VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Women do play a key role in maintaining peace through their economic, social, and cultural roles. In this regard, Indonesia emphasized three things to ensure women's involvement in maintaining peace and security: first, affirming the urgency of women's role as agents of peace and tolerance; second, doubling the effort to prioritize the role of women in regional peacekeeping agenda; and third, establishing and developing regional networks for female negotiators and mediators.

At the open debate on “Women in Peacekeeping Missions" at the UNSC in April 2019, Secretary General Antonio Guterres highlighted that the increasing number of women's participation in peacekeeping missions was not merely a matter of statistics, but also about increasing the capacity of peacekeepers and other parties to accomplish their missions.

Before the open debate, Guterres handed a letter that summarized gender equity strategies for peacekeeping personnels, in response to the Resolution 2242 dated 13 October 2015 that demanded the Secretary General “to start working with the Country Members and utilizing the existing resources to improve the number of women's participation in military contingent and police as part of UN Peacekeeping Mission for the next five years."

At various international forums, Indonesia highlighted the importance of women's role in peacekeeping missions. One of the milestones of the effort was marked by the first meeting of female foreign ministers in Montreal, Canada on 21 September 2018 that was attended by Foreign Minister Retno L. P. Marsudi. At the meeting, promoting peace and security and eliminating gender-based violences became one of the most important topic.

To improve women's involvement in peacekeeping missions, we require a strong political commitment to investing in the sectors that will potentially provide women with the opportunities to make national decisions within the peacekeeping process. This can be accomplished by producing and implementing policies that acknowledge women's right (equity and non-discrimiation), cultural reformation, and sufficient resources.

Global Gender Advisory network that consists of experts in gender mainstreaming, for example, will ensure that the perspective of gender mainstreaming is built across divisions and operation lines. The existence of these expert advisors should be prioritized by leaders so they can speak out the urgency of women's involvement in UN Peacekeeping Missions. This strategy has been adapted by New Zealand Defence Forces that established the first Pacific Military Women's Advisory Network seminar in Suva, Fiji.

Providing more training, including special training for women, as a gender focus, or for units that need special preparation, such as the Intelligence Task Force, Ops Staff, CIMIC, negotiators, and mediators—the tasks that are exclusively considered as “feminine tasks" (medical, logistic, administration) in order to improve the performance of mission as mandated.

In that regard, Indonesia has held a regional training program on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) in Jakarta. This training was attended by 60 female diplomats from ASEAN, Timor Leste, and Papua New Guinea. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno L. P. Marsudi reaffirmed the importance of ASEAN leaders' initiative to implement the WPS agenda in Southeast Asia and the urgency of involving more women on UN Peacekeeping Missions.

Regardless of women's important contribution in peace and security, their representation and roles are still limited in the various phases of peacekeeping processes. Consequently,  a crucial demand arises to actively support their participation and commitment in sustainable peace process before, during, and after the conflicts.

Indonesia expected that women's role in peace and security is no longer seen as extraordinary, but as the norm, because “investing in women equals investing in peace". 

“Investing in Peace: Improving The Safety and Performance of UN Peacekeepers" has become Indonesia's theme in its presidency in UN Security Council this May. This theme was introduced in account of UN peacekeeping operation that was still one of the most effective and legitimated instruments in maintaining international peace and security.

During the first open debate session in UNSC, Indonesian Foreign Minister stated that UN peacekeepers were a concrete example of a global partnership, collective leadership, and shared responsibility to keep the world's peace. “The Blue Helmets Corps has protected hundred-millions of people in the world. They are the face of UN Security Council and one of the best manifestations of multilateral cooperation," she explained.

Indonesia proposed four important points related to the attempt to ensure the UN's effective Peacekeeping Operation, they are mission-specific approach, ability to interact with local communities (community engagement), enhanced role of women, and training reinforcement through global partnerships.

The enhancement of women's role in the peacekeeping operation has become more and more important given their crucial role in conflict prevention, conflict management, and post-conflict peace construction.

Peace as a Collective Responsibility

In terms of dispatching peacekeeping troops, Indonesia has contributed to the operation since 1957. Currently, Indonesia is ranked eighth among the 124 peaceekeping contributing countries with a total of 3,080 peace personels (106 of which are female) having been deployed on eight peacekeeping missions.

In many countries where the peacekeeping operations were deployed, an alarming number of gender-based violence (GBV) and conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) occurred.

Either as civilians or combatants, women and children have constituted the highest number of the victims in a conflict. For instance, women that were considered supposed as a member of a combatant family often suffered violence and abuse by their communities. This situation eventually affected their ability to move freely and meet their family needs.

In the regions where civilians affected by conflict received humanitarian aids, women and children were forced to provide sexual services in exchange for and as a bribery to get such aids.

Therefore, the role of female peacekeepers is increasingly crucial to overcome issues related to GBV and CRSV at the regions of conflicts. Indonesia believes that women's existence as peacekeepers will largely contribute to a successful mission, due to their remarkable role in social construction, in addition to their psycho-social aspects that make them “special" within the boundary of humanitarian missions.

Women are considered more sensitive to local environments and cultures, enabling them to garner more acceptance by the society. Their existence can also offer security and convenience for other women and children that become the victims of sexual violence in a conflict. Women also play the role as the early peace-builders and role models for local women in attempt to encourage the provision of peace training activities including those relating to the security aspect, such as ceasefire, demobilization, reintegration, and negotiation.

Lieutenant Colonel Ratih Pusporini is one of the first Indonesian woman that was dispatched for a peacekeeping mission in a region of conflict in 2008. Her role as the Military Observer of Garuda Contingent in Congo confirmed the crucial role of women on a peacekeeping mission.

“We (female peacekeepers) managed to come to villages and garnered information about sexual abuse. The previous team failed to collect the necessary information due to the unavailability of female peacekeepers, while we all knew that the victims were women," Pusporini said.

Interacting with the women and children in the regions of conflict was not an easy task. On this account, community engagement becomes one of the strategies employed by Indonesia in peacekeeping operation. Community engagement is usally carried through a civil-military cooperation (CIMIC) in the forms of humanitarian aids (teaching, healthcare provision) and ceasefire mediation as part of the peace process.

Indonesia has a number of CIMIC-based programs in various peacekeeping operations, includng healthcare facilitation for local community, bookmobiles (mobile libraries) for local schools, and cultural sharing with local society.

Recently, Indonesian Peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) have successfully facilitated the processe of disarmament, demobilization, repatriation, reintegration, and resettlement (DDRRR), especially the handover of weapons from one of the warring parties. The weapon handover to Indonesian troops proved the local society's trust to the capacity of our troops in ensuring regional peace and security.

“I was touched when a Congo kid came to me and said, 'Ma'am, I wanna be like you! Because of you, we can go to school…'," Puspitorini recalled her success in her mission in Congo to secure the road access for children to go to school.

Despite women's crucial position as peacekeepers, their involvement in peacekeeping operation is still very limited. According to UN Women, in 1,187 peace agreements made from 1990 to 2017, women only constituted 2% portion of female mediators, 5% of female negotiators, 5% of female spectators and signers. Until 31 March 2019, there were a total of 3,472 female military personnels and 1,423 female police personnels among 89,681 peacekeepers (5.46%). This number could increase, and Indonesia has strongly committed to making it happen. The dispatch of all women contingent, like the one previously done by India for the peacekeeping mission in Liberia in 2007, became one of Indonesia's future goals. (kemenlu)

Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan has called on Japan to aid in bringing about improvements in the quality of the Indonesian workforce to realize its investment in Indonesia.

Pandjaitan made the request at the third dialog forum of Indonesia-Japanese governments and private sectors in Jakarta on Wednesday. Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Hiroshige Seko led the Japanese delegation to the forum.

"Presently, the government's top priority is to improve human resources. Hence, we appeal to (Japan) to help in the development of our human resources, specifically those residing outside Java Island," he noted in a written statement released on Wednesday.

"I laud Japan for its steps to offer training to our human resources, especially to improve their capacity. The steps have been on the right track, but in future, I am looking for an intensification in the efforts," he noted.

In response, Minister Seko voiced his government's keenness to aid in improving the quality of Indonesian manpower in line with the Indonesian government's request.

"The Japanese government and firms realize that Indonesia is our important partner, so we highly support the Indonesian government's request to provide training to the Indonesian workforce in order to offer the country a more competitive edge," he stated.

Chief of the Jakarta Japan Club (JCC) Kanji Tojo remarked that as a follow-up to the second dialog forum between the Indonesian-Japanese governments and private sectors, Japan has offered training for 107 vocational school teachers in Medan, Lampung, and Makassar. (ant)

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi has put forth an appeal to 2019 Lebaran travelers to always lay emphasis on safety during the journey to their hometowns.

"The issue now does not pertain to traffic jams but safety," he remarked at the Pasar Senen Station, Central Jakarta, Thursday.

Sumadi elaborated that the Ministry of Transportation had conducted research focusing on preparation of infrastructure and congestion points along Merak to Probolinggo three months back to sufficiently tackle the current congestion problem and ensure safety as the next key focus.

"The preparation was since three months back to solve the problem of traffic jams. It is just how the riders travel safely," he stated.

The transportation minister appealed to toll road vehicular users to not cross the speed limit of 100 kilometers per hour.

"All should remain alert and be careful on the toll road," he noted.

Furthermore, he reminded other travelers to not use motorbikes for their Lebaran homecoming journey, as other safer transportation modes were available.

"Motorbike users must be careful. In fact, we do not encourage them to ride motorbikes while going home due to the risk involved," he emphasized.

Sumadi further advised the police and Transportation Agency to collaborate in conducting checks and brake tests for bus transportation.

"Brakes must always be checked, as otherwise, it will endanger the lives of passengers," he remarked.

Minister of Transportation Sumadi arrived at the Pasar Senen Station at 12:15 a.m. local time along with the group for an impromptu inspection at Pasar Senen Terminal. (ant)