AU Chief Mediator continues dialogue with Darfuri women

Dec 24, 2005 (ABUJA) — A Gender Experts Support Team from Darfur supporting the on-going Inter-Sudanese Peace Talks on Darfur, had an audience with the AU Special Envoy for Darfur and Chief Mediator, Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim. The all-women team was made up of economists, lawyers, health workers, parliamentarians, educationists, ministers, lecturers, women working at the grassroots, in villages, women’s support centers as well as in refugee camps and camps for the internally displaced. Also present were two high-ranking women from the delegation of the Government of the Sudan, also from Darfur.

The women thanked the AU for giving them the space to begin to talk about their issues as women and as major stakeholders in the Talks, and assured the Chief Mediator that they would work together and present one document regarding their common concerns as Sudanese women, and women of Darfur. The women also acknowledged the support of UNIFEM, which had made the women’s participation in the Peace Talks possible.

The women spoke as one, stressing their shared determination to ensure that their common concerns as women were addressed in the Peace Talks and factored into the expected agreements, and that a peace agreement was reached as expeditiously as possible. The women spoke about the situation in Darfur, about the war widows, the raped, the war orphans, the internally displaced, and the refugees; they also talked about women’s concerns in the three areas under discussion at the Peace Talks: Power Sharing, Wealth Sharing, and Security Arrangements. They informed the Chief Mediator that their message to the negotiating Parties was that they must stop the war, speed up the negotiation process, and be compassionate and considerate regarding women and children. They further underlined that security was a major priority for women, that the violence should end, and that breaches of the ceasefire by both Parties should also cease forthwith.

The Chief Mediator stressed that these were life and death issues because every day that passed without a peace agreement being reached meant more deaths, more suffering and more destruction. He encouraged women to contribute to discussions on all issues, including those of specific concern to women. Pointing to the gap existing between what people say about women’s empowerment on the one hand, and the disempowerment and marginalisation that characterize the actual reality of women’s lives, on the other, the AU Special Envoy underscored the struggle required to bridge that gap. He observed that the moment was propitious, because Africa itself was changing, and the general mood was one of positive attention to women’s concerns. The lesson from history was that the gender issue had to be addressed during the negotiations, because after peace the issue of women would be forgotten.

The success of the peace process calls for an all-inclusive action driven by the Sudanese people. Women were an important force in support of the search for peace not only now in the peace process, but also later in the reconstruction process that would be required in the post-conflict period. Abuja was only one front in the struggle for peace, the other being home front. Once peace was restored, the people of the Sudan would need to work together, and it was important to begin building these bridges now, said Dr. Salim.

Asked why there were so few women on the delegations of the Parties, the Chief Mediator explained that while the AU continued to encourage and appeal for women’s increased and more effective participation in the peace process, it was the Parties that, in the end, decide the composition of their delegations.

The presence of the Gender Experts Support Team at the Peace Talks showed that although the face of tragedy in Darfur was the face of women and children, the women of Darfur were also active agents in the search for an end to the war and a lasting solution to the conflict.

Earlier in the month, Dr Salim met with women from the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) who are also attending the Seventh Round of the Inter-Sudanese Peace Talks on Darfur. On that occassion, he again stressed the need to ensure that women’s concerns were tabled and included in any agreements reached between the negotiating Parties.

Press Contact:
– Noureddine Mezni
– Tel: +234 806 529 4818
– E-mail: [email protected]