Palestine Civil Society Builds Awareness on 1325, Garners Support for its Implementation

Palestine ( May 2014) - Karama partners in Palestine, including TAM (Women Media Development), MIFTAH, and the Palestinian Working Women’s Society for Development (PWWSD), held four workshops from April to May 2014 to address national implementation of UN SCR 1325 and priority issues for women, peace, and security. The action plan, implemented in partnership with Karama, followed up on the launch of the Arab Regional Network on Women, Peace, and Security and on priorities identified at an April 2014 regional seminar on gender in conflict held in Amman, Jordan.

Following up on strategies identified in discussion with civil society, the League of Arab States, the European Union, the UNDP, and others at the regional seminar in Amman, Karama’s Palestinian partners organized workshops in Jericho, Nablus, Hebron, and Ramallah, convening over 200 participants, including women and men local civil society representatives, members of local council, and other political leaders. The workshops broke ground in encouraging national dialogue to influence decision makers, civil society, and the general public to contribute to the implementation of UN SCR 1325 and garnered media coverage from the Palestinian satellite channel and local television and newspaper outlets. Seventy-one grassroots organizations and other representative local authorities of village councils and municipalities gained awareness about UN SCR 1325 and related resolutions, and offered feedback on a draft national action plan addressing these.

The workshops were a first step in defining priorities for action among Palestinians with regard to women, peace, and security and establishing a basis for collaboration and cooperation among different factions of Palestinian society, which will be integral to the successful implementation of UN SCR 1325 within its complicated context.

Participants of the four workshops stressed the following priorities:

• The need for more accountability of the Palestinian Authority to international laws on the protection of women;
• The importance of strengthening women’s role in decision-making processes;
• The need to give women more of an equal opportunity to participate in peace-building and reconciliation processes;
• The importance of continued awareness-building efforts on UN SCR 1325, and of expanding the geographic reach and scope of these efforts;
• The need for increased convening of coordination meetings between women’s organizations, civil society, and political parties to build political will and agree on a national action plan to activate UN SCR 1325.

In going forward, partners note that it is essential to have a collaborative effort in actualizing the 14-year-old resolution, which thus far as not been used effectively to hold the occupation accountable for crimes committed.