“I make myself stiff as stone, shut my eyes, concentrate on my body’s veto, my inner No.” The words of a 34-year old woman who tries to find ways to cope with “the unbridled raping sprees” that she and thousands of women experienced during the Russian occupation of Berlin, in 1945. Documented in her anonymously authored diary, A Woman in Berlin, these words could be those of the many women today who are also caught up in wars that are not of their making.
These events in 1945 are neatly book-ended by two significant moments that mark the passage of a one hundred year-period of women’s global activism on peace and security. At one end, is the 1915 International Congress of Women, which we commemorate this week in the Hague. This Congress brought together over 1,300 women from twelve different countries, to collectively respond to the events of World War I. Through a resolution adopted at the Congress, they expressed a stand in favour of peace and a transformation to modes of international relations away from options centred on masculinist belligerence.
At the other end of this period, are the events of this year. We mark 15 years since transnational women’s activism once again brought global attention to issues of peace and security from women’s stand-point. This time, women’s efforts prompted the adoption of Resolution 1325 in 2000 by the UN Security Council. Their efforts drew the attention of this body to concerns specific to women in the contexts of war and peacebuilding. Between 2000 and 2015, six further resolutions have been passed by the Council. Remarkably, the issue of “women, peace and security” has also become a bi-annual item on the agenda of the world’s foremost security body.
