This year's CSW (1-12 March 2010) reviewed the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action and the outcome of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly. IANSA women linked small arms control with the Beijing Platform of Action and the Beijing Declaration through the following cross-cutting themes: violence against Women; women and armed conflict; women in power and decision-making; and the human rights of women.
Advocacy and Campaigns
Members of the IANSA Women’s Network work are actively engaged in disarmament initiatives; ending gun violence in the home; awareness-raising about the problems of small arms availability and misuse; monitoring and evaluation of weapons disposal programmes, and in formulating long-term strategies to combat the global gun crisis.
A seminar on UN SCR 1325 and the role of women in peacebuilding was held in Madrid (Spain) on 2 February 2010. Over 200 people attended the event, which explored the main achievements and challenges facing the implementation of the Resolution. IANSA Women’s Network Coordinator, Sarah Masters, gave a presentation about the role of women in disarmament and security issues.
IANSA women participated in a workshop on conflict prevention, mediation and peacebuilding for women leaders from member states of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) on 12 January 2010 in Tanzania.
IANSA women from Africa participated in the first ever women only Training Institute on women and small arms control between 2-4 December 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
In October 2009, IANSA women Vanessa Farr and Sarah Masters were invited by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to talk to member states at the Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC) in Vienna, Austria. Both women spoke at the formal session of the OSCE FSC Security Dialogue and also at a roundtable about the importance of gender in disarmament, in particular SALW control and the links between arms control and UNSCR 1325.
During October 2009 members of the IANSA Women's Network participated in the UN General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament to promote support for women's role in arms control, and arms trade regulation through a strong and effective Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). We held an event to launch a briefing paper 'Women peace and security: The role of an ATT' by Dr Mirjana Dokmanovic, an international lawyer and active IANSA woman from Serbia.
During the UN Department of Public Information (DPI/NGO) Conference in Mexico City from 9-11 September 2009, 340 organisations from 55 countries endorsed the Arms Trade Treaty, stronger gun control and disarming domestic violence. In the workshop 'Gun Violence – Women Speak Out' on 10 September, IANSA women discussed how women bear the brunt of the arms trade from sexual violence as a weapon of war, to armed domestic violence in countries at peace.
As part of the NGO Working Group (NGO WG) on Women, Peace and Security, IANSA has contributed to and signed onto, an open letter to Ambassadors regarding the upcoming UN Security Council Open Debate on 1820 on 6 August 2009.
The 53rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women was held at the United Nations headquarters in New York from 2-13 March 2009. The priority theme was ‘The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including care giving in the context of HIV/AIDS’.
From 24-25 September 2008 IANSA women including Leymah Gbowee, Women, Peace and Security Network Africa – WIPSEN-Africa; Binalakshmi Nepram of the Manipuri Women Gun Survivors Network, and Control Arms Foundation India; and Sarah Masters, WN Coordinator; along with allies from UNIFEM and UNINSTRAW, participated in the Women PeaceMakers Conference ‘Crafting Human Security in an Insecure World’ at the Joan B Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, San Diego, USA.