International Day of Peace 2020 – Commemorating 20 years since UN Resolution 1325
Women and girls have always played a critical role in peace-building, peacekeeping, and humanitarian response all over the world. This year commemorates 20 years since the UN adopted the landmark resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, which set an invaluable precedent for young feminists in the Global South. Over the past two decades resolution 1325 has played a vital role in sparking international conversations around the inclusion of girls and young women in all aspects of peacebuilding and security – carving space for feminists to demand a seat at the negotiation table.
Nevertheless, the reality is that, two decades later women and trans youth’s bodies remain the bounty of war. Physical, sexual and digital violence against these communities are ubiquitous and even as they continue to blaze the trail and lead life saving peacebuilding work, young feminists remain underrepresented and invisibilized in policy making around peace and security. Young feminists in peacekeeping occupy multiple identities and those whose identities exist at the crossroads of multiple systems of oppression, like indigineous, queer, rural, disabled, trans and intersex youth – are even more vulnerable to surveillance, threats, intimidation and, in many cases, even murdered for their work.
Reform needs to start by recognizing young feminist’s creative and unique strategies for change as peacebuilding work.
As a funder for young feminists led by young feminists, FRIDA is committed to #Changingthegame through employing creative, unique, radical and careful strategies to not only resist this system but to create alternatives and give us a glimpse of what alternative decision making, alternative distribution of resources and power looks like. Today, on this International Day of Peace, we celebrate the inspiring peacebuilding work of some of our Grantee Partners. We are humbled to learn from and support their organizing.
- The Collective Women Group, based in Jhapa, is led by survivors of human trafficking and they work to provide a sustainable and safe environment to survivors by forming their own safe spaces.
- Action Femme to Eco-Justice (AFECOJU) is a group of Eco-Feminists organizing in the Democratic Republic of Congo to resist violence against women, girls and transgender people in their community. They have built a community space for young feminist healing and they have defended and restored land rights to young, rural women, whose land was confiscated as a result of feudal land policies.
