Jeane Freeman reports for The National about Beyond Borders’ cooperation with the Scottish Government and the UN helping Syrian women with peacemaking and conflict resolution skills.

WHILE very many of us were recovering from election coverage, counts, tears and smiles last Friday, something else a bit historic was happening in Edinburgh.

Ten members of the UN Office of the Special Envoy’s Syrian Women’s Advisory Board arrived in our capital city for four days of talks, including a two-day conference at the Scottish Parliament. The programme, delivered in partnership between the Scottish Government, the UN and Beyond Borders Scotland, aims to help Syrian women with peacemaking and conflict resolution skills.

It all comes from UN resolutions 1325 and 2254 which emphasise the important role women should have in the resolution of conflict, and the need for women’s full involvement in the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.

Across the world, UN Women, created only six years ago to advance women’s empowerment and gender equality, has been working to involve women in peace negotiation and conflict prevention and resolution. From the Philippines to Senegal, Kyrgyzstan to Mali and Somalia, women have worked with women to identify what will work to foster cultures of peace and mutual respect in their own countries and communities.

So why Scotland and why women? In November, 2015, the UN Special Envoy for Syria invited the Scottish Government to support the role of Syrian women in the Syrian peace process. Unionist and media descriptions of Scotland’s democratic debate about our constitutional future paints us as a nation “torn” and “divided”. Ruth Davidson has described what was the most engaging and energising democratic exercise in political debate and discussion, as a “wound” that she, apparently, will heal. But seen from the UN, Scotland’s reputation is one of a “unique non-violent constitutional and democratic journey”. So this seems as good a place as any to offer the space and the time to a group of women who will be crucial in those Vienna peace talks and who, here in Scotland, can meet and discuss ideas and experience with women leaders from across our political and civic sphere.

Now not all women are non-violent and not all men are engaged in violent conflict. But the straightforward fact of the matter is that not involving women in local, national and international negotiations and action to resolve conflict and lay the foundations for sustainable peace, is simply to ignore the contribution of 50 per cent of those who are affected by conflict and will be affected too, by any peace that is secured.

The Governance and Social Development Resource Centre [GSDRC] – which brings together academics, think tanks and experts to advise on humanitarian and conflict issues – makes the point that paying attention to the different experiences of women and men in conflict situations is critical to designing a lasting peace. Not least because too often in violent conflict, women are used as weapons in the battle. Through rape, kidnap and sexual assault, women are used as tools to engender fear and silence opposition. Hearing those stories, listening well to the impact of gender-based violence and understanding how it is used, is critical. Respect for women as human beings and tackling gender-based violence has to be a starting point in the real engagement by and of women in any peace process.

And while Scotland most definitely cannot claim to be free of gender-based violence, we can share our experience of work to tackle it, the attitudinal obstacles in our way and learn from the experience of other women in that dialogue.

So quietly and effectively, Scotland is contributing to work that builds understanding and sustainable peace. Alongside our welcome to refugees and our condemnation of the grudging “one step forward, two back” approach which Cameron and his ilk think qualifies as a humanitarian response to the global refugee crisis, Scotland is playing an important role on the international stage. Not with weapons or loud voices, or meaningless rhetoric. But steadily and confidently contributing to the dialogue, the skills and the experience that creates peace.

That I was delighted by last Friday’s election results and the return of an SNP government goes without saying. But what I am most proud of is what my country is doing to make good our commitment to mutual respect, gender equality and peace – demonstrating for those who care to see the place we will fully take on the world stage one day.

See the article: http://www.thenational.scot/comment/jeane-freeman-helping-women-to-play-a-part-in-push-for-peace.17472