REGIONAL WOMEN S LOBBY FOR PEACE, SECURITY AND JUSTICE IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE

Transcription

1 REGIONAL WOMEN S LOBBY FOR PEACE, SECURITY AND JUSTICE IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE MEETING REPORT Strategic Planning Meeting of Steering Committee of RWL Facilitated by The Regional Women s Lobby For Peace, Security and Justice in South East Europe (RWLSEE) December 9-10, 2011 Venue: Istanbul, TURKEY 1

2 MEETING MINUTES SUMMARY: On December 9-10, 2011, in Istanbul, Turkey, the Regional Women's Lobby facilitated a Strategic Meeting of the Steering Committee of RWL Meeting Objectives: The main objectives of the meeting were to discuss and share different opinions and views, between seven members of the Steering Committee (SC) of the RWL, on the security situation in the region, strengthening of women in the Euro- Atlantic integration processes and strategic development of the Regional Women s Lobby. Meeting Participants: In the meeting were present the members of the Steering Committee of the seven countries of the region, Ms. Edita Tahiri from Kosova, Ms. Gordana Sobol from Croatia, Ms. Sonja Biserko from Serbia, Ms. Marieta Zaqe from Albania, Ms. Memnuna Zvizdic from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ms. Irina Pockova from Macedonia and Ms. Slavica Strikovic (deputy-member of the steering committee) from Montenegro. In the meeting were also present representatives of UN Women Flora Macula, Peace & Governance Advisor and Edwin Berry, Project Manager, 1325, Tracy Gough, Policy Advisor, Gender & Crisis Prevention and Recovery and Jocelyn Talbot, Senior Gender Advisor, CPR as a UNDP representatives. 12 participants participated in discussion and panels. The list of participants is attached at the end of report. Meeting moderator: Flora Macula, Peace and Governance Advisor, UN Women Kosovo.

3 PROCEEDINGS: Welcome Remarks: The meeting was opened by the Chair of RWL, Ms. Edita Tahiri, in her role as a Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, by greeting and welcoming all present, including SC Members, UN Women and UNDP representatives. Ms. Tahiri stated that this meeting has special importance for the fact that this is a Strategic Meeting which we, as RWL, keep periodically and during the past time we have accomplished some achievements in terms of our mission and goals related to Peace, Security and Justice in the region. It is also important not only for the content, but also for having the UNDP s presence, with whom RWL is trying to establish the synergy that we already have with UN Women. Above all, our work was crucial toward our goal of empowerment of woman pursuant to the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and to our national policies in terms of woman empowerment as well, Ms. Tahiri stated. This Strategic Meeting will highlight the development, progress and the challenges in the region, which we will be hearing from all seven the members of the Steering Committee that are present, out of which we can learn about the main challenges and how these challenges relay to the common goal of the European Integration. Furthermore, Ms. Tahiri stated, that after this meeting we will be able to come up with the important objectives for the forthcoming period but also strategies how we would achieve them in the near future. In general, I can say that RWL with its uniqueness as a group or as an organization, which brings together women leaders from politics and civil society of the region, that suffered difficult past of wars and tragedies, it is working quite well and it is generating, I would say, strength and inspiration continuously. In the beginning, when forming RWL, and when we met in order to try to get together on common goals we did not believe that we really can overcome the differences of the past. However after 6 years, I think that we have become first of all united in terms of our work and goals and with plural ideas and democracy inside this organization, I believe that the next period will mark new successes of RWL work. Ms. Tahiri also highlighted how important UN Women is for the Lobby, not only as the main donor of our work but they have somehow been an inspiration for this organization. 3

4 As a first spark of cooperation with UNDP, two very important conferences has been mentioned by Ms. Tahiri; marking the 10 th anniversary of the UNSC Resolution 1325 in New York and also in Canada, in the World Women s Conference. Currently, RWL is continuing to have support from UNDP in terms of publishing the knowledge product of RWL, for what RWL is very grateful. As a moderator of the meeting, Flora Macula, Peace and Governance Advisor, on behalf of UN Women presented Edwin Berry as a Project Manager of the Project 1325 for UN Women. Mr. Berry expressed both welcome and gratitude for being provided with the opportunity to partake during the opening of the 2011 Regional Women s Lobby Steering Committee Meeting, an initiative made possible through personal commitment and support. In that regard, he expressed his gratitude to the UN Women colleagues and most of all for all Steering Committee Members who made time to convene and be at the meeting, from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. Mr. Berry sad that as newly appointed to his present position of regional manager, when travelled around the region, one of his first ports of call were leaders such as RWL members, because of being very much allies with the work of UN Women. You, above all, he said, have a prominent role to play in tackling political, civil, economic, and social injustices before they lead to conflict. If you are not to lead these efforts, who will? He expressed his appreciation for the important contribution to concretely forward the content of Resolution 1325 throughout respective nations and the sub-region as a whole. On behalf of UNDP, Tracy Vaughan Gough, Policy Advisor, Gender & Crisis Prevention and Recovery, from UNDP Gender Team in New York thanked RWL SC Members for making possible their presence at this meeting and very much looking forward on cooperating with RWL and UN Women on the initiative for drafting the Knowledge product on RWL. This is ideal opportunity for us to follow up on the work on the price of peace and research of the booklet, Ms. Gough stated. On a personal level, I am much honoured being a part of this group and I thank each one of you very much and I look forward on hearing from you and learning from you on the next two days. 4

5 Introduction of each participant took place, their respective roles and membership within their countries. Annex 1: MEETING CONCEPT Meeting was opened with the brief summary of country report for each country/region presented by each SC Member. Panel sessions addressed developments in each of seven countries of the region and presented some best practices and lessons learned. In addition, Political and Security Situation in the Region was also discussed, addressed and shared between participants. Moderator of the meeting, Flora Macula, gave the floor, as an order of priority on country presentation to Croatia, because of the good news that they had share - the 2011 Croatian parliamentary election were held in December She also asked the participants during the presentation to focus on the Meeting Declaration, which is the biggest concern for something that can and we should be engaged to achieve for RWL. Ms Gordana Sobol, RWL SC Member, Croatia greeted once again all participants and informed that she is coming to this meeting right after the Elections in Croatia, held on 5 December 2011, and were after eight years the major changes happened in Constitution and Government, were defeated the Social Democratic Party of which she is a member. I hope that together with that fact and what a change is bringing, Croatia has a great opportunity to overcome the difficult economic situation and the situation it is currently facing, Mrs. Sobol stressed. I would like to emphasize that Croatia currently is in process of signing the EU accession Agreement, has fulfilled all the conditions, and now the process to negotiate accession has started; the Agreement is finally being signed today and the EU Member States parliaments would be ratifying the Agreement in the next year and a half, and the Croatia will become a full EU member state in July I think this is important not only for Croatia, but I can say for the region in general, since I think the coalition that has won the elections had one of the priorities in its foreign policy program orientation towards the region, meaning the countries represented here today. As for the current situation in Croatia concerning the women-related issues and 5

6 gender equality issues, I will describe the Resolution 1325 briefly: Croatian government has on its session in July this year adopted a National Action Plan (NAP) for the implementation of the Resolution I don t have the information what is happening with that at the moment, especially because we were in election rallies in the last three months; nevertheless, we expect the new government to start implementing the Action Plan. With regards to the women s representation in parliamentary Committees, I have to express my sadness that women represented 35% of total candidates in all lists. Currently, according to official results, women make only 20% of the Parliament. However, what will happen, which I dislike, but at least it seems as it has to remain that way for some time, is that now, when the new government is being established, it was agreed that women should replace men, and we could expect some 23-25% of women MPs. This does not differ much from what we had in the last several years, meaning we haven t made any progress, but also we haven t made any step backwards, the percentage remained the same. Croatia has the Law on Gender Equality that sets forth the women representation of 40%, but that will only remain a legal obligation. We could expect during local elections in 2013 parties to reach 40% women representation threshold, and those who do not will pay fines. What else we could expect in the near future? Croatia will have a debate on election legislation, which means that Croatia will slowly move towards semi-open or open lists for Parliamentary elections as well, and my personal opinion is that it is not good for women. It is because in the first period women will receive fewer votes as they will not be on visible positions at that period. Speaking of necessity to have more women, and in an attempt to draw additional arguments, then looking at the general politics within the Europe and wider in terms of women participation, which is of course at the first place, it all comes to recommendations only, such as the recommendations asking for greater participation of women, recommendation stating that it is necessary to have more women on managerial positions. At the same time, I always point out cooperation with non-governmental sector. Some women s associations have conducted a campaign this year entitled Women s Platform. I can promise, and I think concerning Croatia and if I am in position, that I will make efforts to enforce within and through the Parliament the cooperation with non-government organizations/sector, so that we could have on the agenda the issue of stronger political participation of women between the elections, such as for the 6

7 local elections in 2013, and I consider that next year we could start outreach activities for a greater participation of women in the local elections. Ms. Marieta Zace, RWL SC Member, Albania There are few things that I would like to share it with you. I would like to say few words about the lobby since it was a powerful mechanism in the region, which had followed not only the developments of one country but others as well. I would like to personally conclude that it is with great pleasure that in particular this incentive or engagement of women in their own countries that has made them become the representatives of the highest level. Itself the fact that Edita continuous even today to contribute for this lobby with all the engagements and responsibilities that she has shows the high level accountability that these women have for the mission that they undertook. As related to Albania I believe that the political situation of each country impacts incontestably in the continuation of the gender mainstreaming in particular in implementation of the main objectives of resolution Albania s steps toward the progress in relation to this matter have not been constant due to the political situation that exists in country. Post 2009 elections there has been an disagreement or inactive participation of the opposition which did not enable the continuation of regular procedures in order to get the EU integration process further, by keeping a constant attitude of non-participation at those points or demands that EU has placed for Albania. However, fortunately, in the last few days there have been positive steps of the opposition to that end not only on their participation in the parliament but also becoming part of the adoption of basic laws such as various codes, that are a set of codes within the rule of law. Today, Albania has entered that path but still is not giving the full signs of a normal proceeding of the democratic process and EU integrations. Within the context/process if we analyse the duties/liabilities that we have I believe that backgrounds in our own countries differ and I think that also progresses that these countries make are in some cases not with the same rhythm. However, this does not mean that we cannot have impact, within our possibilities, to contribute that gender balance, peace and security in our countries to proceed in the same rhythm and that integration to the EU to be at the same pace. I would like to reiterate that international factor has done an extraordinary work and in some cases I think that they dealt with Albania for a long period, however, recently the progress has started which is needed for Albania to be member of EU. Analysing the issues of 7

8 women and their role in the process as a while, I believe that women in Albania have managed to progress as a result of cooperation that exists within the political and apolitical factor including the civil society. This could be marked as a progress but not the progress we aim to achieve, the progress that is demanded and that we have it in our program. We had a very effective strategy back in which is a great contribution of UN Women and all UN Agencies. However, I think that a new strategy is in place which has new objectives and determines the priorities and I could notice that there is quite a positive change. But as said earlier, not the demanded progress. Therefore, if we have achieved to draft a law, approve that law in parliament which has the quote for women participation in elections, that law could not be implement fully in Albania. The number of women in parliament is doubled however; we still did not reach the quote of 30%. On another note, there is a great progress in the strengthening and increase of economical power of women and their participation in the decision-making as a main condition for achievement of gender equality, for peace and stability in Albania, however I reiterate once again that in Albania we still need a better and coherent cooperation of all stakeholders. As a result is visible that not always everything functions as it should. As for main objectives that we aim to achieve in overcoming all challenges deriving from resolution 1325 I believe that in the new strategy are set few of these objectives and later there will a separated program only for implementation of resolution s objectives. Furthermore, I would like to emphasize that there is a raise in the awareness and increase in the structures that can have impact in development of peace and stability, respectively, in the defence forces and internal affairs ministry and police. There is an increase in engagement in the leading positions always taking the proper qualification to lead with one structure. Ms. Nuna Zvizdic, RWL SC Member, BiH - I would like to split my presentation in three parts: 1) General political, social and cultural context; 2) What is the shift in women s position; and 3) What do we consider as safety. From my point of view, the general political situation in BiH is a disaster. Maybe it does not look that way to the International Community, but we did not have the government for 15 months since the last elections, which creates additional anxiety and insecurity for the citizens. Such demonstration of power by political parties represented in BiH Parliament, and the BiH has 13 levels of parliaments, speaks how disconcerted and difficult everything has been. Concerning the social context, which 8

9 of course depends on political decisions, it is uncertain itself, and that is also delaying adoption of such laws by our representatives that will ease and improve the life of citizens. The only issue we have been thinking about in the past 15 months is if they are to form the government or not. The main issue is which political party will get what position. With regards to the cultural context, we have never been more divided, not even in the period 1992/95, or 1998, as we are now. Citizens, not to say ethnic groups, do not want to live together, and that is their final decision. With regards to women in BiH, it is important to say that since 1992 women were very active, they initiated all the important issues in relation to survival, defence, support, political participation, and anything else important to preserve the society. Women in BiH have been the first in the region to win the appropriate percentage in the Parliament; we had 30% of women in Parliament. We adopted the Law on Gender Equality in 2003, in 2005 we had a Gender Action Plan, those are obligatory instruments and mechanisms for integration and implementation of gender issues in public sphere. In BiH we realized that the Resolution 1325 is the best instrument to ensure women participation in three key fields: political participation of women; participation in peacekeeping and security missions; and prevention of violence against women in post-conflict period. Where are we at the moment? So, if we look and if we know the security sector is consisted of military, police and justice system, we could say that army is making true steps to some extent to increase the number of women in military, not only in lower level, but also at decision-making level; we have 6-10% of women in the army, two women generals (each, the Federation and the Republic of Srpska have one) which is very important. What is also important is that a woman has been appointed as gender officer with the Ministry of Defence, and we are very proud of that. Also, in Bosnia, the activities of 10 women s groups have helped to have a representative of women NGO s participating in the Working Group for Implementation of Action Plan for the Resolution We have been working jointly on adoption of the Plan and now we are working on its implementation and integration. I think that the state ministries of security, defense, justice, finance, and border police have taken this issue seriously, and that they really were interested to have the Plan adopted in The council of Ministers was also interested the Plan to be implementable and to ensure funds for its implementation. 9

10 We have seen a drop of percentage of women in Parliament from 30% to 15%, but reasons are various. Probably the first reason is that us in the region should pay attention to the case that women politicians often forget the arrangements they make with women activists and that is the reason we don t have a long-term strategy and don t respect each other enough to make sure that principles and what we fight for is respected. For that reason we have kind of a distancing between women politicians and activists, otherwise we would have a more suitable situation to speak generally about political participation of women in private and public life. With regards to security, what we in BiH consider and what we advocate for, we have conducted number of activities in the past 4 years, and it is important to stress that UNIFEM, now Un Women provided support in the past 11 years Women to Women and other women s organizations working to support and enforce women in the fields of peace and security. In our opinion, it is very important encouragement and support to prove and demonstrate that peace and security must become local ownership of local women and men. Today I know and I can rightfully say that peace building programs in Balkans were conducted prematurely. The International Community had come to our countries with already prepared peace building programs and I think it was a mistake, because the involved men and women arrived did not know enough or knew nothing about BiH, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Slovenia. These people did not know us, and the lack of knowledge resulted in adoption of Dayton Agreement, which we cannot change today yet it only complicates our lives and makes us endlessly sad. We cannot live as human beings in dignity, as we all have our identities, our backgrounds that the Dayton Agreement did not understand, it did not understand the social context. The International Community would need to return to the priority of peace building in local context, respecting local needs, identities, of men and women, and it is something that has to be done, because the expedited/instant conflict resolution ideas and peace building programs brought to complete division and unwillingness of communities to live together, whereas we have a culture and habit of living together, to have common things; however, today we are enemies of each other. Ms. Edita Tahiri, RWL SC Member, Kosovo Listening to Nuna and the discussion I would like to comment on the concerns that Nuna raised about the lack of local ownership in building peace, democracy and the state. It has more to do with the way international factor, at that time when wars were ended in Bosnia and in Kosovo, 10

11 has perceived the situation and I agree that international factor and in this case the UN as a protectorate and NATO did not consider the local point of views and did not have a lot of knowledge about culture, social aspects and the needs. However in the theory of state-building, which is also part of my studies, there is a theory that if states are built from outside and without any local legitimacy then it is possible to building states without soul. Nuna raised this in Bosnia context. Also in Kosovo these elements are noticeable because presence and authority of internationals was powerful, whilst local power was more superficial. However, we are currently at the position to take more local ownership in order for us to be participants and together with international factor to develop our countries and develop the region in the terms of better peace and stability. Further to this, I would like to talk about situation in Kosovo, in three aspects, the political, security and women s position currently in Kosovo. On the subject of political situation Ms. Tahiri started with the political crises that occurred last September, because the year started with these political crisis ongoing, with the resignation of President and with a very good functioning of the Constitutional Court, which is a sign that rule of law institutions are working in a good manner. Our Constitutional Court for a one year period has managed to take decision for violation of constitution by two Presidents, at one case it was the President and at the other was the Parliament. This is a good sign that Kosovo has a serious approach towards the rule of law, but, as a result of these decisions we had the political crises and had to hold early elections and by early February we managed to consolidate the institutions, including parliament, government and President. For that period, as of February until nowadays, I could say that our focus was to progress in European reforms in Kosovo with the aim of European integration and focused in strengthening the rule of law, because we consider that rule of law is still fragile in Kosovo. We were also concentrated in the economic development. Kosovo has made progress as in increase of performance in creating a better climate for international investments but also for a better initiative for economic development, however, is still far from that position that could be considered as a turning point in the sense of establishing a base for sustainable economic development and unemployment continuous to at the high scale. Furthermore we have worked in other aspects, especially we are committed to public administration reform, which is one of our priorities and other priority is the fight against corruption. We have declared zero-tolerance against corruption, we have 11

12 completed the institutions and mechanisms and the legislation is almost ready in fighting this phenomenon. Since it is few months from the establishment of the government, even though I am deputy Prime Minister I should not sound like there are more results, but you have to understand that in a newly established government there are many challenges and plans than results or progression. We have managed to fulfil all criteria for visa liberalization and we have positive signals. We feel that EU needs to be closer to Kosovo, in order for us to be more committed in deepening the reforms, fastening the process but always within reforms. One of the most prominent activities that mark Kosovo today is the technical dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. Kosovo lately could be seen more in the light of this dialogue, therefore, I mentioned few other commitments that we have in order not to see Kosovo only in the terms of the technical dialogue, but the whole governmental agenda for prosperity of the country. I have discussed about the technical dialogue when we met in Budva, and today 10 months after I consider that this dialogue has finalized a very important phase of its efforts but will continue the second phase in January. I have divided the dialogue into phases because we as parties involved in this process were commit to achieve agreements between each other but we were more committed in the progress that this dialogue brings in our European path. So in my opinion, the European integration is the key factor in bringing these parties together for discussions not only in terms of Kosovo and Serbia but also the Balkans. Still, we could not achieve to increase the political level and deliberate (dialog) with each other without having a need for a third party. As long as the Balkans will need a third party to discuss the internal matters shows where we stand and which are our challenges and strategic process that we need to face as Balkans and we as Lobby, the way we will develop, the political opinion, the political activity and in this way to decrease the role of internationals and for us to be the main parties in building peace, welfare, development and to become partners with international factor and not to be a burden of the international community. I consider that this is one of the main issues that we need to discuss. Regardless of this unfavourable context, the good out of these 10 months was that we reached 6 important agreements and the last one on the integrated border management as very vital agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, agreement on freedom of movement, on free trade, agreement for the return of the documentation that was taken from Kosovo as civil registry and cadastral records and we have agreement for 12

13 mutual recognition of the university diplomas. I consider that these agreements are the first ones in the history of relations between two states that have a tragic and hostile past, because we have held negotiations and talks with Serbia even before as in the Rambouille peace conference and in talks in Vienna but in both cases Serbia withdraw and did not sign the agreements. This is the first time that agreements were reached with facilitation of BE as official and USA as supporter and present at all meetings in Brussels. Where are we today in the terms of the dialogue? One thing that is mission and has to be achieved very soon is the implementation of these agreements. In this case when I say implementation I mean implementation by Serbia since us Kosovo, as party in these talks, we have implemented all obligations as implementing party within the technical dialogue and I am pleased that also European Commission stated clearly the performance of both parties and demanded from Serbia to implement the agreements. What is going to happen I cannot say but the Council of Europe meeting today that will be held in Brussels is very important for the future of the region and for the future of the dialogue, of course if there will be an objective and just evaluation of the performance of parties involved and if there will be rewards in proportion with engagement in the technical dialog then the dialogue will have for sure a future. Furthermore to the technical dialogue I would like to talk about the security situation which most of you have followed in particular since last summer. The tensions have increased in the north part of the country, barricades are exercised, and there were efforts by Kosovo government in cooperation with KFOR and EULEX to re-establish the rule of law in this part. The idea should be of cooperation between two countries and I think that most powerful idea is to progress the region towards the EU and NATO and increase the welfare of our citizens. I consider that we are all tired of wars and conflicts and that it is the time of prosperity and peace and it is the era of Euro- Atlantic integration for the region. Now that we have reached the agreement on the integrated border management the European factor, USA, KFOR and EULEX consider that barricades should be removed and recently the process of dismantling the barricades has started but it is not even close to being able to establish the proper rule of law. What we as a government have as a vision is to open a civic dialog with our citizens and to discuss the political project that we have for integration of Serbs from the North and to respect Ahtisaari Plan and our economic vision in order to strengthen that part of the community. I also 13

14 have another idea that I would like to share it with you, which is the internal dialogue of women in Kosovo, the representatives of women from the north and other parts and I look up at Sonja because I believe that Sonja can assist us in this matter, so I mean a dialogue between women in Kosovo and women in north part. It would be an inclusive dialogue with many communities, but the focus would be in the majority of Albanian and Serb women that would represent the democratic thoughts and integration opinions. In the end I could say that in one thing we would not compromise and that is the north part of the country and that all those individuals and groups who do not like the law and the rule of law and that they have created wealth and power through crime and smuggling, against them we are uncompromising. We believe that technical dialogue is a technical contribution to finding ways to normalize the life in this part of our country including the Serbs. At the end, two or three words on the women s position in Kosovo. With regret I heard that there was kind of stagnation in Croatia but in Bosnia we have a decrease in the number of women in the decision-making positions. This should be one of the challenges of RWL in order to find ways initially to stop the decrease and then to find forms of increasing the participation. In Kosovo there was no decrease in quantity but in quality. Regretfully, the Parliament has the same composition as related to the number of women but the quality is very poor. Now we are seeing the clear weaknesses of the quotas that we have installed. We have a female President but this is not something that we women have achieved but is a result of a compromise in order to overpass the political crises and they managed to find a neutral figure with whom nobody had any objections to become President. We are not for such formulas for women, we aim to increase the quality and political power and women's mental and political courage in order to progress and empower women in a qualitative manner. Therefore, in general, number of women in Kosovo is not sufficient and I think that Kosovo needs a cooperation or return of that cooperation between women in politics and women in civil society with an aim in empowering women. Next for Kosovo, I could say that we strengthened our position at the national level, the local level is very weak, and we have no leaders at municipal level. We are in the process of electoral law reforms; there is still a debate about the system whether to have opened or closed lists, the second is the problem of financing there is no consolidated budget and with an allocation for women. Third, most important, we have the law on gender equality with 40% representation of women but 14

15 the implementation is not at the desirable level referring to what we have expected from this law was it started to be discussed back in 2002, together with the national plan was approved circa Therefore 6-7 years after the approval the implementation is not at the good level. Ms. Irina Pockova, RWL SC Member, Macedonia. What has happened in Macedonia so far? We had some key processes in Macedonia, we had premature parliamentary elections; Project 2014 is being implemented; failed census; then the last judgment in Hague; implementation timeframe for the agreement with Greece; and National Action Plan that is now in place is a step forward for adoption of such regulations in Macedonia. Premature parliamentary elections were held in 2011, not much has changed, and 38 % of women entered the Parliament as a result of the law that was adopted. The plan was to have one third of women in Parliament. It was not only a success, but we are going towards increasing a number of women in Parliament. Participation of women in local elections was 27%, even though elections are regulated by the same Law, it happened because of many lists. That is why we need to pay more attention during the local elections in 2013, to increase participation of women. With election of women and budgets appropriations women issues could be supported in local level. Also, the Project 2014, as a result of dispute with Greece, related to Euro-Atlantic integrations. We all know about the problem with Greece, in some way it represents the history of Macedonia, such as monuments, museums, for which lots of money was spent. That problem we have since 2005, when Macedonia was granted a candidate status for European integrations, that problem was not resolved and still exists. Economic situation in Greece is even worsening the situation in Macedonia. Also, failed population census, for which we don t know why it failed, all we know is that it is not completed yet, because the Census Commission has resigned just before census took place, a new census Commission was formed overnight afterwards and, as a result, we had the unsuccessful census. With regards to the last judgment in Hague, we have respected the provisional agreement with Greece, signed in 2005, that Greece will not block Macedonia in its EU and NATO integration path, should it meet all criteria. But the Greece had vetoed 15

16 in Bucharest, therefore preventing Macedonia to integrate in NATO. But I think that judgment will not have an effect, because together with International Community and Greece an agreement will be reached. Me, and people in Macedonia, think that is not a large obstacle, as the Macedonia has fulfilled all of the criteria for Euro-Atlantic integration. As for the National Action Plan, we have to do something to implement all these regulations. It was good that government and ministry are obliged to finalize the NAP in 2012 and the Resolution 1325 latest by March And the Ministry of Social Affairs finally started conducting some analyses of the situation of participation of women at the local level. We took part in a forum organized in Albania as the RWL members where we asked to speak about security and we got an opportunity to promote RWL. Economic issues we face are the same as those of EU, and I consider that RWL should in future focus on regional political and economic security, and what we could do in that regard. Ms. Slavica Strikovic, Deputy SC Member, Montenegro. I would like to inform you that my presentation aims at helping you create a holistic image of Montenegro at this moment. What we could say about political and economic situation in Montenegro, it is stable, and parliamentary elections are to be held in At the moment, we face with a wave of protests, peaceful protests. We had the first student protest on 17.11, with about 3-10,000 participants; then on protest of largest trade union; the protests are small, constant, mainly women s strikes. If we consider UN s recommendation of that women should represent minimum 30% of parliament members, we could say that representation of Montenegro women in politics is lower than in Croatia, Serbia, BiH, and Albania, with only 11 per cent, and it is lower than what Europe had 15 years ago. Percentage of women in European member states parliaments is lower than recommended one, twenty two per cents. Warszawa based gender Equality Advisor, Ajla van Hil, stated that representation of women in Montenegro political scene is below any international standard. She said that if that trend continues equality of women and men would be reached in 150 years. Also, every third women in Montenegro is a victim of violence. That is supported by 16

17 data of non-governmental organizations. A protocol on treatment of domestic violence cases was signed at the International Day of Fight against Violence. Alarming data of non-governmental organizations that every third women in Montenegro was a victim of violence was a reason for signing a Protocol on Treatment of Domestic Violence Cases. Number of divorced increased for half a per cent since 2003 Census, whereas number of married decreased for one and a half per cent. Men hold the positions of President and Prime Minister. Gender Equality Committee has a largest number of women (7 out of 10 members are women), whereas women and not represented in Economy and Finance Committee, Tourism Committee, and Administrative Committee. Only two female MPs chair any of committees, Gender Equality Committee, and Health, Labour and Social Welfare Committee. Out of 15 ministries in our Government, only one is headed by a woman. In the end, I would like to emphasize something that reflects how women are represented in senior positions in Montenegro. If you type Montenegro women in politics in Google the result would be Montenegro and world MEN in politics. Let me tell you one more thing. The Parliament has adopted an amendment to the Law on Election of Local and Central Assembly MPs with aim to introduce quotas. Unfortunately, we just introduced quotas, only on election lists. We only started implementing the idea, concrete implementation of UNR 1325, just before the development of the National Strategy for its implementation, through (very) interactive workshops in Army HQ and seven military bases in Montenegro. Ms. Sonja Biserko, RWL SC Member, Serbia I would like to point out that Serbia was always in the centre of attention in terms of security, speaking of neighbouring country. I can say at the beginning, few wider comments dealing with wider region, where the region is in full consolidation of statehoods, and it is a situation that it deals with difficulties, not only because of lack of vision and capacities, but before all due to the offer by EU and NATO. However, speaking of consolidation of neighbouring countries, I think of Bosnia and Kosovo, Serbia is still aspiring for division and I think the reaction started from Belgrade, for the first time officially asking for partition of Kosovo, although it has been on the agenda for ten 17

18 years. In parallel with the emphasizing the independence of Kosovo, the Republic of Srpska has localized itself, bringing Bosnia to the edge of breakup. However, this time the EU and USA have clearly stated that it cannot happen, Angela Merkel said it for the first time passed that message. Mr. Tadic did not understand that message, and had continued with barricades, and Serbia is very close to be awarded candidate status, usually awarded to countries before the integration to EU, which has been discussed in the past three years. So, he was later faced with gap, what are the strategic objectives and certain circles in Belgrade, and what are his objectives within the government in relation to EU candidacy. After all, the EU has simply imposed the dialog, which was mentioned by Mrs. Edita. On the other hand, I think it is important for Serbia to get the candidate status, and it is important to utilize this momentum. What is also important is that turnover has happened, run by several parties such as LDP and others. It is a growing force, so to say with many followers in Nis, Kragujevac, Novi Sad and Belgrade. The turnout was great, which is very important in this situation. Speaking of regional reconciliation, I agree with Nuna, there is no reconciliation without understanding. Countries are blocked; there is absolutely no advantage for something like that to be done. Concerning participation of women, we cannot brag about the situation, women representation is about 20%. It is one of the indicators, and could be interpreted as position of women in our region in the past 10 years, there was a regression with regards to women s position, that could be recovered only now. General political culture in which we live is very radical and violent, regardless of disagreements stated by many citizens. RWL Chair, Ms. Tahiri, thanked each SC Member for the country reports presented for the past years within each country of the region. However, she stated, we also heard challenges that are specific to these countries and also further were clear observed that the issue of security or issue of sustainable peace is still to be achieved and a lot remains to be done. And I think that women should really mobilize to be part of these endeavours, Ms Tahiri stated. I think that we should focus today to see how we can inspire more women in politics, decision making processes, in order to be able to integrate women s vision to our national and regional vision. It would be also interesting to hear about the generation change, and how their perception about current problems is. We have to also see how through RWL Strategy we tackle these issues and try to target and mainstream our strategy toward the goal. In one side we 18

19 improve and empower the role of women, and in the other side we empower EU agenda for the region and also EU agenda for our countries. Ms. Flora Macula highlighted the issues raised by Ms. Sonja and Ms. Tahiri, about the young generation, stating that it is our responsibility to work with them and engage them into these issues. It is something new, but we have to assess how to support them and how to transmit our experiences and identify young leaders to join the lobby. Following the Agenda of the Meeting, that is also attached as an annex of this report, and in continuation of the meeting, three points have been presented and discussed: Functioning & Current Priorities of RWL; Follow up on RWL Action Plan & Strategies; RWL Knowledge Product ; UNDP / UN Women / RWL Joint Publication; On the point on Functioning & Current Priorities of RWL while discussing the functioning of the Lobby, it was stressed that challenges and gaps need to be identified and discussed in order to improve functioning and especially address the issue of future sustainability of RWL. In that regard, Diana Cekaj-Berisha, RWL Coordinator, during the PPT presentation, reported on the RWL Project Results achieved during last year specifically, member involvement and networking within SCR Also priorities for next year based on RWL Strategy have been presented together with fundraising opportunities from other organizations, were it was highlighted the possible donation from Finland Embassy in Prishtina through their Local Cooperation Fund. Finland Embassy, through the lobbying of RWL Chair, responded positively and expressed their interest to start moving forward with the idea of supporting the two forums Outcome 2 / Output 2.1 from the Work Plan Women s regional peace networks supported to engage in inter-ethnic dialogue and contribute to major ongoing political processes at national and sub-regional level. Specifically Interethnic dialogues between women politicians from Kosovo and Serbia. RWL Coordinator is on the final stage of completing project proposal, together with a detailed budget to address it to Finnish Embassy. Strengthening of RWL and Institutional Capacity building were also discussed, and actions that are necessary 19

20 such as meeting with high level officials from EU, in particular meeting with Baroness Ashton in Brussels to lobby for women inclusion in technical negotiation and advocacy for women in peace processes generally and other meetings with Government and Globally. During the brainstorming session the possibility has been given to suggest the themes to form the basis of editorials/advocacy communications from each SC Member. Further more, during the Follow up on RWL Action Plan & Strategies panel, Draft Strategy RWL Concept Note & Activity Plan for has been revised. All activities, outcomes and outputs, have been discussed, in order to see possibilities for improvement and better implementation of each. Organizational structure & sustainability has been stressed out were RWL Chair highlighted the importance of RWL SC doing more fundraising and lobbying for its own sustainability (revisions reflected on RWL Action plan attached to this report). Diverse issues have been covered during this session which reflected on Action plan to be revised. The two main activities of the plan are to be held in 2012 and were decided as following: Interethnic dialogue between Serbian women and Albanian to be held in Mitrovica North & South Women s Political Academy regional activity for to consider lobbying with Baroness Ashton. In conclusion, there are few steps identified which are necessary to be followed by the RWL Members on the agreements that are reached between all SC Members present. RWL Knowledge Product; UNDP / UN Women / RWL Joint Publication panel took place on the second day of the Steering Committee Meeting. Background has been presented by UNDP s Gender Team work on CPR in post-crisis settings by Jocelyn Talbot, Senior Gender Advisor, CPR, and UNDP Kosovo. During the PPT presentation by Ms. Talbot, participants have been informed about UNDP Gender mainstreaming & women empowerment and UNDP Gender Mainstreaming Architecture Comprehensive Integration in all services. Also, it has been presented how UNDP support system functions to deliver gender equality results & influence decision makers. Further more Global Strategy from Lessons learnt & SCR 1325 has been presented too. 20

21 After this brief presentation, the discussions about the knowledge management product on RWL took place and were fruitful and provided a valuable starting point for this project. The meeting enabled for clarifications on the expectations from all sides; agreeing on a way forward; and brainstorm on the key elements that should be included in this publication. Ms. Talbot and RWL SC Members set up the plan also for short Interviews to take place that afternoon with RWL SC & UN Women members which later will be followed with the phone or face-to-face interviews with UNDP Consultant after this meeting. This exercise will provide an excellent opportunity for UNDP to continue its promotion of UNSCR 1325 and in particular their work for financing gender equality projects as initiated by The Price of Peace. The RWL story will provide an inspiration, far beyond the Balkans and provide a lasting account of an inspirational network of prominent women leaders. The SC Members and UNDP members present agreed at the end, that this work will rely on the close co-operation and participation of the RWL leadership and membership as well as other relevant actors, including UN Women. CONCLUSION: Steering Committee expressed satisfaction with the meeting and the future plans, and with the overall functioning of the Lobby. They proposed the following conclusion that all agreed upon: - Continuing with regular meetings of SC and all RWL Members as critical for the functioning of the Lobby. - Increase the number of RWL members/strengthen cooperation between Lobby Members - Lobbying trip to Brussels should be discussed further more between SC Members - Themes for discussion of RWL Representative from B&H into the TASCO set. 21

22 - To follow up with arrangements for the upcoming RWL conference (sometimes June or September 2012). Continuous discussion to take place and agree between SC Members - RWL will focus in activating the young women potential by preparing the young generations, capable of facing the challenges of 21 century. - Establishment of the mechanism for Early warning reports/women s Crisis Group - Needs for baseline survey/reports including Political Participation in Ms. Sonja Biserko s report. - During RWL Conference that will be held to launch Ms. Sonja s Report and use for internal meeting with all RWL members - Proposed establishment of women s lobby in each country. - Suggestion of themes to form the basis of editorials/advocacy communications discussed and agreed (starting with RWL Member from Croatia). - RWL Newsletters every three months to be shared. - To share between RWL SC Members names of the Embassies for fundraising - Cooperation of RWL with UNDP for preparing the knowledge product on the activities of RWL discussed and work map agreed, as a possibility that the regional Balkan women model of cooperation will serve as an inspiration for women in other parts of the world. Closely cooperate with UNDP consultant hired for preparing the knowledge product on the activities of RWL - RWL partnership with other CSOs in respective countries of the region to be followed up. - Action points and decisions will be summarized by RWL Coordinator and disseminated. - Complete and finalize Meeting Declaration with set of Recommendations/Conclusions that have been agreed on the meeting, in order to achieve the expected, positive and constructive outcomes from the time invested in the meeting. - Share with RWL Members RWL Website Article, Meeting Declaration and Narrative report of the meeting. 22