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on ``Women in
Conflict: Advancing Women's Role in Peace and Security'' and
particularly on women's involvement in the Afghan peace process. The
timing for this hearing is especially important given the escalation in
violence in Afghanistan over the past few weeks and the heightened
drive for a peaceful solution of the country's conflicts in the near
future.
I am a Senior Program Officer on Religion and Inclusive Societies
at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), although the views expressed
here are my own. I have over 10 years of experience working in
Afghanistan on women's inclusion, religious engagement, governance and
education. I focus at USIP on a comparative country approach analyzing
women, religion and peacebuilding in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya,
Syria, Iraq and Burma. Specifically, based on my experiences in
Afghanistan where I have studied religious women who have successfully
negotiated with Taliban, women are brokering local ceasefires, helping
release hostages, and negotiating to keep girls' schools open.
Today's hearing also comes at an opportune moment with the release
earlier this week of the U.S. Strategy on Women, Peace, and Security
and while the U.S. has committed to a peace process with the Taliban on
Afghanistan.
three main points
I would like to highlight three main points for the Subcommittee as
you consider advancing women's role in peace and security in the case
of Afghanistan:
1. Afghan women are essential to the success and sustainability of a
peace process--from peace talks to monitoring agreements.
2. Afghan women are adamant in calling for a peace process that
protects their rights and gains made over the last 18 years.
#AfghanWomenWillNotGoBack
3. Most Afghan women, men, young, old, activists, religious scholars
and civil society call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to
the bloodshed in Afghanistan. Afghans are urging the
international community, particularly the United States, to
work with the Afghan government to strengthen security and rule
of law, continue funding to the Afghan National Security Forces
(ANSF) and the police, and provide funding for the protection
of women and girls. They support a responsible and gradual
withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan to ensure security
and stability prevail on the ground. #CeasefireForPeace
afghan women are essential to the peace process
Afghan women make up more than 50 percent of the population and
have experienced the war in a myriad of different ways than men. Yet,
in the face of all the challenges, Afghan women have made gains in the
past 18 years. They have been involved in key, successful peace
settlements at national and local levels. Afghan women have the skills
and technical expertise in negotiation, mediation, constitutional
reform, transitional justice, and ceasefire monitoring. Currently,
Afghan women are well organized and have taken concrete initiatives
towards the peace process.
Women in Afghanistan, as in so many countries around the world,
have felt the brunt of war. They have been and continue to be attacked,
raped, maimed, kidnapped, bought and sold as well as being killed in
suicide bombings and general attacks on schools, markets, government
buildings and places of worship. Amid all of this, women are expressing
their leadership and convictions throughout Afghanistan. Women, who
comprised almost 20 percent of the Afghan peace jirga in 2010 and 30
percent this May in 2018, continue to demand they be included in peace
processes. As a result of the 2010 jirga, nine women were appointed to
the 64-member High Peace Council that came out of the gathering of
tribal leaders.
Women's groups since then have proactively consulted with women
across the country to identify their needs and expectations regarding
the peace process and communicated their findings to the Afghan
government, political leaders and the international community. Women
have reached out to Taliban fighters, pleading with them to stop the
bloodshed. This is reminiscent of 2014 when the female members of the
High Peace Council collected 300,000 signatures calling for peace and
cessation of armed hostilities.
Last year, the largest Afghan women's coordination body, the Afghan
Women's Network (AWN), worked with Afghanistan's First Lady, Mrs. Rula
Ghani and her office, to coordinate nation-wide consultations with
women in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan. That effort culminated in a
``Declaration of Afghan Women's National Consensus for Peace'' that
captured women's perspectives across the country.
The Afghan Women's Network consulted with their member
organizations and beyond, from all the provinces of Afghanistan, to
construct a declaration of women's demands and their ``red lines''
leading up to the Moscow talks in February 2019, the subsequent U.S.
Taliban Doha talks and the intra-Afghan Doha talks in April and Moscow
talks in May. In the run up to intra-Afghan talks with the Taliban in
Doha that fell apart in April, the AWN had prepared a delegation of 41
women from diverse backgrounds and the political spectrum, including
the government, to participate in the peace talks. When the process for
developing a delegation broke down between the male political
opposition party members and the government in Kabul, the women went to
all the groups to urge the parties to come to an agreement to move the
peace process forward while conveying women's demands. Eventually, the
parties were able to draw up a list of delegates and move forward on
the process before it fell through. However, women's civil society
organizations did not give up. They came together from across
geographic, ethnic, and religious divides to put together a diverse
roster of women civil society experts that the U.S. or other
international mediators could draw upon for participation and expertise
in the peace talks.
Looking back, Afghan women have been part of successful peace
processes throughout Afghanistan's history. Although Ahmed Shah Durrani
is credited with founding the modern state of Afghanistan in 1747, it
was his mother, Nazo Anna, whose contribution to uniting the warring
tribes became the lynchpin to bringing peace and stability in the
founding of the Afghan State.
When the Taliban were driven out of power in 2001 by U.S. troops
and allies, women were part of the successful political settlement in
the Bonn process and constitution drafting that has led to 18 years of
a stable, democratic government--albeit still under attack from the
Taliban who were not included in the Bonn process.
Afghan women's role in the Bonn process was successful and led to
the formation of important institutions, including the Afghanistan's
Independent Human Rights Commission and the Ministry of Women's
Affairs. Both were created to address the specific experiences and
concerns women had from the conflict. Women were also involved in the
constitution drafting processes, including being a part of the drafting
council, committee and consultations that ensured women's equal
citizenship, access to education, health care and representational
quotas in Parliament.
There were prominent women's rights activists who boycotted the
Bonn process because they wanted the bombing to stop and a lasting
peace to be built that included the Taliban in the peace process and
political settlement. Many of those women predicted the Taliban would
continue to fight and cause instability in the country. According to
some Afghan women, as a result of not including the Taliban in the Bonn
process \1\, the Taliban are now demanding a clean cut from the Afghan
constitution and the political system that was built without their
inclusion, despite experts calling it the most Islamic constitution in
the world.
After the fall of the Taliban, many Afghan women, especially in the
urban centers, saw major and immediate improvements in the quality of
their lives and their access to basic rights. In short, after 18 years
of American-backed governments, Afghan women and the society have
changed significantly for the better with the emergence of female
entrepreneurs, political leaders, and even nightly news anchors. The
Taliban, by contrast, has made very little progress on women's issues
since being pushed from power in 2001, despite persistent claims to the
contrary. The group's record is spotty at best in the areas of
Afghanistan it controls, and its leaders continue to make ominous
statements on gender, such as calling for girls' education to end by
age 12 years of age.\2\
Women have also been successful at negotiating on behalf of their
communities at the local level. Women are able to navigate across lines
of conflict and negotiate settlements using traditional and moral
authority. These courageous women have negotiated with Taliban and
other armed groups on behalf of their communities to end violence and
bring peaceful settlements to issues of conflict around hostages and
access to land. At the national level, four women were part of the
peace negotiations that ended in a settlement in 2016 between the
government and Hekmatyar's Hezbi-Islami that has so far been
successful. This peace agreement was seen as a possible model for the
Taliban to follow or at least to see if the government would keep its
promises.\3\
Despite these achievements, women continue to be absent or
remarkably underrepresented in peace talks. Women's experiences of
exclusion from peace agreements from 1992 to 2001 under the Mujahedin
and Taliban regimes show that what is power sharing and peace for men
is not peace for women or others left out of the equation, nor is it
sustainable. In response, women rights advocates and civil society
activists have taken to traditional and social media as well as to
international community to express their dismay about their exclusion
from dialogues between the government and the representatives of the
Taliban.
#afghanwomenwillnotgoback
After nearly 40 years of war, Afghanistan and the international
community are urgently seeking paths for a peace process. But amid the
tentative efforts--a 3-day ceasefire last June, the peace march across
the country by hundreds of Afghans, the Afghan Women's Peace Movement
and talks by led by U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad--a somber question
hangs for women and human rights advocates: How can Afghanistan make
peace with the Taliban while protecting democracy and women's rights?
While that question is universal in peacemaking, Afghanistan's history
of abuses against women, including by the Taliban, makes it a tough
case. In response, a 2 million strong social media campaign has taken
off with the hashtag: #AfghanWomenWillNotGoBack.
Afghan women have expressed their demands for a peace process that
is inclusive and respects the constitution and rule of law through the
large national consultation process and civil society leaders'
consultations process. Afghan women want meaningful participation at
all levels of the peace process. They firmly reject any backsliding on
rights enumerated in Afghanistan's constitution and legal code.
Enforcement must be guaranteed for laws that bar violence against women
and abolish discriminatory and unjust practices and traditions.
There is clear consensus by women's groups that Afghan women's
participation at all levels of the peace process should guarantee that
women's rights be protected in any agreement and there be proper
mechanisms and incentivized resources to ensure the agreement is
upheld, including women's monitoring of the peace agreement.
Furthermore, they are calling for an immediate ceasefire to create
space for a meaningful peace process to begin.
#ceasefireforpeace
Afghan women across the country in solidarity with Afghan men,
peace marches, Afghan Ulema and broader civil society are calling for a
hashtag #CeasefireFor
Peace. They are calling for an end to the bloodshed and demanding that
the violence stop immediately. This call for a ceasefire is a call for
trust building with the Afghan public to create room for meaningful
dialogue and reconciliation to begin as part of the peace process.
All recent surveys, including the Survey of the Afghan People, have
shown that women are most concerned about security. This does not mean
that they want the U.S. military to stay in Afghanistan forever. What
they are asking for is a responsible withdrawal that leaves behind a
well-trained Afghan security force and an inclusive and sustainable
peace agreement that protects women's rights, democratic institutions
and the constitutional order.
Afghan women are urging the international community, and the U.S.
specifically, to ensure women and girls are protected through this
precarious transition process by supporting and funding the ANSF and
police. They fear that if the U.S. pulls out its military without these
safe guards, more instability with arise in the vacuum and women will
again be disproportionately impacted. They fear an irresponsible pull
out of the military will perpetuate the war, similar to the effect of
the Soviet's pulling out its military in the 1990s that led to even
more war. Afghan women fear this possibility, but they are not asking
the U.S. military to stay forever, but to leave responsibly and with
systems in place in Afghanistan that protect women and establish
stability and security on the ground from possible future extremist
threats.
In conclusion, Afghan women are essential to a successful process
and are demanding meaningful participation in the peace process at all
levels, respect for their rights in the constitutional order and
protection from violence through this process to ensure a sustainable
peace for their homeland.
The view expressed in this testimony are those of the author and
not the U.S. Institute of Peace.
--------------------
Notes
\1\ According to 2019 interview with Palwasha Hassan, Executive
Direct of Afghan Women's Education Center and co-founder of Afghan
Women's Network for USIP blog piece.
\2\ Belquis Ahmadi, ``Afghan Talks: No Women, No Peace'' USIP
Analysis and Commentary (Washington, DC: USIP March 2019).
\3\ Palwasha Kakar, ``How can Afghans make peace AND protect women?
Meet Ayesha Aziz.'' USIP Analysis and Commentary (Washington, DC: USIP
March 2018).
Senator Rubio. Thank you.
We are going to start with the ranking member.
Senator Cardin. Well, let me thank all three of you for
your powerful testimony. Particularly putting a face on the
issues is powerful because we are talking about people's lives.
This weekend, I was in France as part of the 75th
celebration of D-Day. I took that opportunity as my role on the
Helsinki Commission to meet with a group in Paris that deals
with tolerance of people of different religions. They are
called ``Coexisters.'' They have 40-some chapters in France
involving 2,500 young people to try to do something about the
growing trend of hate in Europe.
I mentioned that because a young woman is the leader, and I
asked her a simple question as to what is her greatest
challenge, expecting her to tell me it was peer pressure not to
join these groups. Instead, she told me it was peer pressure
from the families not to join these groups, particularly their
fathers that were concerned that it would be a risk with them
meeting with people of different religions. But the woman told
me she was encouraged by her mother to do this.
So we definitely have gender issues, but we also have
generational issues. And that is part of the problem that we
have involving women and lasting peace.
I was impressed by some of your individual stories. And I
want to suggest that as we develop a U.S. strategy to deal with
the subject of involving women for stability and peace, we need
to highlight best practices. Now, you have mentioned some, but
I would just encourage you to share with us what has worked in
order to engage women in a meaningful way in mediation, in
conflict prevention, in implementing peace, negotiating peace.
What has worked? And how can we use that as our template for
U.S. support of organizations that can advance those types of
practices in different countries around the world? If you have
ideas now, fine. If not, if you could make it available. I see
some people shaking their heads. So I will give you an
opportunity to respond, if you would like.
Ms. Bigio. Great. Thank you. It is a great question because
we do have the commitment to support women's meaningful
participation and are now looking to put that into practice.
First is ensuring that women have a sufficient number of
formal seats at the table so that they can actually have
influence. The number 30 percent comes out of research saying
that it is with that number that women can have more influence
on the dialogue itself. So the extent to which the U.S.
continues to encourage countries, parties, negotiating parties,
mediating teams to have at least 30 percent women represented
and as we are calling on countries to lead by example and to
live that ourselves with having diversity on our own
delegations.
Second is ensuring civil society has a channel in to
influencing the process. There are civil society groups that
have networks across their countries that are talking with
women's groups, with communities in the most rural parts of the
countries that may not have a sense of what is happening in the
negotiations that may even be occurring in a different country.
They are a channel. They are helping to build the community
support for an agreement that is reached and to help feed
information back up to negotiating parties of what is actually
happening on the ground for people facing and living the
conflict every day.
And third is making sure that the issues that women do
raise, whether through their formal roles or in civil society,
are actually included in the agreement. So these may be issues
like transitional justice, securing the release of detainees,
investing in education, and employment, issues that will set
the country up actually being able to recover once the
agreement is reached.
Senator Cardin. They are three great suggestions. In my
work with the Helsinki-OSCE, the first two are matrix that we
use, percentage of women that are on each of the committees,
percentage of women that are involved in civil society. We will
not go to venues that do not give full access to civil
societies. And we have had some countries that we have had
challenges with. So I think that is an extremely important
point.
The agenda is something that we have got to work on because
I think that is more challenging. We have not developed that as
effectively as we need to in a lot of our advocacy work to
advance peace. So I think that is a great suggestion.
And it is the second point--the first and the second are
pretty much related. When we talk about best practices, how do
we judge success? How do we judge whether the resources we are
putting out really result in progress? Obviously, the ultimate
progress is stability and peace, but to get there, what are the
matrix that we are looking at to give us the best chance of
that success? As we work with different groups and help fund
different groups, what do we expect to achieve? And I think you
have given us three avenues that we need to develop specific
matrix to or specific numbers so that we can have a better
understanding of how we are making progress. So thank you for
those points.
Senator Rubio. Senator Shaheen.
Senator Shaheen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And just to follow up a little bit on Senator Cardin's
question about matrix, one of the things we heard at the
roundtable earlier this week from Administrator Green was that
USAID has developed metrics to include women. But are there
places within the administration--are there particular metrics,
in addition to the ones that you have named, Ms. Bigio, where
we think we should add more metrics? Are there concerns about
the State Department and the Department of Defense where they
have maybe not developed similar metrics where we need to think
about what they should be doing?
And finally, I would like to ask you. When I talk to people
about how we change minds about this issue, changing the laws,
developing the metrics is the easy part. It is the cultural
changes that is really the hard part. So how do we get at that
piece as well? So I would open it up to anybody who would like
to respond.
Ms. Bottner. Thank you, Senator.
I can certainly address the cultural change. I think it is
the biggest challenge that we face. I think it is so important,
when you are going into a society, to get as many voices as
possible involved. You know, when you are going in each
community, each country, every culture is going to be
different.
And I think we have had success going into a community. It
is not necessarily who we should be talking to. It might not be
the groups that are top of mind or you are told to reach out
to, but to really be looking at some of the more
disenfranchised groups where often women's networks and women's
organizations tend to have very close relationships, really to
solicit their input and their ideas. And sometimes that is
something that is done off track. Sometimes that is something
that is not as forward or as public as is typically done. But I
think the more voices and the more diverse viewpoints that we
can bring to the table, bring to the debate, that is obviously
going to help change the culture, start perhaps a new culture,
and then serve as an example in that community to the next day,
to the future.
Ms. Bigio. And if I may build on that. On the first part on
the metrics there with the implementation plans, I do hope that
the agencies will set very specific targets about what more
they will do to advance women's participation across peace and
security. And here that will help translate the lofty goals
that are in the Women, Peace, and Security Strategy into more
concrete policies and programs.
So, for an example, in the security forces space, the U.S.
can help strengthen security forces around the world if the
U.S. Government were to increase training opportunities for
female officers. Programs like the International Military
Education Training program, or the anti-terrorism assistance
programs--they include very few female officers. So if the U.S.
were to, for example, double the total number of women
receiving training through the programs that we provide, it
would help advance the career of promising female officers
around the world but also help set a norm of men and women in
security sectors working together effectively.
In the peacekeeping space, the U.S. could commit to
supporting five countries and addressing the barriers to
recruiting and retaining women in their security forces and
deploying them as peacekeepers.
There are also targets around funding and support. I think
the proposed Central American Women and Children Protection Act
is a great example of supporting accountability for sexual
violence survivors and of committing to a certain number of
countries that we will support to do that.
In the cultural change aspect, that is where there are also
steps that the agencies can take in their implementation plans
to better institutionalize these commitments.
First is training. Right now, there may be many government
officials across the agencies who have never heard of U.N.
Security Council resolution 1325 or of the Women, Peace, and
Security Act. I was in charge of this at the NSC and the State
Department. Staff would turn over as Foreign Service officers
rotated, and I would start again at the beginning of explaining
where we came to. So first is making sure our training actually
reaches all of our U.S. Government officials so that they know
the evidence, know the commitments that they have made.
A second area is performance reviews, that they are
actually held accountable to ensuring that what they can do in
their daily jobs actually advances women's participation and
security and that there is a check on that each year that they
are following through.
And having the tools and resources and the top level
support will help create a culture change within the U.S.
Government that we are actually putting our goals into action.
Senator Shaheen. I am out of time, but I just wanted to
comment. You talked about women in security forces. It is my
understanding--and, Ms. Kakar, you could probably confirm
this--that while recruitment of men for the Afghan Security
Forces are down, that actually the recruitment of women has
increased. What better way to begin to help reflect change than
to see more women in the security forces and the police forces.
Ms. Kakar. May I comment on that?
Senator Shaheen. Sure.
Ms. Kakar. I think that is very true, and it is really
interesting to see how they have been able to create safe
spaces for women in the national security force. I know that
has been a challenge in creating those safe spaces to be able
to improve recruitment of women into the security forces.
But in terms of metrics, one of the things that Afghan
women have mentioned is to incentivize women's participation by
asking the political parties, when they come around the table,
that they should make sure that women are represented from each
of those political parties.
And then also on the ground, if there is any talk of
withdrawal, to also incentivize the Taliban to say that it will
be gradual if we see certain things met like girls' schools
being opened, like women being allowed to go to work, and
hospitals still having women doctors there for women.
So some of those issues to lay those out as conditions in
very clear metrics. And that will be then specific to each
country, obviously in Afghanistan.
The other thing I wanted to say about cultural changes as
well was that support the cultural changes from within. There
are a lot of amazing women doing this kind of peace negotiation
work in countries that we are working in. I know from the work
that I have done in Afghanistan, there is a long history and
tradition of women doing all kinds of peace negotiation work
from the local level to the national level. We have historical
examples and we have examples in tribal communities where there
are tribal women leaders who are making decisions.
But similarly in other countries, for example, in Libya,
there are women doing the same thing. That has been a tradition
that people do not know about and even many Libyans do not know
about, and it is being rediscovered internally.
So to find those change makers, those agents of change,
internally and support those I think is really important to
change the culture.
Senator Shaheen. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Rubio. Thank you.
Senator Kaine, are you ready or do you want me to go?
Senator Kaine. Yes. No, I was kind of getting my head out
of the meeting I was just in. But in the last answers, I have
now gotten my head into this meeting.
So thank you for calling this hearing, and thanks to the
witnesses for your work and for being here today.
I want to ask a Central America question and then I want to
ask a Saudi Arabia question.
So women like the late Berta Caceres in Honduras and
Claudia Samayoa in Guatemala have been at the forefront of
social change movements in Central America, but they are also
impacted by government targeting of their role and the
breakdown of rule of law in these countries.
With Senators Rubio and Menendez, earlier this year I
cosponsored the Central America Women and Children Protection
Act of 2019, feeling that, A, it is good for us to do it, and
B, it is also going to help us in some of the immigration
challenges that we are facing if we deal with root causes and
try to promote more stability, public safety, and economic
development and respect for rule of law in Central America.
What kind and level of assistance from the United States do
you think could best support women in Central America and start
to try to deal systemically with root causes of some of the
challenges that we are seeing in the United States from the
migration challenge?
Ms. Bigio. Thank you, Senator Kaine, and thank you for the
introduction of that bill because the research and experience
fully points to what you are touching on, that there are
incredible women leaders in these countries who are advancing
security, who are being targeted themselves, as well as women
and girls more broadly are being targeted in their communities.
And that is one of the drivers of migration, and we see on
migration routes that women and girls are also at higher risk
of human trafficking.
So as the bill rightly does, there needs to be greater
investment in the countries directly in helping to address the
violence itself of supporting accountability measures by
police, by judicial systems to make sure that there is greater
response to the violence when it occurs, also broader
investment in education and employment opportunities so that
the societies can--that women have an opportunity to contribute
to their societies and to help build the stability in their
societies and to have an active role in that regard. And the
extent to which the U.S. can take a lead from the women leaders
themselves, they will tell us what their priorities are in each
of their countries and what the best routes are to helping to
achieve those. That will help us direct our dollars in the most
effective way to help ensure that they are both safe and able
to fully participate and fully contribute across Central
America, across the Northern Triangle countries to truly
shifting the tide of violence there and to building greater
stability.
Senator Kaine. Let me do this because I now just have 2
minutes left. I want to switch to Saudi Arabia, and this is a
Saudi Arabia question but it is also a bigger question.
So Saudi Arabia has imprisoned a number of women's rights
activists. Aziza al-Yousef is a Saudi professor who went to
college at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond where I
live. She has been imprisoned for leading protests against the
driving ban and the guardianship issue. Her son, who is also a
Virginia resident but a Saudi citizen, has also been
imprisoned, along with others. It seems that there is sort of
an attitude of we have to make some changes, allow women to
drive, but if you led a protest to promote women to drive, we
are going to put you in jail. I did this. You did not force me
to do it, and you are going to jail because you had the
temerity to speak up about it.
This enrages me not only because these are Virginians in
many ways, but it just enrages me that this behavior is allowed
to happen.
When we raised this with the administration, we are often
told, look, if we insist upon these kinds of human rights
protections, Saudi Arabia will deal with Russia or China, other
nations that do not insist on human rights protections. The
same argument is advanced if we say why would we transfer
nuclear technology without appropriate safeguards. Well, if we
do not do it, Russia and China will do it. This is an old
argument that comes up every time the United States insists
upon human rights. Oh, but other nations do not. If we insist
on human rights, then country X will do business with Russia
and China instead of with the United States.
Tell me why we should continue to insist on human rights,
including for these imprisoned women, women's rights activists
in Saudi Arabia. And that is really a question for all of you.
Ms. Bottner. Thank you, Senator. I think you are absolutely
right. We need to continue to insist on their rights. It is not
unusual that the same argument comes up I think from outside.
We can continue when we are over there when we are working with
civil society, Saudi women trying to give them soft support,
trying to work as an example, lend them assistance in a way
that might not be as direct as communication with the White
House, but with others.
I was actually in Saudi Arabia years back, and it was just
a stunning experience. I had a particular schedule that was a
public itinerary and we were so cheered to see that there were
women law students. And we tried to applaud publicly the
progress they were making.
But I will say that the most information I gathered was in
the off-the-record private meetings that were set up, and they
were set up because we had contacts inside the country that
were working with domestic violence, sexual assault victims,
and it was truly that underground vibrant network of women. So
to continue to information gather and try to lend that
solidarity to those women I think is so important, but it is
certainly frustrating to get that same argument.
Senator Kaine. Mr. Chair, I am out of time.
Senator Rubio. Go ahead. Absolutely.
Senator Kaine. But could I ask the others to respond?
Senator Rubio. Yes, absolutely.
Senator Kaine. Thank you.
Ms. Kakar. Thank you. I think, of course, it is important
that the United States be an example and continue to support
human rights across the board no matter what.
But in particular countries where it is difficult, I think
taking a peace-builder's approach is really important, and
looking internally to those who do support this idea and how
that change can happen from the inside, as well as regional
supporters, so building on regional support of those who do
support human rights and are worried about what Saudi Arabia
and other countries like that are doing I think is really
important. So taking a peace-builder's approach, looking for
regional support, and also change agents within that can be
supported.
Senator Kaine. Thank you.
Ms. Bigio.
Ms. Bigio. On your first point, just to note that ACTA just
released a report that found that political violence against
women, targeted violence like you mentioned in Saudi Arabia, is
actually on the rise. There were more reports in the first
quarter of 2019 than in the first quarter of 2018. So this is
something that human rights activists and women leaders around
the world are facing with rising attacks, rising
assassinations, and rising imprisonments, as you pointed to in
the Saudi Arabia case.
So it is critical that the U.S. continue to face that
issue, as well as continue to raise the broader focus on human
rights that we do. And I think the argument there is that when
countries do protect and promote human rights, when they close
the gender gap, they are more stable, they are more prosperous.
It advances U.S. interests and U.S. global interests in peace
and security when we encourage partners to take those steps. So
if we are not raising this issue, then it is taking pressure
off of governments to assess where there are opportunities,
where they can take some positive steps forward in this space.
We need to continue to raise it so that they continue to look
for and identify where they may be able to take some steps
forward that in the end advances their own stability and
prosperity and, in that regard, makes our own investments more
effective at the outset.
Senator Kaine. Thank you.
Mr. Chair, if I just might say one more thing, not a
question but just a comment.
There has been controversy this week over the
administration's direction to U.S. embassies to not have a
pride flag up during Pride Month. And the situation of LGBTQ
women around the world is an important one. I was in Turkey
about 2 years ago and met a woman named Sadef Kakmak, who was
the first LBGT official elected to political office in Turkey.
She was elected to an equivalent of a town council within the
Istanbul metropolitan area. She started as an activist in
organizing the Istanbul Pride Parade 15 years ago with about a
dozen people. It eventually grew to 14,000 or 15,000 people,
and when it did, the government shut it down.
I was really fascinated when I met with her, and I met with
her since in the United States too. She talked about how
critical the support of the U.S. embassy--in this case, the
consulate in Istanbul--the embassy is in Ankara--how incredibly
important the support of the consulate in Istanbul was to the
pride movement, pride flags advocating for them, participating,
marching, being there with them, allowing them to meet in the
consulate. She said that basically they could not have gone
from a handful of people to a big group of people. They could
not have done that without active support from the U.S.
advocating for the equality of LGBTQ women and all LGBTQ
people.
So when the news happens about the flag, okay, I think some
people read that story and they think, well, does that really
matter. Does it make a difference? Is it just symbolic? No. It
is not just symbolic. That is a symbol of our values and our
commitment to the equality principle that was articulated in
the Declaration of Independence. It gives hope to people and
inspiration to people around the world. And when we decide we
want to step back from that, that puts people like Sadef Kakmak
and others in a less protected, more vulnerable position. We
have an incredible power, even using soft powers like to fly a
rainbow flag during Pride Month.
We have an incredible power to give people hope and
inspiration, and I hope we will continue to do it. And I think
there is a lot of women in the world that really have grown to
count on us over the years, and I hope we do not let them down.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Senator Rubio. Thank you.
I wanted to start kind of almost taking off on one of the
questions Senator Kaine had. It has been answered already. But
I have not been here forever, but I have been here long enough
to know that these reports like this--they get issued and then
a few years later are like, whatever happened to or do you
remember when. And there are a lot of reasons for it. Sometimes
change in administrations. But oftentimes it is because we have
not answered the fundamental question of why.
As a policymaker for the United States, each of us works
for the people of the state that we serve, and we have to,
first and foremost, answer to the people that elected us and
for whom we speak here in the Senate why this is more than just
a nice thing to do. Why? Why is this in the national interest
of the United States of America? That is the most important
question because if you do not answer that, why it is in our
national interest, then I think it is very difficult to sustain
this beyond being just something we do because we are good
people.
So I wanted to give each of you, since you are so deeply
involved in this, if you were speaking to someone in Florida or
in Virginia or Maryland or New Hampshire and asked this is
great, but why should this be a priority with all the problems
that are going on in the world and all the challenges that we
have domestically? Why should we be focusing on this? You would
say? Whoever wants to go first.
Ms. Bottner. Thank you, Senator.
I would say bluntly when we empower women, societies are
more stable. When they are more stable, there is not going to
be the risk or the incidence of chaos, conflict, war. So if we
are sitting here in Florida and we are wondering about what is
going on in the world and why it matters, you could bring it
right back to when the world is more stable, we are less
threatened. Take the arguments off the table about it being the
right thing to do, which I think we all agree, but at the end
of the day, a more stable world is less threatening for us.
Women's economic empowerment--when we see things like
boosting women's economic and access to capital and some of the
strategies that have come out of this administration and
others, that is all good for women, but it also contributes to
a more stable society and community, which is again less
threatening to us.
Senator Rubio. Ms. Bigio, same question. Somebody comes and
asks me somewhere, this is terrible what is happening to these
women, but we have got so many problems in this country, why
are we focused on this? Because?
Ms. Bigio. First off, that no country can get ahead leaving
half its population behind. So if we want to advance security
and global prosperity, then that means ensuring that half the
population has an opportunity to participate. And the evidence
is there for any issue that one of your constituents cares
about. If it is health care, if it is climate change, if it is
education, that in all of those cases, we will be more
effective at advancing that around the world if we ensure that
women and girls have----
Senator Rubio. I think the question they would ask me is
why do we want to advance this issue around the world? That is
their problem. It is their country. Let them fix it. If they
said that to be, we would say?
Ms. Bigio. We would say we are more secure as a nation when
there is greater peace and prosperity around the world. There
are more opportunities to trade and to engage with countries
around the world when they themselves are more peaceful. There
is less trafficking. There are great opportunities to exchange
and to learn from one another when there is global prosperity.
So I think the priority there is that if we do want to ensure
that our nation is secure, that means ensuring that countries
around the world share in that prosperity and peace as well,
and that means investing in half the population being able to
contribute to peace and security.
Senator Rubio. And, Ms. Kakar, you are probably going to
get the toughest question of all just because I am going to
kind of centralize it to your comments. But you know, we all
recognize there is a significant level of fatigue in this
country about U.S. engagement in Afghanistan, almost 20 years
now. And so a lot of people would say--this is not my view. I
am just expressing--pretend that I am a constituent of one of
us. And they come to us and say, look, what is happening in
Afghanistan is a terrible thing, but that is never going to be
fixed. That is another country. It is far away. It is nothing
like us. We went after al Qaeda and ISIS. It is terrible what
is going to happen to women there. It is terrible--the
situation. But why should we care about it when all these other
things are going on? Let us just get out as soon as possible
and let it be what it is. You know, they have got to solve
their problems. And we have to answer that to our constituents.
We would say what?
Ms. Kakar. So what I would say to somebody like that, we do
not want to have happen what happened in the 1990s when the
Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan and there was a vacuum. We do
not want 9/11 to happen again. We do not want there to be a
safe haven for terrorists in a country like Afghanistan.
We want to support a successful peace process, and to make
sure that that peace process is the most successful, we need
women's inclusion in that peace process. We do not want to
leave a vacuum. We do not want to commit the same mistakes that
have been committed in the past. We want to make sure that
there is a safe and stable country so that we do not have to
deal with the terrorists that might come from leaving a vacuum
in a place like that.
Senator Rubio. Great answers. To all of you, thank you
because we are going to get asked and it is going to be
helpful. But it is important to answer that because it leads us
to the other points I wanted to raise.
The first is for these strategies to work, they have to be
systemized. They have to be formalized. It has to be engrained
in how we operate across the board. And so I wanted to ask each
of you, is it your sense that we are--do we have in place, for
lack of a better term, a curriculum to train applicable U.S.
Government personnel, diplomats, members of the military, our
developmental personnel to take into account the priorities
laid out here? In essence, are our diplomats, our military
personnel, our development personnel--do we have a way now--
does the curriculum exist to train them to be sensitized to
this as part of the work they do to instill it in the work that
they do as they operate?
Ms. Bigio. There is some training available now, but it is
not widespread and it is not very effective. So there are some
standalone courses at the Foreign Service Institute where the
State Department and USAID and others can participate, but they
are small courses that only a few pass through. And when they
are touched upon in broader courses for Foreign Service
officers that are coming in or deploying around the world, it
is touched on in a very short segment that is not very
effective.
The Defense Department, with some of the support of
previous appropriations, has been developing gender training
courses at combatant commands. So they have done that now for a
few of the combatant commands but not all, and that is
something that they want to make more regular and what to make
more available.
So hopefully the implementation plans will include
attention to more training opportunities at State, USAID, DOD,
across the intelligence community, Department of Homeland
Security, all of the agencies that are implicated to make sure
that they actually have the skills to put the commitments into
action.
Senator Rubio. I think that is one of the first challenges
we are going to have here in conducting oversight over this
implementation is not just ensuring that every year the people
being deployed are put in these positions or watching some 1-
hour mandatory video and then that is your training. I mean, we
really need to make sure that that is happening across the
board because you cannot implement it.
The second is I think that we need to be able to track how
the strategy is being implemented in real time. I know we are
going to get a report back every 90 days. But in addition to
having metrics, we have to have a system to sort of be able to
look at all the dozens of agencies that are going to be in
charge in some level in sort of implementing the strategy, sort
of real-time tracking of who is performing.
My guess is the ranking member and I are actually--you
know, we serve next to each other on this committee, on this
subcommittee, and also in Small Business. People start
confusing us for each other.
[Laughter.]
Senator Rubio. But as we talk about it, we look at, even
with something like the Small Business Administration where
there is this requirement--not to this topic, but there is this
requirement for small business set-asides and small business
help. And some agencies in government are better at doing it
than others.
And I think this is going to be the same issue here. So we
have to have some system set up, and part of that is going to
be the question I wanted to ask is based on just your
interaction on this issue, what suggestions do you have on
creating an interagency coordination process so that when all
these of these stakeholders are sitting down to construct
policy towards any place on earth--let us say we are talking
about Afghanistan and the peace talks. From the Intelligence
Committee to all the principals that go in these National
Security Council meetings, from USAID to the intelligence
community, to DOD and everybody in between, that they are all
part of that conversation. Who is in charge, I guess is my
question, of ensuring that part of that interagency
coordination, as they set up these plans? Who is in charge of
making sure that one of those things that they are discussing
and creating a plan for is the strategy? Because I do not know
who is in charge of implementing this.
Ms. Bottner. Thank you, Senator.
I would encourage that the Secretaries of those particular
departments that have been called out to be implementing this--
the leadership is so important from the top. And if the
Secretary takes that commitment truly to heart--I know years
ago I saw that at State. When you are talking about interagency
working groups, so often if your secretary, your boss, is not
making that definitely a critical element and a goal of the
department, it is very easy to have it fall by the wayside. So
I would just stress, DOD, USAID, State, all of those
departments who is really going to take ownership, because it
is so important that the leadership comes from the top of that
agency.
Ms. Bigio. I served on the National Security Council staff
as a civil servant in the previous administration, and women,
peace, and security was in my portfolio. So I saw the critical
role that the National Security Council staff can play in
helping ensure implementation of the Women, Peace, and Security
Strategy now, the new one.
And there the challenge is on a daily basis ensuring that
U.S. policy decisions on a given country on a given security
issue bring attention to women's participation and their
protection from violence into those discussions.
And so in that regard, I think in the ideal world, the
National Security Council staff and the leads on Women, Peace,
and Security in the agencies--they are a source of expertise
for the whole of government, for anyone shaping policy on a
given region and security to help ensure when the NSC is
hosting a meeting on Yemen, on Syria, on Afghanistan, on
peacekeeping, that at the table is that expertise and that
perspective of, in this case, how are we going to improve our
security priorities by integrating attention to Women, Peace,
and Security into it.
It is integrating it into those conversations that will
make sure the Women, Peace, and Security Strategy actually is
real and has effect on the ground. And in that regard, the
White House, the National Security Council is critical in
working across the interagency to make sure that not only do
each agency do this work but the top-down leadership from their
secretaries, but that as the interagency is shaping policy
together, that they are bringing attention to Women, Peace, and
Security into that.
Senator Rubio. I do not know if anyone would disagree. I
think the first test of whether this strategy is real and is
working and is being implemented is going to be Afghanistan
because when you go into that meeting, if the stated goal of it
is let us figure out a way to get out and withdraw U.S. troops,
I mean, that is not a hard thing to negotiate. Right? You just
say this is the day we are leaving. It is the implications of
that withdrawal. And I even think it is possible--I think it is
not as easy as some people think it is, but it is possible to
come up with a deal, quote/unquote, in which all kinds of
promises and assurances are made about elections and this,
that, or the other.
But I think all of us would recognize--and, Ms. Kakar, you
point this out in your answer to the first question that I
had--that if any deal does, in fact, not have in it real
protections and verifiable measures to ensure the role that
women are going to play in that society--in essence, this is
going to be going back to how things were for women in 2001--
this deal is not going to be real. We are going to go right
back in time to the same point. And someone in that room needs
to be raising that as part of that conversation because I do
not care what people tell you about how great this deal is, it
is getting us out and there are some structures set up for it
to work, it is not a real deal if it does not take that into
account.
Which, Ms. Kakar, leads me to my last question, and that is
one of the arguments being used for why this is so difficult--
because we can push countries to change their laws. They still
have to implement them. So that is a challenge. But one of the
places where we really get the realists in the room to say,
look, we can get them to sign whatever you want. This is not a
political issue. This is a cultural, a religious--this is
thousands of years of the way have treated women in those
societies, and they view this as an imposition of Western
values and Western ideas on them. And some will argue--I am not
making that argument--who are we to tell them what their
culture should be. Others will just say it would be a great
thing to achieve but it is not realistic. And so that is a
point I wanted you to address because we have heard and we will
hear that argument that this is a cultural and religious issue
and that we cannot force people to all be Western in their
views. I mean, that is the argument they would make.
Ms. Kakar. Thank you for the question.
I would actually push back, particularly in the case of
Afghanistan, that this is not a Western imposition. This is
very indigenous to Afghanistan. Women have been involved in all
kinds of decision-makings throughout Afghan history. Starting
from the beginning, the very inception of the Afghan modern
state, it was the mother of Ahmed Shah Durrani who--Nazu Anna.
She was the one who actually was able to bring the tribes
together to form the Afghan state. It was on her--it was her
initiatives that really brought the state together.
Senator Rubio. In Afghanistan, do people know that?
Ms. Kakar. The story of Nazu Anna is known in Afghanistan,
yes.
And we have examples of women who are on the local shuras,
the tribal jirgas who make decisions who have been there--as
part of Afghanistan's culture, have been there for centuries on
the councils. This is part of Afghan culture in terms of women
being part of the solution of a peace process.
There are even specific--how should I say it--in terms of
local justice systems, there is the Pashtunwali code of
conduct, which I have written and researched about, where women
are the catalysts for resolving conflict. There are all kinds
of traditional codes where women are the ones who go and
initiate the conversation. They go across enemy lines and
initiate the conversations to end conflicts. So this is not
something that is coming from the outside. This is very, very
indigenous.
And just to add to that, currently what we are seeing in
terms of how the Taliban have, at the local level, respected
women crossing those lines and have listened to them, that
creates this opportunity and a door and a window to open things
up.
Yes, it needs to be framed within a religious framework,
and I think women in Afghanistan realize the importance of
framing it within an Islamic law framework to talk about their
rights. But there are many indigenous examples, and this is not
a Western imposition.
Senator Rubio. So the bottom line is the treatment of women
by the Taliban is the foreign idea here.
Ms. Kakar. Yes, it is.
Senator Rubio. All right. I am done.
Do you have anything else?
Senator Cardin. Mr. Chairman, first, these values are
universal values. These are not Western values. The United
Nations has spoken to this and sustainable development goals
and so many other universal rights. There are so many areas
that we talk about empowerment of women is not a Western value.
It is a universal value. And I think we always have to
underscore that.
Your questioning I thought was extremely important as to
the capacity we have in this country to understand all this
through our curriculum. I like that. We really do need to have
that.
Ms. Bigio, I wanted to get your view, before we conclude
this hearing, on what went right and wrong with the U.N.
Security Council resolution. It is a big deal to get a U.N.
Security Council resolution passed. When we look at the
results, are they favorable or not? Seventy-nine nations I
understand have submitted their response to the resolution.
That means the majority have not. And that is just submitting a
strategy. It does not mean they have implemented it.
So from your experiences in representing the United States
on this, where did we go right? Where did we go wrong? What did
we learn from this, and how do we use the experiences over the
last 19 years to have greater success in penetrating the
international community on these subjects?
Ms. Bigio. Thank you. It is a great question and it is
critical, as we come on the 20th anniversary of that first U.N.
Security Council resolution, to look back and assess where we
are and what more can we do.
So, first off, in those 20 years, it is critical that there
are more voices of support. That was the first time that anyone
put the issue of women's participation in preventing and
resolving conflicts as a security issue, as a security
imperative. And now to have growing voices, now nearly 80
countries, with that commitment, NATO, the EU, the African
Union, regional bodies around the world have made those
commitments as well. So that is a starting point that we have a
shared value and recognition that it is in our security
interests to support women's meaningful participation in
conflict.
From that, we do see some steps forward. We see cases like
in the Philippines it was a female chief negotiator that helped
negotiate that peace process. In Colombia, women had 30 percent
representation at the negotiating table, and the peace
agreement reflects that. There is a whole broader set of issues
that are part of that agreement that will help set the country
up on a better course in their efforts to recover from
conflicts there. There are commitments underway now to actually
have countries deploy more female peacekeepers so that
peacekeeping missions can be more legitimate. There are
meaningful commitments that are being made.
But the progress has lagged and the transformational change
has not happened yet. So it really is case by case that we are
still making the argument that women need a seat at the table.
In too many cases they do not. Women-led groups need our
support. They are doing incredible work on the ground in their
communities negotiating local ceasefires, negotiating
humanitarian access and movement abilities for people in the
midst of conflict zones. They are doing things local
governments should be doing but are not. They are forming
female police brigades to provide security and staffing
hospitals and schools and helping build a framework for peace
in their communities. But they get, as I said before, just .4
percent of funding. And that is an area where we need to talk
to them more, listen to them, have that shape our own policies
in those governments and support them so that they can do more
of the critical work they are already doing.
Senator Cardin. I think the chairman raised a very
important point, that we are always accused of trying to impose
our values on other countries, which is not the case. The
impetus, as I understand it, for the U.N. Security Council
resolution came from Western Africa, as we talked about before
when the hearing started.
When I travel, as I do a great deal as a member of this
committee, as a Member of the Senate, and also for the Helsinki
Commission, I find that the United States is not in the
forefront on these issues. When you look at the representation
groups, we usually are behind the curve rather than in front of
the curve on women representation. So it is something that we
need to talk about: how we leverage the U.S. critical support
that is necessary to bring about global change with the fact
that there are groups around the world well ahead of where we
are here in the United States, and how we utilize that for an
effective U.S. leadership to accomplish change.
So it really is a challenge, Mr. Chairman. I think you
raised it because we are always looked at as trying to mold the
world as we see it rather than, in many cases, the world has
changed and the United States needs to catch up a little bit
but also use our leadership for global security.
Thank you.
Senator Rubio. Senator Shaheen.
Senator Shaheen. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
A lot of our discussion today has been around Afghanistan.
And I agree with the chairman. This really does offer the best
opportunity immediately to see how we implement the Women,
Peace, and Security Strategy in a meaningful way.
I was in Afghanistan in April meeting with a number of
women leaders, and I heard the same thing you mentioned, Ms.
Kakar, that they were very concerned that the United States was
going to cut a deal with the Taliban that would not ensure that
rights of women continue.
So what can we be doing as we look at implementing the
strategy? What should we be doing to reassure Afghan women to
make sure they have a seat at the table? You talked about the
metrics, having that be part of any withdrawal agreement,
having incentives to the political parties. But what do Afghan
women want to hear from the United States now to assure them
that this is a commitment that we have and we will continue to
have through any peace negotiations?
Ms. Kakar. Thank you for the question.
I think it is really important to continue to be public
about those assurances and continue to talk like we have at
this hearing about the implementation of the strategy on Women,
Peace, and Security and how that will be implemented in
Afghanistan. That is a huge assurance to hear that. And I am
sure many Afghan women will find assurances in that. But to
continue to have these conversations and to make sure that
these conversations are public. Women have said that it is not
enough to just have a few women behind a closed door and have
consultations with them, but it is important to have public
conversations. It is important for, for example, Khalilzad's
team who is there negotiating on behalf of the U.S. Government
to be public with the women and have public conversations with
them on some of the issues and on these reassurances of how it
will be implemented.
So these are issues that they are very, very concerned
about, and I think a continued public conversation about this
showing transparency in the conversation, making sure that the
incentives are well known and the push for the incentives are
well known, and how the strategy will be implemented in
Afghanistan, I think that will really help alleviate some of
these concerns.
Senator Shaheen. Well, thank you.
I hope, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Cardin, that this
committee will take an active role in trying to assure that we
keep the women forefront as we look at any peace negotiations
and that we work to ensure that this strategy gets implemented
in Afghanistan as we are looking into that conflict and
thinking about how we can engage in that.
Senator Rubio. I think in all these conversations, one of
the critical points that is going to have to be raised
repeatedly is that, if done hastily and without the proper
safeguards in place, not only are we going to see the
unraveling of almost 20 years of commitment to this. It is
actually going to be worse than it was in 2001 because there
are now women and girls that have gone to school, that have
actually done things, that are on a list somewhere of the first
ones they are going to go after to punish and make an example
of them. So in many ways, this is not just going to be as bad.
It is going to be worse because there are actual people that
are going to be targeted for having the audacity to go to
school and things of this nature. So it is a really tenuous
situation, to say the least.
Is there anything else?
Senator Cardin. Thank you all.
Senator Rubio. I want to thank you. It was a very good
hearing and I think we have learned a lot, and I think we have
a lot to think about in terms of our role in conducting
oversight so that this is a sustained effort. Unfortunately,
the world is going to continue to have conflicts, and this is
going to continue to be raised. So again, I want to thank you,
and I want to thank everyone for being here. This is a
phenomenal hearing.
The record for the hearing will remain open for 48 hours.
And with that, the hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:30 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
Women, Peace, and Security National Strategy
Submitted by Jeanne Shaheen
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