Women and Armed Conflict: Reaching Towards Focused Solutions

Organised by Samrakshan Nepal (SAN)

16 June 2004, Lalitpur

Samrakshan Nepal with the support of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung convened a one day interaction programme entitled "Women and Armed Conflict: Reaching Towards Focused Solution" which drew together more than 85 representatives of the policy community, academia, media personnel and non-governmental organizations for scrutinizing the role of women in addressing the issue of conflict resolution and peace building. With the goal of drawing attention to this important and yet often neglected aspect of conflict resolution process and to make sure that the crucial role of women in war torn society is not overlooked or dismissed this discussion among the experts from the field of conflict resolution in Nepal was held on June 16th in Kathmandu. In order to have a theoretical debate and provide an overview of the major issues and school of thoughts the interaction program was divided into two sessions. First being the inaugural session where the theme of the discussion was introduced before the participants and the second was the working session where three papers were presented before the floor.

Inaugural Session

The interaction program started with welcome remarks by Ms. Babita Basnet, member, Samrakshan Nepal under the chairmanship of Manorama Upadhyay, President, Samrakshan Nepal. The guests on the occasion were Honorable Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Ms. Chitralekha Yadav, Mr. Yog Prasad Upadhyay, former home minister and Ambassador to the United States of America, and Mr. Dev Raj Dahal, Country Representative, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

With a short introduction of Samrakshan Nepal by Ms. Pankaja Bhattarai, Vice President, Samrakshan Nepal the session's preceding was initiated. She while introducing the organization mentioned that it was set up with the vision of contributing in its small way to the building of an egalitarian and rights based society which will aim not to project its thinking in the community but move forward with them and through them. She revealed that this bottom up approach would enable Samrakshan Nepal to achieve results in a cost effective manner and with greater accountability. The mission of Samrakshan is to build a society where all men women and children have equal economic, civil, political and environmental rights. She also expressed gratefulness for all present including the participants, paper presenters and the Funding organization for expressing confidence in Samrakshan and giving importance to the topic of discussion - "Women and Armed conflict".

Mr. Devraj Dahal, Representative, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung began his remarks by citing the Greek Historian Herodotus who said, " In peace children bury their parents; war violates the order of nature and causes parents to bury their children"

He said that violent conflict constitutes a clash of hostile interest causing civil and moral breakdown and punishing the entire community, majority of whom are women, children and deprived. Women who play a key role in maintaining livelihood in uncertain times and who enjoy a grassroots perspective on conflict resolution hardly receive any priority in negotiation. It is essential to mainstream gender perspective into relevant policies and programs regarding civil peace action since the women are inherently knowledgeable on coping with conflict through early childhood socialization process. He mentioned the current political conflict as having produced prolonged political and constitutional deadlock and increased decay of public and political institutions. The often-changing political equation further defied the structural stability of the state. The results have been stalled productive life of society, non-equilibrium in state and society relations and weakened connection between national security and democracy.

Any focused solution therefore rests on three conditions: a) political pressure of diverse people which is able to contain selfish tendencies of leadership within legitimate constitutional bounds, b) condition of society creating social contract which tends to address the root causes of conflict arising out of poverty, inequality, injustice and alienation and c) finally an ethical climate which allows people to expect a balance between a modicum of order, freedom and social justices. The first condition includes political pressures exerted through human rights organizations, women's association, conflict victims, school children and religious organizations through peace campaigns reflecting the common man's aspiration. The second condition is attaining political equilibrium by greater democratization of political parties and making it truly representative of social pluralism and critical discourse by empowered and cooperative citizens. Third condition holds that peace is essentially a question of nurturing democratic values and culture as opposed to distribution of power among powerful actors. Women's role in humanitarian service is undeniable.

Mr. Dahal mentioned that since the current conflict requires political solution it is of key importance to make the positions of various actors politically reasonable to transform their mutually exclusive position into a cooperative game. Solutions must be sought in the light of political interest, reason and ethics. He shared some of his solutions to the issue:

• Peace through national security: by seeking civil military synergy, which is lacking currently.
• Peace through law: by maintaining constitutional status quo and democracy with its checks and balances
• Peace through constitutional reforms/ amendments: by certain reforms or amendments in the constitution like limiting King's power, civilian control of army and proportional representation of social groups in politics and state.
• Peace through Constituent Assembly: Parties like Nepal workers peasants' party and the Maoists party advocate for a new constitution drafted by constituent assembly to resolve the crisis.

He concluded by wondering whether positive peace is achievable in the context of differing interests and positions of political actors. He clarified positive peace as a condition in which there is no existence of latent, manifest or even structural violence and a well functioning democratic framework is in place to ensure the supply of adequate common good for the satisfaction of people's spiritual, social and material needs. In the end he felt that peace is still achievable through negotiated settlements where face saving options are provided to contesting forces, and intermediaries facilitate communication among them for creative political engagement and participation in governance that is legitimate and just.

Guest of honour Mr. Yog Prasad Upadhayay, ex Home Minister and ex US Ambassador from Nepal in his remarks mentioned that it was a new experience for him to speak in such a forum specially one which comprises overwhelmingly of women. He said that the nation has not yet realized the problem itself, which is the reason for the conflict to persist. This is a conflict between the modern mind and the traditional mind. We cannot do away with this issue through wishful thinking but rather we need to find a mid way, as he pointed out a modern mind is biased in itself while a traditional mind is traditionally biased. The challenge is how to coordinate and amalgamate the two.

He further spoke about the famous writer of Indian origin V.S Naipul and Salman Rushdie and their disgust of the Asian particularly Indian political scenario behest with lack of freedom, and their latter confidence in the improvement of situation and democratic politics. He compared the same to the Nepalese situation and said that there is a reason to hope similarly. He expressed confidence in the vision of youth and their being able to take up issues of any nature and tackle situation rightly. He expressed confidence in the young mind and their vigor to effect change in society. He ended by saying that wisdom inherent in us should be assimilated and imbibed by all quarters in a balanced and responsible manner

Ms. Chitralekha Yadav, Deputy Chairperson, House of Representatives and Chief Guest on the occasion after expressing her thanks to the organizers mentioned that the topic of the interaction is very relevant to our times. She mentioned that today the nation and particularly its women are facing a critical problem as a victim. The war widows of the current insurgency are from all sectors- be it Maoist, Police, Army or the civilian masses. These women are under immense pressure in a particularly traditional society like ours. Relating her personal experience while interacting with these women she mentioned that the husband's family attributes the death of their son to the bad omen brought by the son's widow.

According to her reasoning the qualifying factors for the current conflict is the lack of education, poverty, lack of decentralization and need for structural change. In the years of democratic rule in Nepal she points out that neither organizations, which strengthen democracy, were developed nor could the existing organizations be really democratized. This is a particular failure of democratic politics. She mentioned that war widows specially their children face a difficult and bleak future. The challenge and need before us is to mould and implement our policies and programs to face these emerging problem areas. She mentioned a lack of political commitment in policy formulation and a few self-centered politicians as having held the country at ransom for their own personal stakes. The current dilemma is a result of self-centered and profit centered politics at the expense of people centered politics, which is the core of democratic value

Women in particular have been deprived of opportunities for full participation even though wherever they have reached important positions; they have been able to perform efficiently and optimally. She further mentioned that participation is necessary to women's development. In this context she provided an illustration of the lack of such participation right at the top- in the Cabinet. There is a quota system in cabinet, which is applicable in the case of Women, Madhesi (People of tarai), Scheduled caste (Dalits) and scheduled tribes (Janjatis) community. She questioned the appropriateness of the same in the context of limitless seats for the other general communities regardless of their qualification. This is an unjust situation and a big question mark on social justice. She felt that if such a situation persists in the membership of the cabinet who themselves are supposed to be precursors of change; the situation is unimaginable in the rest of Nepal.

Ms. Yadav differentiated between the conflicts of 20th and 21st century by pointing that while the former was mostly external the latter, particularly in the case of Nepal is absolutely internal. In such internal strifes and conflicts a common man faces difficulty in differentiating between what is right and wrong and who is right or wrong. She mentioned that external voices like UN can only speak and advise us but the onus lies in the hand of Nepalese who have to deal with this problem. She lamented that in this era of information and knowledge, we Nepalese have both but lack virtuousness and are caught in self-centered thinking. She feels that at the root of present conflict is lack of social, political and economic justice. She stressed the importance of economic justice and economic development, which should move simultaneously. She mentioned that imbalance between village and cities, caste, ethnic and gender based discrimination results in loss of opportunities of various kinds like in job and education sector. As one of the solutions she advocated that only when a nation invests in women that things can change, citing the quote, " Invest in women and invest in change". She mentioned that conflict results when nation's people and particular sections get disillusioned, dissatisfied and irritated due to lack of justice. This is a typical stimulus response situation, which if not addressed adequately will only further the reasons for conflict. Therefore she called upon all women and men to come together to uproot this problem by finding out avenues and opportunities. She pointed out though, the need for us to be clear about our mission and vision and work in a determined manner to achieve our goal of a just and peaceful society. She also pointed out to the need of fine-tuning national policy and program to the needs arisen out of the conflict. She expressed confidence in the ability of ordinary people to do extraordinary work, once they are exposed to ideas and knowledge the bottom line being involvement of all parties (related to conflict) to chalk out workable solutions.

Ms. Manorama Upadhyay, President, Samrakshan Nepal welcoming the participants to the interaction program followed with her speech, which noted the rationale behind the workshop. She submitted that the idea of women as peacemaker is not new which is evident by the existence of Women's peace building organizations worldwide. When conflict strikes women are the one who are subjected to the most degrading treatment and it is they who risk their lives minutes by minutes trying to seek food to feed their children when there is no longer food available. Given women's disproportionate suffering in times of war and conflict, their traditionally limited role in advocating, promoting and preserving peace is quite unjust.

Given women's remarkable resilience, resourcefulness and creativity in response to daunting challenges she shared her belief that their broad based participation in dialogue and action to promote peace has become a necessity. She further mentioned the need of new voices, perspectives and visions as well as new modalities and processes. Women bring to the cause of peace distinctive experiences and perspectives. She expressed confidence in the vast knowledge among the gathering and that future collaborative work amongst the group will rekindle hope and optimism for the future.

Working Session

The session was chaired by Mr. Dev Prakash Tripathi, a senior journalist presently associated with Channel Nepal Television as host of a current affairs program.

Paper presentation: Mr. Gunaraj Luitel, News Editor, Kantipur daily.
The presentation on "Gender issues in conflict situation "started off with the quotation of Mao Tse Tung " The hand which moves the cradle can shake the world". He projected the present senario of armed conflict and its impact on women. The presentation went on to reflect on the distortions as a result of conflict including forced displacement, culture of missing persons and double burden of family in the absence of the male counterparts. Women are not only victims of war but are also direct participants in the military aspect of the war. Additionally they are in danger of being forced into situations of sex slavery. These are the many reasons why women should not be seen as a subset of victim alone but actively encouraged to participate in conflict resolution and peace building before and after peace takes place. He cited the example of Northern Ireland where women participated at the last moment in the elections held to choose representatives in the talk's process and later participated fruitfully in the entire negotiation process and South Africa where a reservation system was built into the process of selecting Constituent assembly representatives ensuring one of three nominees as women. He advocated for replicating some similar models in Nepal's peace process. He ended up saying that there are instances when those who possess arms be it state or the other conflicting party feel lack of need of ordinary men and women in the process but many more people than them are actually directly and indirectly involved as a result of their war. Therefore there is a felt need for their participation and specially that of women.

Comment on the Paper: Gita Upreti, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Head, Women's Cell
Summarizing the key points of the presentation including use of women as war weapons and their forced roles in the family due to displacement of male members, Ms. Upreti went on to reflect on the situation of women in the present conflict. She illustrated the comment of Comrade Parvati in "People's war in Nepal " saying that women are participants in all wars but do not enjoy representation in power sharing. Even prior to this women have participated in peaceful national agitations. The Nepalese women have always participated in armed and unarmed conflict situations but have never been part of the resultant power sharing. They have been part of the conflict process admittedly but overwhelmingly in the lower ranks. They have also thus not been deemed important in the talk process. From the gender perspective they should be represented from talk process to the peace-building component. Women's felt interest and needs have been ignored in this war as both parties are more interested in addressing political issues as opposed to the gender issues like women and education, women and health, citizenship rights of children born to single mothers due to war atrocities, rape and violence victims and others.

She mentioned the fact that there has been a change in the traditional thinking among security forces that women couldn't fight in the front ranks. This is a positive result. She though expressed skepticism, about the thinking that Women's awareness of their own capacity will later translate into share in decision-making. In addition there is another question mark about whether the benefits as a result of women's participation will be able to be used by women. There is a need for women related issue to be addressed with a strategic mission, vision and plan; otherwise they will be shadowed by other issues. It is not only in war situation but also in peaceful times that these issues need to be worked upon. She closed her comments by saying that we need to closely look at the various impact of war on women.

Paper presentation: Manorama Upadhayaya, President Samrakshan Nepal
In her paper "Participation of Women in Conflict Resolution" Ms. Upadhyay reflected that conflict hit home when it hits women and girls. She in her paper tried to explore the present status of women in Conflict situation and their participation in conflict resolution process. Projecting the Women's multifaceted roles in armed Conflict and the Options of interventions for women's participation during and after Conflict, she pinpointed the probable Transforming Approaches to Conflict Resolution that International Agencies, Government, Civil Society and Educational Institutions could adopt for the inclusion of women in peace building process. Summarizing the presentation she viewed that if Nepalese women are to play an equal part in improving security and maintaining peace, they must be empowered politically and economically. They must be empowered at all levels of decision- making, both at the pre-conflict stage as well as at the point of peacekeeping, peace building, reconciliation and reconstruction. Only an inclusionary process of negotiations can hold transformatory potential for peace, democracy and social justice.

Comment on the paper: Mohan Dev Bhattarai, Ex director, Department of Education
Summarizing the contents of the presentation he mentioned that though a large number of women have devoted themselves to development work they have not been given appropriate role in decision making nor have their important role been well covered by the media. Women have learned to consider even abnormal conflict situations as one of peace. A woman has selfish reasons for coveting peace, as they are by far the most victimized in such situations. Women have played a multidimensional role in peace building internationally but are still weak in this regard in Nepal. Therefore we need to provide them space since they are capable but have just not received the proper opportunities. He reiterated the content of the presentation which mentions that they need to be empowered at all levels of decision making in the pre conflict stage, peace keeping, peace building and reconstruction. He emphasized the need of the hour for women is to forcibly take up their role based on their capacity to play rather than sit back and request for the same. In order to perform a multi dimensional role they should affect change in personality, role, activities and coordination mechanism. If participation is an opportunity provided by someone else role is a niche, which is created automatically because of one's capability. He further said that in this age of information we should carefully look at opportunities, imbibe them especially in the arena of politics where without women's appropriate role within the system politics cannot become relevant game. He also said that it is not only the Maoist and Maoist affected who are the stakeholders in the peace talk but also the larger indirectly affected citizens who too face psychological impact and trauma. He recommended holding a workshop where the ordinary citizens take part and their vision with regard to the way forward for conflict resolution should come through and disseminated.

Paper presentation: Ms. Shova Gautam. President, IHRICON
Shova Gautam in her paper "Entry points for Women's Participation in Peace Building" projected the need of peace for women especially during the conflict situation. She justified her demand by portraying the effect of conflict on women and its ultimate impact on the society as a whole. She also in her paper highlighted the Legal Protection under "Muluki Ain"(Civil Code) Nepali woman is entitled to during the conflict situation. She enlightened the readers about the type of human right Nepali women is bound to enjoy and how International Court of Justice could protect her rights. Towards the end she enlisted the type of role a women could play in resolving the conflict situation in our country's context and call for their active participation in this regard.

Comment on the paper: Krishna Pahadi, Human Rights Activist
Mr. Pahadi starting with the gist of Ms. Gautam's presentation mentioned that the presenter has tried in her paper to provide a complete definition of peace. A social environment, which is free from fear, may be a reflection of peace. He further mentioned as per the contents of the report that respect for human values and talent and human rights protection of all if made the cornerstone of our life will lead us to the doors of long term peace. Women specially are placed at particular risk in war situations including rape, torture and other violence targeted at the family.

He raised the vital question of impunity in such times citing the recent case of Mahottari where indiscriminate rape took place. Women have to face a live filled with fear if impunity persists and there are no watchdogs in society constantly highlighting these issues. Nepal has ratified legal conventions such as 1949, Geneva Convention, and its Common article 43, which address internal conflict. Many international treaties have given importance to women related human rights. International Criminal courts have tried to address violence and criminal acts against humans particularly women but Nepal has not been a party to their ratification. He laid down three important issues that need to be addressed.

• Indiscriminate killing should be stopped. All governments have given an important role to killing or arms based rule.
• Protect civilians in any situation
• Respect Rule of Law

Women's role is evident in promoting democratization, neutrality whoever be the judge or the arbitrator in whichever situation. In every sphere of life women play a major role in making each realize the importance of peace, justice, non violence and independence. Compassion and cooperation is a must for the development of a fearless and confidence building social environment. An all-comprehensive democratic system should encompass fundamental independence, social justice and human rights. We cannot return back as Human rights protection is our overall concern- Human rights is universal, indivisible, interdependent, interrelated. Nepal at this stage is facing an armed conflict not just conflict. Maoists have taken up arms as a way of life and are perpetrating internal conflict and this should be governed by the Geneva Convention, 1949 and its common article 43. The state is obliged to honor its obligations to this convention and there should be a strong advocacy effort to pressurize government into honoring the international treaty and its contents.

We should realize that the present conflict is not a priority issue for the international community and the entire price has to be paid by the citizens of this country. For this to occur we should and particularly women who can take an important role by starting to take steps in the direction of peace building. These include investigations and fact-finding, steps to address impunity (even by commissioning Mahottari research mission), steps to prosecute the guilty whether they are from the state or the Maoists. This should form the basis for greater advocacy emphasizing the danger inherent in human rights violations. He put forth the view that Maoists have not become tall as a result of their philosophy and policies. They seem to be tall because of our political parties which are losing face day by day due to their own internal strife and bickering for power. To make both these forces accountable and socially responsible there is a need for restructuring and rebuilding of society through comprehensive in depth discussion and reevaluation of current structure.

To help turn this into a revolution of sorts there is a need for impartial research and fact finding reinforced through nationwide campaigning. To advance responsible behavior in the society it is important to conduct serious discussions on political issues. He felt that we ourselves are not knowledgeable and groping in the dark with important issues. He illustrated the same by pointing out the lack of information and lack of comprehensive debate amongst us about the Maoists theory of forward looking way (Agragami Nikas), responses of the government to the same, the five opposition parties 12 point agenda or Nepal Communist Party UML's 9 point road map. He reiterated that until we begin to address and debate such concrete political issues any other intervention would be only of superficial nature. He expressed his view that the agenda of civil society and women's group in this regard should be agreeable on one point which is fundamental freedom. Similarly the Maoist need to incorporate the point of fundamental freedom into their agenda- which translates into being able to take part in elections, open a political party, freedom of speech, freedom to hold public meetings, giving up arms as a means to articulate opinions. It Maoists agree to the same at the minimum and give up killings there is no ground whatsoever to oppose them. There is a gap in the civil society's agenda wise response to the Maoists. In this regard he opinioned that someone should bring together all parties to the conflict and the civil society members to chalk out concrete plans towards peace building. The seminar/ workshop should also include ordinary citizens and women's voices and concern.

In the end he expressed uneasiness with the Maoist and State's strategy of killing people in the name of creating peace. He said that the more killings there are and the more widows are created the wave of disgust and strife prevalent in Nepal will grow all the more. Efforts should now be made to promote a culture which says- No to killing and encourages a culture of peace as against a culture of violence. Similarly there is also a need to openly discuss the operations of Maoists, as only 0.1 % of their campaigns are city centered. As a way forward he suggested formation of youth groups in the community, schools and college to advocate for peace. He gave the example of North America where college and school based youths between the age of 12-18 convene as youth groups and have succeeded in becoming vocal pressure groups in their society. He closed by saying that human rights, peace and democracy cannot be separated from each other but has to be imbibed together.

Chairman's remarks:
The working session ended with Mr. Dev Prakash Tripathi's remarks. He said the impact of conflict is all -pervasive. When we compare Nepal with Cambodia, Peru & Philippines it all seems a result of internal imbalance in society. It particularly impact women and their health, exploitation and double work burden being other important concerns. He also mentioned that the living person face more pain than the dead in such kinds of situations. Women are quite active within the Maoist militia and on the other hand Army the state party has also started recruiting women soldiers. It is important therefore that women as one of the key stakeholders take active part in peace negotiations.

General Discussion and Comments from the Floor

Chairman of the session Mr. Tripathi opened the floor for discussion on completion of the paper presentation. Excerpt from the floor discussion are given below:

Mr. Pradeep Ghimire (CEHURDES)

Summarizing the proceedings of the working session he viewed that Conflict in itself is not negative. It arose because society was and has been unable to address the philosophical conflict of ideas. The society and the state rejected the 40-point program of the Maoist without debating the same seriously. Nepalese society has failed to give its people equal opportunities and chances and the inherent discrimination in society is one of the major reasons behind it. He summarized that armed conflict is a by-product of political crisis. State has been unable to define its own role and thus state mechanisms are in a limbo. The results are human rights violations by all parties. He submitted that political solutions are the only rational solutions in such a situation. Civil society can play a positive role in promoting the same.

Dinesh Tripathi (Advocate)
Conflict in general is unprecedented thing for the Nepali Society. But when it comes to internal conflict there comes the problem of internal displacement. In an internally displaced society, people tend to loose their right of national protection and this situation in turn gives rise to refugee crisis. Though there exist UN guideline / rules of resettlement for the victims of internal conflict but still this situation is yet to be recognized as problem in our country. Moreover there is no follow up of the existing Geneva Convention in this sector either whose protocol 2 dictates the norms of war as international customary law. Therefore formal justice is not adequately provided to the victims. There is need of ratification made on provisions of international court of justice on conflict so that it could be effectively applied in our country's context. For this role of civil society is of utmost important. They should come forward and take this as an agenda and move ahead advocating for its ratification. Moreover, it requires proper supervision while providing justice to the victims so that the ratified norms underlined by the court are properly followed.

In Nepal's context there lies a big question as to the increasing strength of the Maoist day by day. If we really want to critically analyze the situation for getting answer to this we need to have root cause analysis approach. Here fire brigade approach is not at all fruitful in solving the crisis. There is no place for tokenism. Until and unless root cause of the problem is pin pointed we will not be able to address the crisis permanently. The present crisis has not erupted only because of the mistakes of the political party but due to the failure of the whole state mechanism.

Anshu Gurung (Save the Children Norway)
Before talking about Nepali Women and their participation in conflict resolution we need to have a clear scenario of the society they are living in present conflict situation. Ours is an economically fragile society where present conflict has intensified its problems. Nepali women have become the most vulnerable victims to this crisis. Access to emergency health services by women is either limited or non-existent, with pregnant women and children being the most diversely affected. Therefore there is requirement of transformative approach where our fragile society needs transformation in economic as well as social front. This is however a very sensitive issue and facts needs to be addressed for such transformation in a very precise manner. Therefore this type of interaction program should mainly aim at bringing forth future strategy to resolve the problems already existing in our society and to develop a sustainable solution to the crisis. Participation of women in various developmental as well as other sector should be categorically highlighted percentage wise so that true picture of Nepali women's (both rural and urban) potentiality is projected before the policymakers. This way their role can be recognized which in turn could be fruitful in their true participation in addressing the crisis.

Susan Risal (Nagarik Aawaz)
Through this floor I would like to share some of my experience that I gained during our course of activities in conflict affected area. We during our work have noticed that it is either mothers who pressurize their young daughters to join the rebel group or the community itself plays role in it. If we carefully analyze the reason behind this we could be able to see that lack of security amalgamated with existing poverty force them to opt for such a decision.

Hari (Victim of Conflict)
Being a victim of conflict myself I think in order to have a sustainable peace we need to have the involvement of victims in the peace process because it is he who could say which portion hurts much. Beside this related wing actively involved in this crisis escalation also need to be incorporated. Therefore it should be a two way process to achieve permanent peace in our society.

Nirmal Bista (A displaced youth working for Nagarik Aawaz)
I would like to take this opportunity to share my personal experience though this forum as I represent those hundreds of youth s who are forced to leave their home and village due to this conflict. I belong to Kalikot district, which can be considered as one of the most conflict affected area of our country. Since 2055 almost all the VDC (30) falling under this district have been bearing the burnt of ongoing conflict. In our village not only rebels comes for carrying out their activities but also the "Danga Prahari" (Police Task Force) have intensified their counter activities. In the name of raiding our village as a part of their search operation they indiscriminately torture the village people. They do not see whether the person they are torturing is a man or woman. People of Kalikot are living in a state of fear where on the one hand rebels force them to participate in their activities and on the other hand there exists fear of army labeling them as collaborators with the Maoist. Therefore most of the men and youths have fled their village and burden on women has increased. Both Maoist and the Security forces have further threatened women with invasive security checks during random household searches and there is no one to assist or help.

I would like to ask through this platform: who is responsible for our security? Who will make them responsible towards protection of our rights? Are we entitled for any kind of security or not? This conflict has flared up the problem of ill practices like prostitution and sex trade in our society. Due to lack of basic education and fragile economic condition more and more youths (both boys and girls) are joining the rebel group. When rural women of our society have the capacity of joining the rebel group taking arms in their hand then why this potentiality can't be utilized by our government and policy makers? Why are not they given adequate opportunity and place in defense sector. This could be one of the effective ways of checking their flow towards the rebel group.

Geeta Upreti (DSP and head of Women cell, Nepal Police answering Nirmal Bista)
Nepal Police has begun giving utmost priority for increasing the regulation of women police in this sector. But like other departments here too the influence of patriarchal thinking is highly prevalent. She added that since women and children are the most vulnerable group during conflict situation therefore regulation of women police is utmost essential. At present we do accept that there is lack of access to justice for these victims and involvement of women police personnel is urgently needed for providing them required justice. She informed the floor that presently there are only 85 women police in the Police force. But government is positively thinking of changing this scenario in the days to come by planning to increase this number.

Sachi Mainali (Journalist from Pro Public)
Though Nepal police is projecting its attention to increasing women's strength in the department there still exist discrimination in their recruitment in the police force. For recruitment while women need to have minimum of School Leaving certificate qualification this is waived in the case of men. They are just required to possess a minimum level of literacy. She questioned whether this discrimination serves as a hindrance in increasing the number of women joining the department.

Geeta Upreti: (Answering Sachi Mainali)
As already mentioned earlier the department of police too cannot be segregated from other for not being influenced by patriarchal thinking. Moreover, till now only three (one DSP and two SP) women have been able to reach the decision-making position in the department. Therefore changing this discriminatory act requires more time. Meanwhile, there is internal discussion happening in this regard.

Hom Lamsal (Journalist)
Through this floor I would like to know whom should we approach for the protection of our human rights under the present conflict situation. Are there any organizations that will advocate our issue before the court of justice?

Krishna Pahari: (Human Right Activists)
Responding to the query of Hom Lamsal, Mr. Pahari informed that at present there exist two international organizations, which are mainly involved in fighting for the protection of human rights and they are Amnesty International and a Swiss NGO called ICRC. These two look after the implementation of humanitarian law and advocate for their cause on international arena.

If we happen to do the trend analysis in this regard and take the example of recent incident of apprehension of ten Moist rebel in the city of Patna in India, it can be seen that there are lots of such cases of killings and apprehension but the records of these are very loosely kept. Though there exist organizations to look after the protection of human rights there lies a big question as to why those organization in Nepal have not been able to keep accounts in this sector and able to show effective progress. As far as my view is concerned regarding tackling the present crisis there is a need of regional cooperation in this sector. Moreover there is also requirement of effective social debate on political issues for promoting peace in our society. No one can achieve permanent peace by breaking political process and strengthening the armed forces.

An effective networking of youth is required to be set up for promoting peace and harmony in our society and preaching no to killings. It is because youth are the future leaders. Even the present leadership either of political or apolitical party are in the hands of young people aged between 35 to 40 years of age. Therefore their potential needs to be tapped for positive development. Peace Culture prevailing in our society needs to be patronized and require strategic vision by targeting the middle class Nepali people whose awareness on human rights need to be promoted.

Conclusion

Samira Paudel, representing Friedrich-Ebert-Siftung, wrapped up the program. She thanked the participants as well as the guests for making the program successful.

From the discussion it was made clear that all segments of the community must be involved in the process of healing divisions, so must all aspects of conflict resolution be given due weight. The importance of "common "must be recognized. From the presentation and comments made in the program the following inference are drawn as future strategies for the future course of action.

Strategies for future Action:

• Increase role of women's organization in peace process.
• Ensure the assessments of fact-findings missions with special focus on the human right situation of indigenous women and children in the armed conflict areas.
• Need of strong social debate and intensive campaign on political issues for generating public awareness on protection of human rights.
• Increase access to information from local women's group and networks on indicator of impending conflict as a means to ensure effective gender sensitive early warning mechanism.
• Involvement of youth groups in schools and colleges and network creation for promoting a culture of peace.
• Devising required supportive mechanism and infrastructure for the victims.
• Development of Institutional rehabilitation package and ensure access of women and girls to all resources and benefits provided in reintegration programmes including skills development programs.
• Ensure full involvement of women in negotiation of peace dialogue and agreements through provision of training of indigenous women and their organizations on formal peace processes.