Papers, Newsletters, Reports & StatementsThe Role of Women in Peacebuilding and the Prevention of Violent Extremism

February 12, 2018, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM
LB Soriano Hall, SEAMEO INNOTECH
Quezon City

BACKGROUND

The growing influence of ISIS in Southeast Asia has created a serious concern among its governments that it could establish a foothold by linking with local extremist organizations, in areas already affected by ethnic conflict with the state. Due to this rising threat, there has been calls among various stakeholders to strengthen existing networks against radicalization and to search for sustainable, multi-level and inclusive approaches to address this transnational problem.  For the Philippines, in particular, the recent Marawi siege points to the urgency of capacitating key stakeholders and engaging the local community in initiatives to address the rising influence of violent extremism.

 

The forum is a follow-through of the recently held Conference on Peace and the Prevention of Violent Extremism (CPPVE) last September 22-23, 2017 which gathered more than 400 delegates regionally. Recognizing the need for a more holistic, developmental approach to prevent violent extremism, the participants affirmed their commitments thereto in a statement, which included asserting the role of “women, youth, religious, business, academia, politics and government in inculcating the culture of peace, tolerance, moderation, democracy, rule of law and human rights to our people as effective means of preventing radicalization”. In line with promoting this more inclusive approach to PVE, PCID in collaboration with other civil society organizations, the academe, and government agencies, seek to organize several forums and focused group discussions engaging the critical sectors of the society with the objective of eliciting thoughts, perspectives, and recommendations in a conducive platform where such sectors can interact and collaborate with the government and the private sector, and among themselves.

 

Relevant to this forum for women, the statement of the participants highlighted the engagement of women, who more often than not are victims of this phenomena, in PVE. As part of PCID’s follow through activities, this is the second consultative forum engaging the women sector, organized in collaboration with the Women and Gender Institute (WAGI) and the Center for Legislative Development (CLD). The first one was held in Marawi City with the objective of allowing more Muslim women from the affected areas to be part of the consultation. In this second forum, PCID sought to engage not only women leaders who are based in the National Capital Region, but also those coming from the island provinces of Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi, who were unable to join the first forum.

 

As with the consultative forum for women held in Marawi City last January 30, the objectives of the forum were, as follows:

1. Primarily, it is to formulate recommendations in relation to the role of Women for the national action plan in preventing violent extremism;
2. To engage the Women sector in dialogue to better understand their thoughts and perspectives on the current situation in Marawi and the actions being taken by the National Government as regards conflict resolution, recovery and rehabilitation; and
3. To create a space for the women to share their concerns and perspectives as regards violent extremism in order to promote better understanding of the current trend in violent extremism, and to develop interventions or strategies for women on how they can react to it, as well as, evaluate existing strategies in relation to them.

SYNTHESIS

Women participants from Noorus Salam, an organization of Muslim women scholars, and the government, particularly from the security sector, and representatives from civil society organizations, attended the second leg of consultations with women on the topic of peacebuilding and the prevention of violent extremism (PVE). The forum was held at the LB Soriano Hall, SEOMEO Innotech, Quezon City. The Philippines, along with most ASEAN countries, has not yet developed its own National Action Plan on PVE. Thus, the forum, which was a whole day event had the objective of coming up with recommendations to the action plan on PVE relevant to the women sector, particularly, those situated in conflict areas.

 

Atty. Salma Pir Rasul, PCID Programs Director, welcomed the participants to the forum, which is one of the activities in the series of public consultations, forums, and workshops PCID has been conducting in close partnership with WAGI and CLD with the overarching theme of promotion and enhancement of the capacity of Muslim women.

 

To give further information regarding this series of activities, Prof. Aurora Javate de Dios was tasked to give a brief introduction on behalf of WAGI as one of the organizers of the event. WAGI, an academe-based advocacy center on gender concerns and issues based in Miriam College, has long been a partner of PCID in the area of capacity building in women, political participation, and empowerment of women in Mindanao. To further elucidate the participants on the purpose of the forum, she highlighted the implications of VE as a holistic problem and a national issue, and the strategic role of women in PVE and CVE.

 

The WAGI-PCID partnership was later joined by CLD, which brings us to Dr. Socorro L. Reyes, who likewise spoke briefly about CLD, to which she is the Regional Gender and Governance Adviser. CLD, the first non-government legislative support organization that provided capacity building services to the legislature, has been around since 1980. She emphasized a few points including among others, looking at VE not only by non-state actors but by state actors, use of sexual violence as an instrument of war, the use of the participatory framework in determining the role of women in PVE, and the determining the scope of the agenda that should be pursued as a preliminary step to this.

 

Prior to the workshop which will be held in the afternoon, guest speakers NCMF Regional Director Camad Edres of NCMF-NCR and UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee Senior Gender Humanitarian Advisor, Ms. Indai Sajor, were assigned to give updates regarding Marawi and to talk about the experience of MENA and Africa in dealing with violent extremism, respectively. Dir. Edres’ discussion touched upon the return and rehabilitation of evacuees, which included the recovery of losses, distribution of assistance to victims, and the rebuilding of infrastructures destroyed during the siege. He also talked about the role of mothers in curtailing the spread of radicalization at the community level. Ms. Sajor, who is an internationally recognized activist and educator in the field of women’s human rights, conflict prevention and humanitarian response, talked about VE in the context of humanitarian response in relation to her work in the Middle East to the emergencies brought about by war and armed conflict.

In the afternoon session, inputs, thoughts, and recommendations from Muslim women leaders were gathered in focus group discussions on how they can contribute to existing and future PVE efforts. They were divided into three groups which separately held FGDs to answer guide questions on VE and PVE in Mindanao. Their recommendations centered on the role of women as mothers and nurturers in their families. All three groups saw the crucial role of religious leaders in counter messaging and communicating with a greater impact to a bigger audience, and the role of the Madrasah among the youth who are targets of radicalization. After the presentation of results by the groups, a few more recommendations were proposed to operationalized some of the measures suggested such as parthership with the National Ulama Conference of the Philippines in relation to the incorporation of the topic of VE in khutbah and advocating for opportunities for women to pursue higher education in Islamic studies in order to provide a wider perspective in the interpretation of the Islamic text, a significant role presently monopolized by Male Muslim Religious scholars.

 

RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

Morning Session

 

P

rof. Aurora Javate de Dios is the Programs Director, formerly Executive Director, of WAGI. Since this forum is one of the activities in the series of public consultations, forums, and workshops PCID has been conducting in close partnership with WAGI and CLD for women, she was tasked to give a brief introduction to said long-term project by PCID, WAGI, and CLD which was sponsored by the USAID and the US State Department. The project, which is now on its tail end, consist of a series of trainings on providing capacities to local women leaders in conflict areas in the Philippines including among others, Marawi, Zamboanga, Maguindanao, and the ARMM. The series of activities were organized initially with the objective of preparing Muslim women in self-governance in preparation for the BBL, but this was later on modified to include trainings and forums to prepare women leaders in dealing with violent extremism.

 

Look at VE as a HOLISTIC problem and a NATIONAL issue.

 

Prof. De Dios stressed how violent extremism should not be viewed in a vacuum as the root causes of the unrest and instability lies deep in socioeconomic problems, the negligence of the government, or the deprivation of rights, but rather the issues of VE should be viewed with a holistic perspective. Further, it should also be viewed as a national issue and not an issue isolated to a few regions in Mindanao.

 

In view of the Marawi siege, the issue of addressing VE emerged as one of the urgent concerns of the government. Given the limited reach and capacity of non-government organizations, it became more critical to strengthen partnerships between such organizations and the government in order to act timely and effectively against VE, and while there is cause for such action, the peace process should not be sidelined any more than it has. Prof. De Dios emphasized that VE should be simultaneously addressed alongside the push for the conclusion of the long-drawn peace process which has gripped the southern part of the country for decades.

 

Moreover, she underscored that considering the nature of VE and its root causes, the campaign should be long term and not just a short-term reaction to the Marawi crisis. For one, there should be a push for a more tolerant society. Until issues of discrimination and exclusion against certain sectors of the society are not seriously addressed, communities will be vulnerable to the entry of radicalization and violent extremism.

 

Women have a strategic role against Violent Extremism and Fundamentalism.

 

In relation to this, women due to their particular positioning in society have a strategic role in VE considering their capabilities and influence, which most women do not realize. This is however proven by many women leaders in other parts of the world who have been successful in the field. Prof. De Dios stated that women have a strategic role for two reasons: they have a strong influence on their children, families, and local communities, and they are usually the first ones to detect changes in the society.

 

 

D

1. Socorro Reyes is currently the Regional Gender and Governance Adviser of the Center for Legislative Development (CLD). CLD has been around since 1980 and the first non-government legislative support organization that provided capacity building services to the legislature that is elected soon after the ouster of the dictatorship. In her opening message, she pointed out how VE should be viewed as only being committed by non-state actors as extreme violence may also be committed by the state, particularly in responding to situations like this. She stressed that the State has a monopoly of coercive force, and as such, there should be a balance in looking and analyzing at how violence is used both by the non-state and state actors, including the use of sexual violence.

 

There should be a gender perspective in the framework for the development of a PVE action plan and in Damage and Loss Assessment.

 

Dr. Reyes also pointed how the framework in most national action plans or any action plans for that matter in relation to VE and in pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1325[1] is focused on the protection of women rather than the participation framework, which basically redefines power relationships. She stated that this is unfortunate because the perspective becomes restrictive, substantive inputs which would widen the scope of the agenda and not be limited only to decommissioning of arms, are not taken into account, and women’s concerns are sidelined to give way to military components of the action plan.

 

Further, Dr. Reyes emphasized the importance of damage and loss assessment as one of the critical components in rehabilitation after the occurrence of long-drawn crises such as what happened in Marawi, and on whether or not there is a gender perspective to it, that is the damage and losses that women suffered are taken into meaningful consideration, and consequently, incorporated in reconstruction, rehabilitation, and compensation packages.

 

Marawi was ripe for the influence of external forces such as ISIS.

 

Lastly, she discussed how an event such as the Marawi siege is usually seen as a product solely of external forces which, in that particular case, would be due to the entry of ISIS forces in the country. She explained that this view should be changed to consider both external and internal factors combined. Using the “stone and egg analogy”, she concluded that the success of extremist groups in recruitment of forces could have been thwarted if not for the presence of internal circumstances which already present in Mindanao, such as the deepening frustration against the government due to the protracted peace process, historical injustices unaddressed for years, and high poverty index.

 

 

D

1. Camad Edres is the current Regional Director of the NCMF-NCR. He has been an active partner of PCID in the latter’s PVE initiatives. As in previous similar forum for women in peacebuilding and PVE held last January 30, 2018 in Marawi, he was tasked to give an update on the Marawi situation. His main points of discussion were concerns on the rehabilitation and return of evacuees, the recovery of losses, and certain issues with the distribution of assistance to victims, such as reports of favoritism or of goods not actually getting to the real beneficiaries.

 

The extent of physical destruction in Marawi could have been avoided if the government did not use too much brute force.

 

As to the physical rehabilitation of the city, he said that it would take years before Marawi can be fully rehabilitated due to the massive destruction, and that such breadth of destruction could have in fact been avoided if the government did not use too much brute force. There are also personal issues in the rehabilitation concerning the Maranaos, among these issues, is the rebuilding of the Mosques. He said that 90% of the mosques in the main affected area are damaged.

 

As to women in PVE, he underscored the crucial role of women as mothers in their families and in their communities.

 

M

1. Indai Sajor was the guest speaker for the morning session. She is an internationally recognized activist and educator in the field of women’s human rights, conflict prevention and humanitarian response. She was recently in Iraq till (December) working with UNFPA and UN OCHA conducting a survivors’ assessment of sexual and gender-based violence, a product of violent extremism. She has over 30 years of experience working in countries in situations of war and armed conflicts and in humanitarian emergency situations, in Afghanistan, Darfur/Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Eritrea, Ethiopia to name a few in the MENA region as well as in Asia and the Pacific.

 

She is currently a UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee Senior Gender Humanitarian Advisor preparing for deployment to Pakistan by the end of the month. In this role she is the Gender Advisor of the UN Country Representative as well as with the UN Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) in their policy response to humanitarian crisis.

 

For this forum, she was tasked to speak about the MENA-Africa experience in PVE.[2] She began by pointing out that VE has been in existence for centuries and can be exhibited along a range of issues, including politics, religion and gender relations. For her presentation, she noted that she will be talking in the context of humanitarian response in relation to her current work. She stressed that the greatest cause of current and future crises are internal conflicts, giving rise to some of the largest humanitarian crises since World War II. Moreover, she noted that, beyond statistics, human suffering, loss of lives and devastation connected to these crises are unquantifiable. The intensification of international and internal armed conflicts is considered a high risk in the coming ten years; extremism, terrorism and transnational crime continues to threaten global stability.

 

We should learn how to localize our response to extremism

 

Thereafter, she explained localization which she believed should be strengthened, and the role of national and local responders. Localization is the means of preparing those who are situated in affected areas due to the crisis or those merely threatened by the conflict to be more resilient. Some of the measures to localize responses to extremism she discussed were increasing direct funding to NGOs for humanitarian action, strengthening partnerships, promoting transparency on transfer of resources to NGOs, and empowering local communities by not undermining their capacities. In relation to the role of women in PVE, localization recognizes the role of women’s organization as first responders and peacebuilders in their communities.

 

Women are always at risk of exclusion from decision making and being treated as spoils of war, localization can increase vulnerability rather than self-reliance.

 

Due to the evolution of crisis becoming more complex and persistent, the conventional policy and operational separations between development, humanitarian action, and conflict prevention and peace building no longer prevail as such efforts are being made to improve alignment between humanitarian and development thus entailing closer collaboration and strengthening of empowered leadership, joint analysis, planning, coordination and financing between humanitarian and development actors.

 

Afternoon Session

 

The afternoon session was a workshop in the form of focus group discussions. Before the start of the workshop, Atty. Salma Pir Rasul, on behalf of PCID President Amina Rasul-Bernardo, first discussed the role of women in preventing violent extremism, the current initiatives being undertaken by women-led and women’s organizations, networks and institutions, and the role of PCID to initiate and advocate for strengthening women’s roles in the society particularly in PVE with the help of CSOs, WAGI, CLD and its various government and private partners.

 

Thereafter, she discussed the post-conference[3] plans of PCID, focusing primarily on private-public partnership and continuous engagements in order to avoid duplication of efforts and so that the impact is maximized. She highlighted was the use of information and communication technology in recruitment and channeling of funds to extremist groups, and the development of cyber security strategies in cyber space. In this age, every environment is influenced to some extent by technology. Other plans included the engagement of madrasah teachers and health workers, provision of livelihood activities to women as they are known to supplement household income, and the organization of activities which aim to enlighten LGUs on the role women can play in the development of local communities.

 

FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS

 

Atty. Salma Rasul announced the mechanics for the focus group discussion. The participants were divided into three groups. The grouping was done through a count off method.  The afternoon workshop was an in-depth discussion of issues among discussants with the specific objective of coming up with objective actionable measures based on the general recommendations proposed during the ASEAN Conference, but may also include suggestions outside of the Conference results. The three groups were to discuss their ideas, plans, and sentiments specifically regarding the discussions earlier on Marawi and violent extremism, as well.

 

The groups were asked to choose an FGD Facilitator among themselves who will guide the conduct of the discussion, and a Presenter, who, after their respective group’s ideas are summarized, will present and share their results to the other groups.

 

Three guide questions were provided in the discussion. The questions were, as follows:

1. Do you think that the government succeeded in eradicating extremism by eliminating the leaders and followers of the “Marawi siege”?
2. Do you think the following initiatives of the government can effectively address or deter violent extremism in Mindanao? How so?
   • Immediate passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law
   • The shift to Federalism
   • Establishing a Revolutionary Government
3. How can women or women-led organizations, networks, and institutions be instrumental in addressing radicalisation and the spread of extremist propaganda? In this age of instant connectivity, how can women counter extremist narratives more effectively, especially among the youth?

[1] Resolution on Peace, Women, and Security

[2] See Annex for Full Speech by Ms. Indai Sajor

[3] This is in reference to the Sept. 22-23 2017 Conference on Peace and Prevention of Violent Extremism.