On April 10, 2009 – despite a Supreme Court ruling that declared the military coup of December 5, 2006 illegal – a Public Emergency Regulation was enforced following the purported abrogation of Fiji’s Constitution by the (then) President of Fiji Ratu Josefa Iloilo. He also reinstated the 2006 coup instigator and military commander Frank Bainimarama as the Prime Minister. The “new” administration, which continues to govern through Presidential Decree, has stated that they plan to remain in power until 2014.
Following the dismantling of parliamentary democracy as well as local government structures in Fiji since the military coup, women have learned to transform this constrained political space. Through organisations like femLINKPACIFIC we have negotiated for a minimum of 30 per cent of representatives on district and provincial level development committees to be women.
Importantly, these committees also serve as the entry point to inform the National Security Council, an entity which is central in determining approaches to security issues and prioritising security threats, both internal and external. Ensuring women’s perspectives are included in the workings of the Council is therefore critical, but historically has been patchy. A big part of the reason why women are so woefully absent from formal peace processes hinges around access, or the lack of it.
Here in Fiji, despite the reality of needing official approval for consultations and broadcasts, femLINKPACIFIC has been able to organise a series of ‘Women, Peace and Human Security’ consultations in Nadi and Suva since 2007. These consultations, involving a diverse and multi-ethnic group of local women leaders, have built on our almost instinctive nature to mobilise, especially in our capital cities.
Purposefully working across the (too-often politicised) racial divides has built women’s confidence and an understanding of the need for women’s civil society networks. This is critical because too often we are simply invited to “engage” without preparing ourselves and so we end up bringing our own political baggage rather than trying to strategically influence and transform the status quo. But since the coup in 2006 I have been asking myself, how do we take it to that next level with women from local or rural communities; how do we also influence the formal peace spaces closest to home? This requires investing in a core group of local women to understand how those spaces work and to have the skills to work in those spaces.
This has been the motivation behind developing femLINKPACIFIC’s ‘Women, Peace and Security Architecture’. I have purposefully referred to it as a structure because I would like to see this “Track II” dialogue process become a concrete base for women’s engagement and inclusion.
Our ‘Peace Talks’ training model brings women together to discuss peace and security issues and invests time in building their capacity to liaise with significant government stakeholders. For example, in partnership with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and the UNDP Pacific Centre, we were able to “open the doors” to the Forum Regional Security Committee (FRSC) for the first time in 2006, enabling ‘Pacific Peacewomen’ (regional advocates of UN Security Council Resolution 1325) to sit with government officials as the women, peace and security agenda was introduced to the FRSC for the first time embodied in UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (SCR 1325). A commitment to these policy goals was also reflected in the Pacific Leaders’ statement in 2006 as well as in statements made by some Pacific delegations during the annual Open Debate on SCR 1325 at the UN Security Council in October.
Since then, SCR 1325 advocates have continued to engage with FRSC officials on an annual basis. In 2009, in recognition of the need to develop a formal engagement process, the Political Division of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat staged two consultative meetings with civil society. As a result, a space has been opened not only for dialogue but also for information sharing.
Having conducted ‘Peace Talks’ training at national and regional level since 2008, in 2010 we’ve focussed on local level training. We’ve been working with women’s leaders to create local women, peace and human security action plans which are linked to the relevant articles of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. We realised that we need to demonstrate links to CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action so that policymakers can see how to integrate these global commitments with local peace and development frameworks.
During the recent tenth anniversary of SCR 1325 the UN Security Council issued a presidential statement reaffirming its “commitment to the continuing and full implementation” of a Council resolution on women and peace and security. Additionally the Fiji statement, as well as the Pacific Small Islands Developing States statement, both affirmed the need for the development of a Pacific Regional Action Plan to promote implementation. A Pacific Regional Action Plan also has the potential to bring together a series of high-level regional commitments into viable national action plans, which is essential to enhance security sector governance policies and programmes in our region.
Our work is grounded in our desire for peace and security for women, not only in their homes and communities, but also ensuring that they are visible and heard in dialogue and peace processes. This work gives life to our values of non violence and feminist practices. As Virginia Woolf alluded to in “A Room of One’s Own” there is also a need to ensure that the necessary resources are mobilised so that women have the opportunity to write their stories, have their voices heard, and their identities represented particularly when it comes to the peace and security sector.
Sharon Bhagwan Rolls is the coordinator of the FemLINKPACIFIC, a women’s media organisation based in the capital of Suva, which she founded in September 2000 in response to the 2000 Fijian coup d’état.
FemLINKPACIFIC developed a mobile women’s community radio station in Fiji in 2004, to provide women in local communities with a relevant information and communication platform. The radio’s purpose is to increase the visibility of women and their issues in decision-making forums.
Ms. Bhagwan-Rolls also co-produced a number of community videos, including “Balancing the Scale” which won the Fiji Human Rights Commission television award.
