January 07, 2011

Feminism and disarmament: The gender perspective as a necessity to achieve a world without nuclear weapons

WLOE member Ursula Gelis interviewed Dr. Rebecca Johnson, from the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy in London/UK, when she was in Oslo to launch the Norwegian ICAN campaign to free the world of all nuclear weapons.

Excerpt:

Ursula Gelis: How do you see the gender perspective in disarmament efforts?

Rebecca Johnson: I was a feminist before I became a peace activist. It is natural for me to look for justice and full involvement of women in peace activities. The work of women had been critical in achieving disarmament so far. Women led the campaign in the 1980s.

The peace camp as a place ‘for women only’ was important for confidence building measures and a specific kind of creativity. We came to understand that we as women have different perspectives on disarmament. Our way of looking at militarism, its consequences and solutions to stop it, differs from male perspectives. Attitudes of hiding behind facts and technical details tend to diminish the humanitarian dimension, which is the crucial one.

The entire disarmament campaign learned from women. Again, I am insisting that ‘women only spaces’ are important in order to increase the belief in our own perspectives. Feminist analysis of militarization, weapons and war is an area to germinate new ideas. In short, the main campaign needs a feminist perspective.

UG: What is the ICAN campaign?

RJ:  ICAN is a grassroots network that aims to build an irresistible, unstoppable civil society movement to abolish all nuclear weapons globally.

It is about promoting local groups, not only those already active against nuclear weapons. Activists concerned with humanitarian aspects, survivors of disasters have different ways of mobilization. Environmental consequences of the whole nuclear cycle, climate chaos and poverty issues will give new impulses to the campaign. We are heading for building up a civil society movement at all levels to put pressure on elected representatives, parliamentarians and mayors. We want to come together around the specific demand of a treaty-making process to ban nuclear weapons. The goal is to de-legitimize nuclear deterrence from the individual level, up to countries. People have to understand that every potential use of nuclear weapons would constitute a crime against humanity.

UG:     To what extent does civil society play a role in the campaign?

RJ:      The role of civil society in the campaign is crucial. It has the lead position to revive the demand to ban and to update the call for a nuclear weapon treaty. Of course, civil society has to work in partnership with the government, as was done successfully in the landmine campaign and with cluster bombs. ..."

Read full interview here (5 pg. pdf download)

Useful websites: www.ican.org; www.acronym.org.uk