2020
12.03.2020

Women Focused Networks – Women’s Rights are Human Rights

Local support circles of women in six rural areas in the South Caucasus build their capacity in human rights education and community development.

In the South Caucasus, the implementation of the Action Plan of the UN Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security is hindered by an incomplete assessment and thereby understanding of the needs of women on the local level. The 2019 project contributed to the assessment by empowering participants to identify the needs of rural women and take action to address them.

The follow-up project takes the UN Resolution 2467 adopted by the security council in April 2019 – a reaffirmation of its commitment to the implementation of the resolution 1325 (2000) – as a starting point. It acts locally upon the aims of the Resolution, among them strengthening women’s participation and promotion of human rights and building the engagement of women in decision-making processes, by acquainting women with their rights and equipping them with the necessary knowledge and skills to demand them. By including a human rights dimension, the project moves beyond the 2019 pilot-phase.

The continued training of the initial participants strengthens their abilities in problem analysis and in transferring knowledge to other women on a peer-to-peer level and builds a foundation of knowledge in women’s rights as human rights among women who are able to educate others. As the knowledge, skills and experience of the support network expand and grow stronger, the network develops the capacity to support itself. The involved women take on increased responsibility for the networks’ sustainability, which becomes possible due to their capacities as leaders and change makers. The locality of the project, the focus of obtaining and disseminating knowledge on a village level and its regionality, connecting villages in different regions of each country and across the region, makes the project relevant to the goals of UN Resolution 1325.

Project Goals

The goal of the follow-up in 2020 is to assist the support circles in their development and stability, as well as in becoming embedded in and supported by the local communities to address issues in their villages that have not been mentioned in the public discourse before and to raise awareness on human rights. In addition, one of the main goals will be to support the whole group of 6 regions to become a self-sufficient network, already during the project and after its completion.  We will achieve this through strengthening their capacity in two focus areas: community development and human rights education, which will become the pillars of their future work and are in line with the Resolution 2467 action plan. Another goal is to continue supporting the cooperation between women on the local and regional level in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Target Groups

The primary target group is the women who participated in the pilot project and were trained in network building and project management in 2019. In 2020, the women will be trained in community development and human rights education and will function as multipliers and as initiators in their communities. The secondary target group is women who are members of the support circles but have not yet actively been involved in conducting needs assessments and implementing initiatives. They will form teams with the 2019 participants to implement initiatives designed to address the challenges identified in the needs analysis on a larger scale involving persons from several villages.

Activities

Local support circles of women in six rural areas in the South Caucasus build their capacity in human rights education and community development. They carry out localized needs analysis that incorporate regions beyond their villages and address the challenges women face in understanding and defending their human rights through specifically designed initiatives. The project strengthens networks of women in villages and in the corresponding urban centers as well as in the South Caucasus Region.

Outcomes / Achievements
  1. The project will empower the support circles in their development and stability. The support circles should be embedded in and supported by the local communities so that the women can address issues in their villages that have not been openly discussed in public discourse so far and to raise awareness of human rights.

  2. The group of 6 regions form a self-sufficient network, already during the project implementation.

  3. Women's capacities in the priority areas of human rights education and community development will become the pillars of the team’s future work and are in line with the action plan of UN Resolution 2467.