The 67^th UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) took place from the 6^th to 17^th March , 2023 under the theme “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”

Women’s International Peace Centre Peace hosted a parallel event on feminist peace & movement building in the digital age on 10th March.

The event brought together Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) and peacebuilders from Burundi, South Sudan, Uganda and Nepal to share their experiences with access to and use of digital technologies to advance women’s leadership and feminist peace.

Discussions highlighted the specific cases of young women, refugee women, women in rural areas and women in advocating for peace in contexts with shrinking civic space, limited digital infrastructure and challenges of access to and safe use of digital platforms.

For instance, in South Sudan, women used digital platforms to advocate for inclusive peace processes. They organized and held virtual meetings, discussed transitional justice issues, drafted statements and shared them using social media to decision makers for action.

Digital technologies also enhanced women’s power to share their experiences on social media, to discuss violations and call for action in real life

For many women and girls, the prospects/opportunities of digitalization are limitless with so many benefits which include access to information and knowledge sharing, the ability to build movements and fostering connections with others. However, the same is true for the dangers associated with it.

Women peacebuilders and vocal women are oftentimes threatened, face online trolls, backlash and are forced to endure character assassinations and online sneak campaigns. These pose great challenges that hinder women’s empowerment in digital skills.

By end of the meeting, women’s innovations, good practices and recommendations for ensuring diverse conflict-affected women are included in efforts to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in the context of innovation and technological change in the digital age were spotlighted.

Find more videos of women peace builders here;

https://studio.youtube.com/video/-7fLebrAxEw/edit

https://studio.youtube.com/video/IpgvDdIIvL4/edit

https://studio.youtube.com/video/xSrgeOccx8I/edit

Currently, the Women’s International Peace Centre is implementing a project  “Building Sustainable Peace: Women, Peace, and Security (2019-2022)” in South Sudan. The project seeks to strengthen the capacity of women in South Sudan to mitigate conflict and sustain peace by enhancing their peace-building skills with a focus on mediation, conflict early warning, monitoring, analysis, and reporting from an engendered perspective. 

From 20^th to 25^th June 2022, The Peace Centre conducted a training for 41 young women leaders from Wau, Yei, and Juba in South Sudan under the theme: “Young Women as Champions of Peace Building”, including youth leaders in the informal sector, young women leaders with disabilities, Civil Society youth leaders, political parties, academia, and female journalists.

Major topics of discussion included; Understanding peace and security in South Sudan, climate change and its dimensions in S.Sudan, documenting, reporting from a gender and women, peace and security lens, sexual reproductive health, and understanding feminist digital activism as an advocacy action plan.

During the training, participants were guided to share on the status of WPS in their communities. Key issues raised included increased gang violence, rape that is perpetuated by soldiers, weak laws on Gender Based Violence and the economic situation causing frustration in people among others.

Participants were also introduced to UN Security Council Resolution 1325 which emphasises the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peace-building initiatives

It was noted that South Sudan is subject to International, continental and domestic frameworks such as; the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on Rights of women in Africa (MAPUTO Protocol), AU Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, Intergovernmental Authority of Development to mention but a few whose commitments she needed to respect. This however has not been the case as evidenced by the level of insecurity in the country.

The training also highlighted climate change and its impacts such as food insecurity and famine, displacements, excercabation of poverty as major causes of instability in the country thus solutions had to be found to combat the escalating problem.

Other topics of discussion included leadership skills, financial literacy skills, wellness and self-care sessions.

From the training, the young women developed action plans focusing on addressing issues of early child pregnancies/marriages; Child labor and street children, and inaccessibility of Sexual Reproductive Health Rights for women living with disabilities which were to be implemented in their various communities based on the knowledge acquired.

Through implementing the project “Strengthening Capacities for Women’s effective Participation in Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding in South Sudan (2022)”, the Women’s International Peace Centre project seeks to strengthen the capacity of women in South Sudan to mitigate conflict and sustain peace through enhancing their peace building skills.

Read More “Training Women Peace Mediators; Strengthening Capacities for Women’s Effective Participation in Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding in South Sudan”