When I was in New York during October consulting with the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders on events for the 10-year anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace & Security, I attended a wonderful exhibit in a part of the UN known as the Delegates Hall, an area that most people don’t see, except perhaps when escorted by a Member State delegation.
Entitled ‘No Women, No Peace,’ the exhibit was produced by a Geneva-based NGO called PeaceWomen Across the Globe, was hosted by the Mission of Switzerland to the UN and consisted of several components, including:
- Pre-recorded video messages from women around the world who spoke about how to support, secure and empower conflict-affected women;
- An uneven negotiations table from which the panelists spoke and which symbolized the disproportionate power held by men during peace negotiations;
- A red carpet with the names of the countries to date who have developed National Action Plans for UNSCR 1325;
- A series of banners with powerful quotes and images from the likes of Desmond Tutu, testifying to the critical contributions women have made in conflict resolution and prevention
However the masterpiece of this remarkable exhibit was a 1000-card display that hung suspended from a cable at least 60 ft off the ground and that stretched across the length of the back wall. On it hung roughly 25 rows and 40 columns of cards, each of which featured the photo, profile and work of a specific woman from one of 150 counties who has been recognized for her contributions to peace initiatives and to the advancement of women’s rights in different parts of the world. Among these cards was one of the guest speakers that night, Cora Weiss, whose insightful suggestions clearly provoked the imagination of the attending policy makers.
One of the evening’s messages delivered by our host, Ambassador Paul Seger, the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations, is that these ideas, messages and stories are not reaching enough people both in the policy world and in the mainstream, that they are not well enough understood and that they need to be brought more into the mainstream. He challenged attendees to bring the message of ‘No Women, No Peace’ to everyone, and suggested the need for a song that would become as well known as the Bob Marley song in the same vein.
Being blessed to have many friends who are talented singers and songwriters, this comment piqued my interest. I challenged my friends (none of whom knew anything about Resolution 1325) to come up with songs within seven days that we could use to close a week-long Peace Fair entitled “Women Preventing War Promoting Peace” that featured civil-society led talks on the progress of UNSCR 1325. I also indicated that I would also pass the song along to any organizations involved in this area in case they could use it to promote the cause of women and peace within their specific contexts.
It seems to me that engaging artists in such initiatives hold promise on many levels. First, music is a powerful tool that can help to unite people around a common theme or message. Political messages already frequently influence music of all types from rock, pop, punk, hiphop, raggae, gospel, traditional and countless other forms of music. They have been used to try to connect people to important issues, including poverty, corruption, war, power, unity, and many other topics. Yet few songs talk about the power of women, and even fewer talk about women and peace.
Second, engaging non-traditional allies in the task of spreading political messages highlights useful information for advocates:
- it reminds us of the challenges in disseminating complex messages even to supporters;
- it enables us to see the issues and solutions with fresh eyes and from new perspectives
- it is a model for engaging other non-traditional supporters of these issues
This latter point is perhaps the most important. I myself come from a private sector background where I worked on technology projects for eight years. I am struck by how many people (and women in particular) from all walks of life are interested in using their talents, connections, and ideas to help conflict-affected women to transform their societies from within. These include social workers, marketing professionals, programmers, web designers, lawyers, stay-at-home moms, actors, journalists, naturopaths, and many others who want to engage in these issues, but don’t yet know quite how. To me, unleashing this power holds enormous potential.
Today, there are some isolated, but exciting examples of how artists in different communities are using their talents in innovative ways to bring these messages into the mainstream. One is Abigail Disney who produced a movie called ‘Pray the Devil Back to Hell,’ which documents the story of how instrumental the women’s peace movement in Liberia was to ending both the conflict and the terrorizing reign of President Charles Taylor. Another is ‘The Voice Project,’ in which musicians have come together through technology in a cross-cultural internet musical exchange with their peers around the world to both raise awareness on how women’s peace initiative have helped to stabilize conflict-affected communities and to raise funds to support their important work.
By the week, a number of artists had worked on this challenge and in the end, the song that was chosen to close the anniversary week is a fun, insightful and energetic song called ‘Let the women inside,’ which prompted a number of women in the room at the time to start dancing spontaneously. This song was written and produced by Michael Dewey, an artist and marketing professional for a natural products company who lives in Vancouver, and was performed by musicians Gina Hetland and Iain House.
They not only worked tirelessly to put together this song in a very short time, they shared the message with their peers, are willing to re-record the song as they learned more about the topic, and have offered to produce a musical score for a promotional video being produced for the Peace Fair, which we probably wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise.
It is noteworthy that mainstream media were not present or at least did not cover either the Peace Fair or the 10-year anniversary celebrations at the UN in any significant way. Even within the UN, former colleagues in a number of agencies noted that they had heard little to nothing about events marking the 1325 anniversary. This is a real shame, as there is unlikely to be another occasion in the near future where there is more concentrated attention to these issues as their was during the anniversary week of UNSCR 1325.
Yet it makes it all the more important to be strategic about finding new ways to get the message out, to seize opportunities to engage new contributors, energy and perspectives and to help unleash the potential of those who can help us bring these ideas into the mainstream. Moreover, surely we lend credibility to our own calls for action and for adopting new perspectives to problem solving if we ourselves are open to innovative ways of mobilizing action and getting these messages out.
