From Nepal to Uganda, Iraq to Bosnia, Argentina to Zimbabwe, women are leading the way towards a safer and more peaceful future by advocating for disarmament and for the rights of victims of indiscriminate weapons. In small communities and on the world stage, women leaders are making change each and every day. Women clear landmines, provide services to survivors, advocate for nuclear disarmament and push governments to disarm despite large gender inequality in disarmament decision making. Today as every other day of the year, we #ChooseToChallenge the idea that disarmament is “men’s work” and salute the world-changing women and their allies working to eliminate inhumane and indiscriminate weapons. 

Learn more about how the humanitarian disarmament community is marking the day and how women's leadership is paving the way towards a world without indiscriminate and inhumane weapons by checking out these articles and posts.

• Conflict and the Environment Observatory interviewed women working in mines action around the world on their work and its links to the environment profiling a number of the Mine Action Fellows. Read it here.
• The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots is re-sharing posts and stories on gender and autonomous weapons all week. They started with a post from our Program Manager, Erin Hunt. Read it here.
• The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has a great briefing paper and video on gender and nuclear weapons. Read and watch here. 
• The Gender Working Group has so many resources on gender in mine action. Check out the page here. 
• Watch this film from Norwegian People's Aid in Laos. 
• Listen in as Beatrice Fihn of ICAN and Susi Snyder of PAX talk about International Women's Day on this Instagram Live. 
• Read more about what MAC and our partners in the Feminist Foreign Policy Working Group hope to see from Canada's Feminist Foreign Policy here. 
• Mines Advisory Group has a number of stories out. You can check them out here. 
• Watch this panel discussion on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons 

Mine action is and should be everybody’s concern – and for very obvious reasons. The effects of landmines are felt by men, women and children in different ways, but all are affected and so the solutions to end this problem should be sought and supported by all. Unfortunately, women remain under represented in this field of work. Discussions on the subject are normally dominated by men with little representation from women (unless it’s a discussion about women’s involvement or gender equality but that’s a discussion for another day); when it comes to women’s involvement, a lot still needs to be done to ensure that they, like men, are permitted to add a meaningful voice to inform policy, actions and decisions.

Mines Action Canada has worked since 1998 to train, mentor and empower youth to address the impacts of inhumane and indiscriminate weapons. The Mine Action Fellows Program, started by MAC in 2018, has 45 youth from 25 countries enrolled so far. These are young people who are interested in or are already involved with civil society organizations working in mine action. The 2018 and 2019 cohorts focused on young women and deliberately so, to increase female involvement in mine action. This program brings to life a famous slogan, “Nothing about us without us” originally coined in Latin as; nihil de nobis, sine nobis. Each year the Mine Action Fellows have an in-person assembly at a forum organized to run alongside a global diplomatic meeting that brings together various stakeholders in mine action, including governments and civil society organizations. During the forum the youth undergo various training in topics relevant to their role as youth leaders; they also witness the major international diplomatic meeting in action; as well as meet and learn from fellow campaigners from around the world.

Last year the Mine Action Fellow’s Forum that was held from November 24 to November 29 in Oslo, Norway was attended by 32 female youth from 13 different countries. Among them were three landmine survivors and 22 were from landmine affected countries. Having survivors at this forum was important for us because they hold the lived experience of the harmful effects of landmines and their stories are such a powerful force to compliment all the statistics and data collected and shared to inform policy and decisions. Landmine survivors are truly experts in landmines. The forum took place alongside the 4^th Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty. The Review Conference is a formal diplomatic meeting of all states parties to the Mine Ban Treaty that reviews progress made in achieving the treaty obligations and set an action plan for the next five years. These young women were exposed to formal plenary discussions and after some basic training in lobbying, they also got an opportunity to speak with governments that had not yet submitted their annual Article 7 transparency reports and encouraged them to do so. It was interesting to see these young women confidently and in certain instances persistently take on governments and ask them to account for their Article 7 reports. The assertive manner with which they did this could not go unnoticed – they sure did make MAC proud. What I saw in these youth was the future of Mine Action in good hands.

During this time the youth also drafted and presented a statement to the conference delegates, in which they called for increased resources, political will and concrete support by all states parties to finish the job by 2025. They were very clear about having the job done by 2025, and in their call to get this done they stated very boldly; “Our generation is ready to help finish the job on landmines, but in many of our countries we still need your support. We cannot wait forever so we are giving you only 5 (more) years”.  The youth statement was the highlight of the Forum and for many, the Review Conference as well. The conference ended on a high with this powerful statement which was read out by four of the young women, each taking a part in one of the UN languages, namely English, French, Arabic and Spanish.

From this unforgettable experience for those involved, MAC sent a strong message to the world; that you cannot leave out such an important group when you discuss something that affects the communities they live in. Young women should be involved at every level of mine action because just as the problem affects them, they should also be part of the solution. And because this year’s theme for International women’s day, Each for Equal is about collective individualism, we believe that each of the young women who represented their community at the conference went back to add their voice and effort to the field for a bigger impact as they clearly put it in their statement:

“Each of us present here is proof that if there is a strong commitment to a better world, whatever language you speak, whatever country you come from, by uniting your strengths you will be able to achieve your goals”

Diane Mukuka is Mines Action Canada's Project Officer

Today, Mines Action Canada released a new paper on women's employment in mine action. 

"Gender and Employment in Mine Action by the Numbers" contains the results of a pilot study on employment of women by non-governmental organizations in landmine clearance and related fields. A short survey was carried out in the first quarter of 2019 by a graduate student Research Associate and the collected data was analyzed by Mines Action Canada staff later in the year. 

MAC is sharing the results of this survey as the international community meets in Geneva for the National Mine Action Directors' Meeting. 

In addition to providing some limited answers to questions like how many women work in mine action, Mines Action Canada hopes to shed some light on the success of gender mainstreaming in mine action and highlight areas of improvement for the sector. 

The paper is available here and at the National Mine Action Directors' Meeting. An A4 version of the paper is also available for those printing copies internationally.

The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda, based on UN Security Council Resolution 1325, and mine action are closely related, but too often the communities working on these two topics are distinct and separate. To achieve the goals of the WPS agenda, the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Ottawa Treaty banning landmines, states and civil society need to keep both sectors in mind.

As the 2025 goal set by States Parties to the Ottawa Treaty fast approaches and the States Parties to the Convention Cluster Munitions strive to implement the treaty as effectively and efficiently as possible, it is crucially important to capitalize on all intersections between mine action and the WPS agenda. 

Read the short delegate briefing paper on the intersections between the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Women, Peace and Security agenda, released at the 9th Meeting of States Parties of the Convention on Cluster Munitions here.

The expanded paper covering both the Ottawa Treaty banning landmines and the Convention on Cluster Munitions is available here.

For International Women's Day, let's look back at some of our contributions this year to discussions about gender in disarmament and women's empowerment. The theme of this year's International Women's Day is #balanceforbetter and we know that the outcomes are better when disarmament efforts have gender balance.

In August, we were part of the first ever UN briefing on gender and autonomous weapons at the Convention on Conventional Weapons' Group of Governmental Experts meeting and launched a new briefing note on bias and autonomous weapons. We were so pleased to have the Canadian Ambassador chair the event. 

Canada and the European Union hosted the first ever meeting of Women Foreign Ministers in Montreal and we were there, working with Canadian civil society and our colleagues at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons to highlight humanitarian disarmament.

With the support of the Government of Ireland, we launched our new Mine Action Fellows program at the 17th Meeting of States Parties to the Ottawa Treaty with two of our Fellows addressing a lunch time briefing.

Just last month, our Program Manager presented on gender equality and youth engagement in mine action during a plenary panel at the National Mine Action Directors Meeting in Geneva. 

Humanitarian disarmament is often led by women and the meaningful participation of women from around the world is crucial to making progress towards a safer, more peaceful world. International Women's Day gives us an opportunity to look back at what we've accomplished and reiterate our commitment to diversity in disarmament.

From February 5th to 8th, Mines Action Canada attended the National Mine Action Directors' Meeting for the first time. The National Mine Action Directors' Meeting is a technical meeting focused on field operations rather than the Ottawa Treaty but this year, our Program Manager, Erin Hunt, was asked to address the plenary during a panel discussion on Building Stronger Communities: Youth and Women in Mine Action. Her presentation focused on our youth programming and on gender equality. 

The presentation explored MAC's understanding of empowerment and our TEAM approach to youth engagement before speaking about how masculinity affects who belongs in mine action. This image which includes phrases from over 15 languages all outlining a narrow understanding of masculinity.

The presentation included the following ideas about how the mine action sector can step up for a more inclusive mine action which will be a more successful mine action.

• One take away from our youth program is the importance of mentorship and action –getting to work with a leader who looks like you and seeing your work have an impact in empowering.
• We need to seek out and hear from expertise that looks and sounds different.
• We need to be careful that efforts to highlight diversity are not inadvertently cementing limiting stereotypes. For example, if you are profiling a female staff member, don’t refer to her as one of the few women or one of a select number of women working in mine action. Women in mine action are just regular women doing a job. Making it sound like women have to be special to work in mine action reduces the likelihood a woman would see themselves in the job and answer your job posting.
• Please remember youth and women are not homogenous groups and make sure that all sorts of people from those demographics are consulted and included.
• We should learn and talk about gender/diversity more. We often see the same faces at side events about gender or youth – and usually they are women. It would be great to see more people especially men showing up for these sessions so I’m issuing a challenge for everyone in this room to attend at least one meeting, lecture, side event, panel or training on gender or diversity this year.
• When in doubt talk to the Gender and Mine Action Program.
• Finally, if the structures, systems and environment we work in do not have space for youth, women or anyone else who doesn’t fit the current understandings of who belongs in mine action, we need to think creatively, adapt and change the structures.

 You can read the whole presentation here and the audio recording of the session is available here. 

Feminist activists share issues and priorities with the first-ever meeting of Women Foreign Ministers

(Ottawa, September 26, 2018) A coalition of Canadian civil society organizations welcomes the successful conclusion of a fruitful exchange between participants in the first-ever women Foreign Ministers meeting and women’s rights activists.

The exchange was held during a working breakfast that was part of the official agenda of the Women Foreign Ministers Meeting co-hosted by Minister Chrystia Freeland (Canada) and High Representative Federica Mogherini (European Union). The meeting was held in Montreal, September 21 and 22, 2018.

Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons addressed the Ministers gathered from 16 countries. Informal roundtable discussions followed.

“It was important that the discussion was part of the official programme. This type of exchange is all too rare,” said Theo Sowa, CEO of African Women’s Development Fund. “The mood in the room was constructive. The sharing of information, ideas and strategies will help both the Foreign Ministers and the civil society organisations present to push for more inclusive security and development agendas.”  

Sowa was one of ten activists representing diverse feminist movements from around the globe. They raised concerns about the safety of women human rights defenders and violence against women. They urged a redefinition of security that puts the needs of people (especially women and girls) first. Discussions also focused on increasing women’s participation in peace processes, including in South Sudan; strengthening the voices of feminist activists in foreign policy discussions; and priorities for feminist foreign policy.

Razia Sultana, founder of Rohingya Women Welfare, shared her experiences of documenting sexual violence and working with Rohingya women and girls in the refugee camps in Bangladesh. “I congratulated Minister Freeland on the recent Canadian recognition of the crimes against my people as genocide. I urged the other women Ministers to follow Canada’s example. This is the first step towards ending the violence and ensuring justice.”

At the closing press conference Minister Freeland announced that Canada would create an Ambassador for Women, Peace and Security. “This is an exciting new development, one that we hope will accelerate the implementation of Canada’s ambitious Women, Peace and Security commitments and increase Canada’s support grassroots women peacebuilders,” said Beth Woroniuk, coordinator of Women, Peace and Security Network-Canada.

The Minister also announced $25 million for women, peace and security initiatives, including funding for several women’s rights organizations. Specific funding for these organizations has been a long-time policy ask of Canadian civil society organizations.

Over 200 organizations from around the world urged the Ministers to recognize, protect and support women human rights defenders, noting that these activists face grave and numerous threats. “We will be monitoring the response to this statement. We are optimistic that future meetings of women Foreign Ministers will build on the productive relationships established here in Montreal,” said Anne Delorme, Gender Equality Programme Manager, AQOCI.

An informal coalition organized a series of side events around this historic women Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, including a public panel on Feminist Foreign Policy and a civil society dialogue.  Coalition members are: Amnesty International Canada (English), Amnistie internationale Canada francophone, Association Québecoise d’Organismes Cooperation Internationale (AQOCI), Canadian Foodgrains Bank, CARE Canada, Mines Action Canada, Nobel Women’s Initiative, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam Québec, The MATCH International Women’s Fund, World Federalist Movement Canada.

Feminist activists share issues and priorities with the first-ever meeting of Women Foreign Ministers

(Ottawa, September 26, 2018) A coalition of Canadian civil society organizations welcomes the successful conclusion of a fruitful exchange between participants in the first-ever women Foreign Ministers meeting and women’s rights activists.

The exchange was held during a working breakfast that was part of the official agenda of the Women Foreign Ministers Meeting co-hosted by Minister Chrystia Freeland (Canada) and High Representative Federica Mogherini (European Union). The meeting was held in Montreal, September 21 and 22, 2018.

Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons addressed the Ministers gathered from 16 countries. Informal roundtable discussions followed.

“It was important that the discussion was part of the official programme. This type of exchange is all too rare,” said Theo Sowa, CEO of African Women’s Development Fund. “The mood in the room was constructive. The sharing of information, ideas and strategies will help both the Foreign Ministers and the civil society organisations present to push for more inclusive security and development agendas.”  

Sowa was one of ten activists representing diverse feminist movements from around the globe. They raised concerns about the safety of women human rights defenders and violence against women. They urged a redefinition of security that puts the needs of people (especially women and girls) first. Discussions also focused on increasing women’s participation in peace processes, including in South Sudan; strengthening the voices of feminist activists in foreign policy discussions; and priorities for feminist foreign policy.

Razia Sultana, founder of Rohingya Women Welfare, shared her experiences of documenting sexual violence and working with Rohingya women and girls in the refugee camps in Bangladesh. “I congratulated Minister Freeland on the recent Canadian recognition of the crimes against my people as genocide. I urged the other women Ministers to follow Canada’s example. This is the first step towards ending the violence and ensuring justice.”

At the closing press conference Minister Freeland announced that Canada would create an Ambassador for Women, Peace and Security. “This is an exciting new development, one that we hope will accelerate the implementation of Canada’s ambitious Women, Peace and Security commitments and increase Canada’s support grassroots women peacebuilders,” said Beth Woroniuk, coordinator of Women, Peace and Security Network-Canada.

The Minister also announced $25 million for women, peace and security initiatives, including funding for several women’s rights organizations. Specific funding for these organizations has been a long-time policy ask of Canadian civil society organizations.

Over 200 organizations from around the world urged the Ministers to recognize, protect and support women human rights defenders, noting that these activists face grave and numerous threats. “We will be monitoring the response to this statement. We are optimistic that future meetings of women Foreign Ministers will build on the productive relationships established here in Montreal,” said Anne Delorme, Gender Equality Programme Manager, AQOCI.

An informal coalition organized a series of side events around this historic women Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, including a public panel on Feminist Foreign Policy and a civil society dialogue.  Coalition members are: Amnesty International Canada (English), Amnistie internationale Canada francophone, Association Québecoise d’Organismes Cooperation Internationale (AQOCI), Canadian Foodgrains Bank, CARE Canada, Mines Action Canada, Nobel Women’s Initiative, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam Québec, The MATCH International Women’s Fund, World Federalist Movement Canada.

With the tenth anniversary of the Convention on Cluster Munitions approaching, the many successes of the treaty are increasingly apparent. While the convention is the product of a multitude of different peoples’ hard work, many of its successes can be attributed to women, whether they are on the frontlines clearing contaminated land, or lobbying for stronger legislation domestically or internationally. Mines Action Canada (MAC) is well aware of the huge role these women and girls play in helping not only their individual communities, but the global community. Today, on International Woman’s Day, we would like to share what we have learned, and what you should know about the role women play in solving the problem of cluster munitions.

The Bad: The Disproportionate Impact of Cluster Munitions on Women

Cluster munitions impact women and girls differently than they do men and boys. While only around a quarter of women are the direct victims of cluster munition remnants, they are disproportionately affected by them in other ways. Women often face unique issues when dealing with the aftermath of a cluster munition explosion. They face barriers to medical care, social stigmatization, psychological trauma, and even the possibility of divorce and abandonment. Women are less likely to know about the resources available to them, such as prosthetics and rehabilitation. Women are also less likely to receive risk education regarding cluster munitions that teaches them what areas to avoid, and how to safely deal with cluster munitions when found.

Even when women are not the direct victims of cluster munitions, they often become ‘secondary’ victims. If a husband or male provider is killed or severely injured by a cluster munition, a woman and her family may be left without a provider. Finding work with pay equal to that of a man’s is extremely difficult, if not impossible in many places around the world. Women are also much more likely to stay and care for a disabled spouse, than a man is to stay with his wife after she is injured. In general, women who are injured face a poorer long-term outlook than men who are injured, primarily due to a lack of educational and medical resources for women.

The Good: Working Towards Positive Change

Things are changing for the better, largely because of the actions of organizations such as the Cluster Munition Coalition, which works to track the progress of states with regards to cluster munitions, raises awareness about the issue, and puts pressure on states which may not be meeting all of their commitments under the Convention on Cluster Munitions. While the original convention text does explain that states should implement gender-sensitive assistance to cluster munitions victims, it was not overly clear to many what exactly that would entail.

The Dubrovnik Action Plan, agreed to by the Convention on Cluster Munitions’ states party in September 2015, helped to clarify the expectations for states who had signed the Convention. It set out clear steps for states to follow that would allow them to meet the requirement for gender-sensitive assistance. In addition, states agreed to improve data collection by including the sex of the individual injured by cluster munitions. Most importantly, the Dubrovnik Action Plan details how nations can consider the specific vulnerabilities of women and girls, and how to improve female victims long term outlooks. The clarification and literal step by step instructions on how to incorporate gender into work on cluster munitions helps nations to improve the situations of women and girls impacted by cluster munitions.

The Brave: Fighting Cluster Munitions, One Bomb at a Time

Women have not allowed themselves to only be victims in the battle against cluster munitions. They are also stepping up to the plate to tackle the issue head on. Increasingly, women are on the frontlines, clearing contaminated land of these deadly weapons. In two of the nations most impacted by cluster munitions, Laos and Lebanon, women are tearing down barriers and creating all female demining teams. One of the goals of these teams is to give women the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty by supplying them with incomes that are the equivalent to, or even better, then that of the average man. More importantly, these women act as everyday heroes for their communities, inspiring their communities to take the steps necessary to end the scourge of cluster munitions and showing young girls that changing the world is women’s work.

Laos became a dumping ground for cluster munitions from 1964 to 1973 during the Vietnam War. At least 270 million cluster munition submunitions rained down on the country, or one planeload every eight minutes for around nine years. It comes as no surprise that Laos remains the nation with the most causalities from cluster munitions remnants, at an estimated twenty thousand. Women and girls are included in this number, and also have family members, their livelihoods and their happiness taken away from them.

One team leader of a Mines Advisory Group clearance team in Laos, Peng Souvanthone, credited her employment with providing her an income to support her family and the ability to educate her relatives on the risks of cluster munitions. Souvanthone has directly been impacted by cluster munitions; her eleven-year-old brother was killed by a cluster munition remnant in 2004 while hunting for scrap metal with friends. Stories like Souvanthone’s are too common in Laos, and she and others like her are working hard in turn them into rarities.

Lebanon has been contaminated with cluster munitions since 1978, and the problem worsened with later conflicts and bombings. Most recently, Lebanon’s cluster munition contamination was intensified by extensive use of the weapon during the 2006 conflict when Israel launched approximately four million submunitions in Lebanon. As is so common with cluster munitions, many of the submunitions did not detonate, leaving millions of potential bombs dotting Lebanon’s landscape long after the end of the war.

Women such Lamis Zein jumped on the chance to join a demining team, surprising the men in her community. Zein was no stranger to the impact cluster munitions can have on civilians, having lost five family members to the weapon during the 2006 war, including her grandmother. She, and a few other women, made up Lebanon’s first all-female demining team with the demining NGO Norwegian People’s Aid. When discussing her thoughts on the team, Zein stated, “it is a good opportunity for women and to encourage women to work in the field. It shows we can work in anything.” With two young daughters, Zein and the other women like her, are acting as role-models for women and girls in their communities, and are setting new standards for how women can directly work to solve the cluster munition problem.

In the midst of the ongoing conflict in Syria where cluster munitions have been used extensively since 2012, women are doing their best to keep their communities safe. Some are starting to work on survey and clearance operations while others are doing risk education; teaching community members, especially children, to practice safe behaviours in areas contaminated by cluster munitions.

Whether it is in clearance, risk education, advocacy efforts or assisting victims, women have played an active role in the implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions over the past 10 years. Their bravery and perseverance is the driving force behind the continued successes of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Lexi Zamojski is a Graduate Student at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University and a Research Associate at Mines Action Canada. 

At the 16th Meeting of States Parties to the Ottawa Treaty, Mines Action Canada hosted a Women in Disarmament Youth Leaders 

Forum supported by the Governments of Australia, Canada and Ireland.

After four days of training, mentoring and participation in the meeting, the 12 young women leaders addressed the plenary on the final day of the meeting.

Their statement is available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.