For Life and Freedom

To women, human rights defenders, peace-making non-governmental organizations, the Secretary General of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and other intergovernmental organizations sharing the conviction of gender equality:

Representatives of 107 organizations of soldiers' mothers participating in the Third International Congress of Soldiers' Mothers "For Life and Freedom," held in March 2002 in Moscow, appeal to women, human rights and peace-making non-governmental organizations, the Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, the Council of Europe, and other intergovernmental organizations promoting the establishment of gender equality to guarantee peace and security, with the call to support the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia in striving to genuinely promote the role of women in the process of making decisions of war and peace.

Russia voted for the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) and signed a number of other international documents requiring the involvement of women in the process of settling international conflicts and the development of peace-making efforts. However, in actuality Russia does not fulfill international obligations for the advancement of gender equality in the defense of peace and security. Women's organizations are completely disconnected from the process of making decisions on which depend the fate of their country and the life and health of their children. The position of women in Russia in the last ten years has continued to worsen in the economic as well as political sphere.

The Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia, as the largest women's non-governmental organization in the country, actively participated in the defense of human rights violated in the course of armed conflicts; the promotion of the cessation of the war in Chechnya; and speaking out against militarism and government arbitrariness in the military sphere. The Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia always firmly spoke out against the violation of the rights of civilians in Chechnya. Its efforts defend the rights of ten thousand servicemen by conscription who are sent to zones of conflict against their will and who become victims of the conflicts, as do civilians. The peace-making and human-rights-defending activities of the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia have received honors and recognition in Russia and abroad. In addition, its activities, as the activities of many other non-governmental organizations, are in the main concentrated on the elimination of consequences of the decisions of the military-political leadership, decisions made in spite of the will and without the participation of women.

The Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia appeals for support of its demand for immediate peace talks in Chechnya, for the prohibition of the sending of servicemen by conscription to zones of conflict, for the equal participation of the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers in the making of decisions regarding authentic military reform, for the participation of women's human-rights non-governmental organizations in diplomatic efforts to solve international armed conflicts, and for the release of full information regarding and official publication of irrecoverable casualties in the armed forces.

THE UNION OF COMMITTEES OF SOLDIERS' MOTHERS OF RUSSIA CALLS FOR THE CREATION OF EFFECTIVE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MECHANISMS WHICH PROVIDE FOR GENDER EQUALITY IN THE RESOLUTION OF QUESTIONS OF WAR AND PEACE!

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