Opening the doors for inclusiveness
Community Capacity Building and Advocacy on Peace, Security and Women’s Development using UNSCR 1325 (Women and Peace and Security) as a tool from 2012-2014: Community groups drawn from the local regions who had influence over their respective communities including professionals from all walks of life, community and religious and mosque leaders, law enforcement officers, civil society members, Quazi court judges, mediation board members marriage registrars and media personnel were provided with training and awareness Charters such as The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR 1325) which links the special needs of the women and girl-child in conflict and disaster situations, to get their support to advocate for the implementation of the above said resolutions. The programmes included:
Specific modules based on Islamic fundamental principles developed to bring out the sensitization and concept of UNSCR 1325 with the support of a lawyer/Quazi Judge and a Religious scholar together. 15 workshops were held in Puttalam, Ampara and Batticaloa districts to share the module with religious authorities
In-depth training and continuous workshops on UNSCR 1325 to the community and religious leaders created a broader and positive outlook for them to take forward their community activities for the benefit of both men, women and children with a change in attitudes especially in the conventional village of Eravur. The media group worked within the community group on advocacy for UNSCR 1325
Advocacy for women’s representation in local institutions, some outcomes of these programmes included recommendations and advocacy for Mediation board membership of women be increased from 5- 15 members. Inclusion of women in the mosque committee’s hearing when the disputes of the community are brought to the mosque and leaders, utilizing the UNSCR 1325 concepts in their sermons as a tool helped to promote and protect women’s and child right.
Local women’s voices are heard, women are now motivated to make their voices heard at policymaking level and into decision making at the domestic and community level, be able to address unique challenges in crisis and conflict affected situations. Internal disputes of the community were brought to the mosque, be it domestic violence, land disputes or any other opening spaces for discussion.
Pro- active/ initiatives by Community leaders
The mediation board members, vigilant committee members are utilizing the UNSCR 1325 as a tool to promote and advocate for the welfare of women and girl-child. They have achieved some noteworthy successes.
The Kattankudy mediation board stated that they were attempting to increase the number of women members. The mediation and vigilant committees conducted two seminars for women and they were sponsored by the Mosque federation of Kattankudy and Millath community centre. The themes of the seminar were ‘Problems faced by women during pregnancy’ and ‘Women’s participation in mediation’.
Gender unit institutionalized at the National College of Education.
Two course participant lecturers from the National College of Education understood the concept and utilized it as a tool to protect the rights of the teacher trainees and promote their participation at the local level in the social and public life and were involved in MWRAF`s inter and intra-faith programmes which motivated them to request MWRAF`s support in institutionalizing a gender unit at the National College of Education at Addalachenai.
Quazi judges – equipped to act in fairness
The Quazi judges groups from the beginning to the final stage of the awareness and advocacy programme were very cordial and supportive. Some of them followed the diploma course conducted by the Centre for the Study of Human Rights (CSHR), and utilized the concepts of UNSCR 1325 resolution on protection, recovery, and reconciliation in the Quazi Court judgments. The comprehensive knowledge acquired on gender integration was incorporated in para legal counselling and Quazi Court judgments and they advocate for Muslim Personal Law reforms.
Changing the orthodox understanding of mosque authorities
The Friday sermons are regularized and systemized to counter the challenges of the community issues.. Most cases, disputes and even the conflict mitigation efforts by the mosque committees were quite conflicting to the women and children and not neutral. The Friday sermons were adhoc and the deliverance was about trivialities which did not touch on subject matters such as democracy, equal justice for women and children, human rights, etc
The Media group conducted a few writing workshops on positive and responsible reporting on VAW, taking into account a person’s safety and security.
Transitional Justice, Conflict transformation, Right to Information and Human Rights
Community and religious leaders as well as representatives from Government agencies were trained as trainers on Transitional Justice, Conflict transformation, Right to Information and Human Rights. Programmes targeting border villages were conducted to identify community responses for reconciliation related issues. Joint community level initiatives including in the border villages were carried out to promote pluralism and co-existence through cultural events such as street dramas, art competitions were conducted and brought about a better understanding between the communities. Ethics education to foster social cohesion, mutual understanding and value building education was promoted in schools and through sensitive kuthba (Friday Jummah prayer) sermons in the mosques and in Madarasa education curriculum which were reorganized and regularized. Many Peace building discourses that were supported by Qur’anic edicts, which always has been an important component of the Islamic encounter with the “other” were discussed and disseminated. Hence interfaith dialogue has been continuing with a spirit of genuine and respectful exchange to bring social attitudinal changes.
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