latin america and the caribbean towards beijing+ 25 Recommendations from the feminist agenda for social transformation WORKSHOP 1 WORKSHOP 1 Latin America and the Caribbean towards Beijing+ 25 Recommendations from the feminist agenda for social transformation © Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Representación en México Yautepec 55, col. Condesa, del. Cuauhtémoc, C. P. 06140, Mexico City. Telephone:+52(55) 5553 5302 https://mexico.fes.de https://www.facebook.com/FESMEX/ https://twitter.com/fesmex Proyecto Regional FESminismos www.fes-minismos.com https://www.facebook.com/FESminismos/ https://mobile.twitter.com/fesminismos Proyecto Regional Transformación Social-Ecológica https://fes-transformacion.fes.de/ https://www.facebook.com/FESTransformacion/ https://twitter.com/fes_tse Red Latinoamericana de Seguridad Incluyente y Sostenible https://colombia.fes.de/fes-seguridad https://www.facebook.com/RedSegRegional/ https://twitter.com/RedSeg_Regional?s=09 Editorial coordination Elisa Gómez Design Buró Público Cover illustration by María Elvira Espinosa Marinovich Publication date: April 2021 The commercial use of any material edited and published by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung(FES) is strictly forbidden without prior written authorization by FES. The opinions expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect the views of FES. CONTENTS Presentation 4 Workshop 1: Care at the Center of Regional Politics. Recommendations from Civil Society Organizations of LAC 5 Recommendations 7 Regarding the visibilization of care work, debates, and actors 7 Regarding public policies 8 Regarding surveys and statistical information 9 Regarding paid domestic and care work 9 Workshop 2: The Escazú Agreement and the Feminist Environmental Agenda in LAC 11 Recommendations 13 Changes that need to be implemented 13 Recommendations for actions and changes by sector 14 Capacities to be strengthened 15 Workshop 3: Experiences from the Colombian Peace Agreement. Recommendations for the Gender, Peace and Security Agenda 17 General Recommendations 18 Pre-negotiation stage 18 During negotiations 18 After the negotiations: during the implementation 18 Recommendations regarding the Women’s Peace and Security Agenda Implementation of Resolution 1325 19 Protection of social leaders and guarantee for the exercise of their rights 19 What is the best way to achieve peace processes with a more feminist and inclusive perspective? 19 Specific Recommendations in the Colombian Case 20 Current status of compliance with the integration of the gender-transformative approach in the Peace Agreement 21 presentation presentation I n 1995, the Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing, China, and it brought about the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action(BPfA), which has been considered the roadmap for women’s human rights. The BPfA established strategic objectives and actions for governments, civil society and private actors across twelve critical areas concerning inequality: 1) poverty, 2) education and training, 3) health, 4) violence, 5) armed conflict, 6) the economy, 7) power and decision making, 8) institutional mechanisms, 9) human rights, 10) the media, 11) the environment, and 12) the girl child. Twenty-five years after the adoption of the BPfA, the achievements are significant; however, there is still a long way to go to ensure that women and girls enjoy a dignified life in a world free of violence. Apart from the COVID-19 pandemic, the multiple crises we are currently facing make it even more urgent to advance a feminist agenda aimed at eradicating social inequalities and modeling a new approach to politics. • Workshop 1: Care at the center of regional politics • Workshop 2: The Escazú Agreement and the feminist environmental agenda in LAC • Workshop 3: The experience of the Peace Agreement in Colombia. Recommendations for the gender, peace, and security agenda The recommendations developed during March-2021 workshops were presented to the GEF to contribute to the Latin American feminist agenda and social transformation. March 2021 The Generation Equality Forum(GEF), a global meeting convened from March to June 2021 by UN Women and co-chaired by the Mexican and French governments, seeks to take stock of the progress and challenges towards gender equality in the world. As part of the GEF, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and three of its regional projects in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) organized three regional workshops to develop and discuss recommendations from the feminist agenda, in three key areas for the future of the region: the care economy, social-ecological transformation, and peace building. 4 workshop 1 care at the center of regional politics Recommendations from Civil Society Organizations of LAC T he discussion and politicization of care, understood as the activities and relationships that make it possible to sustain human and natural life, has escalated considerably in the last year. The pandemic and its consequent health crisis, the existing ecological, economic and political crises—all of which have worsened—, and the care and social-reproduction crises currently affecting Latin America and the Caribbean are being analyzed through the lens of gender, in which the debate on care is vital. In 2020, care was discussed in public and household settings, perhaps as never before. The pandemic, and the social and political management of it, has highlighted the centrality of care in sustaining life, has increased the need for care, and has exposed the inability of most states to manage the situation while guaranteeing the rights of all people. Moreover, it has confirmed the unjust social arrangements that affect specific groups in a differential manner: women, migrants, racialized individuals, transsexual and transgender women, sex workers, domestic workers, and other groups. The pandemic does not discriminate, inequalities do. This was an early and evident conclusion from 2020. Indeed, inequalities are expressing themselves in their upmost clarity and worsening at an accelerated rate. In the Social Panorama of Latin American 2021(corresponding to its 2020 analysis), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean(ECLAC) reports that, due to the pandemic, the unemployment rate in the region may have reached nearly 15.2% for women and 12.3% for men by the end of 2020, compared to 9.6% and 7.1% in 2019, respectively. It is 5 WORKSHOP 1 latin america and the caribbean towards beijing + 25 care at the center of regional politics also projected that the number of women living in er paid or unpaid. At the same time, the profits that latest available statistics and diverse qualitative data poverty could reach 118 million. this ensures are exploited by the state and market, for each country. An additional regional analysis was both of which negate responsibility for life without produced based on national studies. In this scenario, several aspects of care are dominant: any apparent consequences. the work of caregiving, its requirements, and its inBased on this process, a set of recommendations was equitable and unfair organization both domestically The discussion surrounding care has gained an audiformulated, which was enhanced and validated by key and socially, as it relates to co-responsible actors(the ence in this scenario. More than ever before, there actors of civil society in Latin America. The result is State, the family, the market, and the communities). is greater attention today on the need to politicize this collective document of recommendations. Care is not only a need and a right, but also a job; it care work and to develop a framework for care as has costs, takes time, and adds value. The way in which a right(the right to receive care, to provide care, to The discussions and practices of feminists and womcare is organized significantly impacts the likelihood not provide care and to take care of oneself) and with en’s organizations have given visibility to the fact that of economic autonomy and human interdependence respect to the persons subject to this right(caregivers care is at the core of all life. The struggle, now, is for under fair conditions. and persons receiving care). However, the care debate it to be at the center of politics as well. could be depleted or displaced from the mainstream In the absence of sufficient economic resources and as a result of prioritizing measure packages designed quality government services, domestic and caregiving to“save the economy.” These packages obviate the tasks undertaken by women on an unpaid basis are fact that unpaid care and domestic work are not mere the main reason for the persistence of the gender gap externalities, but rather engines of economic recovery in the labor market. About 60% of women in housesince they ensure the reproduction of life and labor holds with children under 15 years of age state that force. The proposed framework considers that the they do not participate in the labor market because intervention of states in the social organization of of family responsibilities. When there are no children care, in the interest of democratizing it, guarantees in the household and for the same age group, this rights and enables the invigoration of the monetary figure is close to 18%. Women across the region spend economy through social investment in care services three times as much time providing unpaid care and that allow more people to participate and deploy their domestic work and have less economic autonomy. skills in the labor market. WORKSHOP 1 Nearly one in three Latin American women report that they have no income of their own. Considering this information and concerns, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s Working Group on the Care EconMeanwhile, paid domestic workers and caregivers omy and Processes of Social Reproduction, headed (11.1% of employed women in the region) perform their by The Future is Feminist Network, coordinated an work under highly precarious conditions of payment, in-depth diagnosis of the social organization of care, rights, and organization. with emphasis on care policies and services, in twelve countries of the region during 2020. As a result, a reAll things considered, the costs of care are borne in port was published with these studies(one volume 6 the domestic sphere, in a feminized manner, whethin digital and three volumes in print), all based on the latin america and the caribbean towards beijing + 25 recommendations Regarding the visibilization of politics, and emphasizing the need to produce structural, rather than palliative, transformations. care work, debates, and actors: 8. Promote the inclusion of minority and disadvantaged actors as public voices in decision mak1. Develop, with the participation of civil society, practices should reward and represent paid care ing on care; specifically paid domestic workers, feminist and women’s organizations, a specific work, both in cities and in rural areas. unpaid domestic workers, people who receive international instrument addressing the right to care, unpaid caregivers of people with disabilcare(the right to receive care, to provide care, 4. Promote and follow up care debates so that care ities, organizations of women with disabilities, to not provide care and to take care of oneself) may be seen as an all-encompassing(involving indigenous, peasant, Afro-descendant and black and its fundamental role in sustaining life. This paid and unpaid work), rights-based(universal, populations, and migrants. instrument will make it possible to connect exist- indivisible, progressive and interdependent) and ing international declarations on the subject 1 to life-sustaining issue. 9. Promote the discussion of caregiving in trade define a sound concept of the right to care, and union spaces, so that it is included in collective to provide a framework of principles and recom5. Encourage an intersectional perspective on care bargaining for working conditions and in other mendations on care policies that will encourage and care policy debates, taking special considerspaces where social dialogue is driven by trade states to place it at the center of politics. ation of the differences between urban and rural unions. territories and the existence of Global care chains 2. Demand that states ratify ILO Conventions 111, where irregular migration is a fundamental vari10. Demand that caregiving discussions are included 156 and 189 and sign the specific convention on able affecting the way care is organized. More as a cross-cutting subject in schools as part of care that we are proposing. generally, to visibilize the gaps and inequalities the effort to advance gender equality as a global generated by the overload of care work in families, asset. Likewise, to prioritize its inclusion in media 3. Contribute to the visibility of good practices(from women and impoverished women in particular. and content for social media. states and institutions, as well as from communities, trade unions, women’s and feminist orga6. Promote and accompany alliances between 11. Encourage active international cooperation in nizations and the private sector) that show ways women’s and feminist organizations and trade promoting and ensuring the right to care. of redistributing, reducing, and recognizing the unions that will promote and politicize the disright to care and care work. In addition, these cussion on care, fostering dialogue with other 12. Promote academic training—in economics and decision-making spaces. other disciplines—with a feminist perspective and look on academia as an actor of political 7. Encourage initiatives to democratize care by po- advocacy. 1. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women litical, partisan, educational and academic lead(1979), Convention on the Rights of the Child(1989), Beijing Platform for Action ers who place the issue of care at the center of (1995), International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities(2006), institutional policy, always considering the voices Inter-American Convention on Protecting the Human Rights of Older Persons (2015), ECLAC Regional Conference on Women in LAC(2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, of caregivers, avoiding the use of instrumental 2019), Agenda 2030(2015), ILO Conventions 111, 156, 189. 7 WORKSHOP 1 care at the center of regional politics Regarding public policies: evaluate its classification as“social spending,” considering that there are sufficient analyses to show that care economy spending is an in13. Promote an explicit international commitment as the expansion, development and strengthen- vestment expenditure since it generates direct of States to policies that defamiliarize care with ing of public systems. A social organization that positive results on the monetary economy. Likeemphasis on food and housekeeping aspects in ensures the right to care and recognizes, reduces, wise, consider the need for tax and fiscal reforms order to foster an upward trend of social and inand redistributes care work implies fundamental aimed at redistributing wealth. stitutional co-responsibility through assisted living, and structural changes that are in tension with day care centers, home care, personal assistance, the reproduction of capitalism. It is essential 19. Promote programs and projects that raise public community kitchens, childcare centers, etc. to recognize this as part of the politicization of awareness and change social norms related to these debates. In addition, it is necessary to pro- care work and its sexual division. 14. Obligate states to effectively design, implement, mote and produce political conversations about and evaluate programs that defeminize reproduceconomic and developmental models and their 20. Support the connection between care policies tive, domestic and care work(paid and unpaid), relationship to the social organization of care. and the most recent transformations in the labor and foster the economic autonomy of women in markets, specifically those related to teleworking all their diversity(gender, age, race, identity, etc.). 16. Demand states to formulate comprehensive and and platform economies. Over time analyses have shown that women’s binding recommendations and labor policies that increased participation in paid labor markets has consider the right to care and caregiving work, 21. Advocate for the reduction of paid working hours, not significantly increased men’s participation in as well as the broad sectors of informal work so that feasible working hours allow all people life-sustaining activities in households and com- that exist in Latin America and the Caribbean. to provide care on an equal opportunity basis. munities. Moreover, in crises, women are the first National and regional analyses show that existing Analyze options for women who do not have the to exit labor markets to take on increasing re- care policies and services mainly benefit people means to look for work and obtain their own inproductive work. When there is a specific need with formal paid work and leave out informal come since they provide care full-time. for care at home(sick family members, depenworkers, which is central to the reproduction of dents, or children), women assume the role of their exclusion and marginalization. 22. Design, implement and evaluate policies relatfull or part-time caregivers. The monetized care ed to caregiving, especially aimed at women of WORKSHOP 1 sectors(health, education, services) continue to 17. Demand states to conduct an exhaustive review “working age,” and connect them with those rebe over-represented by women. Therefore, sysof the existing norms, policies, programs, and lated to sexual and reproductive health. tematic and explicit policies committed to the services in each country and adjust them to sexual transformation of work are necessary. reflect a gender perspective, in order to evalu23. Promote actions and policies based on the asThese will not change without intentional and ate their designs, and maternalist, familiarity or sumption of a“universal caregiver”: every paid systematic efforts. targeted biases. worker should be viewed as a caregiver. This would not mean ignoring the specifics and par15. Apply the gender lens and the care economy as 18. Include specific items earmarked for the care ticularities of caregiving types. a cross-cutting issue in policies regarding poverty economy in economic plans, national and local 8 and inequality, social and labor protection, as well budgets, and impact evaluations, as well as re- latin america and the caribbean towards beijing + 25 24. Promote a fiscal policy with a gender perspective (for income and expenditure) that guarantees the financing of care policies. 25. Ensure that policies are not standardized, but that they are formulated and implemented with strict attention to the realities of different geographic areas and their needs. Governmental alignment should be established to avoid fragmentation and disconnection. 26. Consider and regulate vigorously, within public policies related to care, the private sector as a co-responsible actor for care. This should involve government oversight, the formulation of incentives and the deployment of enforcement mechanisms to protect the right to care for all people within this sector. 27. Advance, consolidate, and support comprehensive care systems and other measures in favor of the institutionalization of care in the region. Regarding surveys and statistical information: 33. Encourage global comprehensive mapping of existing services, and their extent of coverage and quality. 34. Include in the time use surveys the time spent by children in the care of others, considering that the current information available indicates that girls and boys are also caregivers in many countries and regions. Regarding paid domestic and care work: WORKSHOP 1 28. Promote safeguards for the production of dis- relationship with social and gender structural 35. Promote normative transformations in relation aggregated and updated statistical data on the inequalities, as well as the barriers to the proto domestic and paid work. In several countries social organization of care and the care economy vision of care. of the region, there are still laws or legislative (paid and unpaid work). Statistical information provisions that differentiate and disfavor paid remains scarce, outdated, and fragmented. In 31. Recommend the preparation of clear and comdomestic workers and caregivers. It is imperative Latin America and the Caribbean, some countries mon indicators for the entire region in order to equalize rights. have made commitments to carry out Satellite to evaluate the social organization of care and Accounts and systematic time use surveys, but available policies and services, and to account 36. Recommend that the various social actors dethese commitments are not guaranteed in practice. for key aspects such as time poverty and the velop incentives for the formalization of paid well-being or ill-being of caregivers. care services that ensure rights, protection, and 29. Promote the creation of national registries of benefits for workers in this sector. unpaid caregivers. 32. Promote the accessibility of statistical data and the territorialization of the information produced 37. Promote debate on the relevance of differenti30. Engage states, international organizations, ac- to facilitate social oversight of the scope, quality ating paid domestic work from paid care work, ademic institutions, and all possible actors in and coverage of the programs. bearing in mind that in many countries in the the elaboration of research that delves into the region, paid direct caregivers are largely invisible social organization of care and the study of its in the regulations. 9 care at the center of regional politics 38. Promote the creation of organizations formed by remunerated domestic workers and caregivers. 39. Raise awareness among paid domestic workers and caregivers about the need to participate in organizations and promote relationships between them and women’s and feminist movements. 10 WORKSHOP 1 workshop 2 the escazú agreement and the feminist environmental agenda in lac T he Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean was adopted in March 2018 in Escazú, Costa Rica and will be effective from April 22, 2021. The Agreement aims to ensure the full and effective implementation of access rights in the region, as well as the creation and strengthening of capacities and cooperation, contributing to the protection of the right of every person, of present and future generations, to live in a healthy environment and to sustainable development. In particular, the Agreement is so far the only international instrument that considers the protection of environmental defenders. An article of the Agreement contains a commitment by states to ensure a safe and supportive environment in which individuals, groups and organizations that promote and defend environmental human rights can operate free from threats, restrictions and insecurity. Adequate and effective measures must be taken by states to recognize, protect and promote all rights of defenders, including the right to life, personal integrity, freedom of opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association, and free movement, as well as their ability to exercise access rights. In addition, the definitions stipulate that persons or groups in vulnerable situations are those persons or groups that face particular difficulties in fully exercising their access rights. However, an important aspect for the effective implementation of the Escazú Agreement will be the full incorporation of women in the guarantee of access rights; i.e., not assuming that they are 11 WORKSHOP 2 the escazú agreement and the feminist environmental agenda in lac already included, or generalizing their presence in the tricity, internet and computers are main factors. In recognition and appreciation of the work done by processes. As environmental and natural resource addition, women have little time due to the burden women environmental defenders. The State provides conflicts increase in the region, the women’s role in of reproductive and care work, and they demonstrate little or no protection for them, evidenced by a lack the defense of natural resources, land, and territory a weaker democratic spirit to participate in these of protection mechanisms for women defenders or, if and the promotion of a healthy environment has issues. Furthermore, there are geographical barriers they exist, their inadequate operation. In addition to become increasingly evident. and mobility constraints for women to get to the gender violence, the exercise of environmental defense places where they can access information and calls leads to threats, aggressions, forced displacements Considering this situation, the“The Escazú Agreement for participation. and femicides, and is aggravated by the growing and the feminist environmental agenda in LAC” workmilitarization of territories in the region. The lack of shop was held to open a space for regional debate 2. Women’s decision making on environmental knowledge and consequent violation of women’s rights with women in LAC. The objective of the workshop was issues is weakened by the fact that women are not is recurrent. Finally, limited land ownership and tenure to build an agenda that guarantees access rights to considered in decision-making spheres and the permake it difficult for women to defend their territory. information, decision making and the access to justice centage of women who participate as decision makers on environmental issues in the context of the public is incredibly low, thus segregating them from these debates leading up to the Generation Equality Forum. spaces. There is also a lack of institutional mechanisms for women’s effective participation. The workshop was based on the analysis of the barriers faced by women in the region to access their 3. Women’s defense of the environment and their rights, along with the following questions: 1) What access to justice is impacted by numerous barriers, changes should be made to eliminate these barriers? such as the lack of a legal framework, reflected in public 2) Which actors should make these changes? and 3) policies devoid of a gender perspective; the execution What capacities should be created or strengthened of sentences and loopholes within the environmenfor this to happen? We divided the work in four groups tal legal framework; the lack of access to ICTs, which focused on the problems and rights addressed by the limits access to information; the gap in information Escazú Agreement: costs and assistance; the inexistence of mechanisms for the anonymity of women who file complaints; and WORKSHOP 2 1. Women’s right of access to information is one of the difficulty for indigenous communities to access the main rights considered in the Agreement. Howevinformation due to the lack of internet and proper er, persisting gender roles and stereotypes prevent accompaniment. In addition, discrimination, targeting women from fully exercising their right to access and violence against women in environmental conflicts, information on environmental issues. Inequality and the overload of care work at home and inequality in discrimination, as well as illiteracy, digital illiteracy, the land tenure prevent women from fully exercising their technical language of the environmental information right to defend their environment. disseminated, limited access to public announcements or policies related to agricultural, fishing, forestry and 4. The protection of women defenders of territory 12 environmental activities, and lack of access to elecand natural resources is undermined by a lack of latin america and the caribbean towards beijing + 25 recommendations Changes that need to be implemented: 1. Women’s access to information: • • Implement government programs to tackle illiteracy and digital illiteracy for women while making sure to employ instructors with a gender and youth perspective. • • Generate specific diagnoses about the situation of women and their rights of access to information, public participation, access to justice and defense of the environment, with a focus on the particular characteristics of the region. 2. Women’s environmental decision making: • • Take up, promote, and disseminate the topic of power in women’s organizations(power, leadership, and organization) so as to foster women’s leadership. • • Recognize and visibilize the contribution of women in working, reproductive and community spaces that make care and environmental decisions possible. • • Ensure government-provided access to internet and broadband(continuous and of good quality) in rural areas and public spaces. • • Strategic communication for the promotion of women in decision-making spaces on environmental issues. • • Ensure access to technology and ICTs so that women’s access to information is not limited. • • Properly design web sites so that they can be understood by non-experts using accessible, non-technical language. • • Guarantee the dissemination of environmental matters(scientific dissemination) in mass media. • • Use other types of media such as print media, community radio, and public address systems to ensure access to information on environmental issues. • • Increased representation of women in leadership and decision-making positions, as well as their training on procedures. • • Build support networks among women. • • Increase budgets for institutions in charge of combating inequality. • • Generate and guarantee mechanisms to eradicate political violence against women and ensure that decision-making spaces are safe for women. 3. Defense of the environment and access to justice: • • Review environmental legal frameworks, as well as the institutions in charge of their implementation. • • Provide gender-based training and awarenessbuilding in justice institutions, especially courts. • • Promote outreach programs so that women can become knowledgeable about their rights. • • Review environmental policies to reduce human rights violations. • • Create mechanisms for the protection of women defenders and communities, as well as the appropriate accompaniment. • • Inspect existent ombudsman’s offices and promote their creation in countries where they do not exist yet. 4. Protection of women defenders of territory and natural resources: • • Recognize, appreciate, and visibilize the work done by women environmental defenders. • • Address the issue of militarization and organized crime in the territories. • • Not criminalize the work of environmental defenders. 13 WORKSHOP 2 the escazú agreement and the feminist environmental agenda in lac • • Review and modify environmental policies to reduce human rights violations. • • Create or improve protection mechanisms for women environmental defenders with a gender perspective. • • Ensure that women have access to land ownership and tenure in order to facilitate their work as environmental defenders. • • Create mechanisms for the protection of natural heritage in our countries and the region. • • Increase budgets in the ministries of education and environment as a way to promote environmental education and opportunities for women, and consequently decreasing the military budget. • • Encourage a decrease in extractive activities in territories and respect primary productive activities in rural territories. Recommendations for actions and changes by sector: 1. All levels of government: a) Encourage the participation of women in public affairs. f) Oversee that private companies respect human rights. 2. Civil Society Organizations: 3. Academia: a) Incorporate gender and environmental perspectives in curricula. b) Develop training workshops on environmental issues(and especially on the tools provided by the Escazú Agreement) aimed primarily at women. c) Include gender variables in research. d) Make research public and participate in the elaboration of content. 4. Private sector: a) Promote policies that guarantee the effective participation of women in decision making, implement policies that allow women to access these spaces and guarantee paternity leaves. b) Conduct gender workshops for employees. WORKSHOP 2 b) Promote training in gender and environmental issues. c) Decentralize the functions of the national government to local, municipal, and departmental governments and make responsibilities horizontal across all levels of government. d) Address the corruption that causes environmental crimes and crimes against defenders. a) Influence public policies, generate reports, run campaigns, bring the local agenda to the global agenda to“expose” the country. b) Support and promote training for women with an environmental and gender perspective. c) Promote workshops on political participation, as well as networking between CSOs working in environmental and gender areas. c) Disclose information on projects that have an impact on the environment. 5. Legislators: a) Legislate with a gender perspective. b) Promote regulations, convene public hearings, request reports from the executive branch on the implementation of policies. e) Ensure compliance with international treaties. 14 c) Promote the ratification of the Escazú Agreement in countries where it has not been ratified yet. latin america and the caribbean towards beijing + 25 6. Judicial branch: a) The Judiciary can advance a gender perspective in the training of its members and enforce compliance with the applicable standards at the request of plaintiffs. 7. Women’s networks: a) Promote networks and propose ideas to strengthen capacities, considering that women are the ones who directly experience the problem, so their voices must be heard. 8. Philanthropy: a) Require a gender perspective in the development of projects; design calls for proposals based on decision making. 9. Media: a) Raise awareness of environmental defense issues, the rights of access to information, public participation, and access to justice. b) Media can inform the public of the existing demands and initiatives, including the Escazú Agreement. • • Reinforcement of capacities for public speaking, political advocacy, environmental leadership, and organizational power. • • Technical training on environmental legislation. • • Work with families on gender issues and new masculinities, as this is often the first place where women are prevented from participating. • • Work to close the digital gap using a gender-transformative approach and adapt it according to the cultural context. Create technological competencies, GIS. 10. Political parties: a) Include a gender and environmental perspective in bylaws and programs. Capacities to be strengthened: 1) Institutional capacities: • • Generate data disaggregated by gender. • • Effective skills and relevant topics from a gender perspective, focusing on environmental issues and access to justice. • • Promotion of the empowerment of women(both nationally and regionally). WORKSHOP 2 • • What is a gender perspective? Why is it important? How can it be integrated into your work? • • Provide training for the formulation of indicators with a gender perspective. • • Strengthen cross-cutting work in institutions, and ask them to work intersectionally. • • Promote and spread the topic of new masculinities. • • Provide ongoing training in gender/feminist and 2) Women’s capacities: environmental perspectives. • • Knowledge of their rights and how to exercise • • Develop gender equality policies. them, along with practical ways to do so. 15 workshop 3 experiences from the colombian peace agreement Recommendations for the Gender, Peace and Security Agenda I n recent decades, the United Nations has agreed on a series of norms and standards related to the elimination of violence against women both in contexts of armed conflict and in times of peace. The 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women(CEDAW), the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, two Security Council resolutions(Resolution 1325 and Resolution 1820) and their subsequent monitoring have established a crucial framework. The Peace Agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia(FARC) is considered the most advanced case in the world in terms of incorporating a gender perspective in peace negotiations and peace building. Within Colombian civil society, Resolution 1325 is recognized as a fundamental tool and instrument for women to participate in the peace negotiation process. At the same time, the Colombian case demonstrates the difficulty of elaborating and implementing a peace agenda with a differentiated, territorial and gender-transformative approach after the demobilization of an armed actor. The following recommendations were compiled with a group of experts from Colombian and international civil society. These recommendations seek to support the development of standards and policies within the UN, based on the Colombian experience. WORKSHOP 3 . 17 experiences from the colombian peace agreement general recommendations Pre-negotiation stage: • • Promote that, during the preparatory stage of peace negotiations, criteria are applied to ensure the participation of women as negotiators, bearing in mind that women are not always in power or decision-making positions in governments or in armed groups that enter into peace agreements. • • Guarantee the effective participation of women in peace negotiations, both as part of the negotiating parties and as part of victims and women’s and feminist organizations. Therefore, including diverse perspectives and approaches in terms of war impacts. • • Promote and facilitate processes that allow women peacemakers around the world to meet and connect with each other in a comprehensive and structured way. • • Promote that structural causes of conflicts and their consequences be considered in peace agreement negotiations, so that solutions with a gender and human rights perspective can be proposed, implemented, and monitored. During negotiations: • • At a minimum, adhere to gender parity in all instances of participation, negotiation, and peacebuilding. Parity must be a primary concern to guarantee the applicability of the gender-transformative approach. • • Promote and support the coordination of different women’s and civil society organizations during the negotiation processes to ensure that their analyses are reflected, and that gender is cross-cutting to the agreements. After the negotiations: during the implementation • • Promote and accompany organizational alliances, beginning with civil society, that work to guarantee an intersectional gender perspective during implementation to address the varying impacts and needs of different populations. • • Support initiatives for follow-up and compliance monitoring of the Peace Agreement on behalf of civil society organizations with the purpose of guaranteeing their sustainability and independence. • • In the area of transitional justice, post-conflict investigation methodologies should be designed and implemented from a gender perspective to verify the facts of sexual violence, reproductive violence, and discriminatory effects on women. at local, regional, and national levels in order to guarantee the implementation of the Peace Agreement. • • Recommend to governments that during the implementation processes of the peace agreements, sufficient resources should be allocated for the implementation and monitoring of the gender differential approach. • • Guarantee the adoption of an implementation roadmap that guarantees the participation of different organizations so that their contributions, analysis, and needs are integrated into the policies adopted. WORKSHOP 3 • • Part of the gender-transformative approach 18 should include women’s political participation latin america and the caribbean towards beijing + 25 recommendations regarding the women’s peace and security agenda: implementation of resolution 1325 • • Link up the women’s peace and security agenda with the CEDAW agenda through international mechanisms(where General Recommendation No. 30 of the CEDAW Committee focused on women in the prevention of conflicts and in conflict and post-conflict situations should be an integral part of CEDAW and other relevant conventions). • • In relation to the Women’s Peace and Security Agenda(Resolution 1325), it is crucial to review and update the monitoring system and its indicators established by the Security Council in its report dated September 28, 2010. • • Strengthen the obligatory nature of the Women’s Peace and Security Agenda at a state level, which should be applied not only in cases of war, but as the conflict resolution instrument that it is. • • It is very important to consider the general situation of the country in terms of gender relations and compliance with CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action to assess whether the state and its officials understand how to implement a gender-transformative approach. What is the best way to achieve peace processes with a more feminist and inclusive perspective? • • Advocate for peace agreements to include a state commitment to include a gender equity approach Protection of social leaders and guarantee for the exercise of their rights: in the implementation of such agreements. • • Adopt a broader concept of gender, meaning that gender is not synonymous with women and acknowledging the territorial and differential • • Require states to guarantee the life and political thorities and the international community at all impacts generated by conflicts. The Colombian exercise of rights for leaders, women leaders, levels of government. Peace Agreement has a significantly wider conand ex-combatants, recognizing the differentiatcept of gender, and shows that a binary concept ed risks faced by women and the population at • • Require states to commit to protecting the lives is not enough. large after the signing of peace agreements. of women who belong to vulnerable groups or who are located in areas where new cycles of • • Adopt a broader concept of security that includes • • Guarantee the equal and substantive participation violence may occur after the signing of peace a gender perspective. of those who represent ex-combatant groups in agreements. decisions that affect their lives and rights during • • Recognize the role of masculinities in armed the implementation of the agreements. • • Encourage states to avoid stigmatization and conflict both in militarization and other scenaripersecution of ex-combatant groups after the os contributing to its deconstruction. • • Ensure that clear strategies and procedures are signing of peace agreements. Propose effective in place to guarantee that the voices of women in protection plans for their lives and those of their • • Recognize the support and protection provided local organizational processes are heard by aufamilies with a differential and gender focus. through the peace work of local and indigenous 19 WORKSHOP 3 experiences from the colombian peace agreement specific recommendations in the colombian case: women activists and feminists at the community and grassroots levels. • • Support the interrelationships between local, regional, and international peacebuilding. • • Involve Colombian government into the elaboration of a National Action Plan for the implementation of Resolution 1325, which should be developed and agreed upon with the participation of civil society organizations that have experience in gender, peace and security issues. This National Action Plan should be mandatory and prepared with a differential approach and must include concrete territorialized actions, a timeline, a labeled budget and indicators for the monitoring and follow-up of its fulfillment. It is important that its creation has an informed and qualified participation of women. • • Make the Colombian state to commit to an effective implementation of the gender perspective described within the Peace Agreement. This should involve measures and actions related to the structural causes of armed conflicts, with an intersectional and territorial approach. Compliance with this implementation must be monitored and integrated with other gender-related public policies of the Colombian government. • • Promote the guaranteed functioning and financing of the Special Women’s Instance for Gender Focus in Peace( la Instancia Especial de Mujeres para el Enfoque de Género en la Paz). • • Provide technical support, together with international cooperation agencies, for the implementation of the principles of parity, universality and alternation in political reforms and decision-making spaces. • • Guarantee the sustainability and funding of local projects led by Afro-Colombian and indigenous women’s organizations in rural and urban territories to ensure their economic autonomy, the transformation of the sexual division of labor, and the progress in peace building. • • In the reincorporation process, guarantee the effective participation of women ex-combatants, including their experiences and diverse territorial needs for the formulation of plans and programs with a gender perspective. • • Given that the main challenge is implementation, • • Support the political and organizational processWORKSHOP 3 the Verification Mission has to emphasize this es currently being developed by women victims point and provide support in this area. and reincorporated women, at the territorial level, and ensure that they are linked to the policies • • For several reasons, sexual violence was not conformulated at national level. sidered a priority within the Colombian peace process. Civil society organizations argue that this • • Ensure that reincorporation processes include the was a mistake and that, in accordance with the necessary elements to avoid reinforcing gender resolution’s focus, more emphasis should be givstereotypes. Promote a more active participation en to this issue. of reincorporated women in training processes 20 and decision-making spaces. latin america and the caribbean towards beijing + 25 • • Recognize the progress made in the area of Transitional Justice with a gender focus in Colombia (LGBTI reports in the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), a gender-specific chapter in the Truth Commission report, Truth Commission workshops on sexual violence against men). • • Promote mechanisms to ensure that victims are not re-victimized in the context of JEP and Truth Commission outcomes, or by international bodies. • • The demilitarization of territories should be a State priority within a peace process and priority should be given to the construction of a social state based on the rule of law. Support to civil society should be more immediate. New institutions should be built according to the principle of parity. • • The United Nations must highlight the obligations of the State to implement the Peace Agreement and what it means to implement a gender-transformative approach. In the case of Colombia, additional efforts must be made together with the State since currently there is no common approach to gender within its different institutions in regard to their respective implementation measures. • • Sexual violence should not be considered a crime or related crime and special attention should be paid to the existing patterns of sexual violence in contexts of armed conflict. These patterns have been widely documented in the Colombian case. • • Guarantee a comprehensive gender focus in the Current status of compliance with the integration of the gender-transformative approach in the Peace Agreement reports and decisions made within the framework • • According to the 2019 GPAZ report“La Paz avanza the measures to be evaluated. Colombian civil of Transitional Justice. con las mujeres,” published in May 2020, evidence society calls for an agreed-upon figure so that shows that of the 122 gender-related measures the monitoring process can be done on the same • • Support the work of the International Verification in the Peace Agreement, 13 have already been quantitative basis. Component in a coordinated and horizontal mansatisfied, 19 presented satisfactory progress, 50 ner, in conjunction with women’s organizations at had partial progress and 40 did not present any • • Most gender provisions prescribe what should national and local levels, to integrate their views progress from August 2018 to August 2019. We be done in implementation, but not how to do on the obstacles and progress of the gender-transrecommend that the Colombian government it. In addition, not all gender-sensitive measures formative approach in the Peace Agreement. urgently activate actions and policies to ensure were included in the implementation framework that the measures with zero implementation of the Peace Agreement. Civil society organiza• • Encourage the international community to progress begin their processes. tions demand the government for a plan that prioritize the long-term sustainability of the explains what will happen with the measures gender-transformative approach in the imple• • In the official oversight of gender measures, difthat have not been included. mentation process through technical, political, ferent committees, and organizations(United and financial support. Nations, KROC Institute, the gender instance Finally, further information is recommended in the foland others) use different methods to quantify lowing reports prepared by civil society organizations: 21 WORKSHOP 3 experiences from the colombian peace agreement • •“A 20 años de la Resolución 1325. Las organizaciones de mujeres revisan su implementación en Colombia durante 2019”[“ Twenty years after Resolution 1325. Women’s organizations review its implementation in Colombia in 2019”]. Retrieved from: https://www.humanas.org.co/ wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Informe-Resolucio%CC%81n-1325-2021-.pdf • •“LA PAZ AVANZA CON LAS MUJERES. Observaciones sobre la incorporación del enfoque de género en el Acuerdo de Paz GPAZ – 2019” [“ Peace progresses with women. Observations of the inclusion of gender in the Peace Agreement GPAZ – 201 9”](GPAZ: Género en la Paz is a working group of feminist, LBT, academics, victims and human rights defenders activists formed around the implementation of the gender-transformative approach in peacebuilding). Retrieved from: https://co.boell.org/sites/default/files/2020-05/ gpaz_informe_2019%20%281%29.pdf 22 WORKSHOP 3 23 WORKSHOP 3