make ourselves heard by policy makers.”
But Burma’s ethnic community and civil society organisations are concerned that, if not executed properly, these peace funds have the potential to undermine hopes for a more comprehensive nationwide peace process. Khin Ohmar echoes a number of local civil society groups who have expressed their disappointment in international efforts to support the peace process in Burma in recent months. They say it has been carried out with a lack of transparency and has been executed with a top-down approach that is siding with the government and fails to address a number of serious concerns, among them, the lack of women’s participation.
“Norway is a signatory to the UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which outlines the importance and necessity of women’s participation in all aspects of conflict resolution, and it is a shame that they do not appear to be following through with their obligations according to that resolution,” said Khin Ohmar.
And it isn’t only the Burmese government and the international community that are failing to place sufficient value on the importance of women’s involvement in the peace process. The political leaders of the rebel groups are also seemingly unconvinced of the benefits that women can bring to the negotiating table.
Women building peace
“Organisations like the Women’s League of Burma and many others have been conducting training and capacity building for years, with political training and political empowerment for women, but those women who are being trained are not being recruited into these organisations. We are trying to convince the men, but the men keep saying ‘oh, we don’t have any skillful women.’ It’s just not true…. We are here, we are ready, and we have the skills; we just need the opportunities.
But hope is not yet lost. Many of Burma’s most prominent women activists and leaders are coming together to push for greater women’s participation in all areas of political life, including the peace process.”
Yet Khin Omar highlights that, “Sometimes, as women’s organisations, we confine ourselves, that is true. When it comes to women’s participation we can tend to think only of specific women’s organisation, but that is not it.
“It comes down to our own thinking, our own strategic and comprehensive understanding of the situation. They are not waiting for us, so maybe we will have to mobilise ourselves, and not just women’s organisations, and not only the women of Burma; we need to reach out to all the stakeholders and we need to be assertive. Because women truly have so much to offer to the peace process and it’s in the interest of peace that their voices be heard.”
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