Imagine one day, we all decided to re-define peacemaking and that women were able to create their own peace processes, negotiations and peace agreements?
That we no longer had to rely on a traditional top-down institutional approach to peace and security, embedded in patriarchal practices and beliefs designed to exclude women's voices and experiences?
Imagine, one day, we no longer had to use a business case to explain why women's participation is essential for peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction? Rather, we spoke of inclusive participation as inherent not because women are the most affected by wars, therefore deserve a seat in the 'table', but because it was their fundamental human right to have a equal opportunity in shaping the future?
What if we shifted institutional norms and gendered notions around peace and security and instead re-defined it in a way that reflects the complex realities of those with lived experiences? Imagine we re-diverted our effort and attention in creating new approaches and practices to peace, security, and feminism?
What will a decolonized approach to peace and security look like?
In this new decolonized approach to peace and security; I imagine a few radical changes, firstly inviting women to the 'table' was no longer our focus. Alternatively, women peacebuilders and activists would create their own decision-making spaces and power that would be inclusive to all and place enormous value on informal local-led peace initiatives, and knowledge.
Secondly, the valuable contribution of local women's right leadership, and civil society organizations that have been effectively mobilizing for decades but made invisible due to unequal power dynamics and hierarchy, would now be leading the way in providing the global world with sustainable solutions to conflict, violence and instability.
The International community of UN agencies and development organizations will now take steps to decolonize their practices and approach. Rather than fitting women into their top-down institutions, they will come down to local communities, listen, and take notes of women-led mobilization in peace-building.
In this new decolonized approach, peace-building is no longer an emancipation project, thus speaking for and over women and girls in local communities is a thing of the past. The power dynamics would have shifted, black and brown women and girls will reclaim their power, and speak on their own narratives and experiences.
In a decolonized approach to women, peace and security, we would no longer support peace processes or peace agreements without the voices or representations of diverse women and girls; instead, it would be deemed morally unacceptable, and a human right violation.
As an alternative, women peacebuilders from local communities are recognized as agents of change, capable of mobilizing and transforming societies from conflict to peace.
They will be supported with adequate resources in re-designing their own peace process, and negotiations table. Which will be a transformative space where they can envision feminist approaches and develop innovative mechanisms to rebuilding post-conflict societies, and its security, economic and political infrastructure.
Twitter - @SagalAbas
Main photo reference
Afghan women attend a consultative grand assembly, in Kabul, Afghanistan April 29, 2019. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani
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