UK WILPF at:

62ND ANNUAL UNITED NATIONS DEPARTMENT OF
PUBLIC INFORMATION (DPI) / NGO CONFERENCE IN MEXICO

by Marie-Claire Faray-Kele
London WILPF

The UK Section of WILPF was represented at DPI/NGO Conference held from 9-11 September 2009, in Mexico, under the banner “For Peace and Development: Disarm Now!”  This is the main NGO event of the year at the United Nations. Over 1,300 representatives from over 340 NGOs and experts from 70 countries took part in the 3-day gathering in Mexico City. The Conference was opened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Under-Secretary, Kiyo Akasaka; Along with the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, Patricia Espinoza Cantellano and two Nobel Peace Prize laureates: Jody Williams and Miguel Marin Bosch.

Ban Ki-moon, said in his opening remarks: “The world is over-armed and peace is under-funded”.  He pointed out that global military spending is well over $1 trillion and rising every day and that more weapons continue to be produced and are flooding the markets around the world. “They are destabilizing societies. They feed the flames of civil wars and terror”, he stated. Calling on the world to rid itself of nuclear weapons, Ban Ki-moon exhorted civil society groups in particular to continue to speak out against the scourge.

Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Laureate and founder of the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines gave an inspirational speech calling on the resilience and perseverance of NGOs to continue their Campaign on Disarmament exhorting them to work more cohesively in researching and sharing information. She called on NGOs in the US to persuade President Obama to translate his words in to action and urged UK-based NGOs to hold the UK Government to account on their commitment to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by not renewing the Trident nuclear weapons system.

The Conference was organised in intense and highly interesting roundtables and break-out sessions in the morning and then various workshops in the afternoon and evenings, with all presentations and interventions simultaneously translated into Spanish and English.  There was a strong presence of Latin American and North American delegates, with a moderate attendance from Europe and a very low representation from Asia and Africa.   NGO representatives from developed countries put a very strong emphasis on nuclear disarmament, calling on all permanent members of the UN Security Council to lead by example and cooperate on disarmament at the NPT Review Conference in 2010. Member states were called upon to promptly initiate steps to remove obstacles to the elimination of nuclear weapons by 2015.   It was acknowledged that a strong political will to “Disarm Now” is required in order to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and concurrently prevent their spread and proliferation as has happened in India, Pakistan and Israel.   The UK was heavily criticised in many sessions - particularly with regards to the Trident renewal programme. The double standards of the UK Government were highlighted by the fact that it volunteered to co-ordinate nuclear disarmament on the one hand while at the same time planning to renew (and upgrade) the Trident nuclear submarine system on the other – as well as its ongoing contribution to the arms trade.

A strong message was sent by Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor of Hiroshima, who challenged all NPT diplomats to prepare for a decisive decade of nuclear disarmament. He also called on citizens of the world to strengthen their campaigns against their governments and the Mayors of their cities, with new and factual information and to promote the decade (2010-2020) as the decade of disarmament. This is part of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol and Mayors for Peace Campaign.  London is one of the cities that had agreed to be part of the Mayors for Peace world-wide initiative. We in UK WILPF need to ensure that London Mayor, Boris Johnson, keeps to the commitment and programme led by the previous Mayor Ken Livingston. Information about the Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign can be found at: www.2020visioncampaign.org

Whilst agreeing with all calls for total nuclear disarmament, representatives from Developing Countries in Latin America and Africa put a much stronger call for small arms and other conventional disarmament. They emphasised the need for a strong and effective Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to regulate the global international trade in conventional arms, to implement the UN Firearms Protocol and the UN Programme of Action (PoA) on small arms and to strengthen the UN Register of Conventional Arms.

Although the Conference was extremely interesting and empowering in many ways, there was still evidence of ‘old habits’ such as gender inequality, amongst others, that will continue to make the disarmament campaign’s task very difficult, particularly as there also seemed to be a lack of political will for reform within the UN, NGOs and participating states.   It was regrettable to note that women were under-represented amongst the speakers, particularly at the closing ceremony in which five men, including Under-Secretary Kiyo Akasaka and the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Sergio Duarte, were the only speakers addressing the 1,300 delegates. Whilst most of these men in their speeches called on gender equality and women’s representation at decision-making tables, the lack of women on the panel clearly demonstrated the hypocrisy of their words and was perceived as symbolic – as their words obviously were not being translated into action.
Even though under-represented in decision-making at the UN and in their own country’s parliaments, women from around the world had demonstrated their determination by gathering at this Conference. Several leading women’s organisations, including WILPF, sponsored workshops highlighting the role of women in arms control and disarmament in an era of global financial crisis.  Women challenged patriarchy and linked militarism, masculinity and power.   Trafficking of women and girls was also presented as a threat to global development and security in the 21st century.  Global security should not be about weapons or military power; development and security should have a human face.  Without the equal distribution of the basic resources required for human survival and development, an environment of insecurity, fear and violence will be perpetuated.

The IANSA Women’s Network organised a workshop on Gun Violence – Women Speak Out and discussed how women bear the brunt of the arms trade – from sexual violence as a weapon of war in countries in conflict, to armed domestic violence in countries at peace. During that workshop, I represented UK WILPF and African women, amongst other speakers from Latin America and Europe, to describe the impact of armed violence on the lives of women and made comparisons with conflict zones such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).   As usual, these workshops attracted more female than male delegates. Nevertheless, it was great to be supported by US WILPF members who attended the IANSA workshop at which I spoke. It was an interactive session with a question-time style that illustrated similar patterns showing how small arms facilitate violence against women in every country of the world. No country is immune.

I was really moved by the similarities in terms of sexual violence and the film “Femicide”. The Chiapas women in Mexico are living the same violence as women in the DRC. It was incredibly sad to see this film.  

The Conference ended with an NGOs Declaration which is available on line at:
www.un.org/wcm/webdav/site/ngoconference/shared/documents/NGO_Declaration_EN.pdf. (or from the UK WILPF office).    In the Declaration, women call for the harmonisation of laws on domestic violence with laws for the prevention of violence committed with small arms; on the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, (and in particular to ensure representation of women at all levels of decision-making on conflict prevention, management and resolution) and Security Council Resolution 1820 to prevent sexual violence in armed conflict.