A Joint Statement by WFWP MENA (Women’s Federation for World Peace Middle East and North Africa), WFWP International and Cypriot participants in the 26th Women’s Conference for Peace in the Middle East.

During its 26th Conference, titled “Peace in the Middle East Entrusted to Women”, WFWP MENA Region, issued, among other statements, the following with regard to Cypriot Women’s meaningful participation in peace building and the official peace negotiations.

Cyprus has been de facto partitioned since 1974 and peace negotiations began soon after the ceasefire. The Cypriot women have always been part of the peace building processes since then, such as the rebuilding of their communities after their lives had been disrupted due to armed aggression, forced displacement and human losses of their loved ones during the war. Cypriot women continue to raise their voices for peace, social justice, reunification of their island as well as for women’s full rights and meaningful participation and inclusion in the peace processes. Ample research informs us that women’s participation in the peace negotiated agreements in which women either as mediators, negotiators or signatories last 35%, i.e. 15 years, longer than those in which women were absent.

Cypriot women raise their voices and demand the following from both their leaders and their teams as well as from the international organizations and all interested stakeholders:

1. To promote the inclusion and meaningful participation of Cypriot women in all stages of the peace processes in compliance with UNSC resolution 1325 Women, Peace and Security. This means the utilization of Cypriot women’s leadership, talents, expertise and knowledge on women’s social rights and gender issues and not only.
2. There is a plethora of local NGO’s and academic research and information to be considered when integrating a gender perspective in the formal negotiations.
3. To encourage and provide opportunities for women’s active participation in decision making processes at all levels and promote a feminist perspective that will reinforce women’s priorities such as the elimination of gender discrimination and exclusion as these manifest in women’s private and public lives.
4. To provide the necessary funding for community-based initiatives, such as projects and training amongst all Cypriot communities, especially amongst the lesser visible , the Armenian, Latin and Maronite Cypriots so as to voice their needs, concerns and make known their contribution to the peace building processes.
5. To help establish a network amongst women from the whole of the island to address common/shared social issues such as health and gender-based violence due to pandemic and women’s unemployment due to climatic and environmental depression.
6. To call upon the local and social media to comply with the relevant code of conduct and revisit adjust the way in which women are presented especially in conjunction with the Cyprus conflict which is gendered and often women’s pain is instrumentalized and viewed as the victims to be protected thus depriving them of their agency and abilities to make informed decisions.
7. To exert pressure on the two community leaders for the implementation of the Action Plan which the Technical Committee of Gender Equality has jointly drafted and has been included in the latest (January 2022) UN Report on Cyprus. It addressed following questions: How to ensure women’s full and meaningful representation in resumed negotiations process; How to engage with civil society, including women’s organisations, to solicit their views in the negotiations process; and How to include a gender perspective in a negotiated settlement.