Memorandum submitted by the
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
1. The Religious Society of Friends
(Quakers) is a religious denomination and charity with a longstanding
commitment to the peaceful solution of violent conflict. This
submission is based on our experience in the programmes of work
of Quaker Peace and Social Witness, our corporate witness department,
in former Yugoslavia and West Africa, and the work of the Quaker
United Nations' Office in Geneva.
2. Regional experience in the Western
Balkans
2.1 Quaker Peace and Social Witness
provides training and facilitation for individuals and grassroots
groups in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro.
The programme, 'Dealing with the Past' is targeted especially
at assisting those committed to acknowledge the shared responsibility
within all communities for the wars of the 1990s. The aim is to
challenge the widespread culture of denial and avoidance and thus
to lay foundations for restored trust and stable cooperation.
2.2 In addressing the avoidance of future
violence, we would encourage Britain's involvement in the region,
to be integrated into an approach that is pursued through the
European Union and aimed at encouraging all the post-Yugoslav
states towards eventual EU membership on an even-handed basis.
Such integration would maximise incentives for cooperation and
minimise the dangers for combative isolation. We welcome the steps
that the UK`s government has taken to this end.
2.3 Recent experience in Vojvodina and
Kosovo suggests that commitment to human rights standards has
too often been limited to paying lip service to such standards,
and making tactical concessions to delay full compliance. We welcome
the particular commitment that the UK has made in insisting on
Croatia`s full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal
for former Yugoslavia at The Hague, prior to the granting of its
candidate status. We remain concerned at the many remaining cases
of impunity for atrocities throughout the region and the maintenance
of perpetrators in public positions, in Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia,
Montenegro and Kosovo.
2.4 We would encourage a relaxation
of Western European visa regimes for young people in the region
as a way of encouraging travel and opening them to the culture
of stable democracies. We would similarly support steps to encourage
any processes of dialogue to deepen reflection on the complex
web of responsibilities for past crimes and promote truth and
reconciliation.
3. Regional experience in Northern
Uganda
3.1 Quaker Peace and Social Witness
provides intensive training and support for northern Ugandan groups
working for peace and alleviating the effects of violent conflict.
This work is grounded in our awareness of the need to ensure that
a cycle of post-independence violence is permanently broken and
of the need for coherence between security, peacebuilding and
development strategies.
3.2 QPSW works closely with Civil Society
Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda in emphasising the
crucial priority of the return of children who have been abducted
from the Acholi communities by the Lords Resistance Army. We consider
this is a crucial step to the rebuilding of trust between the
people of the North and the Ugandan government.
3.3 We welcome the current amnesty as
a significant feature in enabling the attrition of the Lords Resistance
Army and consider that the manner of any post conflict justice
will be crucial to the sustainability of peace. The active participation
of the Acholi people will be essential for any enduring peace
and the work of the International Criminal Court will need to
be carefully integrated with local and traditional processes of
community reconciliation, and with national judicial processes
including the application of the amnesty. As a signatory to the
Rome Statute, we hope that the United Kingdom will play an important
role in encouraging accountability to the local and national community
and strengthening the role of the amnesty.
3.4 While there is currently no 'road
map' for sustainable peace in northern Uganda, our current experiences
emphasises the need to think creatively. We would encourage particular
caution in developing interventions that might undermine accountability
and responsibility to the population of northern Uganda. We welcome
DFID's increasingly nuanced approach to the complex dynamics of
conflict and development in responding to these challenges, and
would urge the a whole hearted commitment to developing programmes
that ensure the involvement of the Acholi People in making a sustainable
peace a political reality.
4. Young people in the armed forces
4.1The Quaker United Nations Office,
Geneva, has undertaken a joint research project with the International
Labour Organisation, based on in-depth individual interviews with
young (ex)soldiers from developing countries. The following observations
are drawn from this research, undertaken in developing countries
including Afghanistan, Colombia, Congo, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka.[123]
4.2 We would identify five major factors
that lead to children and young people becoming soldiers other
than by direct abduction: war, poverty, lack of education or use
of education to incite participation, lack of employment/income
and lack of family or ill -treatment/exploitation or incitement
by the family. Without an understanding of these factors, as a
framework for the planning of policies and courses of action,
no programme is likely to have a sustained effect. Any activities
that reduce wars and poverty, provide access to quality education
for all children and a reasonable standard of living, and improve
family solidarity and parenting skills will have an effect on
reducing the incidence of child soldiering. Since these factors
are cumulative, as well as mutually reinforcing, any programme
to prevent (or reduce) child recruitment and promote demobilization
and reintegration that tackles all or several of them is likely
to be significantly more effective than if they are addressed
separately. The most influential factor will have to be determined
case by case in each conflict situation. For example, is it lack
of access to school, or is the school the breeding ground for
recruitment? Factors will also vary according to different regions
within the conflict area and/or the different groups involved
(religious, ethnic, urban, rural, girls, boys). Thus urban boys
in one area may prioritise access to formal education, whereas
their rural counterparts may want work, or vice versa. Girls may
see vocational training as more, or less, relevant than schooling,
and so on. The same need for specific analysis applies at the
individual level.
4.3 In the light of these factors we
would make the following specific proposals:
4.3.1 We would encourage the adoption
of the Minimum Income for School Attendance programmes used in
Mexico and Brazil as a basis for reintegrating former child soldiers
into education, as well as to prevent/reduce recruitment initially.
4.3.2 We would urge programmes to address
the high incidence of domestic violence or abuse of children,
that will reduce the number of adolescents running away to join
armed forces or groups. The particular impact of such violence
or abuse on girls, its interplay with the dearth of other options
for them, and the greater likelihood of them not being in school,
illustrate the need to tackle the bigger problem of the status
of girls and women in society. Domestic violence tends to be even
higher in post-conflict situations and thus this issue needs to
be prioritised as part of peacebuilding.
4.3.3 We consider that greater attention
should be given to the demobilisation of girls. Few girls are
currently demobilised and reintegrated on a par with boys. Demobilisation
of child soldiers that excludes girls, whether intentionally
or by default, is discriminatory. Because so few girls are demobilized,
the assumption remains that there are few girl soldiers —
and that girls associated with fighting forces are not soldiers
but merely "camp-followers". Girls who volunteered for
armed forces or armed groups are because of abuse, exploitation
or discrimination are therefore being doubly discriminated against.
At the same time, girl soldiers may choose not to go through a
formal demobilisation programme in order to avoid further stigmatisation.
Programmes therefore need to be available and accessible without
requiring formal demobilisation.
5. Small arms - How can the UK improve
its peace-building and post conflict reconstruction policies?
5.1 Most approaches to date to the
problem of the proliferation and wide-spread use of small arms
have been focused on managing and controlling the supply of small
arms. These are vital. But factors which
drive individuals and groups to acquire and
possess small arms must also be part
of the equation if small arms approaches are
to prove effective and sustainable.[124]
In 1999 the Quaker United Nations Office
initiated a series of workshops into
how demand for small arms was understood at
a local level. Our experience leads
us to suggest that greater government commitment to country based
initiatives addressing demand would be an invaluable counterpart
to supply side initiatives in addressing the prevalence of guns
in post conflict situations. The development of 'Gun Free Zones'
within South Africa provides an instructive model for how this
can be approached in national and local settings in Africa.
5.2 We welcome the work of the UK government
both in raising the priority of conflict prevention and in building
effective links between Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ministry
of Defence and Department for International Development. (DFID)
and for including projects on decommissioning of small arms within
the Africa Conflict Prevention Pool. We commend the work of the
DFID in supporting projects on disarmament and demobilisation
of former combatants and encourage greater attention to be placed
on the subsequent reintegration of combatants into civilian life,
so as to prevent a recurrence of recruitment. We urge the UK government
to take a lead in demonstrating how men and women, boys and girls
are differentially affected by small arms, and ask that special
attention be given in UK assistance policies to the post-conflict
reintegration needs of boy and girl soldiers. Not only is this
a compelling human need, but it is a critical conflict prevention
priority
5.3 We hope that the Committee will
learn from the directions recommended in the
forthcoming report of the Swedish Government`s
Stockholm initiative on
Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration[125]
as a model of good practice and that the UK government will be
able to take a lead in supporting the UN`s integrated Demobilisation,
Disarmament and Reintegration standards for all UN agencies.
5.4 We welcome the UK's support of the
'Transfer Control Initiative Support Arms
Transfer Initiative' and the support
of the Foreign Secretary`s commitment to develop this into an
eventual Arms Transfer Treaty. We would encourage DFID to combine
this supply side approach with giving greater priority to the
factors that feed demand for small arms in developing countries.
We encourage work in linking this supply side initiative to the
kind of development projects that would limit effective demand
for weapons. Supply side initiatives, when considered in isolation,
too frequently ignore the significance of the value of local engagement
with civil society in addressing questions of demand.
6. Poverty Reduction Strategies
Quaker Peace and Social Witness and
our partner organisation have been working since 2001 on the impact
of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers on communities in Nicaragua
and Uganda. We welcome steps that have been taken to increase
local participation in the setting of policy and recognise the
significant work that DFID has undertaken in encouraging a focus
on the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable communities. We
would encourage the UK government to integrate an approach to
small arms into future poverty reduction approaches in the developing
world.
We consider that further work by the
UK government in conjunction with multilateral organisations and
national governments could contribute to the likelihood of sustainable
security in post conflict countries.
7. Conclusion
We welcome DFID`s attention to the need
to integrate security and economic planning in post conflict countries.
We encourage a continued commitment to the long term sustainable
development that will be necessary to transform economies that
profit from war into the stable and peaceful economies that will
encourage long term inward investment.
17th January 2006
123 Rachel Brett and Irma Specht: Young Soldiers: Why
they choose to fight , ILO/Lynne Rienner, 2004
Back
124
Demanding Attention: Addressing the Dynamics of Small Arms Demand,
David Atwood, Ann-Kathrin Glatz, and Robert Muggah, Quaker United
Nations Office and Small Arms Survey, 2006. Back
125
http://www.sweden.gov.se/content/ Back
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