Women and Conflict

Sexual Violence in Conflict: Ensuring accountability

Recently, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague announced the UK was sending a team of experts to gather evidence on the use of rape and other forms of sexualised violence in the Syrian conflict. As media reports of the announcement tended to focus more on Angelina Jolie’s support for the move, the true significance of this has been lost somewhat.

Conflict Rape and Prosecutions

 

In international law, rape is well established as a weapon of war and genocide. Sexualised violence is used in conflict to humiliate, punish and subjugate, to destroy the social cohesion of communities and even as a form of ethnic cleansing, through forced pregnancies. When the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established in 1993, the inclusion of rape when prosecuting cases of crimes against humanity was considered revolutionary.

The prosecutions at the ICTY - and also at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), set a major precedent in defining rape as an act of torture, a war crime, a crime against humanity and a tool of genocide.

However, further progress in terms of prosecution has been slow and disappointing. The number of prosecutions for such crimes does not come close to matching the thousands of women, men and children raped in both conflicts. An estimated 50,000 women were raped in Bosnia yet only 30 men have so far been held accountable.

Why is this?

 

Similar to the prosecution of rape in domestic courts, the issue usually lies with evidence or lack thereof. While the world is well aware of Bosnia's notorious 'rape camps', media reports do not stand up in international law. Cold hard facts and medical or documentary evidence are essential. As Elisabeth Neuffer notes in 'The Key to my Neighbour’s House', her excellent evaluation of the quest for justice in Bosnia and Rwanda, “Rape during war, however, presented tricky questions of proof. Except in the case of mutilation, it was unlikely that there was physical evidence to back up rape allegations in a trial,”

Breaking Ground

 

Before the ICTY, the only international criminal category in which rape was explicitly described was as a crime against humanity. This made it even more difficult to prosecute, as to qualify as a crime against humanity, it was necessary to demonstrate that the rapes were part of a systematic or widespread attack. There was much debate over whether or not rape can, in some cases, be used as a tool of genocide. In 1995 however the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in a case brought against Radovan Karadzic by Bosnian refugees had ruled that rape could be an act of genocide.

With this legal precedent set, the ICTY was able to include charges of sexual violence in the case against former Bosnia Serb leader, Dusko Tadic. It was the first international war crimes trial to do so. At the ICTR, the Akayesu trial was also a landmark case as it recognised that rape can constitute genocide under certain conditions.

When the International Criminal Court was established, the recognition its statutes gave to the crime of rape and other forms of sexual violence validated the important legal precedents set by the two ad-hoc international tribunals. Its trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba, former vice-president in the DRC, on charges of war crimes relating to the Central African Republic has been praised for placing rape and sexual violence at the centre of the charges. Despite this however, some women’s rights activists have expressed reservations about the real impact of this, pointing out that 40% of the charges of sexual violence were dropped before the trials commencement as judges argued they were ‘redundant’. 

The UK and Syria

 

As vital as legal precedents are, real commitment by the International Community in terms of gathering evidence and prosecuting such crimes are just as important. Which is why the deployment of UK backed team of 70 people, including doctors, lawyers and forensic experts, to the Syrian region is so important. If the horrifying reports of brutal and widespread instances of sexualised violence can be verified, hopefully they can be stopped to some extent and later prosecuted.
It is difficult to be optimistic when one considers how widespread rape as a tool of conflict is across the world, showing no signs of abatement in places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, just a few months ago, many questioned William Hague’s actual commitment to halting sexual violence in conflict, given the International Community’s track record. But we have now seen real and concrete action. Although there is much more needed to be done, it is a huge step forward in terms of stopping and deterring sexual violence in conflict.

This piece originally appeared here in December 2012 

 

History repeats itself in Sudan

Nadia Teia Kafi is 14. Earlier this year, her village, Ates, in the southern Sudanese province of South Kordofan, was attacked by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). When the village’s inhabitants ran for shelter in the mountain caves, the SAF reportedly bombed them with gas to drive them out into the open. They abducted dozens of women and children, including Teia Kafi. Village residents who managed to escape across the border to South Sudan recounted to Ru’ya Association, a local NGO from South Kordofan, that Teia Kafi was one of three teenage girls who were taken to a military camp and raped brutally and repeatedly by five or six soldiers at a time.

Jalila Khamis Koko, 43, is an elementary school teacher from South Kordofan. When the war broke out, she turned her home in Khartoum into an unofficial refuge for internally displaced persons. According to activists in Khartoum, about two-dozen people had sought shelter in the house Khamis Koko shares with her husband and family. In June 2011, when the conflict in South Kordofan had initially re-erupted—following the calm from Sudan’s 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement—Khamis Koko posted a video on YouTube criticizing the brutal methods used by Sudanese President Omar-Al Bashir against the Nuba people of South Kordofan. In March 2012, the notorious National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) arrested her. Sentenced to death on charges of treason, she remains on death row. The sentence could be carried out at any time.

Jalila Khamis Koko and Nadia Teia Kafi are just two of the thousands of victims of Sudan’s war against the people of South Kordofan, which has seen starvation used as a method of warfare, the bombing of civilian targets, and the employment of rape as a weapon. Especially startling is how sexualized violence in South Kordofan mirrors the destruction we’ve already seen in Darfur.

The Nuba people of South Kordofan identify more closely, ethnically and culturally, with South Sudan than with Sudan. The area is home to many who supported the movement for the south to secede in July 2011. Promises to hold a referendum on the proposed secession of South Kordofan have, six years later, still not been met, and the area’s people have decided to fight to be allowed to secede and join South Sudan. Sudan, however, is refusing to let the mineral-rich province slip from its grasp.

Sudan has barred all humanitarian and journalistic access to the province. Sketchy reports of conditions in the region—and testimonies like those from the women above—are available because of a few brave humanitarian workers and journalists who have entered illegally. The majority of information we have comes from refugees who have fled across the border to South Sudan. Ru’ya Association surveyed residents of the Yida refugee camp in South Sudan—to which people are fleeing from the fighting in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan—and reported the wide-scale use of sexualized violence by the SAF.

The tactics employed in South Kordofan are brutal. A report by the Enough Project referred to what is happening as “starvation warfare.” Nearly 170,000 refugees have fled into neighboring South Sudan and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that by June 2012 665,000 people were internally displaced. Outside the embattled province, conditions for refugees are so bad that, in August of this year, Médecins Sans Frontières released a statement calling the situation in the Yida refugee camp “appalling,” with at least five children dying of starvation every day.

As shocking as the violence in South Kordofan may be, rape and other forms of sexualized violence have been used as weapons of war and genocide in Sudan for years. When the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir in 2002 on charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Darfur, rape was explicitly defined as a genocidal tool in the indictment summary: “Rape is an integral part of the pattern of destruction that the Government of the Sudan is inflicting upon the target groups in Darfur,” it read.

What’s happening in South Kordofan echoes the horrific example of Darfur. Earlier this year, the International Rescue Committee described how refugees fleeing the region were reporting “alarming levels of sexual violence.” The study by Ru’ya also found that members of the SAF and other militias had subjected women to sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape.
Certainly, the available reports do not match the scale of the mass rapes reported during the conflict in Darfur. But collecting such stories in South Kordofan has been hard. With the continued violence and mass migration of peoples, gathering testimony and verifying reports of sexualized violence in South Kordofan is extremely problematic. The main difficulty lies in gaining access to the region to collect accurate data and evidence.

Regardless, Sudan’s rampant use of sexualized violence—during conflict in Darfur and times of civil unrest in Khartoum—signals that reports of such violence in South Kordofan are likely not exaggerated. This is a regime that has a nauseatingly consistent record of rape and sexualized violence against women in times of war and unrest.

Why do Bashir and his security apparatus continue to use sexualized violence as a method of warfare and to quell internal dissent? Because it is effective in multiple ways. WMC’s Women Under Siege has identified at least four reasons why it has been employed in Darfur; a 2004 Amnesty International investigation into the use of sexualized violence in Darfur found that it is used to humiliate women, their families, and their communities.

To this end, rapes perpetrated by government-sponsored militias are often carried out in public. The effects are devastating. In much of Sudanese society, rape is still a taboo. Any sexual contact outside of marriage, consensual or otherwise, is treated the same under Sudanese law: as zina. Thus, a woman who is raped is often considered to have brought great shame upon her family. Rape can destroy the social fabric of a community, weakening its ability to resist attacking militia such as the SAF.

A recent African Union–sponsored peace agreement between Sudan and South Sudan was lauded by many but failed completely to address the issue of South Kordofan. The high-level panel tasked with leading the negotiations has not pushed the issue of humanitarian access to the area to the front of the agenda, despite the fact that the African Union has the capacity to put pressure on Khartoum to live up to its promise to allow humanitarian access. The safety, security, and lives of the region’s women depend on it.

This piece originally appeared here in November 2012

The Women Human Rights Defenders of South Kordofan 

Earlier this week, the presidents of Sudan and South Sudan, Omar Al-Bashir and Salva Kiir, signed an African Union sponsored agreement which allowed for the peaceful resumption of oil production in South Sudan and the securement of the countries shared border. The agreement was disappointing however, if not surprising, given the lack of agreement on other important issues such as the on-going conflicts in the Sudanese state of South Kordofan which has caused hundreds of civilian deaths and led to the displacement of thousands more.

The most recent conflict in South Kordofan erupted in June 2011. As part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 (CPA), which ended Sudan’s long running civil war and eventually led to the secession of South Sudan in 2011, “popular consultation” processes were due to be held in three contested border provinces to determine whether their residents wished to remain part of Sudan, join an independent South Sudanese state or at the very least allow for some degree of self-governance. These three provinces-Abyei, Blue Nile and South Kordofan- are home to residents who largely identity- culturally, ethnically and politically- with South Sudan. They are also however rich in minerals, oil and natural resources. Sudan refused to cede jurisdiction over the regions.

Fighting broke out in Kadugli, South Kordofan’s capital, in June 2011 after a much delayed local election returned a contested verdict. The conflict escalated into all-out war and violence has spread to the neighbouring province of Blue Nile state. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have consistently shelled civilian towns and villages and allegedly employed the use of cluster bombs. Late last year, the SAF even bombed Yida refugee camp in South Sudan. Nearly 170,000 refugees have fled into neighbouring South Sudan and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that by June 2012 665,000 people were internally displaced. Conditions for the refugees are so bad, Medicines San Frontieres released a statement in August revealing that at least five children were dying a day in Yida camp alone, calling the situation “appalling”.

The humanitarian response to South Kordofan has been extremely limited as Khartoum forbids aid agencies, or indeed journalists, from entering the province. Efforts so far have been concentrated on assisting the thousands of refugees who have fled across the border to neighbouring South Sudan.

Amid the international aid agencies operating in the area is a small NGO from South Kordofan named Ru’ya Association. . Formed in 2001 by a group of university educated women from South Kordofan, Ru’ya has a history of working with and between local communities to further peace-making efforts in the regionThe organisation is notable due to its unconventional, but effective, methods and its remarkable successes, including sending four illiterate grandmothers from rural South Kordofan to India to train in solar power technology.

 Ru’ya began their work amongst refugees from South Kordofan in the Sudanese city of Omdurman, initially focusing on strengthening bonds between women from different communities in an attempt at peace building. Later, Ru’ya moved its operations to Kadugli and continued to focus on women as peacemakers, both within and between communities. It established solidarity groups which allowed women to support each other in their efforts at bringing peace to their communities and micro financing programmes to assist the economic rebuilding of their conflict ridden state. Ru’ya achieved remarkable success in a short space of time, to the extent that its founder, Zeinab Blandia, was named a Woman Peacemaker of the Year by the prestigious Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego in 2009.

Ru’ya’s success at building peace did not go unnoticed and when conflict broke out last summer, Ru’ya’s staff were specifically targeted by armed militias. The staff managed to flee to Khartoum but their office was ransacked and completely destroyed. Khartoum too proved to be unsafe and Ruy’a’s staff fled once more to Kampala, where they spent a few months regrouping before attempting to rebuild their organisation amongst refugees from South Kordofan who are residing in South Sudan. Ru’ya released an in depth study on Yida refugee camp earlier this year, focusing on the situation of women. It is believed to be the only report from an indigenous organisation working on the ground.

Women Human Rights Defenders Targeted

Other female activists from South Kordofan have been targeted by the security apparatus of Bashir’s regime, with women human rights defenders being imprisoned on trumped up charges and even shot on their own doorsteps. The conflict in South Kordofan shows no sign of abating, with re-escalating in September, after a brief lull in fighting during the late summer. Despite numerous pledges, Bashir shows no signs of allowing humanitarian aid into the embattled province and thousands of his own citizens face starvation and remain under constant attack.

The women human rights defenders of South Kordofan are truly operating with no protection whatsoever and yet they bravely continue with their work. It is up to us to highlight the amazing work they do and continue to put pressure on Sudan’s government to open corridors for humanitarian assistance.

This piece originally appeared on www.asafeworldforwomen.org in September 2012

#SudanRevolts: Women lead a revolution

By Louise Hogan

In June, female students at the University of Khartoum held an impromptu demonstration against the dramatic rise in the cost of living in Sudan. Rising inflation, exacerbated by the secession of South Sudan in July 2011 and with it, a third of Khartoum’s revenue, has led to soaring costs in the country. Many people struggle to make ends meet, not least university students who find it difficult to cover even the most basic needs.  

Quickly joined by their male counterparts, the female marchers were met with fierce batons and firing of tear gas. Sparking a wider protest movement—from Port Sudan in the northeast to Al-Obeid in the southwest—the issue has drawn in Sudanese from all sectors of society and was quickly coined #SudanRevolts by its tech-savvy protagonists. The demonstrations have been slow-burning and often relatively small but remarkably consistent: Sudanese and international commentators alike have acknowledged that women have led the protests against the ruling regime despite the mass arrests and use of tear gas, rubber bullets, live ammunition, torture, and rape against them.  

Many activists have asserted that the demonstrations are much more than anti-austerity protests, having an eventual aim of overthrowing the ruling regime of President Omar al-Bashir and his National Congress Party. Wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges that include genocide, Bashir and his supporters are waging conflicts in Darfurand South Kordofan, where their brutal tactics include the bombing of civilian villages and the use of systematic rapeand cluster bombs. Seventy percent of Sudan’s budget is spent on military and defense, even as food and fuel costs skyrocket. Bashir employs a number of security apparatus to retain social and political control, including the notorious security services called NISS—well known for its use of torture, including rape.  

Sudanese women protest on Kandake Friday. (Gihan Eltahir)

Women are at the forefront of the Sudan Revolts movement likely because they have suffered immensely under the repressive laws of the ruling regime. Official police figures reveal that in Khartoum state alone in 2008, 43,000 public order offenses were allegedly committed by women. These “offenses” are determined by the “public order” police at their own discretion and may include wearing trousers or makeup and result in punishments that vary from monetary fines to public lashings.  

Since June, two women have been sentenced to death by stoning in Khartoum for committing “adultery.” Instisar Sharif Abdallah was accused of having a relationship with a man to whom she was not married. Both she and the man in question denied the allegations and the case was dropped. However, her brother subsequently beat her until she “confessed,” following which a second court found her guilty and ordered her to be stoned to death—after only one court hearing and no legal representation. She was finally released after three months as a result of widespread international outrage and a lack of evidence.  

What happened with the second woman, Laila Ibrahim Issa Jamool, remains unclear. Sentenced on July 10 after becoming pregnant during the process of divorce negotiations, she was also denied legal representation and is currently being detained along with her six-month-old baby.  

The largest of the protests have taken place on Fridays, after prayers. They usually have a title: There was “Sandstorm Friday,” a reference to the sand and political storm about to engulf Khartoum, and everyone’s favorite, “Elbow-Licking Friday,” a jibe at Bashir’s remark that the protesters might as well try to lick their elbows—such would be the impact of their protests. But the quirky names shouldn’t detract from the reality of the situation. Peaceful protesters have been shot, arrested, beaten, tortured, and detained for weeks.  

July 13 was coined “Kandake Friday.” Maha, an activist who asked that we use only her first name to protect her identity, explains that "Kandake" (Candace) in the Kushitic language is a title for strong women. “The term was used by the Kushites to refer to their queens,” Maha said. “It’s a reference to the brave and revolutionary women of Sudan.”  

On Kandake Friday, women led nearly 300 protesters following prayers at Wad Nubawi, a mosque in the Omdurman suburb of Khartoum that has become a flashpoint. Tear-gassed and shot at, more than 30 activists were arrested, including the mother and sister of the already detained activist Mohamad Salah. Aliah Khaled, detained along with her mother and sister, took to Twitter after her release, saying: “I can’t even count the bombs [of tear gas] fired at us.”
A security crackdown on activists, with many now facing charges of treason that could potentially result in a death sentence, and the advent of Ramadan, when people traditionally remain indoors during the day, led to a brief cooling off of protests. On July 31, however, more than 1,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Nyala in Darfur, witnesses told Reuters. Scores of teenagers were among the protesters when the police fired live ammunition, killing at least eight people, including one schoolgirl and wounding dozens more.  

The next step is unclear. A rapid revolution is unlikely; Bashir has been in power for 23 years and both the military and security services are extremely loyal to him. The protests have proven to be more than a flash in the pan, however, and with doctors and lawyers joining students in the streets, their appeal is growing. But the danger to protesters and activists, particularly female, is immense. As in Syria, women activists are risking their own safety not only by joining the protesters but by keeping the outside world informed of their progress through social media. The opposition has so far been unable to mount a campaign that has actually led to major social and political change. This means there is an even greater risk to female activists when they speak out—they have absolutely no protection.  

Considering the dangers, “Kandake” doesn’t seem a strong enough word for their courage.

This piece was originally written for the Women Under Siege Project in August 2012 and first appeared at http://www.womenundersiegeproject.org/blog/entry/sudanrevolts-women-lead-a-revolution

Sudan’s activists face rape, one fights back

By Louise Hogan

In many regards, Safiya Ishaq is an unremarkable 25-year-old. She is excellent at braiding hair but terrible at being on time. She studied fine arts at Khartoum University in Sudan. Not unusual for a student, Ishaq became involved with politics. She joined Girifna, a pro-democracy movement formed in 2009 on the eve of Sudan’s first multiparty elections in more than two decades aimed at mobilizing citizens to vote. Conducting mass voter registration drives, it quickly evolved into a socio-political movement demanding change in Sudan.

Girifna firmly opposes the ruling NCP party, headed by Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Bashir, wanted by the ICC on charges that include genocide, retains social and political control by imposing a misrepresentation of Islamic law. Sudan’s notorious “public order” laws claim to guide the morality of Sudan’s citizens. In reality, the government uses them to clamp down on freedom of speech and to justify the arrest, detention, and torture—sexualized and otherwise—of many Sudanese who attempt to exercise their democratic rights. They are most notably used against women. A recent report by SIHA Network, a Kampala-based regional women’s rights organization, stated that “the repressive public order laws still remain the greatest challenge for women as an arbitrary tool to police and oppress women.”

In January 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring, activists began organizing protests in Khartoum. Ishaq attended one of the rallies. She also handed out flyers on campus, calling for democracy in Sudan. A couple weeks later, Ishaq was kidnapped by National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) agents and taken to a house, she said. She described being tortured and gang raped multiple times. In between rapes and beatings, they told her they knew she had attended the rallies of January 30 and handed out flyers, she said.

This horrific, brutal attack on Ishaq was neither random nor purposeless. The NISS agents deliberately mentioned they knew of her activities. Her rape and torture was meant as a punishment for her and a message to others. In a statement after news of Ishaq’s ordeal became public, the underground activist group No to Women Oppression Coalition declared: “The Sudanese regime is continuing to declare war against the people of Sudan, particularly against the women by intensifying their use of rape and sexual assault to punish women who express dissent.”

But Ishaq, in her way, rose to meet the battle: With extraordinary courage, she sat down in front of a video recorder and described her ordeal in painstaking detail. The camera never leaves her face as she speaks, her voice cracking at certain details—“I tried to resist so he hit me and I passed out”—but continuing nonetheless. She says she hesitated to say what happened to her publicly but in the end chose to do so to inspire girls “so they can speak out of their experience with courage.”



This appears to be the first time a Sudanese woman has spoken publicly about being raped. Shocking a conservative society and risking the wrath of the government, Ishaq was subsequently forced to flee Sudan for her own safety.
Those who remain, however, are targets. In February, a civil society organization called Sudan Democracy First described a number of recent sexual assaults of women activists, including a handful of women who reported having security officers tear at their clothes and headscarves and verbally humiliate them.

Sudanese activist, blogger, and feminist Maha El-Sanosi says that over the past few months in Sudan, “we have witnessed severe crackdowns on female activists.” She describes how they have been dragged from their homes in the middle of the night without a change of clothes, or kidnapped and held in NISS custody without the knowledge of their families. Others have had their homes raided and equipment confiscated. There are probably many incidents that go unreported, she said.“For the NISS, the females are an easy prey, and the security organ's intimidation tactics have proven effective,” El-Sanosi said. But, she added: “When Ishaq spoke up against the sexual abuse she faced last year, she tore down an enormous fear barrier.”

There was no Arab Spring in Sudan. Conditions in the country are deteriorating rapidly, according to multiple human rights groups. The economy is faltering and conflict is flaring in Darfur and South Kordofan. A humanitarian disaster threatens the impoverished region of eastern Sudan, exacerbated by the recent expulsion of several major NGOs. Relations with its newly independent neighbor, South Sudan, are diminishing and threatening to morph into a full-fledged war. Journalists and activists such as Najila Sidahmed and Faisal Mohammed Saleh are continuously harassed, arrested, and prevented from working. In March, the public order police shot dead Awdeia Ajabana, a Nuba peace activist, on her doorstep. Last month, a young woman in Khartoum was sentenced to stoning for “adultery.”

Against such an unstable backdrop and terrifying threats, women activists are somehow refusing to be deterred and are still working in great numbers. “Activism under a repressive regime is always a risk, and Sudanese activists are well aware of that,” El-Sanosi said. 

Ishaq, on the surface a normal 25-year-old, has shown immense bravery through her forthrightness. She wants now to live in the country she grew up in surrounded by family and friends, rather than in exile, while struggling to come to terms with what happened to her. So-called “ordinary” women like her are strong and resolute, which is why the Sudanese regime fears them. Through its security apparatus and proxies, it may have strategically raped thousands of women in Darfur, South Kordofan, and across the whole of Sudan. We know this because bold women like Ishaq are telling us. We just have to listen.

This piece was originally written for the Women Under Siege Project in June 2012 and can be found at http://www.womenundersiegeproject.org/blog/entry/sudans-activists-face-rape-one-fights-back

Women as peacemakers in Sudan: Challenges and Opportunities

With Sudan and South Sudan on the verge of all-out war, many local peacebuilding organizations are utilising the potential of women to act as peacemakers between communities in an attempt to thwart further violence.

By Louise Hogan

Less than a year after declaring independence, South Sudan is engaged in low-level violence with its northern neighbour, the Republic of Sudan. Aerial bombings and military raids by both sides are a daily occurrence. South Sudan’s ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) completely shut down oil production, in an attempt to deny Khartoum revenue, which has deprived the emerging nation of 71% of its GDP and prevented it from developing its basic infrastructure. Once again, all out war in Sudan seems depressingly inevitable.

In South Kordofan, a mineral rich border province which remains under Khartoum’s control but whose inhabitants’ identity politically and culturally with South Sudan, violent conflict is a daily occurrence. With a population of approximately two million people and vast oil and mineral reserves, South Kordofan is a valuable asset. For this reason, Khartoum refused to relinquish it during the peace negotiations which led to the signing in 2005 of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the eventual independence of South Sudan, despite its inhabitants waging a two decade guerrilla insurgency for independence.

Years of conflict and insecurity have, unsurprisingly, taken a heavy toll on a community whose culture and identity is rooted in tradition and the local environment. With an estimated fifty different ethnic groups resident in South Kordofan, ethnic tensions were also exacerbated by the wider conflict, and often erupted into violence. Ethnic groups who had respected each other’s customs when living side-by-side, found themselves thrust upon each other in haphazard, over-crowded refugee camps, and cultural tensions often graduated into violent outbreaks.

Women as peacemakers

This situation led a group of Sudanese women from South Kordofan to form an organisation called Ru’ya (Arabic for ‘Vision’). Recognising the important role women could play as peacemakers both within and between communities, Ru’ya initiated a simple project they christened Women Solidarity Groups. Based on the premise that a lack of cultural understanding and an archaic patriarchal system which placed undue precedence on pride were causing much of the conflict, the basic idea was simple but effective. By regularly meeting to share coffee, food and experiences, women from various backgrounds could learn about each other’s traditions, beliefs and practices and form bonds across cultural divides. These groups organically graduated into something more than simple support groups – some started their own micro-financing programmes; others served as peacemakers between previously warring communities. When a ceasefire was called and communities began to return home, the project spread from the refugee camps to newly-resettled villages and communities. Having established a method of gaining influence in a notoriously male-dominated society, women were reluctant to give it up.

A local micro-financing scheme established by one Solidarity Group

From peacebuilding to development

In the villages, the focus of these groups often moved from peacebuilding to development. In one particularly successful example, women in a Solidarity Group in Mirri Barra, a rocky outpost west of Kadugli, pursued their male family members to allow four illiterate women from their group to travel to India to study solar technology at the Barefoot College. After months of relentless lobbying from local women, with support from Ru’ya staff, the village elders eventually gave permission for the women to travel for the six month training. The women returned equipped with the skills and knowledge to install solar electricity in an astonishing ninety nine homes in the village.

Women from Mirri Barra, South Kordofan studying solar technology at the Barefoot College

Politics, peace and the consequences of ignoring gender concerns

Ru’ya is by no means the only Sudanese organisation harnessing the potential of women to act as peacemakers; other organisations such as New Sudan Women’s Federation and the Sudanese Women’s Voice for Peace have attempted to engage women in the peacemaking process in Sudan. However, the marginalisation of women and gender concerns from the Comprehensive Peace Agreement Negotiations in 2005 has made it difficult for women to participate politically in their communities. Dr. Anne Itto, a member of the SPLM’s delegation to the Naivasha talks has commented, “Despite the active role women played at various levels to bring peace to Sudan their role has tended to be underestimated or ignored during negotiations. This may have originated from the misconception that women are passive victims of war, forgetting the important role they played in negotiating, keeping and building peace in their communities.” With conflict once more raging in various states in both Sudan and South Sudan, and all out-war between the two countries appearing difficult to avert, Sudanese women are once more finding their lives and communities torn apart by violence.

The marginalisation of women from public life, political participation and the process of building democratic institutions in Sudan and South Sudan have undoubtedly contributed to the ongoing cycle of conflict and violence. Sudan is ruled by an authoritarian, hard-line Islamist party. Violence against women is endemic and institutionalised, and women are largely excluded from public life.  In South Sudan, although there are five female ministers and nine female deputy ministers in the interim government, the situation of women in the country in general is dire. Education levels for girls are among the world’s lowest, early and/or forced marriage is common, there are high levels of female genital mutilation and customary law is still most prevalent source of justice. This system classifies women, at best, as second class citizens and, at worst, as possessions of their husband or male relatives. The male-dominated leadership of the SPLM in South Sudan has concentrated its political efforts on engaging in warmongering with its northern neighbour, instead of dealing with its most pressing concerns – establishing the rule of law across the country, improving basic infrastructure and affording basic human rights to its citizens, including women.

When the most recent bout of violence broke out in South Kordofan last summer, the staff of Ru’ya was forced to leave Kadugli town and flee to Uganda. Ru’ya is currently concentrating its efforts on political advocacy, on behalf of the women of South Kordofan, in Uganda and Kenya, while also working to establish programmes in South Sudan which aid refugees from South Kordofan. Although projects such as those initiated by Ru’ya have practically impacted the lives of women and enhanced their political standing within their communities, for women to become genuinely, regionally and nationally politically active, this male-perpetuated cycle of violence must come to an end; women must be involved in the ensuing peace negotiations and gender concerns should be a top political priority. Unfortunately, as war looms ever closer, we fear there may be more years of violence before women get their chance to politically participate, both in North and South Sudan.

This piece originally appeared on http://www.transconflict.com/2012/04/women-as-peace-makers-in-sudan-challenges-and-opportunities-254/ in April 2012