The Finnish NAP and the civil society
The writing of the Finnish 1325-NAP, seen from the point
of view of the civil society
The United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1325 "Women, Peace and Security" was given in the year 2000. The
Security Council also recommended Member States to write National Action Plans
to enhance the implementation of the Resolution. The first ones to do this were
Great Britain and a few Scandinavian countries. The Danish
NAP was launched in 2005; Norway and Sweden completed theirs in 2006. In Norway and in Sweden there had been an active network of
civil society organizations putting pressure on the governments to write the
NAPs.
In Finland Marjaana
Jauhola,
an independent researcher, and Hilkka Pietilä, former Secretary General of the UN
Association of Finland, had been pondering, as early as 2001, about how to
raise public knowledge on the Resolution and how to enhance its aims. Jauhola
wrote in 2002 a book called "Bridge Builders -
Women Preventing Conflicts", by the Finnish organization KATU, the Civil
Society Conflict Prevention Network. Minister Elisabet Rehn was, at the same
time, active on the international level: she and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the
president-to-be of Liberia, wrote for UNIFEM a report "Women,
War and Peace", about the impact of armed conflict on women and women’s roles
as peace builders. The report gained attention and raised discussions in Finland, as well. The following year,
UNIFEM Finland, KATU and International Alert arranged at the Parliament an
international seminar about women as peace builders.
A wider discussion concerning the
implementation of the Resolution started among civil society organizations in 2005. In the autumn of 2006 representatives
of Amnesty International’s Finnish Section, the UN Association of Finland and
UNIFEM Finland, as well as some experts and independent researchers, came
together to discuss the matter, and thus the Finnish 1325-network was born. In
that meeting, it was decided that the main goals of the network were to be 1) to
lobby to induce the government to more effectively implement Resolution 1325,
and 2) to lobby for high quality gender training to be included in crisis
management training.
In the autumn of 2006, at the second
meeting of the network, the UN Association of Finland and KATU officially joined
the network. Päivi Mattila, researcher and vice chair of
UNIFEM Finland, was selected as the chair and Eeva Koskinen,
the acting executive of UNIFEM Finland was selected as the vice chair.
It soon became clear that the most
important objective of the network was to advance the formulation of a National
Action Plan for Finland. It was known that Erkki Tuomioja,
the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, was of the opinion that the
writing of a NAP was unnecessary, as the Resolution, on its own, obligated Finland. The 1325-network now started pondering
how to convince the decision makers in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about
the necessity of the NAP, and how to integrate other ministries into the
preparation of it.
At the same time, the topic was being
discussed in other contexts, for instance Amnesty and the Council for Gender
Equality had named the writing of a Finnish 1325-NAP as one of their goals for
the new government platform after the parliamentary elections of 2007.
Again, the network had widened;
Crisis Management Initiative, CMI, had joined in. A press release was given out
on International Women’s Day, urging Finland to write a NAP. On top of this, a decision
to discuss the matter with the heads of relevant ministries was made.
Representatives of the network met the key persons in the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, and in the meeting they found out that preparations to start writing
the Finnish NAP were under way. Heads of
Ministries of Justice, Interior, Defence, and Social Affairs and Health were met
as well. All ministries expressed, in principle, their support for the matter.
The network received from Minister of Foreign Affairs, Erkki Tuomioja, a letter
signed on the 17th of March, 2007, stating that the Ministry aims to
start the writing of the NAP soon.
At this stage, it was decided to
focus on the substance matter. A strategic aim was to have representation of
the network in the cross governmental work group, led by the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, which was to prepare the NAP. In this way it would be possible
to have a say on how comprehensive the plan would be and the kinds of
obligations it would impose on various instances. Two representatives of the
network where invited to the work group. On top of this, the researchers, as
well as their deputies, who were invited to the work group, were also members
of the network. The first draft of the Finnish NAP was completed as early as
June 2007.
After the summer 2007, the Family
Federation and two umbrella organizations of women’s organizations, the
Coalition of Finnish Women’s Associations and the National Council of Women of
Finland, joined the network.
In its meetings in the autumn of
2007 and in the beginning of 2008, the network listed the aims of the NGOs and of
the researchers for the NAP that was being prepared. The training of people who
are sent by Finland to perform crisis management work was
chosen as an especially important topic, as well as allocating money for
research on 1325-related themes and making use of this type of research.
Supporting women’s organizations in conflict areas was seen as important, as
well. Appointing the ministries responsible for various actions was considered
by the network especially crucial, as well as stipulating the budget necessary
for the implementation of the plan.
On the International Women’s Day,
Helsingin Sanomat published an article on the 1325-theme, written by Päivi
Mattila
and Eeva Koskinen. In the spring of 2008 the Ministry of Interior established,
in the Kuopio Crisis Management Centre, a 1325 Steering Committee, and here,
too, the 1325-network was invited to participate with a representative.
The Finnish NAP was meant to be
completed and launched during the spring of 2008. Various drafts were made, and
the network had an opportunity to comment on them. From the final plan, which
was completed at long last in August 2008, many suggestions made by the network
had been dropped out, but the above mentioned key objectives, as well as many
other aims suggested by the network, were included.
The Finnish Action Plan was launched
on the 19th of September 2008 at the Helsinki City Hall. The network was granted - on its
own request - an opportunity to speak at this function. Chairperson Päivi
Mattila
presented the network’s outlooks on the new NAP.
The organizations that belong to the Finnish 1325-network in the
beginning of 2010 are: UNIFEM Finland, the Finnish League for Human Rights; Amnesty International’s Finnish
Section; KATU, the Civil Society Conflict Prevention Network; The Family Federation;
The Feminist Association Unioni; NYTKIS, The Coalition on Finnish Women’s
Associations; the National Council of Women in Finland, the UN Association of
Finland, the Crisis Management Initiative;
the YWCA, Young Women’s Christian Association and Women Journalists in Finland.