Intersectional Discrimination, Multifaceted Problems: Minority Women, Violence and Peace-building
ISSUE PAPER: Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization Prepared on the occasion of the UN Forum on Minority Issues, 4th Session NOVEMBER 2011 UNPO SECRETARIAT THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS
Published by the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization Office of the General Secretary Laan van Meerdervoort 70 2517 AN The Hague The Netherlands Phone: +31 (0)70 36 46 504 Fax: +31 (0)70 36 46 608
[email protected] November 2011 Authors: Carry Mensen and Lisa Thomas Cover Photos (top to bottom): Three Generations of Baloch Women (courtesy: Behzad Arta); Khmer Krom Woman (courtesy: Frans Welman); Batwa Women, Bwiza Village, Rwanda (courtesy: Maggie Murphy); Khmer Krom Girls (courtesy: Frans Welman); Ogaden Woman, Ethiopia (courtesy: Freddy Hagen); Uyghur Girls (courtesy AFP) An electronic version of this publication is available on the UNPO website: www.unpo.org
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
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MINORITY WOMEN
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MINORITY WOMEN AND ARMED VIOLENCE
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ONE-SIDED VIOLENCE ACCESS TO JUSTICE
9 9
MINORITY WOMEN AND PEACE-BUILDING
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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
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APPENDIX
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Introduction The fourth session of the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues focuses on the topic ‘Guaranteeing the rights of minority women’. As explained in the background note by the Independent Expert on Minority Issues, Ms. Rita Izsak, minority women and girls are particularly vulnerable to violations and the denial of their rights in both public and private life. It is crucial that this issue is recognized to ensure adequate response and respect for every member of minority groups, including women. Human rights abuses, including unlawful killings, torture and sexual violence are widespread in conflict areas. Members of minority groups, and especially minority women, are particularly vulnerable in situations of collective violence. The intersection of gender and ethnicity can be hypothesized to influence the nature and scope of violence the women experience, but also the options that a woman perceives and the help that is available to her. This issue paper attempts to th shed light on the issues of violence against minority women, as a background paper to the 4 session of the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues, held from 29-30 November 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland. It focuses particularly on the situations of conflict and organized armed violence and minority women and the (exclusion from) peace-building processes. With this issue paper, UNPO hopes to contribute to the core elements of the Forum – namely, the identification of challenges and problems facing minority women and the consideration of opportunities, initiatives and solutions. The first section of this paper revolves around the need to focus on minority women as a specific group. ‘Gender’ and ‘women’ have become buzz-words in the international arena but do not constitute homogenous groups. Minority women face intersectional discrimination and multifaceted problems because of their gender and identity group. As such, it is important to make the distinction between women, minorities and minority women in acknowledging and addressing specific problems. The second section focuses on minority women in situations of organized armed violence taking place both within and outside the context of armed conflict. In times of conflict, the vulnerable position of women and especially minority women is often taken advantage of and they face violence, abuse, and rape with detrimental consequences. Without equal access to justice, and facing a lack of acknowledgement for their specific issues, the situation of minority women in situations of armed violence is dire. The third section focuses on the relation between minority women and peace-building processes – how they can have a significant added value to post-conflict situations but are often excluded from the organization and the building of peace. The last section contains concluding observations, solutions and recommendations.
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Minority Women ‘Gender’ and ‘women’ have become buzz-words for international institutions around the world. Over the last decades ‘gender-mainstreaming’ has become institutionalized jargon and normalcy as the technique for responding to inequalities between men and women. At the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, it was clear that the term had achieved great popularity and had become the strategy of choice to redress women’s unequal position in education, health, as victims of violence, armed conflict, economics as well as human rights (Charlesworth, 2005). ‘Gender’ or ‘women’, however, do not constitute homogenous groups; the practical concerns and experiences of minority women cannot be ignored. The chosen focal point for the fourth session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues is of great importance, as it goes beyond the issue of women’s rights and calls for an exploration of how to effectively guarantee the rights of minority women. The problems and issues minority and indigenous women face are multifaceted and complex. Various systems of inequality and domination create diverse subject positions for women whose experiences are shaped not only by their gender, but also by their ethnicity, language, religion or cultural identity. Minority women stand at the intersection of gender and racial or ethnic inequality; they are discriminated against because they are women and because they are members of a minority group. As stated by Minority Rights Group International in their 2011 report on the state of the world’s minorities and indigenous peoples with a focus on women’s rights, “in addressing the status of indigenous and minority women it is essential to identify racial elements of gender discrimination, as well as the gendered elements of racial discrimination” (Minority Rights Group, 2011: 12). Minority and indigenous women face gender-based discrimination and violence similar to that faced by women from majority communities, but they may also face discrimination because of their minority or indigenous identity that they share with men from their community. Discrimination based on minority status “may work together with or intersect with gender-based discrimination to result in unique disadvantages for minority and indigenous women, because of their status as women belonging to minority or indigenous communities” (Minority Rights Group, 2011: 15). As the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women Yakin Ertürk notes in Minority Rights Group’s 2011 report: “In my discussion with women in the North Caucasus in the Russian Federation in 2006, I heard accounts of Chechen and other minority women being targeted by the authorities, as they assumed more prominent roles in their communities (as men were increasingly absent, due to forced disappearances or terrorist activity). Muslim women wearing headscarves were particularly stigmatized and subjected to strip searches and arbitrary detention” (Minority Rights Group, 2011: 11). Minority women thus experience a whole spectrum of violence, perpetrated by members of their own community groups or by outsiders. This includes violence either perpetrated and/or condoned by the state and/or military, violence arising from wars and conflicts and violence in post-conflict settings. In other instances, where women are not specifically targeted on the basis of their minority or indigenous identity, the social, economic, political and often geographical marginalization of a particular minority group can leave women belonging to such a group
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disproportionately vulnerable to exclusion, exploitation and abuse (Minority Rights Group, 2011) – a notion that only endorses the importance of specific attention for minority women. Minority and indigenous status are recognized by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (UN Women) as compounding factors in cases of violence against th women. The 2010 report on the 54 Session of the Commission on the Status of Women states that “in the design, planning and monitoring of laws, policies and programmes to achieve gender equality, it is important to address fully the multiple forms of discrimination and marginalization that particular groups of women continue to face, in particular rural, indigenous and older women, women belonging to ethnic minorities and women with disabilities” (UN Women, 2010: 41, par. 18). A major problem, as also mentioned in the note by the independent expert on th minority issues for the 4 session of the Forum, is the lack of data on gender-related dimensions of discrimination and prevalence rates of violence towards women based on minority status. This very likely poses a great barrier to effectively addressing the issue. As noted by General Recommendation No. 25 of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD, 2000: par.6), it is important that data be categorized by gender within racial and ethnic groups. Over the last years, significant progress has been made regarding the human rights of women. Women’s human rights have gained recognition, violence against women is now an illegal act in almost every country and there has been a worldwide mobilization against harmful traditional practices. However, as noted by the Secretary General of the United Nations, much still remains to be done, including acknowledging and addressing the challenges of violence against minority women due to one-sided violence and armed conflict and the exclusion of minority women from peace-building processes.
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Minority Women and Armed Violence In 1995, the World Conference on Women held in Beijing brought the topic of women and armed conflict to international attention. A second milestone occurred in October 2000, when the UN Security Council passed its landmark Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security; this was the first international agreement to specifically recognize the impact of armed conflict on women and their role as builders of peace. The Council stressed the importance of the equal participation of women, and their full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security, and the need to increase their role in decision-making with regard to conflict prevention and resolution (United Nations Security Council, 2000; Bouta & Frerks, 2002). Resolution 1325 is generally regarded as one of the most influential recent documents in setting the policy framework for women and armed conflict. Various other departments within the UN, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe have followed and increasingly developed statements and policies on this topic. Although progress has been made in various fields and many achievements have been made across the globe, situations of armed conflict are still named as areas that pose a continuing obstacle to gender equality (see for example the review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action [A/52/231] of the fourth World Conference on Women, 2000). The majority of contemporary conflicts are internal or intrastate and disproportionally affect civilians who are not caught in the crossfire but deliberately targeted to “acquire or maintain power through terrorizing the civilian population, to (re)gain control over contested territory, or to define a state around a particular ethnic or religious identity” (Minority Rights Group, 2011). During the First World War, only five per cent of the casualties were civilians, whereas in most contemporary conflicts civilian casualties – the majority of which are women and children – comprise approximately 80 per cent of the total number of casualties (Bouta & Frerks, 2002). The casualty rate of women in situations of organized armed violence is a reflection of a number of factors. Women who step out of line, whether by taking sides in an armed conflict or by denouncing human rights violations, often face particularly cruel treatment. Women whose support over-steps the boundaries of their expected gender-submissive role face social as well as political sanctions. Women predominantly experience armed conflict as the victims of atrocities and sexual violence such as systematic rape. Among the specific effects experienced by women in situations of conflict and violence are displacement, loss of home and property, loss or involuntary disappearance of close relatives, poverty and family separation and disintegration, victimization through acts of murder, terrorism, torture, involuntary disappearance, sexual slavery, rape and sexual abuse (McKay, 1998). Women are, as such, a vulnerable group in times of armed conflict or state-sponsored violence. Because of their unequal status in society and their sex, minority women are especially affected by the detrimental consequences of armed conflict. The report by Minority Rights Group (2011) cites numerous cases from armed conflict situations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, the DRC, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan and Burma, where women from minority and indigenous communities have suffered systematic sexual and other violence specifically because of their identity. Because women are usually regarded to be the symbolic bearer of caste, ethnic or national identity, sexual violence becomes symbolic violence and can therefore be used as a
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deliberate strategy to attack the ‘honor’ of an entire community. Such strategies predominantly affect women from minority groups. Following this logic, a raped Bosniak or Croatian woman stands for a raped Bosnia or Croatia; women are a metaphor for the nation and within the discourse of ethnicity, rape is part of a genocidal strategy. In the North Caucasus and other conflict zones, reports of rape and sexual assault of minority women and the impunity with which it occurs are alarming. In times of conflict, the vulnerability of minority women is often intentionally exploited. The two Additional Protocols (1977) to the 1949 Geneva Conventions have set out provisions to protect civilians, and Resolution 1325 calls for recognition of the effects of war on women. In addition, there has been widespread attention by the international community and the general public to the use of rape as a weapon of war. However, the culture of impunity for mass rape and ethnic cleansing that is most often the present in conflict areas continues to leave minority women in peril. The criminalization of sexual violence by the ICC, which provides that rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, enforced sterilization, forced pregnancy and other forms of sexual violence are war crimes when committed in times of armed conflict, is a significant step towards the acknowledgement of the need to specifically address the unique experiences of women in situations of organized armed violence. However, it is important for the ICC and other human rights mechanisms such as the Human Rights Council to specifically and explicitly acknowledge the special position of minority women in situations of armed violence in order to raise awareness of this important issue, and to begin the process of addressing the policies and practices that perpetuate the vulnerability of minority women. At the end of the Beijing conference in 1995, the participants formulated an agenda identifying twelve critical areas of concern for follow-up: the Beijing Platform for Action (A/52/231). The agenda aims at attaining women’s empowerment through national and international commitments for action by governments and the international community. Among other things, commitments were aimed at the formulation of laws, policies, programmes and development priorities (Bouta & Frerks, 2002). Since 1995, the UN, development organizations and member governments have monitored the implementation of this Platform. In 2000, during a special session entitled ‘Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-first Century,’ the General Assembly adopted an outcome document entitled ‘Further Actions and Initiatives to Implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.’ This document indicated that there is growing recognition of the fact that the destructive impact of armed conflict is different for women and men, and that there is thus a need to integrate a genderperspective in the planning, design and implementation of development aid and humanitarian assistance. Major obstacles were also discerned, such as the lack of adequate policy response to the high proportion of female-headed households following internal conflict and the underrepresentation of women in decision-making positions (Bouta & Frerks, 2002). The Beijing Platform for Action agenda is very important, but is in need of updating; new commitments specifically including minority women should be explored. Evidence shows that greater autonomy for minority communities does not necessarily result in enhancing the rights of women in these communities, and that gender strategies designed in a vacuum do not work (Minority Rights Group, 2011). Dealing with minority rights and women’s rights separately is not enough. The multifaceted nature of problems of minority women needs to be internationally recognized and addressed. To update Hillary Clinton’s noted assertion in her 1995 speech at the World Conference on Women in Beijing: minority women’s rights are women’s rights are human rights.
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One-Sided Violence As Minority Rights Group points out in its 2011 review, armed conflict is not the only form of organized violence that minority women are confronted with. Focusing on armed conflict as traditionally defined can lead to the exclusion of consideration of minority groups that are the 1 victims of one-sided, often state-sponsored campaigns of organized violence . Many of UNPO’s Members are targeted for organized violence outside of the context of armed conflict – in most cases this violence is perpetrated by the state itself. While there exists a wealth of information about the experiences of men and women in conflict, the nature of situations in which statesponsored violence against a civilian population is prevalent is not often conducive to gathering data regarding the experiences of those populations. Those who collect such data rely heavily on journalists, witnesses and local human rights groups to provide them with cases; however, many states tightly restrict outside access to ethnic minority regions while also keeping strict control over, and often banning outright the activities of local journalists, witnesses and activists. Ethiopia’s Ogaden region, Uyghur and Tibetan regions in China and ethnic minority regions in Vietnam are but a few examples of this. As noted by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), while crackdowns entailing violence against Civilians by the Chinese government have been reported on numerous occasions, difficulties in obtaining reliable information have made it impossible for these incidents, which are mainly in response to movements advocating for minority or religious rights, autonomy or independence, to be included in their official data (UCDP, 2011, web). As in situations of armed conflict, the experiences of minority women in one-sided violence are unique. Chinese authorities have often engaged in campaigns of one-sided violence against ethnic minorities. The Uyghur and Tibetan people in particular have been targeted for massviolence at the hands of state authorities over the past 60 years. Uyghur women have been specifically targeted for forced transfer into slave-like labor conditions in other regions. Uyghur women have also been instrumental in leading local and international campaigns for human rights, democracy and justice. An understanding of this dynamic and how it affects minority women is crucial, and a necessary precursor to the design of appropriate responses and interventions from the international community, including not only international and regional institutions and state governments, but also international finance institutions, international development organizations and global civil society.
Access to Justice Minority and indigenous women are, in general, groups that are less protected in society and have fewer options or paths to seek justice and raise their voices. As the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women Yakin Ertürk notes, “I all too often witnessed how 1
The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) outlines one-sided violence as one of four categories of collective violence (the others being intrastate conflict, interstate conflict and non-state conflict). UCDP defines one-sided violence as the unilateral use of force against civilians. (Eck, Sollenberg & Wallensteen, 2003: 1).
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‘minority’ including indigenous and in many instances migrant women, faced high risk of multiple forms of violence with little or no access to support services and justice” (Minority Rights Group, 2011: 11). Redress and support services for minority women are often not available or accessible. In situations of armed conflict, this problem is compounded by the collapse of state institutions. Action Aid, an international NGO working to combat poverty and injustice, has noted that “[i]n countries affected by conflict – where justice systems have crumbled and violence is a way of life – securing justice is not an easy task. Women are often not aware of their own rights and so do not realize that they are entitled to protection and legal redress. At the same time, discriminatory laws and complicated legal processes, as well as practical concerns such as not being able to afford the bus ride to court, mean that minority women are often deterred from bringing prosecutions” (Action Aid, 2011, web). The past century has seen a transformation in women’s legal rights, with countries in every region expanding the scope of women’s legal entitlements (UN Women, 2011). Nevertheless, the laws that exist often do not translate into equality and justice for most women and many millions of women have no access to justice. UN Women notes that “[i]n many contexts, in rich and poor countries alike, the infrastructure of justice – the police, the courts and the judiciary – is failing women” (2011: 8). “While law is intended to be a neutral set of rules to govern society, in all countries of the world, laws tend to reflect and reinforce the privilege and the interests of the powerful, whether on the basis of economic class, ethnicity, race, religion or gender. Justice systems also reflect these power imbalances” (UN Women, 2011: 11). Even where laws are in place to protect women, discrimination on the part of judges and prosecutors can continue to prevent justice from being attained. Women are less powerful than men in all societies, and minorities are often less powerful than the majority. Minority and indigenous women face a multitude of barriers to accessing institutions of justice. Some of these obstacles are shared with minority men, including language barriers, lack of information, inability to afford the high costs involved, and a lack of physical access to courts due to remote living conditions and the cost or danger of travel. In particular, minority and indigenous women may face stigma from within and outside of their communities for the act of seeking justice. The underrepresentation of minority and indigenous women in government and administrative structures also presents a major barrier to their access to justice. In the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, for example, the lack of representation of indigenous women in government bodies has been identified as a barrier to justice for indigenous women who have been targeted for violence. When indigenous and minority women are targeted by state security forces or more powerful societal groups, as is the case with indigenous women in the CHT, prosecution and justice are unlikely when those groups also dominate the institutions intended to deliver justice. The vulnerability of indigenous women in the CHT is only confirmed by the pattern of impunity for perpetrators; as noted by Mong Sing Neo, coordinator of the Kapaeeng Foundation, one of the major reasons behind violence against indigenous women in the CHT is the “absence of any single example of punishment.” The existing legal and constitutional framework that guarantees women’s rights falls short in providing minority women access to justice. It is not enough to have laws in place, without them being implemented. Further research into possibilities to extend and actively implement the existing legal framework is needed. Beyond this, the implementation of a holistic approach is necessary in order to empower minority and indigenous women, ensuring their access to justice and mitigating their vulnerability to violence. Such an approach would include improving the
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representation of minority and indigenous women in governance and administrative structures, addressing discriminatory practices that prevent minority women from seeking or obtaining justice, supporting traditional justice mechanisms where appropriate and addressing minority women’s poverty, isolation and lack of education and information.
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Minority Women and Peace-building ‘In the aftermath of crisis, women survivors often bear the heaviest burden of relief and reconstruction. They overcome immense obstacles to provide care and safety for others. As communities rebuild, it is women who often weave the social fabric of their communities back together, by supporting schools, organizing community events and rebuilding the economic life of destroyed communities. In many conflict zones, women’s actions also help to bring about and maintain peace. Women care for orphaned children who might otherwise become combatants. They organize grass-roots campaigns, sometimes across borders, to call for an end to fighting. When the situation stabilizes, women work together to mend their torn communities. They help rebuild, restore traditions and customs, and repair relationships – all while providing care for the next generation. The post-crisis transition period offers a prime opportunity to implement actions that address the MDGs and the broader development and security agenda. But when peace negotiations are underway, women and young people have frequently been excluded. And when a new government takes control, makes decisions and prepares budgets, these groups are often left out of the process. Women and girls in conflict and post-conflict settings are one of three key groups for whom support is critical, according to the UN Millennium Project. Domestic policies and external assistance that provide such support enable communities to reconcile, break the cycle of conflict and speed the transition to sustainable development’ (UNFPA, 2011). Post-conflict peace-building activities, such as the signing of peace treaties, are often maledominated activities. Given the disproportionate representation of men in government and military positions, only a small number of women actually participate in formal peace negotiations. According to the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), women constitute only 6 per cent of peace negotiators and less than 3 per cent of signatories, and are completely absent from the chief mediating roles in UN-brokered peace talks. In light of how collective violence disproportionately affects women, the recognition of the centrality of gender dimensions in the question of peace-building is crucial. Women (can) play a significant role both during conflict and during conflict-resolution and peace-building but the reality is that they are often ignored and denied agency in the construction of the new postconflict reality. Minority women bring diverse conflict experiences, represent a different interest group and set other priorities than men and even than women from majority communities. The capacity of women, including minority women should be developed by actively involving them in negotiations to end fighting, in the development of peace accords and judicial processes and in reconstructing communities as well as building peace and effecting reconciliation (McKay, 1998). Their participation in the peace-building processes fosters a wider mandate for peace, making it more sustainable. Minority women should not be solely seen as passive victims of conflict, but as capable actors as well. It should not be forgotten that minority women, besides being disproportionately stricken by violence and discrimination, can also be empowered and emancipated in times of collective violence. In the absence of men temporarily or permanently dislocated from the community by fighting, women can assume political responsibilities and organize themselves in order to safeguard their basic necessities and to carry out activities related to education, health care, food distribution and care for family, internally displaced persons and refugees (Bouta & Frerks, 2002). The international community should stimulate these activities in the post-conflict phase.
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The section on Women in Armed Conflict in the Platform for Action of the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women listed six strategic objectives, among which were [1] to increase the participation of women in conflict resolution at decision-making levels, and protect women living in situations of armed and other conflicts or under foreign occupation, and [2] to promote nonviolent forms of conflict resolution and promote women’s contribution to fostering a culture of peace. Building on the growing momentum of gender-mainstreaming and gender-based violence, the United Nations Security Council adopted a series of resolutions concerning the need for women to play an active role in peace processes, noting that their marginalization can delay or undermine the achievement of durable peace, security and reconciliation. The resolutions emphasize the critical importance of women playing an active part in shaping the processes of mediation, demobilization and reintegration, and democratic peace-building. The resolutions stress that meeting the needs and perspectives of women and men in an inclusive and holistic manner is the key to preventing future conflicts. How the interrelationship between gender and conflict is addressed in the existing documents shows, however, that there is still a long way to go before a gender perspective is fully incorporated in all conflict analysis and action – let alone a gendered minority perspective. It is important to review these resolutions with the aim of including reference to the unique position and experiences of minority women. Although women’s contributions to the areas of peace-building and conflict resolution are increasingly recognized, minority women are still often left out of the official documents and peace-building processes. As groups, women and minorities are both largely underrepresented and, as a result, do not have a strong voice within the institutions that are supposed to represent them, mitigating their influence over policies and programs that affect their well-being. Minority women in particular face serious constraints resulting from the existing social structure and relationships leaving their room for choice, empowerment and negotiation extremely limited.
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Conclusions and Recommendations Resolution 1325, adopted in 2000, went on to become one of the most important in history, stressing the equal participation of men and women and the involvement of women in matters of th peace and violence. More than a decade later, the discussions that will take place during the 4 Forum on Minority Issues are an important move towards recognizing the specific role and position of minority women, and can serve as a first step in the process of incorporating these concerns into national and international policy documents. In order to add greater depth and specificity to the draft recommendations for this session of the Forum on Minority Issues, the following conclusions have been excerpted from this paper:
1. There is clearly an immense need for research, statistics and data collection concerning the situation of minority women, as emphasized in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995). 2. Many minority women are actively fighting for their rights as women, for the rights of their communities and for their rights as minority women and they face difficulties and violent reprisals for challenging the status quo. These women need the additional protection that can be gained through international awareness of and acknowledgement for their struggles, as well as the creation of official, international standpoints and guidelines on the matter. 3. The problem of multiple disadvantages and multiple discrimination minority women face needs to be acknowledged by the international community, the United Nations and its various Committees and Councils. Astonishingly little is specifically said in the international legal frameworks about minority women. In line with the UN Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action, UNPO recommends that special attention will be paid to women belonging to ethnic and religious minorities and indigenous women with regards to projects and policies concerning international resolutions or action in times of organized armed violence. 4. The attention given to gender and the gender-mainstreaming of developmental and humanitarian projects is commendable, but consideration must be given to the disproportionate level of discrimination and violence minority women undergo. Projects and policies need to be both gender and minority sensitive. 5. Resolution 1325(2000) should be expanded to specifically incorporate minority issues. 6. Agencies, prevailing security actors and systems, and reconciliation and peace-building processes should actively target minority women specifically and explicitly before, during and after conflict situations.
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APPENDIX Resources: Bouta, T. & Frerks, G. (2002) ‘Women’s Roles in Conflict Prevention, Conflict Resolution and PostConflict Reconstruction: Literature Review and Institutional Analysis,’ Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael, Conflict Research Unit (The Hague) Charlesworth, H. (2005) ‘Not Waving but Drowning: Gender Mainstreaming and Human Rights in the United Nations’ Harvard Human Rights Journal (18) Eck, K., Sollenberg, M., & Wallensteen, P. (2003) ‘One sided Violence and Non-State Conflict’ McKay, S. (1998) ‘The Effects of Armed Conflict on Girls and Women, Peace and Conflict’, Journal of Peace Psychology (4)4: 381-392 Minority Rights Group International (2011) ‘State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2011: Events of 2010’ ed. Joanna Hoare United Nations (1995) ‘Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action’ A/52/231. United Nations CERD (2000) ‘General Recommendation No.25: Gender related dimensions of racial discrimination’, par. 6 United Nations (2000) ‘Resolution 1325’ S/RES/1325(2000) United Nations (2000) ‘Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action’ E/CN.6/2000/PC/L.1/Rev.2 United Nations (2000) ‘Women: 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twentyfirst Century’ A/S-23/10/Rev.1 th
United Nations Women (2010) ‘Report of the 54 Session of the Commission on the Status of Women’ E/2010/27 (Supp. 7) United Nations Women (2011) ‘2011-2012 Progress of the World’s Women: In Pursuit of Justice’ UNPO (2011) ‘Chittagong Hill Tracts: Violence Continues Against Minority Women’ Action Aid (web) (2011) ‘Supporting women affected by conflict to access justice’ Intercontinental Cry (web) (2011) ‘Indigenous and Minority Women Deliberately Targeted For Rape And Other Violence’ UNFPA (web) (2011) ‘Assisting in Emergencies: Rebuilding Communities and Keeping the Peace‘ Uppsala Conflict Data Program (web) (2011). ‘UCDP Conflict Encyclopedia: China’
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