SPEECH BY SUSAN MCKAY FROM THE NATIONAL WOMEN’S COUNCIL AT THE LAUNCH OF THE IRISH NAP ON UN RESOLUT

Published: Thursday, November 24, 2011

SPEECH BY SUSAN MCKAY FROM THE NATIONAL WOMEN'S COUNCIL AT THE LAUNCH OF THE IRISH NAP ON UN RESOLUTION 1325.

The National Women's Council of Ireland is proud to play a part in the launch of the Irish National Action Plan on UN Resolution 1325. It is a fine plan, and it has already been welcomed by African women in Ireland through the person of Salome Mbugwa, director of Akidwa and deputy chairperson of the Women's Council.
I am here to represent the civil society organisations which took part in the consultation process which led to this NAP. They include Amnesty, Trocaire, the Irish Red Cross, Akidwa and the National Women's Council.
We collectively commend the government publishing this document, and for inviting us to contribute - we know the civil servants often wished they hadn't, but we did ultimately work well and constructively together to produce a NAP which is, in significant ways, unique.
There are many women in Ireland today who have experienced rape and other forms of gender based violence in their own persons or in their families and communities in Rwanda, Congo, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Bosnia and other countries. Ireland is the first developed country to recognise in its NAP a duty of care towards these women. I believe that the government did this because the civil society groups brought the voices of these women to the table, and they were compelling voices.
They reminded us of the devastating effects of gender based violence, and also that in many countries, women are still at risk of appalling sexual violence at the hands of militias, armies and, indeed, at the hands of armed men in their own families and communities. The work of the Consortium and of Irish Aid will be crucially important in ensuring that our NAP contributes to meaningful international interventions to stop this violence.
Our NAP also recognises that women experienced gender based violence during the conflict in the North of this country. It is a sensitive issue - the UK NAP does not include NI, and the Irish NAP cannot. There is work to be done on this issue - and our NAP leaves the door open for future work in this regard. Our own peace process has not been exemplary in terms of the participation of women and the NI assembly and the Dail are alike in being overwhelmingly male.
UN Resolution 1325 is about trying to stop the use of rape in conflict but it is also and just as importantly about making sure that women are included in peace processes as equal partners.
It is well established by now though poorly understood that extreme levels of violence against women during conflict do not simply cease once the conflict is over. During Liberia's recent wars, 75% of women in areas where the conflict was most intense were raped. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia told me in an interview that the culture of rape had remained in the national psyche and she and her government are tackling that.
Gender based violence, whether in wartime or peace time, is an extreme symptom of women's inequality. UN Resolution 1325 recognises this and our National Action Plan will contribute to ending that inequality and all the injustices that flow from it.
We would like to thank Mary Robinson for championing this and other related UN resolutions and inspiring us to believe that NAPs were important, and the Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Eamon Gilmore and all of his staff for including civil society in the process and for launching this NAP today. We thank the Joint Consortium on GBV for the excellent work it has already done on UN Resolution 1325 and also for allowing this launch to impinge on its annual meeting.
We also thank Inez McCormack for bringing her formidable diplomatic abilities to chairing the consultative process, Nata Duvurry for the exceptional skill with which she drafted the NAP, Shirley Graham who convened with great sensitivity the workshops for women affected by conflict, and Niamh Reilly who convened the Technical Group and had probably the clearest intellectual understanding of all of us of the need to get this right.
We are glad that this NAP is something Salome and other Africans in Ireland can welcome at a time when they are having to deal with the outcomes of violent racism in this country, including the recent gang rape of a young girl.