UNSCR 1325 Irish National Action Plan Process
Published: Saturday, June 19, 2010
As the 10th anniversary approaches of the historic UN Security Council Resolution on women, peace and security (UN SCR 1325), civil society groups launch a Best Practice Guide and call on Government to develop an effective and inclusive Irish National Action Plan and ensure implementation of the resolution at home and internationally.
Date: Thursday June 17th
Time: 11.30am-12.30am
Venue: Buswells Hotel, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2
Scheduled speakers:
Caroline Munyi, AkiDwA
Susan McKay, National Women's Council of Ireland
Colm O'Gorman, Amnesty International Irish Section
Niamh Reilly, National University of Ireland, NUI Galway
Deirdre Ni Cheallaigh, Trocaire
Since May 14th, there have been two meetings of the DFA/CRU Consultative Group on the Irish NAP - one on Thurs May 27th and another on Tues June 15th. This brings to four the total number of meetings. A final meeting is scheduled on Tues June 22nd.
1. Regarding Consultative Group Meeting of Thurs May 27th
Discussion of the Draft NAP was the only item on the meeting agenda circulated
Two days before the meeting, CRU circulated its first 'draft NAP'. The 35 page document was divided into three chapters and overall contained 12 'Strategic Objectives' (SOs) and approximately 80 'Actions':
- Chapter One: Keeping the Peace (4 Strategic Objectives)
- Chapter Two: Development and Peace-Building (7 Strategic Objectives)
- Chapter Three: International Commitments (1 Strategic Objective)
Secondarily, along with the draft NAP, CRU circulated a 20 page tabular document of descriptions of activities already undertaken by Government intended to show how many of the 'potential NAP objectives' included in the civil society submission of April 20 were already being addressed.
At the meeting, prefacing comments with recognition of the work and effort put into the CRU documents, the civil society members reiterated that the core recommendations contained in the Civil Society Submission document (April 20th) still applied, that is:
- Revise the target completion and launch date of the Irish National Action Plan on women, peace and security to International Women's Day 2011
- In cooperation with civil society organisations, devise and commence as soon as possible, a systematic and inclusive process of dialogue among relevant governmental and civil society stakeholders, including groups in Northern Ireland and women who have come to Ireland from other conflict situations.
- Affirm a commitment to developing a NAP in line with international best practice, organised around clearly stated Strategic Objectives, Actions, SMART Indicators and Targets, including clear budgetary allocations.
- Include in Ireland's NAP strong monitoring and evaluation (M&E) provisions
Representatives from NWCI, Amnesty, Trocaire, Banulacht spoke in turns on the urgency of slowing down to get the NAP right and offering suggestions for alternative ways to celebrate the 10th anniversary of 1325 other than rushing through a sub-standard plan. We asked Brian Glynn to bring all of our concerns to the Minister.
The issue of the Cross Learning Initiative was also raised again - Brian Glynn clarified that CRU were treating it as a completely separate process that would not feed into the Irish NAP in a direct way. He explained that CRU would prepare a report on cross learning in response to a UN request to do so and understood the process to be primarily oriented to informing implementation of 1325 outside of Ireland. In this context, he dismissed as inappropriate a proposal to invite Nuala O'Loan to meet with the consultative group in her capacity as 1325 Special Envoy.
The UNIFEM representative welcomed the Draft NAP.
Brian Glynn reiterated the CRU position that the NAP would be approved by Cabinet on July 6th, that we would bring our concerns to the attention of Minister Martin but did not expect any change in the planned schedule to complete the NAP by the end of June. He once more asked for comments on the draft NAP before the next meeting.
We noted that the Draft NAP contained no provision for Monitoring and Evaluation and lacked specific, measurable and timed targets. Brian Glynn said that these details would be prepared and circulated in advance of the next meeting, which we asked to be pushed back from June 4th to June 15th to allow more time to reflect on the documents that had been circulated only two days earlier.
Following the meeting, representatives of NWCI, Banulacht, Trocaire and Amnesty International agreed to prepare and publicly launch a 1325 Irish NAP 'Guide to Good Practice' in order to put our concerns and recommendations into the public domain and to generate wider debate domestically about 1325 and the Irish NAP. We scheduled a date for the launch of the Guide on June 17th. In this context we drafted two letters sent on Friday June 11th to 1) Brian Glynn CRU Director letting him know about our plan to launch the Guide and 2) Micheal Martin, setting out our concerns about the NAP process to date and asking for meeting with him.
Importantly, additional civil society organisations that make up the Joint Consortium on Gender Based Violence (beyond the DFA/CRU consultative group) also signed the letter to CRU and formally endorsed the Guide including: Action Aid, Akidwa, Amnesty International Ireland, Banúlacht, Childfund Ireland, Christian Aid, Concern, Global Women's Studies Programme, NUI Galway, National Women's Council of Ireland, Plan Ireland, Trócaire and World Vision Ireland.
2. Regarding Consultative Group Meeting of Tues June 15th
CRU circulated additional documents on Wed June 9th including:
i) Revised Draft NAP
ii) A 'framework' document using the same structure as the civil society submission, organised in columns under the headings of: Objective, Action, Actor, Indicator and Timeframe
iii) A 30 page annex containing descriptions of activities of participants in the three Cross Learning meetings in Belfast, Dili, and Monrovia
iv) A half page description of proposed Monitoring and Evaluation mechanism
Brian Glynn also circulated our letter to him re: the planned Guide + launch event to the wider Consultative Group upon receipt.
No agenda was circulated except to respond to our letter.
Brian Glynn commenced the meeting with a verbal report of Minister Martin's reply to our letter and a statement that a written reply would soon follow stating that:
i) The Irish NAP would go ahead as scheduled, be approved by Cabinet in July and presented to the UN as part of the 10th anniversary celebrations
ii) Minister Martin believes that is compares favourably to other NAP
iii) Securing Cabinet sign off gives an added dimension of commitment
iv)Women in Northern Ireland have been involved and played a key role in the Cross Learning Initiative
v) The Minister intended to discuss the possibility of NI developing its own 1325 NAP with the recently appointed Justice minister
In response, representatives from NWCI, Trocaire and Amnesty International noted:
- As a compilation of current Government programmes/activities, the documents circulated by CRU were a very good point of departure to develop a NAP - but cannot be called a NAP. Of the 80 or so 'actions' in the original draft fewer than 12 are in anyway specific - those that are, are confined mainly to peacekeeping planning and programmes with very little that is new or additional to current practice.
- The three chapter heads are unnecessarily limiting
- Overwhelmingly, the proposed 'actions' consist of very aspirational or trivial statements to 'encourage', 'advocate' or 'support' this or that, with little in the way of concrete, measurable actions.; Many proposed actions are too vague to be meaningful or too ambitious to be credible
- Fewer, targeted actions arrived at through a proper consultation process is the preferred civil society approach
- Most 'indicators' given do not comply with any of the SMART criteria - specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timed
- Some actions appear to misprepresent or replace already agreed work plans, for example, under the JCGBV umbrella, which again flags best practice for formulating and including actions in a NAP
- The Sierra Leone NAP launched recently was noted as a far superior NAP underpinned by the kind of thorough consultation process that Irish civil society groups have been calling for from the beginning. With due respect to Minister Martin, Ireland's proposed NAP does not compare well with it; if adopted it will damage Ireland's hard earned reputation as a supporter of 1325 and diminish rather than add to the current positive momentum globally to implement 1325
- Serious concerns were noted about the proposed inclusion in the NAP publication of an ANNEX of activities of Cross Learning session participants. The ANNEX had no substantive or logical connection to the Draft NAP (as previously clarified). It was also stressed that given that women and groups in NI had not been expressly consulted for the purposes of developing the NAP the inclusion of such material would be especially inappropriate and might reasonably be construed as tokenism. It was strongly recommended that the ANNEX be removed and not used in any form in the Irish NAP, but be included in a separate report on the CLI
- The proposal for Monitoring and Evaluation - is completely in adequate. It entails the continuation of the current consultative group under top down control of the DFA. The proposed resources are 'the time of staff' to participate in the CG along the same pattern followed to date. Civil society groups are invited to make submissions in the first year which will be considered - but will not be resourced in any way to do so and there is no commitment to take on board recommendations. It was noted that is not acceptable to civil society groups - especially given the experience to date and the fact that all civil society recommendations thus far had been dismissed. Brian Glynn replied that it was the same process as that in place on the Women's Strategy and he saw no reason to adopt a different approach to monitoring UNSCR 1325.
- It was suggested that references to the Draft being prepared 'in consultation with civil society' should be removed. Given that CRU had refused a request from Akidwa to consult with a wider group of migrant women who had experienced conflict, around the time of the first meeting of the consultative group, it was also recommended that references to Akidwa should also be removed.
- More generally, it was stressed that as it stands, the current proposed NAP does not have the support of the leading national civil society groups involved and this had serious implications for the integrity and viability of the NAP.
An academic representative (Anastasia Crickley - who had been absent for the previous two meetings) also noted that the actions in the Draft NAP were very vague and that the language used throughout needed to be much more specific to be meaningful. She called on Brian Glynn to find a way to take on board the work done by civil society members to date and cautioned against including the ANNEX when the NAP is published for approval. The UNIFEM representative also called for more specific language on actions.
Brian Glynn closed the meeting with a request for further inputs and comments on the Draft NAP before the June 22nd meeting.
Where from here?
The Best Practice Guide will be launched on June 17th 2010. Event announcements, press releases and press briefings have been circulate to civil society networks, media and parliamentarians within Ireland. Parliamentary questions on the readiness and resourcing of the planned NAP have been tabled.
We need to consider and decide on the following:
- Formal resignation from the DFA consultative group
- Coordination of wider/international dissemination of the Guide with a call on WPS civil society networks, groups and individuals to support Irish civil society groups and write to Minister Martin and the Taoiseach, urging them to slow down and get the Irish NAP right in time for IWD 2011
- Consult further with civil society colleagues in NI around possibility of a NI 1325 NAP process and how that might link to a fresh start Irish NAP process