UNAMI Training Ends with a Call to Strengthen the Capacities of Women to Participate Meaningfully in National Reconciliation and Historic Settlement Process

The training was a follow-up to the basic training and workshop delivered to the same participants in October 2016. The workshop aimed at training women leaders to be effective mediators and facilitators. It also focused on the important role women can play in peace building, negotiations and political processes. Similar training and workshops have been delivered to 60 women leaders, human rights defenders, members of provincial, district and sub districts councils in the Southern Governorates of Missan, Karbala, Najaf, Basra, Wasit and Babil.

Women leaders at the workshop emphasized their readiness to UNAMI/UNWOMEN to advocate for their full participation and to offer them opportunities to participate in negotiations and reconciliation alongside their male counterparts. They agreed to form networks within their communities to address post Daesh issues like trust building among affected communities, de-radicalization of violent extremism as well as reconciling communities. They urged the UN to support their efforts towards rebuilding broken communities in the aftermath of the conflict with Daesh. They also urged the UN to strengthen women’s participation in the negotiations and political arena which was limited for women.

Speaking at the closing session of the four-day training, Ms. Mmabatlharo Nono Dihemo, Gender Advisor for UNAMI stressed the importance of strengthening the capacities of women to participate meaningfully in national reconciliation and historic settlement. Ms. Dihemo said: “Limited progress has been made towards increasing women representation in negotiation and mediation processes in Iraq. One of the reasons attributed to this is the belief by some that women lack the confidence and capacity to participate in such processes aimed at shaping the future of the country”.

However, Iraqi women are resilient, and have shown that they are capable of leading and influencing the political arena. Ms Dihemo said that “despite the explicit goal to promote women’s participation, as envisaged in the Iraq National Action Plan (INAP), women’s direct political participation in national reconciliation has continued to remain low and this needs to be recognized and addressed”.

She mentioned that she met with political leaders in Baghdad, Erbil and Suleymania and discussed ways to strengthen the participation of women in decision making and political processes. Ms Dihemo assured that UNAMI and UNWOMEN will work with all stakeholders to ensure the establishment of measures and legal frameworks that guarantee the participation of women in all three arms of the government, particularly the judiciary where women are underrepresented; and in national and community reconciliation processes; cabinet and government institutions.