Conference Details and Agenda:

This working conference comes at a time when social and structural injustices are fanning the flames of human insecurity, specifically related to conflict and post-conflict arenas that could be addressed with:

• Greater gender equity and participation of women in decision making.
  
  
• Peacekeeping and peacebuilding practices that deal with systemic sexual violence.
  
  
• Adherence to rules of engagement that prevent the targeting of women and children.
  
  
• Awareness of the need to address the true scope of conflict-based sexual violence.
  
  
• Attention to rule of law and transitional justice mechanisms that addresses impunity.
  

International agendas dealing with the protection of those suffering most from insecurity have been undertaken more readily and directly since U.N. Security Council Resolution1325. There is recognition that the processes of security and actions of security providers should respect civilian rights. However, the increase in recent years of sexual violence during and after conflict and the impunity that surrounds this abuse indicates a great chasm in getting to, or ignorance of, these avenues to human security and peace with justice which could be used. Rape has been identified as a war crime in ad hoc international tribunal decisions and in the statute of the International Criminal Court. U.N. Security Council Resolution 1820, passed in June of this year, is specifically aimed at curtailing sexual violence against women during conflict. It calls for steps to be adopted "to address widespread or systematic sexual violence." What are those next steps?

This conference brings together those on the forefront of informing, creating or facilitating the training and mandates that must be active to overcome rampant human rights abuses and the brutality of conflict-related sexual violence which is now so common. The intent is to learn from those on the frontlines of protecting and serving in these security arenas; to encourage a more holistic approach to peacebuilding, peacekeeping and peacebuilding with specific training tools and information that address broader protection of, support for and engagement of civilians; and, to advance a paradigm shift for both civilians and those engaged in security that can result in action and policies to stop widespread sexual abuse and the impunity it enjoys.

Unless and until civil society and security forces find a common resolve to enforce policies that establish a doctrine of true responsibility to protect, the fall out from rape and lack of human security will remain dominant. This conference looks at the big issue and shares the small steps being taken to confront these issues.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24:

• 7:00 Distinguished Lecture Series (Louise Arbour)
  
  
• 8:30 Public Reception
  
  
  

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25:

• 8:00 Delegate Registration and Continental Breakfast
  
  
• 9:00 Conference Welcome
  
  
• 9:30 Panel One:
  
  Ending Cycles of Conflict through Gender-Inclusive Peacebuilding: Where are we? Where do we need to go to obtain viable human security and justice?
  
  The process of creating human security – multifaceted, profound human security with true socioeconomic development and human rights justice for the individual – must first overcome conflict and insecurity barriers exacerbated by exclusion of the voices of victims, targets and survivors. U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325 took aim at the reprehensible absence of women’s voices at peace tables and in decision-making bodies that should be addressing human security and well-being for sustainable peace. Activists – women and men – working to establish peacemaking and peacebuilding processes that address the full range of underlying social concerns have called upon U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325 with minimal degrees of success. Ending cycles of conflict through gender-inclusive peacebuilding illustrates that preventing, ending or changing the course of violence depends on many factors.
  
  The first panel provides the larger framework to look for greater coordination and integration of women’s voices for security and justice policies and practices that overcome current hurdles. The focus will be on what must be prioritized by governments and activists to integrate gender justice into strengthened local communities and effective governments capable of assuring human security.
  
  
• 11:30 (1) Knowledge Building and Working Sessions
  
  
• 1:00 Lunch
  
  
• 2:00 Panel Two:
  
  Protecting Civilians in Armed Conflict from Violence, including Sexual Violence: UNSCR 1325 and 1820: Addressing Sexual Violence as a Method of Warfare – What way forward?
  
  Increasing evidence indicates that violence against women and girls, especially sexual violence – which includes but is not limited to rape – is an example of a tactic used not only as a means of prosecuting warfare but also of perpetuating profound insecurity beyond the formal end of conflict. The inadequacy of current military, policing and judicial responses to widespread and systematic violence against women has been noted in a recent report to the U.N. Secretary-General by Sir John Holmes, the U.N.'s emergency relief coordinator, in which he states: "In no other area is our collective failure to ensure effective protection for civilians more apparent – and by its very nature more shameful – than in terms of the masses of women and girls, but also boys and men, whose lives are destroyed each year by sexual violence perpetrated in conflict." (Report to the Secretary-General on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, Oct. 2007)
  
  This panel will look at the recent developments from the Wilton Park Conference and explore how U.N. Security Council Resolution 1820 can be implemented.
  
  
• 4:00 (2) Knowledge Building and Working Sessions
  
  
• 5:30 Dinner
  
  
• 6:30 Speaker
  
  
• 8:00 Reception
  
  
  

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26:

• 8:00 Delegate Networking and Continental Breakfast
  
  
• 9:00 Panel Three:
  
  Advancing Inclusive Security in Multiple Settings: What are strategies, resources, and good practices for security and civil sectors to prevent and respond to sexual violence?
  
  Gender based and especially sexual violence is one of biggest global threats to human security. In order to fulfill the mandate of providing security for all, security actors from international peacekeeping missions to private security companies need to respond to such threats. Developing, implementing, and enforcing codes of conduct in peacekeeping missions, gender sensitive policing, female recruitment in the military up to gender sensitive monitoring mechanisms for private security companies, are measures that have been implemented in order to respond to the different needs of men, women, boys and girls during, after and in absence of armed conflict. It is therefore essential to address the diverse cultures of organizations and individuals charged with handling security in conflict and post conflict situations. npThe accountability gaps in education and capacity of armed forces with a responsibility to protect must be clearly identified and addressed in all basic training and capacity building initiatives cases of gender based violence in the field of combat or follow-up security assignments can be prevented and adequately responded to.
  
  In addition to specific capacity building for national and international security personnelnp, there are actors and factors in the public sector that demand attention and accountability.
  
  
  • First, there is the traditional security sector such as police, military, prison guards, parliamentarians, and boarder guards, which have the given mandate to protect a defined population in a defined territory.
    
    
  • Second, there is the increased role of mercenary forces or private security and military companies that sell their security services to governments, who face major difficulties in legal accountability and consistent monitoring mechanisms by such governments. Where is the oversight to address their acts and hold them accountable?
    
    
  • Third, the ever increasing role of small arms in post conflict scenarios, which often results in violence against the innocent, is a factor which is being addressed with some greater international commitment.
    
    
  This panel brings the voices of those who are devising training for various actors and who are identifying the out of the box actors and factors that exacerbate sexual violence during and post conflict.
  
  

• 11:00 (3) Knowledge Building and Working Sessions
  
  
• 12:30 Lunch
  
  
• 1:30 Panel Four:
  
  Enforcing Gender Equality Mandates as Central to Peace and Security: What is the New Vision of the Role of Law?
  
  International agendas for peace and security should ensure the enforcement of legal mandates requiring gender equality at every stage of conflict and post conflict. UNSC 1325 and UNSC 1820 are binding international laws which should require both the United Nations itself and member states condition their support of peace processes on equality precepts being observed. Law as an indispensible stakeholder means cease fire talks or peace agreements should be considered legitimate only when the UN has taken affirmative actions to include women in all sides of conflict discussion, even if previously invisible in military leadership. Justice as a critical component of human security should be conceptualized as encompassing not only criminal accountability for gender crimes but redressing historic gender inequality as a root cause of insecurity and violence.
  
  The passage of SC 1325, and SC 1820 and SC 1674 (responsibility or protect) together impose new legal obligations on the Security Council itself to take action under Chapter VII to address rape and sexual violence, not only post-conflict but during conflict, as a threat to peace and security. These new Resolutions focusing on gender crimes in conflict are buttressed by the Security Council’s role in implementing the International Criminal Court and as the ultimate enforcer of violations of the Geneva Convention. For example, evidence of gender crimes in conflict should create a legal presumption for the SC to declare a threat to peace and take action under Chapter VII. This panel will stress the new legal tools for enforcing equality rights during conflict and during transition to restructure governmental bodies based on gender parity.
  
  
• 3:00 Report from Working Sessions
  
  
• 4:15 Closing Statement