Noorus Salam: Actions Speak Louder Than Words

For the month of February, I wanted to bring your attention and focus to some key research and policy developments in conflict resolution and peacebuilding that I have come across, as a result of my recent trip to the Philippines these past two months. The women’s peace conference held in Zamboanga City and organized by the Philippine Centre for Islam and Democracy (PCID) in the southern troubled region of Mindanao, certainly helped to provide a lot more perspective in the development of the framework of my MA thesis.

As I mentioned in my January update, the Mindanao region has been plagued by decades of internal strife and conflict between armed-Muslim separatist groups and government forces, affecting the lives of millions of people living in the region. I would be lying to you if I told you that I wasn’t scared or nervous to go to Mindanao, given all of the stereotypes and forewarnings that many of my relatives and friends in the Philippines mentioned prior to my departure. In fact, there was a bombing at the Zamboanga City Airport as recently as August 2010, where 2 people were killed and where the target of the bombing was the governor of Sulu, one of the more troubled provinces in the region of Mindanao.

Having said all of this, most of my relatives and friends in the Philippines have never actually been that far south in Mindanao. I know that a lot of their (mis)perceptions are driven by what is reported and showcased in mainstream media in the Philippines and elsewhere, as it seems all that is ever reported in the Philippine media are stories of violence and conflict coming out of Mindanao. Alternative news sources such as MindaNews.com and EQuALLS2 are trying to change this perception of Mindanao, by showcasing other stories beyond conflict and strife: from advances in education and environmental awareness in the region, to culture, governance and human rights issues.

One of the biggest motivating factors for attending and volunteering for this peace conference in Zamboanga City, was to change this (mis)perception of Mindanao for myself, and hopefully in the process, change the minds of my relatives and friends in the Philippines as well. What I found in Mindanao was far from what the media portrayed the region to be. I met some of the nicest and most hospitable people in the country, including some very inspirational women who were willing to step up and reclaim peace in their communities, especially those communities directly affected by the outbreak of violence as a result of the ongoing conflict.

From Vision to Action, From Conflict to Peace

The conference itself, the 2nd Philippine National Conference of Muslim Women Peace Advocates, was probably one of the best conferences that I have attended to date. And it all comes down to this: actions speak louder than words. Reflecting on why I felt this way after leaving the conference, I have concluded that perhaps it had a lot to do with the context and location of the conference itself; the promise of concrete action given the enthusiasm of the delegates involved; as well as the strong organizational supporting framework provided by the PCID, Magbassa Kita Foundation, Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, and other civil society organizations and intergovernmental agencies.

When discussing the road to sustainable peace within the context of the conflict in Mindanao, the topic at hand–from vision to action, from conflict to peace–felt very real to me. This was particularly the case when I spoke with a woman from Basilan, as well as another woman from Maguindanao, who had seen first hand the detrimental effects the conflict has had on their families and communities. And yet, both of them (together with the other 150 delegates at the conference), possessed a sense of optimism and conviction that sustainable peace can be achieved in Mindanao in the not-too-distant future.

This peace can be achieved through the systemic deployment of local initiatives that aim to empower local women, such as maternal health and literacy education drives, and raising awareness of the implications and protections of international law to do with women, peace and security; but most important of all, formally organizing themselves into an advocacy organization, Noorus Salam (Arabic for Light of Peace) in order to gain a seat at the decision making table when it comes to the peace process negotiations. The belief here is that peace cannot be attained simply through the signing of a peace agreement between the Muslim armed separatist groups and the government of the Republic of the Philippines, without involving other key stakeholders in the community, such as the women, in a systematic and open way.

International laws and grassroots organizations on the ground

As a volunteer for the conference, I also had the opportunity to participate and document one of the four concurrent workshops taking place throughout the four-day conference. The workshop that I participated in, to do with international laws on women, peace & security, such as UNSCR 1325 and 1820, was facilitated by the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), a membership-based organization composed of 50 women peacebuilding organizations from around the world. Often described as a “network of networks,” GNWP aims to bridge policy discussions of international laws pertaining to women, peace and security, between government and intergovernmental agencies, and grassroots civil society organizations working on the ground to implement these resolutions.

As this workshop progressed throughout the conference, it was definitely encouraging and inspiring to see the transformation the conference delegates went through when they realized that tools and resources, as well as people and organizations both in the Philippines and around the world, did in fact exist to help (empower) them to achieve their objectives of building peace in their local communities.

UNSCR 1325

To provide some context, UNSCR 1325 is a resolution passed by the United Nations Security Council in 2000, that reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, and humanitarian responses in post-conflict reconstruction, and stresses the importance of their equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security. What made UNSCR 1325 groundbreaking and different from other prior international laws and resolutions dealing with women, peace and security, such as CEDAW (1979) and the Beijing Declaration (1995), was that it helped to transform the image of women from victims of war and conflict, to active peacebuilders and decision-makers. This transformative principle of UNSCR 1325 not only moved the issues of women, peace and security from the gender agenda–placing it front and centre on the international peace and security agenda of the UN Security Council–it also provided women the right to sit and be heard at the decision-making table when discussing (international) peace and security issues.

Powerful as these international laws and resolutions may seem on paper, they are essentially meaningless unless they are implemented where they matter, such as local communities on the ground that are directly affected by conflict. In other words, what is the relevance of these international laws and resolutions to a woman farmer in the troubled region of Mindanao? In this case, organizations such as the GNWP takes on a global to local approach through the development, implementation and monitoring of National Action Plans (NAP) with governments and civil society organizations around the world, while developing a local to global strategy through initiating worldwide dialogue with global policy makers, diplomats in the UN, and women directly affected by conflict all around the world, from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Congo and Iran. I am also proud to say that the Philippines is the first country in Asia, and only the fifth Global South country, that has adopted a National Action Plan for the development and implementation of UNSCR 1325 and its supporting resolution UNSCR 1820, into executable, measurable and accountable actions.

At the end of the day, no successful implementation of these international laws and resolutions can be done without the participation of civil society organizations such as Noorus Salam, PCID, GNWP and others, in coordination with intergovernmental agencies. As Noorus Salam is just getting started, I look forward to where they are headed next in their advocacy and peacebuilding work. The future for Mindanao and the Philippines is exciting and it is only just the beginning.