Bandana Rana Nepal

Discovering UNSCR 1325

Bandana Rana brings a unique global perspective to her work in Nepal as a member of the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Convention of the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and Chair of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP). In 2015, she was a member of the UN’s High Level Advisory Group on the Global Study of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325).

For Rana, her professional journey in national broadcasting brought her in touch with women at the community level who were silenced from sharing their viewpoints: “It was very difficult to interview women. There were always men answering for her!”

Her production plans changed. Staying longer in communities to follow the singing and dancing of women early in the morning to gather their views: “Their major concern was domestic violence.”

These stories catalyzed a change in Rana’s career path: “In 1992 we established Saathi.” It was the first organization to open the first women’s shelters.

The seed of activism was planted when as a young journalist she attended UN Fourth World Conference of Women: “I saw the power of the collective movement with the 30,000 women who attended the conference and the adoption of the 12 critical areas that emerged. I realized how powerful women in the media could be from that.”

Upon her return, Rana established the Women’s Media Forum and became more engaged in civil society activism: “In 1995 we were a peaceful country. We did not understand armed conflict at all and its impact on women.” Women in armed conflict became a priority in 1996 when the crisis broke out in Nepal and she began working with conflict affected women in villages. They were the elderly, mothers with very young children caught between the two armed forces – the state and the non-state actors: “You could hardly see men or young people. The men had either migrated or joined the rebels. Young girls had also migrated internally to cities for better jobs or hidden themselves. These women were surviving.”

What she did was help the women organize and mobilize, regardless of caste, creed, age, rural and urban divisions: “It was about collective power.”

Women shed the traditional roles in their homes and even in the fields.

The next step was to get the women to the peace table to ensure they influenced the conflict resolution strategies: “That’s when I discovered 1325!”

She began localizing 1325, organized orientations with journalists and the security sector.

An important mentor at the time was the late Sahana Pradhan, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs until she resigned on 16 April 2008. Pradhan championed UNSCR 1325 and brought high-level officials to the women, peace and security table.

Amidst highlights there are also disappointments. While the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of Nepal and the Communist Party of Nepal brought an end to the armed violence, what Rana was not prepared for was the emergence of political divisions which also impacted on the women’s movement: “There was a certain time when there were divisions amongst women’s groups.”

Those she met through global engagement and collaboration at meetings such as the UN Commission on the Status of Women became mentors and allies: “You do the advocacy at the local level, you implement at the local level, you strategize at the local level, but you do need that global experience. That has helped advocacy, awareness and to build more reliable and realistic strategies.”

These global networks supported her, she says, as she struggled to get Nepal’s National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace and Security adopted. “We organized inclusive and participatory consultations in fifty-two (52) of the 75 districts of Nepal for the development of the NAP. The advocacy had to be strong. You had to be persistent. Global best practices and UN mandate intensified the advocacy.”

Sustaining Peace in 2020

Reflecting on the current challenges that women face in their efforts to sustain peace in 2020, Rana refers to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that exacerbates many pre-existing fragile situations. The safety and protection of health workers, nurses and care-givers is essential in the COVID-19 response says Bandana Rana: “Most of the frontline health workers are women. They are most at risk and proper attention must be given to their protection. They are the nurses and caregivers, but the priority is not given to them.”

COVID-19 is a woman, peace and security priority as women-peacebuilders turn their attention to the prevention of gender-based violence in homes. Rana says that women and children cannot be expected to stay locked in with perpetrators.

In Nepal where she is involved in the management of safe shelters, Rana says that prevention and protection measures must include costs for shelters opening their doors to provide safety and security for more women as the levels of violence increase: “Here in Nepal we run shelters and in this lockdown period we have had so many survivors call us and we are taking them in despite the limited resources. We have to take care of the safety and security of present residents. We have to ensure there are proper quarantine measures in place, protective [equipment for] health care workers and this is a huge challenge in this crisis.”

She adds that women in the informal sector bear the brunt of the associated economic crisis making them more vulnerable to exploitation.

According to UN Women, even before COVID-19 existed, domestic violence was already one of the greatest human rights violations. In the previous 12 months, 243 million women and girls (aged 15-49) across the world have been subjected to sexual or physical violence by an intimate partner. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, this number is likely to grow with multiple impacts on women’s wellbeing, their sexual and reproductive health, their mental health, and their ability to participate and lead in the recovery of our societies and economy.

Wide under-reporting of domestic and other forms of violence has previously made response and data gathering a challenge, with less than 40 per cent of women who experience violence seeking help of any sort or reporting the crime. Less than 10 per cent of those women seeking help go to the police. The current circumstances make reporting even harder, including limitations on women’s and girls’ access to phones and helplines and disrupted public services like police, justice and social services. These disruptions may be compromising the care and support that survivors need, like clinical management of rape, and mental health and psycho-social support. They also fuel impunity for the perpetrators.

Women’s access to information is key at this time, she explains. Unlike the response to the 2015 earthquake, when there was extensive outreach, the COVID-19 lockdown is resulting in collective local mobilization. The local-level women’s disaster network is activated and mobilized: “We are talking to each other remotely, generating support packages for women who do not have income. We just can’t gather together.”

Women rely for information on radio, including Nepal’s vast network of community radio stations. It is an appropriate and accessible medium to ensure women are not further isolated and to also bring greater government attention to women’s peace and security priorities says Rana: “More messages are needed to bring attention to the prevalence and prevention of violence.”

The key is engaging women, including those from the most remote and vulnerable communities, to inform the national COVID-19 response. Women activists in Nepal have come together to formulate a Women’s Charter that outlines how the national government can better address women’s needs.

Looking ahead to the future, Rana would like to see greater political will and the equal allocation of all resources to achieve gender equality goals, leaving this message to young women: “Now we need a second generation of leaders who will actually take all we have achieved, own it and take it forward.”