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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:15.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;margin-left:0in">
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:inherit;color:#333333">Yemen - Women Demand Equal Representation in the Peace Process<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">'Women are the real peace makers,' Yemeni activist tells UN Security Council.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><img width="601" height="337" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D4F6EC.295AFA90" alt="Muna Luqman, co-founder of the Women Solidarity Network briefs the United Nations Security Council. UN Photo"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Muna Luqman, Co-Founder of the Women Solidarity Network briefs the United Nations Security Council. UN Photo
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">By
</span><a href="https://www.thenational.ae/topics/Author/Mina%20Aldroubi" title="Mina Aldroubi"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#337AB7;text-decoration:none">Mina Aldroubi</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">
- April 18, 2019<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Yemeni women are demanding equal representation in a United Nations-led peace process aimed at ending the country’s devastating
four-year war.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">The UN's special envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths helped broker a deal between Yemen’s internationally recognized government
and Houthi rebels in Sweden last December that agreed to a ceasefire in the port city of Hodeidah and a prisoner exchange.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">But the agreement is yet to be implemented, the government says because of rebel violations. Yemeni women say it failed
to include their perspective. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">The parties included in the process “must consult regularly with women, and to ensure women’s meaningful inclusion," Muna
Luqman told the UN Security Council this week. Ms Luqman is the co-founder of the Women Solidarity Network that is assisting Mr.Griffiths' group of women advisers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">The women advising the UN envoy have set a number of objectives aimed at ending the fighting, building peace, improving
living conditions and amplifying women’s voices and participation in negotiations and peace-building.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">But they feel that their voices need to be further enhanced and included in the heart of negotiations.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">“There is no excuse any more for continuing to exclude women except a poorly designed peace process,” she told the Security
Council.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Ms Luqman, known as one of Yemen’s leading peace activists, became the third Yemeni woman to brief the council this week.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">“We are frustrated because women’s role in peace building continues to be ridiculed, and women who are the real peace
makers, continue to be excluded in the ceasefire and peace process,” she said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Despite the success of the Stockholm Agreement in bringing the two sides together, it failed to include a substantial
number of women delegates.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">“It excluded women and also led to a gender blind agreement,” Ms Luqman said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">There is only one woman on the negotiating table:
</span><a href="https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/a-lonely-fight-for-yemen-s-only-female-delegate-to-un-backed-talks-1.802535"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#337AB7;text-decoration:none">Rana Ghanem – a
member of the government delegation</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Her participation has placed intense pressure on her to represent all of aspects of Yemen’s female population.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">"As the only woman among the delegates, I feel that I have to carry a lot of responsibilities, including the status and
situation of women," Ms Ghanem told <i>The National </i>during the last round of talks in Sweden.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Yemeni women have been leading efforts to bring peace to Yemen and hold communities together with limited resources, Ms
Luqman said, adding that talks have been set up with Houthi women.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">“They [Houthi women] expressed their readiness to participate in peace negotiations. And it is not impossible to include
them.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">She went on to say that she is a survivor of the war in Yemen, explaining that her home in Taiz has been destroyed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Ms Luqman mediated the evacuation of children from an orphanage stormed by Houthis seeking to position snipers in Taiz.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">“Escaping death in Yemen is increasingly becoming difficult,” she said, noting that four months after the signing of the
Stockholm Agreement, armed clashes continue in Hodeidah, more families are being displaced and people are deprived of food, medicine, fuel and electricity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">For his part, Mr Griffiths expressed gratitude for Ms Luqman’s efforts and called for a greater woman’s participation
in the talks.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">“There is no doubt we can all do a lot better when it comes to the inclusion of women and other sectors of civil society
indeed in the political process,” Mr Griffiths said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">The UN envoy said Ms Muna encourages “us to do better in our efforts to include women, both in the formal delegations
that come to rounds of formal consultations, but also in those much more extensive consultations that will help refine the issues we put before the parties.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Hooria Mashhour, a former Yemeni human rights minister who advised a group of women who assisted Mr Griffiths, praised
the UN’s efforts to include women but argued that more needs to be done.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">“We want to see many women involved in all peace process mechanisms including consultation, dialogues, negotiations and
in the post war phase,” Ms Mashhour told <em><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">The National.
</span></em>“In this phase we are much looking forward for applying a transitional justice approach.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">………………………………………………………………………………………………………<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Direct Link to Full 19-Page 2019 Publication:
</span></b><a href="https://wilpf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/WILPF_Yemen-Publication_web.pdf"><span style="color:blue">https://wilpf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/WILPF_Yemen-Publication_web.pdf</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/yemeni-women-demand-equal-representation-in-peace-process-1.850872">https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/yemeni-women-demand-equal-representation-in-peace-process-1.850872</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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