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February 24, 2006

Dyan Mazurana of the Feinstein International Famine Center Talks About Women Leaders in Armed Opposition Groups at The Fletcher School

How are international humanitarian and human rights laws being implemented within the context of armed opposition groups, particularly among their female leaders and members?

This was the core issue discussed by Dr. Dyan Mazurana, Director of the Gender, Youth and Community Program at the Feinstein International Famine Center, during a forum sponsored by Boston Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights on February 22 at The Fletcher School. The forum, entitled “Women Leaders in Armed Opposition Groups on War, Protection and Obligations under International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law”, was attended by Fletcher students with varied fields of interest, including international security, human security, development and post-conflict reconstruction.

Mazurana is the author of “Women, Peace and Security: Study of the United Nations Secretary-General as Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1325 (United Nations 2002)” and has worked with governments, UN agencies, human rights and child protection organizations on improving efforts that assist women and girls associated with fighting forces.

Mazurana, who also teaches the course “Gender, Culture and Conflict in Humanitarian Complex Emergencies” at Fletcher, drew from her discussions with 32 women leaders from various armed opposition groups from all over the world, including Indonesia, Burundi, Kurdistan, Iraq, Sudan, Turkey and the Philippines.

According to Mazurana, the primary reason why these women joined armed groups was the state’s failure to protect them from the physical or sexual violence almost all of them had suffered in the hands of state actors, who are usually members of the military forces. In Aceh, for instance, Mazurana cites that roughly eighty per cent of the female members of the armed militia have, at some point in their lives, been violated by members of the Indonesian military forces.

“Survival was the primary reason why these women joined the armed opposition groups. Except for one who was “born” into the system—her parents have long been fighting the government—hardly anyone joined for ideological reasons,” she said. Additionally, she mentionedthat there have been cases where the women joined the groups because of the need to escape from fixed marriages or abusive relationships.

Once the women join the armed opposition groups, Mazurana said that they are expected to become “full fighters” against the government. “They are made to perform the same tasks as the men,” she said.

However, Mazurana said that while the armed opposition groups initially served as refuge for these women, they are actually afforded very little security within their systems.

“They are very susceptible to sexual abuse by the men within the groups. The typical coping strategy is to choose a man right away and “pair” up with him so that the other men in the group would not touch them. Some are also turning to drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism,” she said.

Mazurana, who was written materials that are widely used in the docmentation human rights abuses against women and girls during conflict and post-conflict reconstruction periods, said that the main challenge in implementing international humanitarian and human rights laws within the armed opposition groups is the fact that most of their members were unfamiliar with them.

“In the discussions with the women, we wanted to see if they can serve as a good entry point in working with the groups in promoting these laws,” she said, stressing that before this can be done, there is a need to implement more systematic reporting mechanisms within the groups themselves of violations of these laws.

Stella Ngumuta, a second-year MALD student, inquired whether there are any incentives for the women to join disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs being initiated by governments or international organizations.

Mazurana replied that while disarmament programs have been quite successful, those pertaining to reintegration have encountered difficulties.

“For some women, it is seen as defeat. They ask ‘Reintegration into what?’, and resist being reintegrated back into the society where they had previously encountered human rights violations,” she said.

In closing, Mazurana said that international organizations, like the International Committee of the Red Cross, are looking into the creation of programs that are parallel to DDR which can address the specific needs of these women and girls.

“Since it’s very difficult for them to get into or to accept the present system, there is a need to develop parallel or similar mechanisms to the DDR,” she said.

By Sharon R. Rivera, MALD '07

Posted by jessica at February 24, 2006 10:26 AM