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# Support inclusivity in peacebuilding
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/18229/
- Published: 2005-10-17T11:10:42.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:34:14.000Z
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:15

There are many UN resolutions and conventions that are not respected by  
national states or the international community at large (who could know better  
than a Palestinian).How could UN resolution 1325 be utilized differently? How  
could it be used to empower women and influence decision makers so as to  
guarantee women participation in conflict prevention, peace building and post  
conflict reconstruction including reconciliation? What measures should be  
taken not only to raise awareness about it at the horizontal level but also to  
use it as an influential tool on the vertical level?  
  
These questions have challenged women activists and movements for years,  
especially those working in conflict areas. In the case of the Palestinian -  
Israeli conflict, women meet on an informal level aware of the asymmetry of  
power between the occupied and the occupier. They search for common values and  
principles: equality, justice, freedom, ... . The Palestinian side always  
insists on respecting international law as the term of reference because it  
guarantees minimum justice and respect of human rights whether they are  
individual or collective. The Israeli side is less enthusiastic about  
international law and it advocates for a compromise that is more sensitive to  
the rights of the other. Thus, in almost all encounters, no fundamental  
changes are made on the rules of the existing political game, which are played  
from within the framwork of power politics. For example, (referring to Galia  
Golan talk on the wall in her entry 'women and men')the apartheid wall is not  
bad only because it leaves school children on the other side of the wall  
unable to reach school, but also because it is illegal, and it destroys the  
Palestinian social and economic fabric, it grabs Palestinian land and  
resources, it destroys the two states vision and consequently does not  
contribute to building sustainable security nor peace.  
  
As such the issue for a Palestinian like me or for those is similar situations  
is how to use 1325 to empower women on the oppressed side. I believe the  
strategies women (and gender sensitive men) use / will use have to examine  
ways where women from the dominant side and outstanding women from the  
international community can support legality, justice and inclusivity in peace  
building and negotiation processes.