News

Peace Track Initiative Continues to Amplify Women's Voices at the UN Security Council

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 20:44:22 +0300

New York – March 6, 2025 – Nesmah Mansoor Ali, Senior Policy & Communication Officer at the Peace Track Initiative (PTI), delivered a briefing to the United Nations Security Council, marking PTI’s third engagement with the Council. Her intervention highlighted the compounded crises of armed conflict, climate change, and environmental degradation in Yemen, with a particular focus on their disproportionate impact on women and marginalized communities.

Ali underscored the urgent need for climate-responsive peacebuilding, stronger environmental governance, and the inclusion of women in all peace and political processes. She called on the Council to address environmental destruction as a war crime, ensure accountability, and support local peace initiatives tackling resource-based conflicts.

This marks PTI’s ongoing commitment to amplifying the voices of Yemeni women and advocating for inclusive and sustainable peace at the highest international level.

Reimagining Peace in Yemen: The Fourth High-level Feminist Peace Convening

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 16:10:00 +0300

Building upon remarkable progress to claim spaces for women’s voices in Yemen peace talks over the past years, the annual Yemen Feminist Peace Convening is back in its Fourth edition, organized by the Peace Track Initiative, with support from Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands.

This year’s Convening will start with an accessible live stream of all our panels from December 16-18, open to everyone. This convening seeks to extend a space for feminist organizations and leaders to strategize and engage, as well as to showcase the progress and impact of the Feminist Peace Roadmap (FPR)—a first-of-its-kind, women-led framework for the achievement of inclusive, feminist peace in Yemen. Which includes expanded thematics such as the issue of minorities, and climate change, and gives special attention to the Taiz and Houdidah governorates.

An evolution of the FPR is PTI’s involved engagement with Yemen’s male political leadership on the blueprint. Previously focusing majorly on consultations with women leaders, civil society organizations, and women-led organizations, this new effort to engage with and collect feedback from political leaders will bring greater visibility to the FPR, ensure it is rooted in local contexts, and advance its impact.

Moreover, This year’s Convening will host diverse panels that will explore key themes, including advancing the Feminist Peace Roadmap, addressing the crisis of detainees, and localizing Yemen’s National Action Plan with a focus on grassroots implementation and climate inclusion. Discussions will also examine the intersection of climate change, gender-based violence, and conflict, the power of feminist solidarity and coalition-building, and pathways to self-determination and reconciliation for South Yemen.

In this article, we’re taking a look at the current situation in Yemen, the role and impact of the Feminist Peace Roadmap in influencing peace processes in the country, and what’s coming up next.

Yemeni women in the face of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis

Eight years into the war in Yemen, the conflict is taking a catastrophic toll on the lives of Yemeni civilians. With Yemen now experiencing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, nearly 25 million Yemenis need humanitarian assistance while more than 13 million are on the brink of starvation. It is estimated that the war has led to the deaths of at least 233,000 men, women, and children since 2014 – with approximately 133,000 a result of food insecurity and lack of access to health care.

Amid these dire circumstances, Yemeni women are continuing to mobilize for a future of peace and stability in Yemen – and taking their rightful place as powerful advocates for change.

Women-led, grassroots-centred: Getting to the Feminist Peace Roadmap

In 2019, recognizing that peace talks in Yemen were stalling and failing to recognize the unique impacts of the crisis on women, WILPF and PTI jointly launched a series of consultations with Yemeni women leaders and national stakeholders.

To ensure the inclusion of women’s voices and recommendations in Yemeni peace processes and develop a guiding framework for the achievement of peace in Yemen, the consultations led to the first Yemen Feminist Peace Convening in 2019, and the beginnings of the Feminist Peace Roadmap (FPR).

“For so long, women have been told that because they don’t hold the arms, their expertise and their voices are not a necessary component of the peace talks. And what this does is that it creates peace negotiations and conflict resolution mechanisms that just tackle the needs of half of the population — of men. The Feminist Peace Roadmap comes to turn around this narrative, to reassure that women’s expertise and women’s voices are really critical to achieve durable peace — a peace that actually stands a chance to resist that conflict cycle.”

— Aicha Madi, former gender, peace, and security officer at PTI

Women-led and grassroots-centred, the FPR is a pioneering initiative where Yemeni women lay out a guiding framework for the achievement of peace in Yemen through three phases: ceasefire, comprehensive peace negotiation, and political transition.

The FPR was developed in four phases. First, PTI consulted with 30 women political leaders, civil society representatives, and independent experts inside and outside Yemen. From there, they partnered with nine women-led organizations to host local consultations on specific thematic issues, which laid the foundation for the development of the FPR. The third phase was the formal launch of the FPR at the High-Level Virtual Yemen Feminist Peace Convening in 2021.

During the fourth phase, which is currently underway, the partners are hosting a series of local workshops to support the translation of recommendations from the FPR into action.

In all, more than 1,000 Yemeni women leaders and other stakeholders have been engaged in consultations about the FPR since 2019.

The FPR is influencing real change.

Since its launch a year ago, the FPR has directly influenced multilateral peace talks and processes in Yemen.

According to PTI’s team findings, Key recommendations from the FPR were adopted in UN Security Council Resolution 2624 (2022) on Yemen, including a demand for “the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women in the peace process” and stressing the “need for sufficient and appropriate protections for women and girls in refugee camps and elsewhere” who are experiencing or at risk of sexual and gender-based violence.

What’s next: Getting political

Following this year’s Convening, PTI will continue building momentum around the FPR, creating spaces for dialogue, and advocating for the full inclusion of women in peace talks in Yemen. As a living document, the FPR will continue to be updated as the situation in Yemen evolves and new recommendations are adopted.

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact info@peacetrackinitiative.org

Sun, 17 Dec 2023 15:29:00 +0300

Marib, Last Hope for Restoring the State in Yemen

Fri, 15 May 2020 18:01:00 +0300

With clashes between Houthis and the Yemeni government forces escalating in Marib, the city’s inhabitants will lose no matter who claims victory.

Heated armed conflict in the Marib governorate of Yemen has been ongoing between the Yemeni government’s forces and those of the Houthi rebels since the beginning of this year. Friday’s clashes in the district of Sirwah proved to be one of the worst, with tens of fighters killed on both sides. Ironically, the media of both the Houthis and Yemeni government have claimed Friday’s battle as a win. All I know is that the people of my hometown of Marib are the ultimate losers. Despite the many lives lost in the battle fields and now the lives of Yemenis claimed by the novel coronavirus—along with the many thousands likely vulnerable to the endemic—the conflict of Yemen continues.

A few weeks ago, the United Nation’s Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged Yemenis and international stakeholders to end hostilities and ramp up efforts to counter a potential outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though both the Yemeni government and Houthis welcomed his statements, and while the Saudi-led Arab Coalition supporting the Yemeni government announced a unilateral immediate ceasefire for two weeks, the fights between Yemenis did not stop—especially in my hometown of Marib. Amid the conflict, the first case of the virus in Marib was reported officially on Wednesday.

During the last few months, the Houthis have escalated their attacks on Marib, especially in the wake of the assassination of the Iranian general Qasem Soleimani by an air raid in Baghdad. The following day, Houthis went out in large public protests, where they vowed that they would seek revenge for Soleimani’s death. His death was significant as he is seen as their patron as well as the patron of other armed militias affiliated with Iran in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.

In March, the UN Secretary General’s envoy Martin Griffiths visited Marib in an attempt to stop the armed escalation there. Although his visit was no more than a few hours, I nevertheless consider this to be a historic visit. Griffiths’ presence marked the first time a UN envoy visited Marib since the war started in 2014. Even so, this visit has not stopped the fighting. I was unable to attend the press conference the governor held with Griffiths as I was in the United States receiving the International Women of Courage Award given to peace activists from all around the world. While I was happy and grateful to receive the award, my mind was back home with my family and neighbors in Marib as the Houthis’ ballistic missiles fell on them.

Griffiths’ visit to Marib was to issue a warning of the dangers of “the military adventurism and quest for territorial gains.” Yet he, as usual, did not dare name the Houthis in his message in an ongoing attempt to remain acceptable as a neutral mediator for peace. In Griffiths’ public statements on the conflict, he tries not to point fingers or indicate the parties derailing the peace process. Though I understand his decision, so far this has not proven to be a useful strategy. Holding the aggressors accountable could create pressure on them to respect a ceasefire and allowing the peace process to move forward.

Instead, as expected, the Houthis have paid no attention to Griffiths’ March warning, nor those of the UN secretary general, despite the lip service they have given in response to the pleas for peace. The residents of Marib have seen how, in reality, they have rallied their troops and have continued on from one battlefront to the next. Moreover, the militias have targeted the region’s infrastructure by targeting Marib’s oil refinery, causing the displacement of thousands of families.

One of the great tragedies of this recent escalation is that Marib has actually made notable strides during the conflict to develop into a stronger and more vibrant region than existed before. The dynamics of the conflict pushed Marib out of its previous status quo even as the region itself remained relatively safe and unaffected by the fighting. The current escalation is threatening to destroy the progress Marib has made even during the difficulties of the past half-decade.

Prior to the beginning of the conflict, the Marib governorate was characterized by a tribal nature and a wealth of natural resources. Even so, the governorate suffered from a severe exclusion of development projects. Marib was characterized by a lack of infrastructure and weak governmental services due to the corruption that characterized the former regime and led to a selective focus only on Sana’a as the country’s capital. In Marib, the former regime used an approach of divide and rule by encouraging internal tribal fights in the governorate. This method allowed it to take advantage of the natural resources of the area without providing much in terms of development in return.

I lost four of my brothers in the tribal wars of Marib that took place under this system. Yet there existed a certain value system between the tribes: the various parties respected truces, protected women and children, and allowed peace mediation to progress. After the war started in 2014, Marib’s relative stability and its strong local leadership drastically changed the governorate, allowing a once underdeveloped region to become prosperous.

Today, there are more paved roads in Marib than ever before, and basic services have improved dramatically as the local economy has flourished. These improvements happened due to the political decentralization that occurred through the conflict: the capital was controlled by the Houthis and the alternative capital of Aden—currently home to the internationally recognized government—was unable to provide the stability needed for a state to have authority.

Now, ironically, the closest resemblance to a state is in Marib because of its strong rule of law and internal security. As such, Marib has become host to hundreds of thousands of those who fled the war zones from all over the country. Marib has also served as a center for restructuring the national army in collaboration with the regional states and the international community to put an end to the Houthi coup d’état.

Not only has Marib developed structurally, but there have also been significant improvements from a human rights perspective. I personally have seen the local community in Marib change, especially regarding its attitude towards women. In 2010, I had founded a civil society organization we called Marib Girls Foundation to empower women in Marib, but because the local environment at the time was not supportive of our work and the community was not ready to see women working in civil society, we had to shut the organization down. Since then, the armed conflict has created opportunities to challenge the area’s traditional outlook towards women.

The influx of those from more open communities in Sana’a has changed the dynamics of Maribi society, inspiring Maribi women to engage in public and political life. Maribi society accepted the women displaced from other regions—more accustomed to public participation—in their midst. This process slowly yet perceptibly changed the attitude towards women from the region, leading me to reopen the Marib Girls Foundation in 2016 with my sister. Ours was one of the very first women’s civil society organizations in Marib and through it we challenged the discriminating traditional stereotypes against women, focusing on women’s empowerment and especially on their role in peacebuilding.

Yet the conflict has never been far from the minds of those in Marib, even when the area itself was relatively peaceful. A special focus of our organization has also been combating child soldiers. This is a very important issue for me personally, having come from a tribal society where carrying weapons is an acceptable tradition for both youth and adults. However, the war made this practice more prevalent; as many boys younger than 18–even some as young as 13–were lured or forced into the front lines, only to return to their families in coffins, if at all.

Today, there are thousands of children sent by Houthis to the front lines, with estimated statistics of over 30 thousand child soldiers involved. The physical and mental consequences for these children are terrible. By allowing this coercion to happen, we as a society are stealing childhood from a whole generation of children, turning them into killing machines instead of allowing them to grow into productive members of Yemeni society.

Again, we have been able to make some progress on this issue in Marib. The first center for rehabilitating child soldiers has been established in Marib, but this effort and future efforts like it need to be given more attention. Moreover, through local mediating efforts, I was able to stop child recruitments in the armed conflict in Marib. This experience taught me firsthand that the tribal culture respects and trusts women’s mediations and peacebuilding efforts. Later, I and my colleagues were able to extract a commitment from the Yemeni government represented by the Ministry of Defense to refrain from using children younger than 18 in armed conflict.

This is the kind of work that can be accomplished—even during conflict—when stability is preserved in a region like Marib. However, the recent escalation against my hometown, if allowed to continue, will destroy all the relative prosperity and socio-economic wins that we gained in a short duration.

Now, there is grave concern within the governorate that if the Houthis do succeed in taking over, they will launch a rampant, vicious clampdown on all the rights and freedoms we have worked so hard to build. Women like myself and my colleagues are especially worried—we have seen how women under Houthi control are being violated every day. Marib has made major strides in women’s rights and protecting children. If the attacks on Marib are allowed to succeed, this will take us back decades in the ongoing fight for stability, equality, and progress.

Disclaimer:
This article, “Marib: The Last Hope for Restoring the State in Yemen”, was originally published by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. It is republished here for educational and informational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of this website or its affiliates. All rights are reserved by the original publisher. To access the original article, please visit:
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/marib-last-hope-restoring-state-yemen

About the Author:
Yasmin Al-Qadhi is the director of the Marib Girls Foundation and a recipient of the International Women of Courage Award 2020. She is a member of the Women Solidarity Network and a recipient of the Peace Track Initiative Feminist Peace Fellowship. Yasmin is also a contributor to the ‘Shabab in Focus’ platform.

Iran’s tight grip on Houthis in Yemen endangers the country’s peace process

Mon, 20 Apr 2020 17:14:00 +0300

In this compelling op-ed, Yemeni politician and activist Rana Ghanem analyzes Iran’s deepening control over the Houthis and the serious threats it poses to Yemen’s peace process. She explores how Tehran’s influence has prolonged the conflict, obstructed diplomatic efforts, and destabilized the region. Through a critical lens, Ghanem underscores the urgent need for a sustainable and inclusive solution to end the war and restore Yemen’s sovereignty.

Read the full op-ed here

Yemeni detainees’ plight and the political will for peace

Fri, 10 Apr 2020 17:55:00 +0300

Finally, nearly 14 months after signing Stockholm agreement, the prisoners’ exchange committee, that consists of representatives of the Yemeni government and the Houthis, agreed on a detailed plan last month, to complete the first official large-scale for exchanging prisoners. The UN Special Envoy, Martin Griffiths reflected on this progress at his UNSC briefing saying: “This is a firm commitment from the parties to the families that they will be reunited with their loved ones…. We all look forward to the implementation of those releases agreed as soon as possible.”

We have heard similar statements and promises for the last 14 months and today, particularly a month later from this last announcement, we still haven’t seen any progress in releasing detainees, which is an even more of a priority given the Corona outbreak.

The Stockholm agreement had initially inspired hope among us all working in mediation in Yemen, especially us in the Abductees’ Mothers Association working on one of the most crucial aspects of mediation: civilian-abductees release. Yet, unfortunately, we have documented continued detention and prosecution of civilians. Since the Stockholm agreement, the Association documented 24 cases of civilian abductees who were killed due to torture and deprivation from urgent medical care, and 134 deaths caused by the Arab Coalition air strikes on their detention areas under the Houthi control. Since 2015, the Association documented more than 3000 cases of abducted civilians including journalists and activists currently held in the Houthi prisons, or those of the Legitimate Government in Marib and the Security Belt in Aden.

As someone who has been illegally detained twice and interrogated at Sana’a Airport several times by the Houthis because of my political activism since 2015, this issue is very dear to my heart. I was part of the Detainees Defense Committee comprising of a number of activists and lawyers. We lobbied against the arbitrary arrest of civilians by the Houthis and worked on their release. However, as the clampdown on freedoms got worse, several of my colleagues themselves were arrested, and I found myself standing at prison gates with their mothers and wives demanding their release. That is when it occurred to me that we as mothers and wives may have a sort of cultural protection, for no one would object to a mother plea for the release of her children.

Therefore, I established and headed the Abductees’ Mothers Association in April 2016 alongside a number of abductees’ mothers and supporters. Today the Association includes 60 female activists from various geographic and political backgrounds aided by hundreds of supporters. We work all over the country for the defense and release of civilian abductees regardless of their backgrounds and those of the perpetrators. We also document cases after verifying information received throughout offices across the country, social media and hotline. Since our establishment we organized 220 protest and successfully managed to release 654 abductees from the Houthi prisons, 90 abductees from the security entities in Aden and three from the government prisons in Marib, as well as identify the whereabouts of eight missing persons. Moreover, the Association works on rehabilitation of those released to assist their re-integration into the society, whether through psychological support for them and their families, or connecting them with sources of income.

We realized that with persistence and passion we can achieve much even if we a small number of volunteers working with limited resources, while the UN-led process so far didn’t contribute to releasing any prisoner.. I do not mean to belittle the efforts by those working in the peace process or question their motives. My concern is that they lack important knowledge and critical insight of the local structures and practices, which if they acknowledge, could take them a long way in freeing many civilian detainees.

The fact is that civil society organizations such as ours have been excluded from the various peace talks, especially the Stockholm process, and this complicated the detainees’ situation. For example, since the negotiations were limited to two warring parties, we had to raise the lists of civilian abductees to the official negotiating delegates hoping for the civilian abductees names to be included in the exchange. A better way would have been to include neutral representatives from civil society and create an independent list and process for the civilian abductees and not include their names among those involved in the armed conflict from both sides. Additionally, this process forced us to include innocent detained civilians to be listed among fighters. These civilians should have been release unconditionally as a trust building measure, as they did not have any stake in the armed conflict.

This shortsightedness set our efforts, which were successful in the past, way back as our local mediations after Stockholm peace process were rejected by the Houthis who insisted that the names of civilians we provided were already part of the political negotiation package and hence are tied to a “far-fetched” political settlement. The exclusion of civil society’s efforts and insights turned the matter of civilian abductees’ release from a humanitarian issue into a political one and a bargaining chip.

Our experiences in this field have taught us many valuable lessons and gave us crucial insights in the release of abductees’ negotiation process. To start with, civilian abductees continue to be listed alongside armed combatants in the prisoner exchange lists, which is unfair. These are civilians who were taken from their homes or the streets without any involvement in the armed conflict and should have been released instantly and unconditionally.

We also had concerns that once detainees are released, they are forced to leave their cities and go to live in areas controlled by the other side, leaving their homes and uprooting themselves to a new place without any support for them or their families for resettlement of any kind.

Also, we had concerns for the lack of a mechanism for protecting witnesses and those reporting abduction, and there was no mention whatsoever of the rehabilitation of the released abductees so that they constructively re-integrate into the society and not become involved in violent acts due to resentment, desperation or even feelings of revenge. We had also recommended the release of old age civilian abductees, the sick and those below 18 years of age as a first step instead of the chosen process of “all in return for all” approach.

My personal experience has taught me that the local mediation efforts using the socio-cultural practices yield better results than the international efforts. For one, the local efforts are solely focused on the release of abductees as the first and only priority, while international efforts have a package of complicated items and intertwined demands. Second, the local mediators are familiar with the local context and cultural norms used in tribal and traditional contexts and hence, they start with an already agreed foundation of principles. It would have been useful to take advantage of local mediation practices and language in such situations, something the international mediation teams, who are usually not in the ground, are oblivious of. The local mediators are also known and trusted figures in the community, and therefore, trust building measure are already established as these mediators have established them during their decades of community work. Finally, we at the Abductees’ Mothers Association use the emotional argument and bring the focus to the humanitarian issue regarding our demands for the release of our innocent sons and husbands, and this is stronger than any political or diplomatic talk.

Ignoring the local solutions and existing mediation expertise especially that of Yemeni women, who have proved over the centuries their effectiveness in peacebuilding and mediation, complicates and prolongs the war.

Think about it; how can Yemeni women, many of whom are illiterate mothers, achieve much more than established politicians and international experts? The answer is that for us, the release of our innocent sons is the most urgent priority and not a side note to be included — or not — in the general political negotiations for power.

Yemeni women have the expertise, abilities and passion to create change for the better and successfully achieve peace in a fair and sustainable manner. It is a shame how the various peace processes under the patronage of the international community continue to exclude civil society, especially that of women. The male dominated out-of-touch with reality attitude continues to lead us nowhere closer to peace than when the war started.

What all these international and political negotiation teams fail to realize, is that peace starts from the hearts of mothers. Our unwavering belief in our just cause to release all the civilian abductees from all the prisons remains our only priority. We will not rest until all civilian abductees either receive a fair trial or return safely to their homes.

Disclaimer:
This article, “Yemeni Detainees’ Plight and the Political Will for Peace”, was originally published by Al Arabiya. It is republished here for educational and informational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of this website or its affiliates. All rights are reserved by the original publisher. To access the original article, please visit:
https://www.alarabiya.net/politics/2020/03/27/%D9%85%D9%83%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%86-%D9%81%D8%B4%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%B6%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AC-%D8%B9%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%AA%D9%82%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AF%D9%86%D9%8A

About the Author:
Dr. Amatasslam Al-Hajj is a Yemeni activist and the founder of the Mothers of Abductees Alliance. She is regarded as one of the pioneering advocates for women’s rights and civil freedoms in Yemen. Dr. Al-Hajj is a member of the teaching faculty at the Science and Technology University and an instructor in the Ministry of Education. She also participated in the Independent Institutions Working Group during Yemen’s National Dialogue Conference. Dr. Al-Hajj is a member of the Women Solidarity Network and is a recipient of the Peace Track Initiative Feminist Peace Fellowship.

Unfulfilled Ambition: Yemen’s National Action Plan for Women Leaves Much to be Desired

Thu, 09 Apr 2020 16:53:00 +0300

By Maha Awadh I April 9, 2020

As Yemen enters its sixth year of a vicious war, turning it into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, women bear the greater burden of the armed conflict. Even before the conflict, Yemeni women were suffering from discriminatory laws and disempowering traditions. Yet, during these times of instability, the limited existing social protections for Yemeni women are diminished as competition over resources increases and insecurity escalates. According to OCHA, gender-based discriminative practices such as violence against women, rape, and early marriage has increased by 63 percent since 2014.

If women are to carry the greater burden of war, it is only fair that they are equally contributing to peacebuilding and recovery processes. In fact, Yemeni women have repeatedly proven themselves as strong peace mediators and political negotiators, whether in formal peace talks, or informal initiatives such as campaigning for safe humanitarian corridors, combating recruitment of children in armed combat, and release of civilian abductees, to state a few examples.

If women are to carry the greater burden of war, it is only fair that they are equally contributing to peacebuilding and recovery processes.

In recognition of this right, twenty years ago the United Nations General Assembly issued Resolution 1325 for Women, Peace and Security, emphasizing women’s rightful place as an equal participant in peace processes and post-conflict efforts. Consequently, member countries designed their own national action plans to implement this resolution. Last December, the prime minister’s office approved Yemen’s National Action Plan for Women, Peace, and Security in order to implement the resolution, making Yemen the fifth Arab country to do so. Having a national action plan is a step in the right direction considering the significant challenges the country constantly faces. However, there are many detrimental flaws in Yemen’s NAP as it stands. To start with, it was issued without adequate involvement of various stakeholders especially civil society organizations that have been at the forefront of this issue. As a member of the National Women’s Committee in Aden and director of Wogood for Human Security Foundation, I have seen firsthand how recommendations from relevant civil society organization and informed stakeholders were ignored in the making of this plan.

Similarly, Yemen’s NAP ignores the need for an integrated approach in implementation, without which, the different state institutions such as various ministries, the Parliament, the Judiciary System and High Relief Committee, will not contribute to its implementation and hence its effectiveness. The way the NAP is designed runs the risk of isolating efforts to engage women in peace and security processes in crucial national efforts such as military operations, international development projects, and sectoral policies. What is worse is that there was no mention of budgets, resource allocation, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms or accountability measures, especially through the formation of joint public and civil society committees.

In terms of activities, the action plan limited its work to awareness raising, capacity building and research. Vital needs such as reforming the security sector, eliminating discriminative laws and practices in the legal and judiciary systems, and support for female prisoners and mothers of child soldiers, were not mentioned. Equally important, there was no mention of women’s role in disarmament activities, reintegration operations, transitional justice and compensation for victims of the conflict.

Equally important, there was no mention of women’s role in disarmament activities, reintegration operations, transitional justice and compensation for victims of the conflict.

Furthermore, aside from a general lack of data, this NAP ignored some of the most important international legally binding frameworks such as the CEDAW, the Beijing Platform of Action, international humanitarian law and various human rights conventions. It ignored the outcomes of the National Dialogue Conference as a national point of reference.

To be fair, the NAP made some references to the Geneva Convention and emphasized that women’s participation should be set at no less than 30 percent in all stages of the peace process. It also covered issues related to prevention, protection, relief and early recovery.

As members of Yemeni civil society, we have been engaging the public, decision makers and the international community in lobbying for women’s fair integration in security and peace processes. We were at the forefront of the campaign to implement Resolution 1325 and subsequent resolutions regarding women, peace and security. Before that we carried out awareness and advocacy campaigns for many years for the need to issue a national plan of action. Because of these efforts, the women’s movement in Yemen designed a National Agenda for Women, Peace and Security and engaged national entities as well as the UN Security Council, which welcomed it as a foundational step to designing the National Action Plan. Unfortunately, despite our efforts to be involved in the NAP process, the government did consider our input, resulting in a hastily written and insufficient plan.

The NAP in its current form is a slap in the face of Yemeni women who are disadvantaged in times of relative stability, but more so now as the country is embroiled in a prolonged state of conflict. Without going back to the drawing board, it is still possible to engage us and use our feedback in order to salvage this plan and strengthen it to tackle the huge challenges women face in Yemen. Without women’s true integration in the peace and post-conflict processes, Yemen’s chance at achieving sustainable peace remains a distant dream. After all, this plan was designed to implement UN Resolution 1325, the essence of which is inclusive participation. It is hypocritical to create the National Action Plan without adhering to the very principle for which it was supposed to stand.

Disclaimer:
This article, “Unfulfilled Ambition: Yemen’s National Action Plan on Women Leaves Much to Be Desired”, was originally published by the Wilson Center – Middle East Program on its official website. It is republished here for educational and informational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of this website or its affiliates. All rights are reserved by the original publisher. To read the original article, please visit:
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/unfulfilled-ambition-yemens-national-action-plan-women-leaves-much-be-desired

About the Author:
Maha Awadh (also known as Maha Ghanem) is a Yemeni researcher specializing in development and gender, particularly from a legal perspective. She is the founder and director of the Wogood Foundation for Human Security, based in Aden, Yemen. Maha is a member of the Women Solidarity Network and a recipient of the Peace Track Initiative Feminist Leadership Fellowship. Her work focuses on promoting human security, legal reform, and gender justice in Yemen

Now is the time for women

Fri, 27 Mar 2020 17:26:00 +0300

Women in Yemen are living the realities of a violent authoritarian crackdown and continued repression. Despite this, Nadia Al-Sakkaf tells us how women are continuing to mobilise and calls for strengthened international support for Yemeni women activists to be able to continue their work to be heard.

Being a woman leader in Yemen calling for gender equality and peace is a dangerous job. After years of devastating war, the people of Yemen want peace. But in order to prevent violence and establish sustainable peace, women’s voices must be heard.

Yemeni women activists need the support of the international community. Just last month on February 25, a UK-led resolution acknowledging conflict-related sexual violence was adopted by the United Nations Security Council. Resolution 2511 (2020), informed by a United Nations Panel of Experts’ report, outlined the atrocities faced by Yemeni women, including the use of rape, torture, arbitrary arrest and harassment.

Women in Yemen, like their counterparts in the Middle East, currently face a unique and threatening context: a combination of patriarchal violence and rising authoritarianism.

Before this current conflict, there were signs of change. The 2011 Yemeni Spring uprising was a watershed moment. After the peaceful revolution, women secured almost 30 percent representation in nation-wide talks held to establish a formal government transition. An outcome of the National Dialogue process was to set a 30 percent quota for women for all future elected and non-elected decision-making positions. Women demanded access and, as a result, influenced policy. Their voices were heard.

In 2014, I was appointed Minister of Information in Yemen. I was the first woman ever to be appointed to that position. It was a glass-ceiling shattering announcement. The Ministry of Information had long been considered a man’s domain.

But since then, not only has progress stalled, it has been all but obliterated by war. According to the 2017 World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report, women leaders made up only 5.7 percent of Yemen’s top legislators, senior officials, and managers. Similalry, in 2015, women’s participation in the formal economy was estimated by the World Bank at just 6.14 percent.

For the few women who managed to gain power in Yemen, they faced multi-dimensional challenges including social, legal, and institutional discrimination and violence. Any progress made on the number of women in leadership positions did not change the predominantly patriarchal attitudes towards women in Yemen.

Women in Yemen, like their counterparts in the Middle East, currently face a unique and threatening context: a combination of patriarchal violence and rising authoritarianism

Women in the Middle East, even in times of relative peace, face discrimination and violence. Now, violent crackdowns by authoritarian regimes and non-state actors are part of a wider wave of repression against women and civil liberties in general.

In the early stages of the Yemeni conflict, I was one of the first to be targeted. I received texts and calls from the Houthis armed militia telling me that I would regret my public condemnation of their actions. I was followed by cars with tinted windows. My offices were raided. Then, they came with guns to all the media outlets and the Houthi commander directly threaten to kill me. I was forced to flee the country.

My experience is not unique. Women working for peace and gender equality in Yemen, and throughout the Middle East, face travel bans, are beaten, arbitrarily detained, prosecuted, imprisoned or threatened with death – all in an attempt to silence their voices. This month the Houthis abducted seven female school principals. This insidious strategy, not only puts women activists at risk today, but it also aims to derail future progress towards gender equality and peace.

After leaving Yemen, I attempted to work with other government members in exile. When I raised the issue of women’s participation in the peace process, I was told: “It is not the time for women.”

But women need to be part of the peace negotiations. When women are involved in peace processes, peace is more likely to be reached and the resulting peace is more long-lasting.

I am in awe of the strength of Yemeni women. Yemeni women, with their own government failing to advance gender justice, are mobilising and securing international support to continue their work. Yemeni women are building alliances, regardless of political backgrounds or religious affiliations. Yemeni women, in the face of intimidation and violence, are calling for equal representation at the peace negotiations’ table.

Women working for peace and gender equality in Yemen, and throughout the Middle East, face travel bans, are beaten, arbitrarily detained, prosecuted, imprisoned or threatened with death – all in an attempt to silence their voices

UK leadership in the Yemeni peace process is welcomed and its role in Resolution 2511 (2020) is to be applauded. However, it takes more than a resolution that merely acknowledges the existence of acts of violence against women for the violence to stop.

The UK government must go a step further and call for protection mechanisms for women activists, both inside and outside Yemen, who are repeatedly subjected to harassment and violence because of their political activities. The UK should invest in women’s power and leadership and directly fund Yemeni women-led organisations. And the UK should support Yemeni women in their call for equal representation at the peace table.

Women are demanding to be heard. Despite attempts to silence us, now is the time for women.

Image credit: Al Jazeera English (CC BY-SA 4.0)

English Disclaimer:

Disclaimer:
This article, “Now is the Time for Women”, was originally published by the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security as part of its official blog. It is republished here for educational and informational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of this website or its partners. All rights are reserved by the original publisher. To read the original version, please visit:
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/wps/2020/03/27/now-is-the-time-for-women

About the Author:
Dr. Nadia Al-Sakkaf is a Yemeni researcher and former Minister of Information, becoming the first woman to hold this post in Yemen. She played a key role in the country's political transition and was Editor-in-Chief of the Yemen Times for nearly a decade. Dr. Al-Sakkaf is an active member of the Peace Track Initiative and the Women Solidarity Network, working toward inclusive peacebuilding in Yemen.

Taiz Is Key to Peace in Yemen: A Chance to Save Three Million People

Thu, 07 Nov 2019 17:03:00 +0300

In his briefing on Yemen’s peace process on October 17, the United Nation’s Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, mentioned the importance of bringing peace to the currently besieged city of Taiz. Although the inhabitants of Taiz appreciate Mr. Griffiths’ sentiments, we want more than his word. We need the international community to unite behind our cause and strongly support local peace initiatives by putting pressure on all parties to the conflict, in order to force them into committing to peace in this unfortunate city.

Taiz, my city located in southwestern Yemen, is home to more than three million people living under a harsh siege enforced on us by Houthis for over four years. The people of my hometown have suffered tremendous adversity as a result of the siege, particularly with the prevention of humanitarian agencies to adequately provide assistance to those who need it the most. Likewise, travel that used to take minutes before the conflict is now an excruciating hours-long journey through dangerous territories.

Since the early days of the conflict in Yemen, Taiz has been one of the cities most affected by the conflict because the city serves as a battleground for warring parties—and sometimes between the allies themselves. Consequently, the city's infrastructure and basic service facilities have been damaged, and civilians have been targeted by landmines and snipers without deference to international humanitarian law, which aggravated the humanitarian situation.

However, a new initiative presented by influential local figures advocating for a humanitarian corridor allowing safe passage of aid and civilians may offer a ray of hope for Taiz. Houthi leadership has reacted positively to the suggestion so far, stating that they are willing to open such passage, and the governor of Taiz—who is affiliated with the internationally recognized Hadi government of Yemen—has similarly expressed interest. In the past few days a committee composed of representatives of civil society organisations, and endorsed by both sides of the conflict, arrived from Sana’a in Taiz to support the negotiations for opening the safe corridor. While the citizens of Taiz, who have been dealing with the siege for years, may be inclined to question the Houthi force’s true intentions—such an initiative should be taken seriously and forcefully supported.

This effort to create a humanitarian corridor in Taiz is not the first initiative of its kind, and I have personally been involved in several past initiatives aimed at breaking through the siege. However, there are lessons to be learned from previous failed initiatives to open a safe corridor in Taiz. At the top of the list, it is vital that the international community with the Arab Coalition, the P5, and the special envoy’s office all unite behind this cause in order to make real progress in Yemen’s peace process.

However, what is promising about this latest effort is that it comes at a time when the general public has reached a breaking point. For the inhabitants of Taiz, enough is enough, and now these citizens are putting real pressure on all decision makers to put an end to the current situation. Moreover, Houthis may be more inclined to cooperate given the recent agreement between President Hadi’s legitimate government and the Southern Transitional Council in Aden to put their differences aside—which had boiled over into conflict in previous months—and focus on their common enemy of the Houthis. Given these converging factors, it seems that both the political and popular climate is favorable for such a proposal, and such an effort may actually be successful if it is done right.

Previous efforts to open safe corridors failed because the regional rivalry had fed into the local conflict in Taiz. The city became a bargaining chip for both warring sides: the Houthis conditioned lifting the siege to opening the Sana’a airport, while the Arab Coalition and legitimate government used deteriorating conditions in Taiz to showcase the Houthis continuous breaches of human rights rather than focusing on solutions to the situation.

To make matters worse, there were multiple communication channels operating simultaneously within the legitimate governorate side, which confused efforts and even led to internal conflicts. On many occasions, internal political rivalries led to conflict instead of progress as political parties competed for representation in the effort to form a safe corridor. During these past efforts, breaking through the siege of Taiz was handled as a purely political matter rather than a humanitarian one. These and other reasons led to the failure of all previous initiatives, which we must avoid at this stage.

As such, Taiz has not received its due share of the world’s attention. For example, the latest Stockholm agreement from last year vaguely pointed out to the need to create a “joint committee” to explore solutions to the siege of Taiz, but left out any details as to how such a committee should operate. To this day, this committee has not even met once. Representation within the Committee was limited to specific figures and did not represent all of Taiz's political and social components, particularly youth, women, and civil society organizations.

Now all sides have a new opportunity to remedy past mistakes. I believe that Taiz is key to achieving peace throughout Yemen. The conflict in this city reflects the dynamics and complexities of the national conflict, albeit on a smaller scale. Therefore, if warring sides can reach an agreement on Taiz, it is likely that these efforts can open communication channels and help ease the way towards reaching an agreement throughout the entire country.

Practically speaking, the current initiative must be supported through serious efforts on four parallel tracks: challenges must be addressed through a political/diplomatic track, a humanitarian track, a social track, and a security track. In each of those categories, there are important local and international stakeholders who should work together and prioritize doing so in an organised and coordinated manner.

In terms of the political track, the Arab Coalition, P5, and UN envoy should lead the negotiations as they represent the guarantors for executing any local agreement. These actors can use the carrot-and-stick strategy to get the local negotiators in the Stockholm-joint committee to meet and support the current local initiative to reach an agreement to open at least one route into the city, which can serve as an initial step towards lifting the entire siege on Taiz.

The humanitarian side should be led by the international relief organisations, which can most effectively help build pressure towards ending the siege by bringing aid towards Taiz. By establishing a physical presence near the city, relief organizations can be on hand to enter the city immediately—if and when a deal has been reached.

The social track requires mobilizing socially influential and acceptable figures from both sides while ensuring the inclusion of women, youth, and civil society organisations to monitor the progress of opening these passages. The inclusion of these types of stakeholders ensures better transparency and representation of the society at large, while helping to facilitate the continuity of negotiations and mitigate potential political deadlocks. Such reformed local committees are best suited to ensure the execution of the political agreement to establish safe corridors on the ground and will be committed to keeping them open, standing against any elements who benefit from the siege. It is particularly important that international and regional actors pay attention to this local inclusion, as it is very likely those who benefit from the armed conflict will try to jeopardize the process.

Finally, the coordination of the security and military efforts must be done under direct supervision of both the local authority affiliated with the legitimate government and the Houthis who are the de-facto authority on the ground. Joint security committees should be formed to ensure smooth passage of aid and civilians as well as identifying and removing the landmines that were planted around the city.

Achieving peace is Taiz is a complex and difficult quest, as I have witnessed first-hand. Yet just because this is a difficult goal does not mean it should be abandoned. Instead of addressing symptoms of the conflict and focusing on the small fires here and there, the international community should pay attention to the major problems facing communities in Yemen, no matter how hard or complicated. Also, the failure of the previous initiatives should be interpreted into lessons-learned if we seek to achieve success.

The time has come to alleviate peoples’ suffering and achieve peace in Taiz. And this will only be attainable through regional and international pressure, good intentions on the part of local political forces, as well as the inclusion of women, youth, and civil society organizations in the peace making process.

Disclaimer:
This article, “Taiz: The Key to Peace in Yemen and a Chance to Save Three Million People”, was originally published by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy on their official platform Fikra Forum. It is republished here for informational and educational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of this website or its affiliates. All rights remain with the original publisher. To read the original version, please visit:
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/taiz-key-peace-yemen-chance-save-three-million-people

About the Author:
Dr. Olfat Al-Dubai is a lecturer in Social Studies at Taiz University. She served as a member of the National Dialogue Conference’s Transitional Justice working group and the Constitution Drafting Committee in Yemen. She is also an active member of the Women Solidarity Network and a recipient of the Peace Track Initiative Feminist Leadership Fellowship. Dr. Al-Dubai is a contributor to Fikra Forum, where she writes on peacebuilding, transitional justice, and gender issues in Yemen.