YouSaid · the spoken record

Qadeem

lines on the record: 13
first: 2018-08-29
most recent: 2018-08-29
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“But we do not live in the realm of fantasy. Our wars are complex and multifaceted. Our peace processes must be rooted in that reality. It is time to value, recognize and seek the advice of women who are already mediating on the ground and who have access to and the trust of the parties - whether in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen or Syria. Only together can we foster just and sustainable peace.”
2018-08-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8334 (2018) · source
“I believe that the recently established Commonwealth Women Mediators Network will provide the much- needed system of patronage and structural support to women to provide them with opportunities of mentoring, advice provision and access to new practice-based experience that will help them increase their competitiveness, confidence and capacity to take on advanced leadership roles and upper-level positions. We are seeing conflicts become more protracted and metastasize across borders and continents. I have a question. How much longer can the world really afford to exclude those of us who are making peace at the front lines? In ideal conditions, peace processes would be between two major parties - for instance, two nations, with one mediator. Ceasefire lines could be drawn and fighters could go home to their own communities.”
2018-08-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8334 (2018) · source
“My experience from the platform of the Women's Alliance for Security Leadership, while interacting with women peacemakers, reveals that women mediators strategically start with the softer issue-that is, the common societal issues -by seeking consensus and then take on the hard-core issues, such as de-weaponization and de-escalation, to completely transform radical youth and women. Women must be included in track-one mediation processes to achieve a greater degree of gender equality in society and its institutions, and to improve the durability of peace for everyone - men, women and children, and States and citizens alike. I believe that women have skills and experience at all levels of mediation and peacebuilding, but qualified women are not being used to engage in mediation work.”
2018-08-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8334 (2018) · source
“For example, women can demand language on violence against women and on women's citizenship rights or women's participation in transitional and implementation bodies. Women's engagement is particularly important in mediating track-two and track-three processes. Women effectively use soft power and the humanization of communication to create more open and flexible processes. Women's bridging capabilities and future orientation can help parties find common cause in reaching agreement for the civic good. It is usually assumed that women only represent women and that they do not bring experience or expertise on other issues to the table. That has the effect of sidelining women and seeking their views only on soft, social or community issues. That is not correct.”
2018-08-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8334 (2018) · source
“In the context of international conflicts, we all know that emphasis on relational aspects and fairness in distribution are valuable traits for achieving lasting peace. Women should be involved in mediation and peace processes because, at a basic level, their participation is a question of equity and equality. It matters because peace negotiations and the agreements they generate set the structure and design for post-conflict reconstruction and politics, as just mentioned by the Secretary-General, which affect the lives of not only women but the whole of society. Women mediators can ensure that processes and agreements are more gender-sensitive and thus more comprehensive and legitimate.”
2018-08-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8334 (2018) · source
“In spite of all of the institutional, cultural and structural barriers, women's mediatory roles at the informal levels have often served as blueprints for negotiations. One reason for that is that women have a different connection to communities, families and households that can be particularly helpful in localized peacebuilding. Women also place greater relative weight on interaction-specific aspects of mediation than men do and often perceive most negotiations to include a relationship dimension, even in the most challenging environment. From intervention with family members who may be fighting with armed groups, to advocacy for referendums associated with peace agreements, to serving as a part of early warning systems for conflict prevention, women provide a grass-roots underpinning to peacebuilding processes.”
2018-08-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8334 (2018) · source
“Again, ICAN's Better Peace Tool provides the answer: women's organizations with certain core values; women with the skills and knowledge relevant to the negotiations and agenda; women who understand the art of crafting the storytelling process in order to humanize potential; women who employ imaginative thinking to create new possibilities within cultural realities; women with the ability to draft an effective agreement; women who are self-assured and persevering; women with leadership qualities and lack of ego. Lastly, I would like to set out some lessons I have drawn from my own experiences of mediation and from examples of many women mediators and peacebuilders around the world.”
2018-08-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8334 (2018) · source
“I found the courage, not only to speak with and persuade them to release my staff members, whom they had captured because they were carrying out health and education projects, but also to take the chance to seek support for the implementation of the same projects. That is mediation. I have found that in mediation, it is essential to speak to each person's core humanity. Believe me, it breaks down barriers and works miracles. I am not essentializing women or claiming that all women can do it. I am speaking specifically about women, such as the members of the Women's Alliance, who have the extraordinary vision, courage and skill to engage in such deeply dangerous work. Often the barrier-question posed is: Who are the right women for the job?”
2018-08-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8334 (2018) · source
“In Hudaydah, Yemeni women are saving lives on the front lines of a devastating war where people are completely under siege. Food for Humanity, an organization led by a woman and a partner of our coalition, the Women's Alliance for Security Leadership, was able to mediate and convince conflicting parties to allow people to leave the area. It also provided humanitarian aid after the Red Cross pulled out in early June. Let me share my own experience in Pakistan. In one of the areas hardest hit by violent extremism and the military's responses to it, there, where no one would dare stand up to the Taliban, out of necessity I had a dialogue with their leaders. For us working and living at the local level, there is no other option.”
2018-08-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8334 (2018) · source
“If the Council is serious about ending wars, then acknowledging their complexity is a critical first step bcause it can lead to designing mediation processes that address that complexity by drawing on the vast resources we have as local actors, and especially as women. Perhaps some are now sceptical and wondering how women can talk to violent extremism groups, such as Boko Haram, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) or the Taliban, who are typical actors in the wars of our time. Years ago, our sister Visaka of Sri Lanka took seven other mothers of missing soldiers, like her, to meet the Tamil Tigers. And after convincing the LTTE, she successfully mediated a ceasefire, followed by peace talks between the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka.”
2018-08-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8334 (2018) · source
“Everywhere we look at the local level, we see women doing the majority of that work. Perhaps it is because we think of a mediator as having power and gravitas - terms that are inherently masculine - with the ability to knock heads or press for compromises. If the wars and conflicts we experience today were similar to those ofthe nineteenth or twentieth century, perhaps that form of high-power mediation would be the only solution. But today's conflicts are different. There is a proliferation of actors, who are often highly localized. So many of the key players are often hidden and, frankly, unreachable by United Nations envoys.”
2018-08-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8334 (2018) · source
“So often we hear that women's exclusion is cultural and that they cannot play a mediation role in a particular conflict because of local cultural factors. However, if that were the case, surely there would be vast differences between, for example, Nepal and Colombia. They hardly share the same culture. Women's exclusion is not about culture; it is about power. Or we hear the integrity or legitimacy of women's peace coalitions being questioned. Frankly, as suggested by the Better Peace Tool, one of the booklets developed by the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN), we should reframe the question. Why should wielding weapons and threatening violence be the only ticket to peace talks? If we are serious about achieving peace, we also need peace actors, such as civil society and relief workers.”
2018-08-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8334 (2018) · source
“Ms. Qadeem: It is an honour to be here in the Security Council today. I thank the United Kingdom for giving me the opportunity to address this important topic. I would like to focus my intervention on the role of women in mediation. As Council members all know, for 18 years, as women peace practitioners and strategists working on the front lines oftoday's most complex global conflicts, we have called for, advocated and demanded recognition and inclusion in peace processes and at the peace tables that world Powers sponsor and facilitate. But despite the rhetoric of support and even the resolutions and national action plans that States have adopted, we as women remain largely on the outside. Why is that? I would like to start by addressing some common misconceptions.”
2018-08-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8334 (2018) · source