Mrs Olatokunbo Ige, Director of United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC) has indicated the need for women to play a major role in the discussions on issues of disarmament; non proliferations and arms control efficiency in Africa.
“When we look at arms circulation, trafficking in a continent like Africa I don’t know whether as women we need to worry about parity, equality or participation. I think what we need is effective participation at all levels,” she stressed
She added that besides looking at women as agents of change when it come to fostering peace and security, women are victims of gun violence and often used as tools and instrument to perpetuate terrorist attacks both deliberately and unknowing through cultural practices.
Mrs Ige was speaking at the Women, Peace and Security and Communication Network’s (WPS CommNet) commemoration of International Women’s Day in Accra on Tuesday.
She said over the years women have gone through phases of perceptions and why they have to be in a particular struggle to position them to be in a place they were naturally positioned to be.
She added that in the area of disarmament it has become very important that women position themselves and take over the discourse so they can quickly raise the alarm where it needs to be raised.
The Arms Trade Treaty came into force in 2014. Ghana ratified in December 22, 2015 and will be part of the member state forum on March 21, 2016.
The treaty acknowledges a gender dimension of the Arms Trade by requesting states to assess the risk of transferring arms or whether or not the arms are to be used or could be used to commit or facilitate serious acts of gender based violence or serious acts of violence against women and children.
She noted that “Arms Trade Treaty is the only gender sensitive treaty of such nature or a legally binding instrument that we have in the world today.”
So far 82 countries have ratified the treaty globally out of which 18 are African Countries and 12 of the countries are from West Africa including Mauritania.
Mrs Ige said it was worrying that only 18 countries in Africa have ratified the Treaty at the moment because arms trafficking, trading and utilisation are growing rapidly on the continent and no matter how small or light an ammunition its main purpose is to kill.
“We need to keep in our minds that if arms are not being effectively controlled no amount of economic development will bring stability to our nations, because whether it is in a non- conflict inflicted nation or a post conflict inflicted nation, if the circulations of arms are not well controlled people will never leave in peace no matter how many Treaties or declarations are put in place
“When we look at the wars that happened in Sierra Leon, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Liberia and the outbreak of the post Ghaddafi only shows that we are living with arms all around us.
“We are living with a generation of people who think power is in the arms and indicted that the media was also glorifying the arms through the pictures they display when reporting.”
Women, she said were not just victims of arms violence but were now been used as tools voluntary or involuntary.
She said the UNREC is planning to launch a campaign entitled “Disarming the mind” because they feel there was a need for the discourse to be moved into the mind.
“African Union has targeted 2020 to silence the guns on the continent even though I do not know how they are going to do that, one of the ways to silence the guns is to stop the illicit flow of the guns and its reaching targets.”
She added that a mass awareness must be created to discourage the youth from the use of guns; the media she said must also change the images and the messages behind the images they put out there.
Madam Margaret Alexander Rehoboth, Head of WPSI called on stakeholders and policy makers to ensure that the gender dimension and women’s interests continue to receive priority attention in the development debate and efforts.
“In particular, we want to urge the creation of opportunities for women to become more involved in peace efforts, including non-proliferation of arms and disarmament initiatives. Given their role and position at the household and community levels, women tend to wield significant amount of influence in these spheres.”
She took the opportunity to congratulate all women in Ghana on the occasion and pledge the institute’s continuing support for the demand for gender parity in all spheres of society.
<<Print>>