Addressing Critical Disarmament Challenges in Europe: ATT and NPT
May 11, 2012 | Berlin, Germany and Vienna, Austria
GAPW’s International Coordinator Katherine Prizeman was honored to participate in two important meetings in Europe related to critical disarmament challenges on the agenda of the international community– the ATT and the NPT, respectively. Katherine was hosted by our colleagues from the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) in Berlin for an experts discussion on the upcoming ATT Diplomatic Conference this July. In addition, last week also saw the conclusion of the first session of the Preparatory Committee (Prep Com) in Vienna for the 2015 Review Conference of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). On 11 May 2012, the FES offered a forum for German Members of Parliament, representatives of government, and civil society experts to discuss the current status of the ATT preparations, the main obstacles to negotiation of a robust Treaty, and the prospects for success in July. The panel featured two members of civil society working actively on the ATT in addition to Katherine– Daniel Mack of Instituto Sou da Paz in Sao Paulo and Robert Lindner of Oxfam Germany. The three panelists addressed the ATT from different perspectives, but all called for a strong Treaty that sets high standards for preventing the illicit trade in conventional weapons and combating the corresponding armed violence and human suffering that goes along with unregulated arms trade and weapons proliferation. The discussion was based on a paper for the FES written by Katherine on the ATT process.
As a parallel development, the NPT Prep Com concluded on 11 May at the UN complex in Vienna with the adoption of a report and Chair’s factual summary as a working paper of the Committee (not a consensus document). Two welcome initiatives from this session of the Prep Com were the 16-country statement on the humanitarian dimension of nuclear disarmament as well as the increase in attention paid to addressing modernization of existing arsenals as a threat to the credibility of the NPT regime. There are still many concerns surrounding the possibility of nuclear disarmament through the full implementation of article VI of the NPT, particularly the continued call by some member states for “creating the conditions” for nuclear disarmament by maintaining “strategic stability” and “undiminished security for all.”
For further analysis on the NPT Prep Com, please see our blog.
For statements, documents, and daily reporting from the NPT Prep Com, please see Reaching Critical Will.
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Gender-Based Explosions: Linkages Between Muslim Masculinities, Jihadist Islam, and Terrorism
May 9, 2012 | United Nations University
GAPW welcomes a recent publication by one of our colleagues, scholar Maleeha Aslam. From the vantage point of policy, it seems rare in these times that a feminist scholar can take on a subject as daunting and diverse as ‘Muslim Masculinities” and treat that subject in such a thorough, generous and sympathetic manner. Maleeha Aslam’s “Gender-based Explosions” combines a detailed understanding of the motivations that lead men to join terrorist movements, the Islamic texts that are so often used to justify terrorist violence, and the feminist theory that has yet to find an appropriate foothold in much of the Muslim world.. But it is her sensitive and probing interviews with Muslim men in Pakistan that separates this book from others. Aslam investigates the diverse ‘performaties’ of Muslim men, the ‘honor’ codes that drive some to commit grave violence, and the means - more and less legitimate - by which men seek to justify violent response based on external threats to their cultures, families and communities. Her trusting engagement with Pakistani men both complicates stereotypes about who these men are and what actually motivates their action in the world, and portraits humane and nuanced faces to those who see ‘counter-terrorism’ as merely a strategy to pacify and/or nullify ‘the other.’ While interrogating her own theoretical categories, Aslam reminds readers that a focus on how masculinities are constructed in the Muslim world can give us important clues on how to reach potential terrorists with new models for the Muslim man; but she also reminds us of the ways in which the policies of the non-Muslim world must dramatically shift to reduce incentives to violence among the men whose families and neighborhoods seem forever under siege.
For more information on the publication, including how to secure a copy, please click here.
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Operationalizing the Responsibility to Protect: A Contribution to the Third Pillar Approach
April 26, 2012 | Brussels, Belgium
As this summer’s GA debate on the ‘Third Pillar’ of the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) norm approaches, GAPW has partnered with Madariaga College of Europe Foundation, the Global Governance Institute and the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect on a series of Brussels-based events designed to assess UN coercive response to the threat of mass atrocities and suggest new tools and capacities to make those responses more fair, measured and grounded in prevention rather than intervention. The core event on April 26 was a day long review of the “challenges of the Third Pillar approach.” Other events focused on the linkages between illicit small arms and the threat of mass atrocities, on an assessment of the Security Council resolutions on Libya, and on the International Criminal Court’s response to gender-based violence.
We were especially pleased to welcome the active participation of the UN Joint Office on the Prevention of Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect. Equally gratifying was the presence of so many active and engaged young scholars on RtoP, a number of whom had previously spent significant time in our office. The presence of so many talented young intellectuals bodes well for the expansion of a movement that is competent, sensitive and passionate.
One of the major outcomes from the four workshops was the release of an ‘E Book,’ Operationalizing the Responsibility to Protect: A Contribution to the Third Pillar Approach. The book will eventually be issued in hard copy and features essays by GAPW’s Melina Lito and Robert Zuber. But the major outcome was new partnership potential especially with Daniel Fiott of Madariaga College of Europe Foundation and Joachim Koops of the Global Governance Institute. Their intelligent perseverance made the entire week both possible and most fruitful.
For access to the ‘E Book,’ click here.
For the RtoP Policy Brief that guided the week of events, click here.
For the ‘Third Pillar’ Workshop Program, click here.
For the Disarmament Workshop Program, click here.
For the program from the “International Criminal Court’s Second Decade: Gender Rights” event, please click here.
For the program from the “Responsibility to Protect, Responsibility to Rebuild: Lessons from Libya” event, please click here.
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2012 Disarmament Commission Closes Without Consensus for 13th Year
April 20, 2012 | UN Headquarters, New York, NY
Chair Ambassador Enrique Roman-Morey with the Secretary-General
The three-week session of the 2012 Disarmament Commission (UNDC) came to a close on Friday, 20 April marking the 13th straight year without adoption of any consensus recommendations or guidelines and continuing an alarming trend of sub-standard performance in the UN disarmament machinery. The UNDC is continuously hailed as the only deliberative body for disarmament matters as well as one that enjoys universal membership. It is meant to serve as a policy-making body insofar as member states are expected to formulate and present consensus recommendations to negotiating forums (i.e. the Conference on Disarmament) on those consensus items which should then become subject to direct negotiations and, eventually, the drafting of international legal instruments. The UNDC is a body that is supposed to serve as an essential part of the multilateral disarmament machinery contributing to the overall goal of general and complete disarmament. The UNDC has not, however, served this function in more than a decade. The Chair, Ambassador Enrique Roman-Morey of Peru, noted in his concluding remarks that diplomats will now have to go back to their usual responsibilities with “a sense of having almost accomplished” their duty to formulate consensus recommendations, guidelines, and proposals. It is indeed frustrating and disappointing for all parties, including member states and civil society.
For final commentary from Katherine Prizeman, please click here.
For final commentary from Dr. Robert Zuber, please click here.
For further information and monitoring from the 2012 UNDC, please see Reaching Critical Will.
For the official UN Press Release, please click here.
On Thursday, 19 April, the Security Council, under the presidency of the United States, held a briefing on nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament, and security. A Presidential Statement was adopted, but with little emphasis on disarmament and much more on non-proliferation and security.
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Preparatory Committee for the Second Review Conference on Small Arms Comes to a Close
March 19-23, 2012 | New York, NY
For five days, member states gathered for the Preparatory Committee for the second Review Conference for the Programme of Action on small arms (PoA) to set the agenda, adopt rules of procedure, and conduct an exchange of views on possible substantive elements to be discussed in August at the Review Conference. The Prep Com did achieve its procedural goals of adopting an agenda and rules of procedure as well as unanimously endorsing Ambassador U. Joy Ogwu of Nigeria as Chair and President of the upcoming Rev Con. The August Rev Con will examine progress made in the implementation of the PoA determining areas in which member states still require support and other forms of assistance to fully implement provisions to combat the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons (SALWs). The small arms review process is broken down into 6-year periods of Biennial Meetings of States (BMS), Review Conferences, and potential technical Meetings of Governmental Experts (MGE) as was held in May 2011. The review process seeks to enhance, facilitate, and encourage full implementation of the PoA framework, which was universally adopted in 2000, that outlines national, regional, and international measures for combating illicit trade in SALWs as well as diversion of legal arms into the black market. The Rev Con will also seek ways of strengthening and enhancing the separately adopted International Tracing Instrument (ITI).
With regards to substance, there was much debate over the Chair’s summary of ‘Elements for the Second Review Conference’ and its status as a document for the Rev Con. Ultimately, member states agreed to annex the summary to the Final Report of the Prep Com, with the provision that it would represent only a summary of views exchanged written under the sole responsibility of the Chair without prejudices to the views of member states or the right to raise any other issue outside of the paper at the upcoming Rev Con. A key discussion represented in this debate over the status of the Chair’s summary was the question of ’strengthening’ versus ‘enhancing.’ Some member states were concerned that by focusing on ‘enhancing’ the PoA, the instrument would ‘overstep’ its bounds and become a different type of document– due to either a change in legal status or an expansion of its scope to include additional elements such as ammunition.
Along with Reaching Critical Will, Global Action produced a daily monitor of reporting and analysis on the Prep Com. All editions of the Small Arms Monitor can be found here. Additional documentation from the Prep Com can also be located on the RCW website.
For further final commentary on the Prep Com from Robert Zuber, please click here.
For final commentary on the Prep Com from Katherine Prizeman, please click here.
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Celebrating CSW 56: Empowering Rural Women
March 7, 2012 | New York, NY
For the past two weeks, Global Action has been closely following the official UN sessions as well as the parallel events taking place at the 56th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), focused this year on the theme of ‘Empowerment of Rural Women.’ States have addressed rural women’s participation in agriculture and education, among many other sectors, and how technology can contribute to their participation in all aspects of society. As the sessions came to an end, GAPW and our partners at Soka Gakkai International (SGI) held an evening reception reflecting on some of these discussions focusing especially on priorities directed towards after the close of CSW.
The event featured Ms. Selamawit Tesfaye, Advocacy Officer and Consultant for the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), and Global Action’s Director Robert Zuber. Ms. Tesfaye focused her comments on the priority needs of rural women, while Dr. Zuber highlighted the link between women’s participation and overall societal wellbeing as well as the gaps that remain in ensuring a suitable security sector for women to adequately participate.
The takeaways from the event, however, were not limited only to priorities for women’s empowerment as there was also a roundtable of comments from the audience that yielded recommendations on the structure of the CSW system itself for future sessions. Lack of accessibility was one of the most important points of the night- accessibility for those trying to make it to New York in the context of visas and immigration and also for those attempting to obtain UN passes and access to meetings. Nonetheless, the issue of accessibility also includes giving voices to diverse women within the CSW session itself by being part of a system that is designed to target their needs. In the months to come, as the next year’s theme on ‘Elimination and Prevention of All Forms of Violence Against Women and Girls’ takes shape from the election of the Chair to the formation of the agenda, more needs to be done to ensure that the CSW offers the appropriate avenues to ensure that diverse women’s voices are heard in addressing needs and challenges on the domestic and regional level.
For Ms. Tesfaye’s comments, please click here.
For Dr. Zuber’s comments, please click here.
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New Publication from GAPW and the FES: “From Preparations to Negotiations for an Arms Treaty”
March 8, 2012 | New York, NY
Recently published in the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) ‘International Policy Analysis’ series, “From Preparations to Negotiations for an Arms Trade Treaty” is a policy analysis paper detailing the various facets of the evolving process of the ATT from its inception in the original General Assembly resolution from 2006 through the upcoming July 2012 UN negotiating conference.
Global Action’s International Coordinator, Katherine Prizeman, lays forth the primary issue areas to be negotiated and the main summary positions of the regional blocs and main actors as well as the political context within which the treaty will have to be negotiated this summer. Perhaps most importantly, the author offers a series of recommendations to be considered that will provide for the best chances of formal adoption of an effective and robust ATT in the long term.
For full access to the paper, please click here.
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Assessing RtoP in Caracas with WFUNA
February 29, 2012 | Caracas, Venezuela
We have long contended that the task for diplomats and those groups seeking to partner effectively with them is to invest considerable energies listening to and exploring remedies for state concerns regarding a wide range of sometimes controversial security issues.
In the case of the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) norm the tendency for advocates is to divide states into those who support the norm and those who are opposed. It seems to us more prudent to accept that much of the support for and criticism of the RtoP norm is relative. Some governments see the norm as inspirational for a wide ranging application of UN and other international resources to address the threat of mass atrocities. Others see the UN system as significantly flawed, run primarily by large states that refuse to apply the necessary levels of assessment and transparency to help build confidence in the wisdom and efficacy of their decisions.
Recently, Global Action was pleased once again to join the World Federation of UN Associations (WFUNA) in their efforts to engage local UN Associations and civil society on RtoP while discussing core objections of some of the more wary governments on RtoP. This time, the workshop was in Caracas and attracted an inquisitive and largely enthusiastic group of 60 NGOs, journalists and government officials who seemed to find the norm compelling despite the Venezuelan government’s largely critical (though evolving) reaction to RtoP. The workshop was led by a useful blend of local and international resource persons who helped participants both understand the norm and explore local options for response. As with other WFUNA events, including in Kenya where we were also privileged to participate, an important thematic contribution is tying protection of civilians and prevention of atrocity crimes to the distinguished legacy of Dag Hammarksjold, former UN Secretary General and a pivotal figure in the UN’s ongoing struggle to build capacity sufficient to meet the diverse and growing expectations that global citizens have of UN agencies.
For a full report on the event as well as Dr. Zuber’s remarks from the workshop, please click here.
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Women as Solutions to and Victims of the Threat of Mass Atrocities
February 21, 2012 | New York, NY
On February 21, a group of 35 scholars and activists gathered at the UN for a GAPW-sponsored event on Integrating Gender Perspectives into the Third Pillar of the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP). The event featured Naomi Kikoler, Director of Policy and Advocacy for the Global Center on the Responsibility to Protect and Maria Butler, Director of the PeaceWomen Project of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. We were also joined by two extraordinary Libyan women who spoke eloquently about the time of suffering in their country and offered insights into evolving roles of women in Libya and why the UN authorized response in their country was needed.
Under the able guidance of Melina Lito and with the cooperation of many women leaders in peace and security at the United Nations, we have prepared a draft Background Concept Note on gender and RtoP that will be used at workshops in Caracas, Brussels, Beirut and other settings where policymakers are helping us prepare delegations for this summer’s General Assembly debate on the “Third Pillar’ of RtoP. The hope is that the GA debate will spark more lively interest in the UN’s preventive and reactive toolkit on RtoP. We also hope that the debate will motivate more intense discussion of how the skills and capacities of women can be made fully available to prevent deadly conflict, protect civilians in immanent danger of mass atrocity crimes, and heal the wounds of violence.
The same week also saw a Security Council open debate on conflict-related sexual violence featuring briefings from Special Representative to the Secretary-General on the issue, Ms. Margot Wallstrom. Also addressing the Council was one of the extraordinary Libyan activists, Ms. Amina Megheirbi, representing the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security. Ms. Wallstrom classified the issue of conflict-related sexual violence as not a women’s issue, but a security issue with much wider peace and security implications than particular instances of rape. This point is particularly important for Global Action as we strive to link such issues to other components of the broader human security agenda. Not only can rape serve as a precursor to conflict, a diagnostic of pre-conflict conditions, and a symptom of impunity, it is also evidence of a weak and insufficient security sector. As is often said by proponents of the women, peace and security agenda, there is no security without women’s security and the aim is not only to protect women from violence, but to also encourage their active participation in political and economic life. A robust sector sector will indubitably support such participation as well as enhance protection mechanisms needed to eliminate such sexual violence in and out of conflict.
For access to the draft Concept Note on gender and R2P, click here.
For a blog post with further analysis on the open debate, please click here.
For access to SRSG Wallstrom’s statement to the Security Council, please click here.
For the NGOWG statement to the Council, please click here.
For the Presidential Statement from the debate, please click here.
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Latin America and Disarmament Culture
February 21, 2012 | Quito Ecuador, Mexico City, Mexico
As we note often, this is a particularly challenging and interesting time for disarmament policy advocates. The UN Programme of Action on Small Arms is now in its tenth year, and we are co-producing events with governments in capital and at the UN to help stimulate thoughtful activity towards ending the threat of illicit small arms. The Arms Trade Treaty process is nearing the beginning of formal negotiations and we are part of the monitoring team that helps diplomats make the most informed and far-sighted decisions. Later this year, the NPT review will take up the challenge of the Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone, a process which we also have opportunity to impact through monitoring and strategic conversations with officials of existing zones.
For Global Action, this cycle began in early December with a remarkable event hosted by the Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs of Ecuador with the cooperation of the UN Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLiREC) in Lima and the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs in New York. More recently in February we were invited to participate in a major celebratory and assessment event in Mexico City hosted by El Organismo para la Proscripción de las Armas Nucleares en la América Latina y el Caribe (OPANAL).
The next day, a workshop was held for Mexican NGOs on ‘new disarmament priorities,’ hosted by Lucatello Simone of the Mora Institute in Mexico City and co-organized by Hector Guerra of IANSA and Katherine Prizeman of GAPW. The seminar not only represented the first efforts on disarmament by the esteemed Mora Institute, but also represented the first time that GAPW has been able to test some of the ideas contained in a volume that we are editing for the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs - including the relationship of disarmament education to gender, development and the prevention of mass atrocities.
For a full report on disarmament activities in Latin America, please click here.
For the Introduction to the forthcoming Quito report, click here.
For the Quito program, click here.
For the OPANAL anniversary celebration and seminar program, click here.
For the Mora Institute program, click here.
For information on the recently concluded Arms Trade Treaty Prep Com, including commentary by Katherine Prizeman and Robert Zuber, click here.
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