REMARKS BY AMBASSADOR HARRIET C. BABBITT
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, HUNT ALTERNATIVES

AT THE SPECIAL SESSION OF THE
COMMITTEE ON INTER-AMERICAN SUMMITS MANAGEMENT
AND CIVIL SOCIETY PARTICIPATION IN OAS ACTIVITIES

MARCH 28, 2024

Thank you, Ambassador Durand, for the opportunity to speak today. I am very pleased and honored to address this meeting of the OAS Committee on Summits Management and Civil Society Participation. I am particularly pleased to represent living proof of the efforts of the OAS to reach out and work with non-governmental organizations and civil society.

I am here representing Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace. To begin, I would like to congratulate the OAS for embracing the important issue of women, peace and security.

In recent months, the OAS has recognized the critical importance of the role of women in peace and security in the Hemisphere in several fora.

At the 31st Meeting of the Assembly of Delegates of the Inter-American Commission of Women last October, a resolution was passed announcing CIM support for implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women’s role in peace and security.

At the 5th Meeting of Defence Ministers in Santiago last November, language was included to again endorse UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security and also the participation of women in peacekeeping operations in the Hemisphere.
At recent Preparatory Committee sessions, excellent presentations have been made by both the CIM and the Canadian delegation on the importance of including language on women, peace and security in the declaration to be adopted by the foreign ministers at the Special Session on Security in Mexico in May.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am here today to offer our perspective on the importance of women’s inclusion in efforts to promote peace and security throughout the Hemisphere.
I bring with me two key messages:

One, women already play critical and often unrecognised roles in preventing conflict and promoting peace.

Two, further integrating women into formal and informal peace processes at the international, national and local levels will increase the likelihood that peace will be successful and sustained.

Women have been increasingly active in promoting peace throughout the Hemisphere. They have crossed conflict lines to promote dialogue, served as peace negotiators, and have participated in post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation efforts through organizing for the rights of female former combatants, providing social services that were lacking, focusing attention on legislative reform and promoting women’s equality and empowerment following conflict.

Unfortunately, their role is often overlooked.

There are many ways one could justify the promotion of women’s inclusion. Some would emphasize fairness and equity. Others would emphasize the need to include women because they are most victimized by conflict.

We add a third justification.

We believe women are a wasted resource when they are excluded. Women comprise more than half of the world’s population. They are often viewed as most adept at relationship building. And frequently women work locally and are closer to the ground, giving them a better sense of communities and their needs.

Additionally, because women have often been excluded from power structures, they can be adept at working creatively “outside the box”. Finally, women have proven their ability to cross conflict lines and build cooperative efforts involving different religious groups, ethnicities and opposition movements.

My organization, Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace, has a global network of women peace builders who are crossing conflict lines in countries on nearly every continent. One example is Monica McWilliams of Northern Ireland who created a women’s political party in six weeks in order to ensure women’s involvement in peace negotiations. Visaka Dharmadasa in Sri Lanka is another example. She, motivated by the loss of her son who is missing in action, has united 500 mothers from both sides of the conflict whose sons are also missing to successfully lobby their government to reciprocate the rebels’ release of soldiers and civilians.

Complementing the network of amazing women peace builders is a segment of Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace called the Policy Commission that is undertaking research in countries such as El Salvador to demonstrate how women have and can play a role in enhancing efforts to prevent, resolve and recover from conflict.

In October 2000, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. That seminal document focused attention on the critical, yet insufficiently recognized role women play in preventing violent conflict, stopping war and sustaining peace. Copies are available here today.

Unfortunately, the stirring words of 1325 have not been matched by action. Implementation has lagged.

We believe there is a unique opportunity for the OAS to demonstrate critical leadership at the Special Conference on Security by supporting a larger role for women in efforts to prevent, manage, resolve and rebuild following conflict.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we ask that you support the draft language proposed by the CIM for the declaration to be adopted in Mexico in May. Many of have already offered your support.

We would urge all of you to use the opportunity presented by this declaration. We endorse, in particular, the provision calling for “energetic implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 by the member states of the Hemisphere”. Language within the OAS is the next step to implementation.

As other regional bodies have acted across the globe on these issues, it is the moment for us in the Western Hemisphere to do the same.

I am grateful for the opportunity to address you today and welcome your support on this issue.

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