Advancing transitional justice through women, peace, and security

The Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC), as a concrete entity borne out of the peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), was the first of its kind in the country. From a gender perspective, it was pioneering in a way that it consciously and diligently included gender in its principles, processes, and output.

In its Final Report launched in March 2016, for example, the TJRC noted patterns of conflict-related violence against women in the Bangsamoro that consisted of rape, mutilation of women’s reproductive organs, killing, abduction, sexual abuse, enforced disappearances, sexual slavery, forced marriage, and abandonment.

The TJRC’s gender-relevant General Recommendations were on the appointment of a gender adviser in the operational aspect of the National Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Commission on the Bangsamoro (NTJRCB) as well as the inclusion of the function “to investigate serious violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law, focusing, inter alia, on specific emblematic cases of mass atrocity crimes, of land dispossession, and of conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence” in the mandate of the proposed Sub-Commission on Bangsamoro Historical Memory.

On the other hand, specific recommendations proposed to national and regional government agencies related to gender were on gender disaggregation of data, development/delivery of culturally and gender-sensitive educational materials, public services, psychosocial healing and reparation packages, and memorialization initiatives.

In light of the existing policy discourse on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), the TJRC recommended “to institutionalize capacity building programs for women in the Bangsamoro towards their empowerment and recognition of their integrality of their rights, including property rights,” “support the future Bangsamoro authorities in continuing, strengthening, and expanding existing structures and mechanisms for women at various levels,” “ensure the meaningful political participation of Moro and indigenous women in national, regional, and local bodies,” and “enhance the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security and include a Regional and/or Local Action Plan on UNSCRs 1325 and 1820 in the ARMM.”

HOUSE BILL 5669
After over a year since the release of the TJRC Report, Representative Jose Christopher Belmonte filed House Bill (HB) 5669 or the “Transitional Justice and Reconciliation for the Bangsamoro Act.”

To a large extent, it picked up on the recommendations of the TJRC, particularly, the institutional bodies, namely, the NTJRCB and its Sub-Commissions on Historical Memory, Against Impunity and for the Promotion of Accountability and the Rule of Law, on Land Dispossession, and on Healing and Reconciliation. HB 5669, under the function of the Sub-Commission on Historical Memory, stipulated the following gender-specific provisions:

• “…the sub-commission shall listen to the testimony of victims in closed or public hearings, in order to collect witness statements and evidence related to specific violent events, with sensitivity to accounts of women who have been victims of gender-based and sexual violence;” and

• “To investigate serious violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law, focusing, among others, on specific emblematic cases of mass atrocity crimes, of land dispossession, and of conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence to determine whether such forms of violence were practiced as a deliberate strategy of war in the Bangsamoro conflict.”

TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE THROUGH WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY
At this point, however, since the TJRC-recommended institutional bodies have yet to be established and HB 5669 has yet to pass, an existing strategic pathway for transitional justice through WPS may be the immediate way forward.

Transitional justice is a gender issue that is integral to WPS. Mandate-wise, it can draw from the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (NAP WPS) 2017-2022 and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Regional Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (ARMM RAP WPS) 2017-2019.

Both policy frames already exist and have specific provisions as well as indicators/strategies on transitional justice.

For example, the NAP WPS commits to the “inclusion of gender and transitional justice in negotiated peace agreements as well as in mechanisms relevant to the implementation of closure agreements” and implementation of the gender-specific recommendations of the TJRC, particularly, “those related to emblematic mass atrocity crimes committed against Moro and indigenous women and those pertaining to reparation and land rights.”

In the case of the ARMM RAP WPS, the key transitional justice strategy was to systematically document “past and present conflict-related women’s human rights violations with the goal to create a data base and contribute to information on women’s experiences during conflict in aid of establishing transitional justice mechanisms such as memorialization, truth commission, and reparations, among others.”

Furthermore, using the existing institutional mechanisms of the NAP WPS, it is possible to tap the National Steering Committee on Women, Peace and Security (NSC WPS) — led by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) and Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) — to establish a technical working group (TWG) on Gender and Transitional Justice that will map out appropriate strategies and programs.

Financially and programmatically, government agency-implementers of the NAP WPS can draw from their respective Gender and Development (GAD) budget to implement their gender-sensitive transitional justice initiatives.

Moreover, the NSC WPS national government agency members — specifically, PCW, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and Department of Justice (DoJ) — can work together in the development of a gender-sensitive victim-focused approach related to handling victims of conflict-related sexual violence and other violations of women’s human rights. Central to their efforts should be the framing of initiatives within the right to know (e.g. women’s truth telling spaces), right to justice (e.g. special court on conflict-related sexual violence), right to reparation (e.g. preferential treatment to women’s right and access to land and property), and guarantee of non-recurrence (e.g. strengthening the protection of women’s human rights by institutional duty-bearers).

In 2015, on the occasion of the 15^th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, the Philippines was lauded for our achievement in women’s participation in peace negotiations and agreements. Maybe this time, our country can be known for being at forefront of implementing a gender-sensitive transitional justice system in the Bangsamoro and making a concrete difference in the lives of women who have lived through the armed conflict.

Ma. Lourdes Veneracion-Rallonza, Phd. is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science of the Ateneo de Manila University.

mrallonza@ateneo.edu