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The fourth edition of the Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention Newsletter presents a review of the activities and initiatives that we’ve undertaken since the beginning of 2010 and recent news and information about the Network.

From now on the Parliamentarians Network will be known as the Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention. The Executive Committee took a decision during its meeting on June 17, 2010 to shorten the name based on consultation with some members and the notion that human security aspects are imbedded in the principles of conflict prevention as outlined in the Networks Guiding Principles. There are additional public relations benefits with the shorter and more catchy name and we look forward to furthering our advocacy work and making new connections between the members with our new name.

In this issue we would like to familiarise all our members, especially those who have just joined us, with the full scope of the Network’s endeavors. We also outline an action plan for the next half of the year. None of these initiatives would be possible without contributions from our members so we would like to thank you and we welcome your further comments and proposals.

We also continue our series of interviews with the Network’s members about the issues which are high on the agenda in their countries and regions. In this edition MP Mr. Zitto Kabwe (Tanzania) explains us the nature of the disputes around the Nile Basin and network member Saber Chowdhury MP from Bangladesh outlines the security challenges that climate change poses to his country. Following the international conference in Kabul on July 20th, MP Shukria Barakzai reflects on how much this conference can make a difference for women in Afghanistan and Her Excellency Najla Al-Awadhi from the United Arab Emirates recounts her experience as a young female parliamentarian in the Muslim country

We hope that you will find this edition of the Newsletter interesting and please do not hesitate to send us your comments and suggestions.

Angelika Beer,

Chair, Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention

Parliamentarians Network Activities in 2010: challenges and opportunities

Reaching from Malaysia to Central America and from Europe to Australia, the Network has become a truly global endeavor. Since its launch less than 2 years ago, our membership has grown tremendously and so has the number of our initiatives. Amongst our recent initiatives, the Working group on Women, Peace and Security is probably one of the most successful ones. Launched in June 2010, it had promptly issued the Open Letter for participants of the Kabul conference encouraging them to support women in Afghanistan. As one of the Network members, women's rights activist Ms. Shukria Barakzai says, the Open letter “was a wake-up call for everyone to at least include the women’s issues in the agenda”.

We keep on working on conflict prevention developments in Europe as well. The Network was actively advocating inclusion of a conflict prevention structure within the newly created European External Action Service. A number of advocacy meetings and the panel discussion in the European Union provided useful information on what needs to be done to mainstream conflict prevention in the national parliaments all across Europe.

Click here to read the full report about the Network’s initiatives and activities

Zitto Kabwe: "Parliamentarians in the Nile Basin should break the deadlock over the water use"

Zitto Kabwe, MP from Tanzania and a member of the Executive Council of the Parliamentarians Network explains in a short interview for the Network Newsletter why it is so difficult to reach a mutual agreement over the use of water resources in the Nile Basin. Despite the launch of the Nile Basin Initiative in 1999, there has been no success in conclusion of a new comprehensive agreement in which all the African countries with access to the Nile River would participate.

Mr. Kabwe explains the reasons behind the reluctance of river basin countries to negociate and argues that the situation over the Nile Basin is so sensitive that it can potentially lead to a military crisis in the region. The negotiations are exacerbated by the lack of trust and amity between the “Arab” African states (Sudan and Egypt) and other riparian countries, says Mr. Kabwe.

The situation, however, can change should the parliamentarians from the Nile Basin countries get involved more actively in the negotiation process because they can use their ratification power to influence the talks.

Click here to read the full interview with Mr. Zitto Kabwe

Saber Chowdhury: "Climate change is our number one security problem"

MP Saber Chowdhury, Chair of the Bangladesh Parliament’s All Party Group on Climate Change and Environment and one of the newest members of the Parliamentarians Network describes the security challenges that his country faces at the moment.

As the problem of insurgency is solved, the focus of the national security policy shifted to the negative consequences of climate change. Mr. Chowdhury reveals how the nascent democratic regime in Bangladesh is trying to reach consistency in pursuing the climate security policy. According to Mr. Chowdhury, Bangladesh is one of the countries to be worst hit by the climate change. Due to its geographical position, Bangladesh is extremely prone to multiple problems generated by the shifts in the global temperature from the sea level rise to the glaciers meltdown.

Mr. Chowdhury argues that there have not been enough regional initiatives to deal with climate change and the international community is still reluctant to allocate the adaptation funds.

Click here to read the full interview with Mr. Chowdhury

Shukria Barakzai: “It’s very important to create a network to lobby for women’s interests”

Shukria Barakzai is a Member of the Afghanistan Parliament and one of the most fervent women and human rights activist in the country. A founder of the weekly newspaper for women “ Aina-E-Zan “ (Women’s Mirror”), she keeps on educating and informing women about their rights.

Ms.Barakzai gives us her account of the Kabul Conference and how it can change the grim situation with women's rights in Afghanistan. While an array of the top ranking officials including President Hamid Karzai have pledged to uphold women's rights, the real situation still remains disturbing, says Ms. Barakzai. She describes in details how hard it is for independent female candidates to run for elections and make their voices heard in the Parliament. The obstacles for women MPs are so overwhelming that a strong support from the international community is indispensable, argues Shukria Barakzai.

Click here to read the full interview with Shukria Barakzai

Her Excellency Najla Al-Awadhi: “The cooperation between Muslim female MPs should be made more dynamic and effective”

Her Excellency Najla Al-Awadhi is the youngest member of the Federal National Council of the United Arab Emirates and one of few female parliamentarians in the country.

In her interview to the PN, she describes what it is like to be a young woman trying to establish herself as a political figure in the Muslim world. Strongly devoted to building a civil society in the UAE, Her Excellency speaks about the role of mass media in this process. Speaking about female political participation in the Muslim countries, Her Excellency Najla Al-Awadhi believes that the inequalities between men and women should be eliminated in this area. Institutionalized cooperation between female MPs all across the Muslim world can be the best instrument to achieve this goal, argues Her Excellency. 

Click here to read the full interview with Her Excellency Najla Al-Awadhi

Invitation to join the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament

Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention is committed to cooperate with other actors to increase the positive impact of our work. We’ve been recently approached by Mr. Alyn Ware, the Global Coordinator of the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament initiative. He suggested that our two international networks should team up to bring more MPs together.

Being aware that many of our members are supporters of nuclear disarmament, we would like to introduce the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament initiative to you.

The PNND is a non-partisan group of legislators which allows its members to share perspectives and develop initiatives to curb nuclear proliferation. It brings together more than 700 parliamentarians from 75 countries.

Click here for the invitation to join the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament

PN Chair met participants in the international civilian peacekeeping and peacebuilding training program

Ms. Angelika Beer, Chair of the Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention has delivered a key note speech for the participants in the international peacekeeping and peacebuilding training in the Austrian Peace Center in the Castle Schlaining. Ms.Beer presented the Parliamentarians Network as a successful initiative established to resolve conflicts and tackle their root causes. The Peace Center in the Castle Schlaining was founded at the beginning of the 1980s and since then has been providing education programs in the field of peacekeeping and conflict prevention together with the OSCE and the UNESCO.

Click here to read the full report from the Castle Schlaining

EDITORIAL

Parliamentarians Network Activities in 2010: challenges and opportunities

INTERVIEWS

Zitto Kabwe, MP Tanzania

Saber Hossein Chowdhury, MP Bangladesh

Shukria Barakzai, MP Afghanistan

Her Excellency Najla Al-Awadhi, MP United Arab Emirates

INVITATIONS

Invitation to join the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Proliferation and Disarmament

MEETINGS

PN Chair met participants in the international civilian peacekeeping and peacebuilding training Program  in the Castle Schlaining in Austria.

NEW NETWORK MEMBERS

Ms. Luzviminda Ilagan, Rep

Mr. Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao

Mr. Ali Huseynov

PARLIAMENTARIANS NETWORK INITIATIVES

The Working Group on Euro-Atlantic Security to hold a meeting in Moscow

The Working Group on Euro-Atlantic security has been created to mainstream conflict prevention mechanisms in the European security reform process that are underway including the NATO’s New Security Strategy and President Medvedev’s proposals for a new security treaty. Frozen conflicts turned into fire (South Ossetia) and new tensions around energy supplies between Europe, Ukraine and Russia prompt parliamentarians from both sides of the Atlantic to rethink their security strategies.

The Working Group will convene its first high level meeting in Moscow in October 19th-21st 2010 to try to influence the reform agenda.

The EastWest Institute to hold the Global Conference on Preventive Action in Brussels

On December 6-7. 2010 the EastWest Institute and partner organizations will convene a Global Conference on Preventive Action that will aspire to outline new measures to help states, regional and international organizations achieve their policy goals of moving towards more effective conflict prevention actions

If you are interested in receiving more information about these activities, please contact Ms. Irina Bratosin (ibratosin@ewi.info)