Mallica Vajrathon » United Nations

Peace & Security Negotiations

mallica — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:19:16 +0000

There are not many countries that have a woman as a foreign minister. United States is an exception in having consecutively three very competent female foreign ministers (Secretaries of States): Madelene Albright, Condolessa Rice, and Hillary Clinton. It is encouraging to read in the August 22 Washington Post an article by Mary Beth Sheridan – in nuclear negotiations more women are at the table for the United States. She conveyed good news that women now hold many key senior positions at the Pentagon and the White House. And that they occupied between 21 and 29 percent of the senior positions at the State Department and other national security and foreign policy agencies. Does it make a difference to content when women negotiate national and international security and peace issues? Some people thought it does not, for the reason that whether the negotiators are male or female, government officials have to follow instruction in speakig on behalf of the government. They said that gender was not an issue there. But I disagree with them. Public perception of women with political power does make a difference to the goal of gender equality and democracy. In todays world, educated women are as concern about issues of national and international security as the men. And they know that they can make a difference to the foreign policy content and cooperation. It is not that I beleive in the myth that women are more peace-loving than men. In all my years of working internationally, I have come across an equal proportion of aggressive behavior of men and women. And history has also shown that women and men have an equal share in creating conflic within their community and in the outside world. I think that both sexes have to be equally responsible to end conflict by engaging in negotiation for a peaceful outcome.Ten years ago, the United Nations Security Council passed a landmark Resolution1325 on Women, Peace and Security. It is a roadmap to promote women’s full engagement in peace and security negotiations. But up to now only 20 countries have adopted the Plan of Action on its implementation. The male government leaders have not shown interested to work with women on security matter. For example, in nuclear negotiation between United States and Russia, in surprise, a Russian general asked the American team led by a woman, “How come you‘ve got so many women?”. Most countries find it hard to appoint qualified women to work at senior level in foreign affairs, national defense, Intelligence, law enforcement and international relations, the fields that few women choose to study and to make their career in a male-dominated working environment with long hours of work and travel. Only a few women without family responsibility can endure such hardship, thrive in it, and advance to the top senior level.

Youth Dialogue

mallica — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 17:39:01 +0000

I graduated in Political Science from Chulalongkorn University in 1958, the year that I was selected by the Department of International Organizations of Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to go to New York to participate in the United Nations’ Intern Program for College Students. At that time, the United Nations was only ten years old. That experience had changed my life. Meeting with 48 other graduate student-interns from around the world and working together with them for six weeks at the United Nations Headquarters, I decided that my future work will be at an international level, and not local in my own country. I wanted to spend my whole life working towards the goal as set out in the UN Charter for future peace and development. Later, I had spent more than three decades of my professional life as staff of UNICEF, UNFPA, and at the United Nations Headquarters.
Since the focus of my work had been in children and youth development, support by planned communication programs and projects, I am happy that the United Nations has declared 2010 as International Youth Year beginning on August 12. This year young women and men will have their golden opportunities to put their collective imagination and energy to charge out a new course for human rights, and sustainable development. One of the important events for the year is the Global Model United Nations Conference hosted by Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur from 14-18 August. University-level students come together for a dialogue on the challenges facing our world today. I wish I could be there to listen on what they have to say under the Conference’s theme,“Towards An Alliance of Civilizations: Bridging Cultures to Achieve Peace and Development”. I follow the youth dialogue at the Conference via internet which I am quite sure, will create new cross-cultural and cross-generations understanding of the problems that we face today. I think this event is important to the United Nations work for peace and development cooperation in the years to come. The experience at this conference will also change students’ lives-making them global citizens.

New Entity “UNWomen”

mallica — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 05:31:03 +0000

By separating women out as a new entity, the United Nations has gone backward over four decades. I don’t think this is a wise move. It shows that the world communities have failed to take action which they had agreed upon at four UN-organized world conferences held from 1975-1995. It is not a “progress” as claimed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, some government representatives, and the women non-governmental organizations.
Creating a separate “UNWomen” in the United Nations organization is “sexism”. It is an “apartheid” based on gender. I don’t think the goal of “gender equality” can be reached by following this path because it marginalised women. It push women out to the sideline of mainstream United Nations work in human rights, sustainable development and peace. I predict that the “UNWomen” entity will soon turn itself into a “female guetto” with inadequate resource, led by a high-level woman at Under Secretary-General level. No matter who is selected for this post, she will become “one issue person” with little influence, while leaving the UN to remain a male dominated structure. I have seen a photograph of a female delegate from Qatar visiting with Secretary Ban Ki-moon to offer a gifth of $100 million to UNWomen entity, if it can be moved from UN Headquarters to a location in her country. This has become a political game at the United Nations. I also hear news of female politicians from many countries lined up to be interviewed by the Secretary-General for the post, which no one knows where the money for it will be coming from.
On the subject of separating women out of the main activities of an organization, I have recently read a good article by CV Harquail, “Separate Still Isn’t Equal: Sexism Among Technology Entertainment and Design” (TED) in huffingtonpost.com on July 28. She wrote: “Once upon a time, it makes sense to creat separated conferences for women. Women thinkers and activists were so marginal, so subordinate, and so far from the public platform that separate conference were virtually the only way to create space for women to present, discuss and promote their ideas.These days there are only two situation where separate conferences for women are politically, socially and intellectually legitimate. The first situation is when the topic touches on women alone, such as conference on menopause. The second situation is when the purpose of the conference is to bring women together to addressed women’s own, self dertemined needs”.
Instead of moving backward on this issue, the United Nations should move forward on “gender mainstreaming” and “gender parity” personnel policy. The whole structure of the United Nations was created for men and women to work together on the basis of equality as written in the UN Charter. If the UN is going to have a separate entity called “UNWomen”, it also should have a separate entity called “UNMen”. Both sexes need behavior and attitude change on gender equality issue.

Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C)

mallica — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:13:32 +0000

I did not know much about Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) until I met an Egyptian doctor, Nawal El Saadawi in 1976. She told me how she was forced to be circumcised as a child. I was shocked to hear about that, but did not know how it was done. Then, later in 1980, I was appalled when I read th details in Part One of her book, The Hidden Face of Eve, the “Mutilated Half”, and horrified to think that millions of girls have to go through the pain that my friend, Nawal, had to endure one night as a child at the age of six when she was forced out of her bed. This is what she wrote:
“ I felt something move under the blankets, something like a huge hand, cold and rough, fumbling over my body, and simultaneously another hand as cold and rough, and as big as the first one was clapped over my mouth to prevent me from screaming. They carried me to the bathroom. I don’t know how many of them. All I remember is that I was frightened, and that there were many of them, and that something like an iron grasp caught hold of my hands, arms and thighs. I was unable to resist or even move. I remembered the icy touch of the bathroom tiles under my naked body, and unknown voices and humming sounds interrupted now and again by a rasping metallic sounds which reminded me of the butcher when he used to sharpen his knife before slaughtering a sheep for the Eid. My blood was frozen in my veins. I thought the thiefs were going to cut my throat. I was unable to see. As though the hands were seeking something below my belly, I felt my thighs had been pulled wide apart, and that each of my lower limbs was being held as far away from the other as possible, gripped by steel fingers that never relinguished their pressure. Then suddenly the sharp metallic edge seemed to drop between my thighs, and there, cut off a piece of flesh from my body. I screamed with pain depite the tight hand held over my mouth. The pain was like a searing flame that went through my whole body. I did not know what they cut out of my body. I called out to my mother for help. But the worse shock of all was when I looked around and found her standing by my side. Yes, it was her. I could not be mistaken, in flesh and blood, right in the midst of those strangers, talking to them and smiling at them, as though they had not participated in slaughtering her daughter just a few moments ago. They carried me to my bed. Then I saw them catch hold of my sister, who was two years younger, the same way that they had caught hold of me a a few minutes earlier. I cried out with all my might NO! NO! “.
I look at Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) as a violent crime, committed by older women (with full consent of the men) against human rights of young girls ages 4 -14 in the name of “tradition”, or a rite of passage from girl to womanhood. For the last two decades, I have been active in the network of the women’s movement. We carried out international awareness-creation campaign to stop such a harmful practice aiming to control over female sexuality and reproduction in male dominated societies. In 2010, I think that we have achieved some successes in changing attitude and behavior after helping to organize four United Nations World Conferences on Women. But I realize that I am quite wrong. Success in breaking the silence globally, Yes. But it does not stop it from being practiced. Just looking at some recent statistics, we cannot protect some three million girls each year who are at risk of FGM/C even with full support from various United Nations programs and funds. There is an estimation of between 70-140 millions of girls and women who are today suffering from the psychological and physical health consequence from the cut. I read from the most recent UNICEF report that some sixty percent of these girls and women live in sub-saharan Africa. Forty per cent live in the Middle East, North Africa, and Yemen. We have not gone very far from where we started the campaign three decades ago. Last week, I read the new Human Rights Watch Report on Kurdistan/Iraq that a 17 year-old Kurdistan girl was dragged by her mother, and sister-in-law, (the same way as Doctor Nawal El Saadawi into the bathroom to cut out part of her vagina. FGM/C practice is illegal in the U.S. and the EU countries, but it is still widely practice by Africans, Egyptians, and Arab immigrants. This shows us that just having a law against it, is not enough. To stop this kind of abuse of girls, we need to increase our efforts in human rights education, advocacy campaign for women’s health, and communication programs through all the media to reach adult women and men. Parents’education is important. UNESCO, WHO, UNCEF and UNFPA must give more resources to projects for sex, reproductive rights and health education and to training programs on FGM/C for health professionals and social workers to stop the practice once and or all while at the same time helping the victims.

Women’s Economic Empowerment/Gender Equality

mallica — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:30:31 +0000

The quickest way to achieving the goal of gender equality is to give opportunity to qualified women to compete for jobs in government structure and United Nations projects and private enterprises. Empowering grass-root women to earn income in microeconomic activities to improve family livelihood is not enough, even if it can help to end poverty in some quarters. These two-prongs program interventions have to go together, hand in hand.
This week, after discussions and debates, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) will adopt a ministerial declaration and recommendation to the General Assembly High-level Plenary Meeting on the Millennium Development goals. The UN and governments’review of progress since the adoption of the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action on Women, Equality, Development and Peace has shown that women are still far behind the men in economic development. And their social status is still secondary to that of the men in most societies. Women performed 66 percent of the world’s work but earned just 10 percent of its income are statistics being quoted. Sixty percent of the poorest people in the world are females. Human rights of women and girls are not recognized by many communities within the UN member countries which had adopted the Beijing Platform of Action fifteen years ago. Many countries allow the men who are perpetrators of violence against women in the home and in society to get away with impunity. Law enforcement authorities and government leaders are slow to implement the Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.
Creating a new UN bureaucratic gender entity, separated it out from the mainstream UN structure, is not going to be of much help in accelerating progress towards gender equality when the World at the present is in economic down-turn. Many donor countries are not in a position to increase their contribution to program specifically target change only for the women and not for the men. Empowerment of women cannot be achieved without men changing and supporting them from: fathers, sexual partners or husbands, sons, and male co-workers.
Since the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) coordinates the work of 14 UN specialized agencies, 10 functional commissions, 11 development funds and programs, it should make sure that the gender mainstreaming work, which has already begun, has adequate budget and resources for activities at headquarters and in the fields.

Celebrate Biodiversity and Nature’s Restoration

mallica — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 17:48:01 +0000

Communities and people all over the world are organizing public education activities for the World Environment Day 2010. They set up exhibitions and make plans for media communication events on the theme of biodiversity and preservation of nature. The Darwin Centre, an extension of the Natural History Museum in London, organizes interesting activities that we can participate at “Nature on Line”. Scientists and educators put up display and audio-visual programmes to stimulate public interests in their past and present scientific researches on the variety of species of animals, plants and other life forms living deep on the ocean floor and on the vast landscape.Their exhibition, the “Deep” (28 May -26 September 2010), shows numerous forms of creatures living on the ocean floor that we have not seen before. At an international level, UNEP launched recently the Dead Planet: Living Planet Report to focus on biodiversity and ecosystem restoration for sustainable development. The report draws our attention to thousands of ecosystem restoration ongoing projects set up in cooperation with governments and environment institutions around the world. These noteworthy projects include restoration of water flows to rivers and lakes and improvement of soil stability and fertility vital for agriculture. Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director said that mis-management of natural and nature-based assets undercuts development on a scale that dwafs the recent economic crisis.I find the report interesting reading. It gives us a tool for our use in organizing community education and communication programmes for the years to come. Investors will find this report useful as well for developing new businesses in restoration of natural and nature-based utilities to cope with the new global demands and needs, at the same time a boot-up of the economy.

Lessons For Peace In Thailand

mallica — Sat, 22 May 2010 20:08:40 +0000

Many people who demonstrated with placards and signs in the streets of Bangkok during the last two months were quite bored with the messages promoting peace and non-violence; insisting that the “red shirts” leaders and Prime Minister Abhisit’s cabinet must sit down and talk to each other to find a middle ground and compromises. Pragmatists and politically-inclined people of all sides in the conflict considered the peacemakers as “naive and idealistic” — living in a world of dreams. With so much work done, why did peacemakers fail in producing results to end the recent crisis in Thailand? Peace and human rights activists, known as the “ white shirts”, failed to see the anti-government “red shirts” protesters for what they really were. A group of people the majority of whom came from the rural areas of the North and the Northeast, were paid by their Party’s MPs and millionaire cronies of the former PM Thaksin. These people were also left-leaning educated elites and business community members, retired army and police officers who were card carrying members of the Puea Thai Party. They put political pressure on PM Abhisit’s cabinet to dissolve the parliament. Their real objective was to overthrow PM. Abhisit’s coalition Government and have new elections. Right from the beginning of the protest, the “red shirts” leaders had threatened to use force. In their public speeches they had said that if PM Abhisit did not meet their requests, according to their own terms; they would raise the intensity level of the street protest. Peace and human rights activists organized two unsuccessful peace talks between the “red shirts” leaders and the Government. There were protests from other groups of demonstrators; namely the “multi-color shirts” who in turn protested against the “red shirts” demands. They did not want PM Abhisit to dissolve the parliament. Then, the “Yellow Shirts” protesters came out to confront PM Abhisit, that if he and his Government did not want to do their job in enforcing the law to clear the “red shirts” out of Ratchaprasong, they would take the matter into their own hands to move the “Red Shirts” protesters out. All these stakeholders should’ve been asked to participate in peace talks with the Government. It was a strategic mistake to arrange peace talks only between the leaders of the “Red Shirts” and the government. When the fully-armed “Red Shirts” anti-government protest at Ratchaprasong had already been declared “illegal” by the Court, the peace and human rights activists should have insisted that the police do their duty in enforcing the law. That, would have been helpful to prevent the further violence that ended up happening. The police could have used the help of the NGOs, and the peace and human rights activists to persuade the “red shirts” protesters to leave Ratchaprasong and head home. Peace efforts were doomed to fail when there was no trust between the parties involved.The anti-government “Red shirts” protesters came to the peace talks with a rigid position – demanding that PM Abhisit “dissolve the parliament immediately or else”. Their rigid position was confrontational. It had turned into “a test of will” which usually destroyed good relationships between both sides. It was then that there was confirmed evidence that the “red shirts” did not really come for a “peace mission” with the Government. They were paid to create violence and mayhem in the capital city to trap the government into the political objectives of the former PM Thaksin and his regime to correct the past mistakes of the protests of April 2009. They planned this latest protest to reach the goal of overthrowing the present government by force. It has now been reported widely that the weapons of war, namely the M79’s, RPG’s, bullets and grenades were stored underneath and around the protest area podiums while the propagandist slogans of “peaceful protest” were fed to the media at large. No legitimate government in the world would tolerate having an armed militia camped in its capital cities, taking over its parks and junctions for weeks on end. PM Abhisit was incredibly patient with these protesters. In complying with international standards in warfare, he did his duty well to protect the innocent citizens from the dangers that could erupt. Useful roles, that peace-makers or human rights activists in this particular kind of conflict resolution simply do not apply. The “red shirts” leaders used women and children as shields putting them at deadly risk. They had turned themselves into organized “Urban Terrorists” with the aim of provoking military action by the government. In matters of national security or citizen’s safety, it is the job of the armed forces and the Government to deal with these events. PM Abhisit’s achieved this by using the armed forces alongside very strategic support from the most recent social media networks like Twitter, Facebook and blogs. This new era of instant communication definitely affected the outcome of these insurrections. NGOs, peace and human rights activists can now play a useful role in giving full support to the the reconciliation process, especially in peace education.

Drinking Water

mallica — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 07:58:41 +0000

We live in the World of population increase from 6 billion to 9 billion within the next 40 years. For that many people to survive on this Earth, we need to have enough clean drinking water for all. The United Nations celebrated 22 March as World Water Day. This year, all UN member countries had collaborated action focusing on water quality. Management of clean water is most important, not only just for human health and well-being, but also for sustaining of the whole ecosystem. A new guideline for drinking water quality was printed and distributed to governments and community leaders to make use of in setting up a national framework for drinking water safety, a comprehensive system specific “water safety plans” and a revised information on microbial, chemical and radiological aspects. We can only get clean drinking water from clean living and healthy environment. Each community has to get themselves organized to search for a fresh supply of local source for clean water. They should join force in keeping it safe for everyone to share this precious resource. Prevention of water pollution is necessary. Each community has to set up its own monitoring of water quality and maintenance. Management structure has to be set up for waste management which include waste-water management.

Helvi Sipila & Lucille Mair

mallica — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:48:47 +0000

I join my friend Rachel Mayanja, Assistant UN Secretary-General, Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women in celebrating the lives of Helvi Sipila of Finland and Lucille Mair of Jamaica. The two women who worked at the United Nations Headquarters in the seventies provided leadership in organizing the first and second world conferences on Women: The World Conference of the International Women’s Year held in Mexico City in 1975, and the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievement of the United Nations Decade for Women in Copenhagen in 1980. To this day, their valuable contributions have made a lot of difference in the improvement of women’s lives no matter where they live in the world. At the United Nations Headquarters on 9 March 2010, the Permanent Mission to the United Nations of Finland and Jamaica organized a special event in connection to the 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women “The Road to Beijing: Critical Building Blocks. In memoriam to Helvi Sipila and Lucille Mair.” Rachel and I are fortunate to have had an opportunity to work under their leadership in the preparations of the world conferences. Both women came from a very different background from a different parts of the world, but they shared the same dedication to the cause of women’s right and their full participation in World’s Affairs. Their tireless energy and dedication contributed greatly to the success in drafting the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which was adopted by the General Assembly in 1979. But they believed that enacting law against discrimination on the ground of sex is not enough. We should look at the role of women in development. Development must included women as full participant and beneficiaries. And that the basic factors causing the unequal share of women in development relate to the division of labour between the sexes. Both Helvi Sipila and Lucille Mair made sure that the World plans and programmes of action clearly stated that discrimination against women arises because of women’s reproductive role. Historically, the division of labour has been justified on the basis of the childbearing function of women.

Marriage & Civil Union

mallica — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:20:51 +0000

“Marriage” is an invention by human beings in organized society ever since the beginning of agricultural society to guarantee inheritance and legal ownership of land and other property of men including women and children. Marriage is not made in heaven as some religions have claimed. It has various forms in diverse cultures which have been changing them through times. National and state laws are being changed in order to embrace all situations relating to marriage to benefit the majority and not only a small group of people. Existing laws that deny equality of rights, such as the right to civil union and marriage are considered as discriminations. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), particularly Article 15 and 16 which require that the State parties to the Convention ensure the same right, on the basis of equality, to women and men to enter into marriage, to freely choose a spouse, and to take responsibility as parents in matters relating to children, including adoption. “Marriage” and “Civil Union”, are social and economic contracts affecting the fundamental right of all human beings, the right for individual to live with a chosen partner or partners. Such institutions should be opened for every one to enter freely with any individuals of their choice, whether of the same or of different sexes. And also on the principle of separation of Church and States, people who choose to live together under a marriage contract should not be discriminated against because of their sexual preferences. State is under obligation to provide legal registration for such union as a service to its citizen.