The growing interest in the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda (WPSA) is affirmed by the adoption of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1325 in October 2000. The WPSA is a policy framework which recognizes the vulnerability of women to critical forms of violence including sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated in times of conflict. It aims to recognize and highlight the impact of conflict on women as well as the need for their active participation in times of peace, conflict and post-conflict across peace processes and processes of political participation. For this to happen, the landmark resolution and subsequent UNSC presidential statements calls on all states to adopt the WPSA and develop their own country's National Action Plans (NAP) (UNSC, 2004, 2005). The resolution comprises four pillars which provide a holistic approach to addressing the WPSA, which are: participation (of women in peace processes at all levels of decision-making), conflict prevention, gender-sensitive relief and recovery measures and protection against sexual and gender-based violence during and after conflicts, the latter of which is the focus of this commentary, which situates it in the context of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Egypt.&nbsp;
Egypt is one of the MENA countries that has ratified this resolution and endorsed the WPSA. In May 2019, Egypt announced the launch of its own Nation Action Plan for the implementation of the resolution and subsequent resolutions through a tripartite cooperation between the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), the National Council for Women (NCW), and the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (CCCPA), yet the engagement of civil society in the process remains vague (UN Women, 2019; CCCPA, 2019). This commentary argues that developing a NAP is not an end in itself, but rather the NAP is a means to address gendered conflict, especially GBV, the prevention and mitigation of which in times of peace should be a priority objective.
The relevance of the WPSA in peace times is just as important in conflict and post-conflict times. The WPSA is not only concerned with conflict and post-conflict periods, but also questions the mechanisms and processes that are already established or will be established to ensure gender justice. It stresses that a foundational understanding of gendered power must be integrated across the different pillars of the resolution in any state&rsquo;s policies and mechanisms as the Council reaffirmed &ldquo;that women&rsquo;s and girls&rsquo; empowerment and gender equality are critical to conflict prevention and broader efforts to maintain international peace and security&rdquo; in the subsequent resolution 2242 (UNSC, 2015, p.2). Therefore, a gendered understanding of conflict becomes a necessity and allows us to realize how gendered conflict disrupts the traditional understanding of times of &ldquo;peace&rdquo;.&nbsp;&nbsp;
To understand the relevance of such a resolution to the context of Egypt, the concept of conflict needs to be deconstructed as the common understanding of this concept tends to be limited to armed conflict. Conflict is a dynamic, ever-changing process which manifests in diverse forms. Ross (1986) describes conflict as &ldquo;an integral aspect of political life. It involves efforts of two or more mutually opposed parties to obtain scarce resources at each other's expense through destroying, injuring, thwarting, or otherwise controlling other parties&rdquo; (p.430). This understanding of conflict necessitates its identification and analysis through the prism of violence and all its different forms, such as personal, structural violence and continuums of violence.&nbsp;
<h3>Understanding conflict from a gender perspective</h3>
Revisiting &ldquo;conflict&rdquo; from a gender perspective is an essential step to establish a need for gender-responsive actions. Gender centers around power relationships and the interplay of this power between different gender identities that are embedded in patriarchal control and social constructs affecting women&rsquo;s rights in private and public spheres. Since control and domination over other parties are part and parcel of the existence of gender inequalities, conflict occurs where women continue to resist these forms of control. An aspect of gendered conflict lies in the interconnectedness of personal violence and structural violence, where individuals&rsquo; violence and gender bias are not separated from institutional violence which hinders social and gender justice. Structural violence comprises institutions and systems which are outcomes of the ruling patriarchal culture as &ldquo;men have used violence in their attempts to maintain control over their female possession, to retain personal authority, and to gain her personal service and domestic labor that reinforced by various forms of institutional support for male prerogatives and the control of women&rdquo; (Dobash &amp; Dobash, 1981, p.565). In light of this, the commentary presents below some of the legal forms as proxies of institutional practices and structural violence, which enable personal violence.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<h3>Re-questioning times of &ldquo;peace&rdquo; from a GBV perspective&nbsp;</h3>
The previous re-reading of conflict from a gender perspective demonstrates that conflict does exist in times of &ldquo;peace.&rdquo; For more than two decades, the question of protection against GBV whether in private or in public lies at the heart of feminist activism through advocacy, mobilization, knowledge production, legal efforts and service provision. In times of &ldquo;peace&rdquo; in Egypt, GBV is a social problem that denies women&rsquo;s right to safely engage and participate in social, cultural, political and economic realms resulting from conflict.&nbsp;
Over the years, away from individual cases of prevalent sexual harassment, Egypt has witnessed many cases of mass sexual assaults in public space. In 2006, in times of &ldquo;peace,&rdquo; women were celebrating the first day of the Eid holiday by going out in the streets of Cairo and were severely sexually violated by tens of men (Gad, 2012). In times of political upheaval, violence is exacerbated and incidents of mob-sexual assaults against women protesters took place in November 2012 and in January 2013, where &ldquo;women often [found] themselves trapped inside what some have called &ldquo;the circle of hell,&rdquo; a mob of 200 or 300 men who fought with one another to pull, shove, beat and strip them&rdquo; (Fathi, 2013).&nbsp;&nbsp;
Within private spaces, domestic GBV is a serious issue in Egypt which appears in many forms such as violence against partners and family members, FGM, forced child marriage, marital rape and honor crimes. Regarding intimate-partner violence in Egypt, &ldquo;it is estimate[d] that around 1 million married women leave their marital homes yearly due to domestic violence perpetrated by [their] spouse&rdquo; (UN Population Fund [UNFPA] et al., 2015, p. 2). During the COVID-19 pandemic, when stay at home measures were implemented in Egypt, a spike in cases of domestic violence were recorded (Magdy &amp; Zaki, 2021).&nbsp;&nbsp;
This synopsis of GBV types provides a picture of women&rsquo;s vulnerability to violence in &ldquo;peace&rdquo; time in Egypt. Despite these experiences, criminalizing all forms of GBV remains a struggle due to patriarchal norms. On the level of policies and legislation, although there is a pillar for protection in the State national strategy for women&rsquo;s empowerment, it lacks the holistic approach of implementing a responsive mitigation system of GBV. It is worth mentioning that over the years, some steps on legislative level are achieved, including articles related to GBV crimes such as the criminalization of sexual harassment through Articles 306 bis a and 306 bis b to the Penal Code, and of FGM in Article 242 (bis), of which the related penalties have been recently strengthened (Library of Congress, 2016; Egypt Independent, 2021). Additionally, article 113 bis was added to Law 177/2020 to conceal the identity of sexual harassment, assault and rape survivors, to mitigate the fear of reporting such crimes (Manshurat, 2020). Yet Egypt lacks unified/comprehensive legislation that defines and criminalizes the different forms of GBV and a national strategy or laws to criminalize domestic violence despite the presence of many drafts of GBV comprehensive laws presented by national women&rsquo;s machineries such as the National Council for Women (2013) or by civil society and feminist groups (Othman, 2017).&nbsp;
In fact, the absence of comprehensive laws against GBV and a national strategy to combat domestic violence are not the only obstacles. Articles of the Penal Code have enabled the normalization of these forms of violence and thus constitute an obstacle to prioritizing the welfare and protection of women. According to Article 60 of the Penal Code, perpetrators would be exempted from punishment if the act of violence is perpetrated in good faith according to Islamic Sharia. Moreover, Article 17 gives judges the discretion to exercise clemency by reducing sentences (Manshurat, 2021). In cases of GBV crimes, the invocation of these articles further perpetuates the idea that GBV is not a serious crime worthy of serious punishment.
<h3>Moving forward: Protection as a primary objective</h3>
The Women, Peace, and Security NAP should assign high priority to the provision of protection for women and girls against GBV based on the provided understanding of gendered &ldquo;conflict&rdquo; within times of &ldquo;peace.&rdquo; To achieve this objective, the following actions are necessary:
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The critical engagement of civil society and women-led organizations, feminist organizations and groups as well as integrating feminist voices &amp; approaches in:</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The development of the NAP,</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The establishment of a comprehensive, unified law for GBV,</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The development of a national strategy for fighting domestic GBV.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Integrate the issues of protection and support to refugees, migrants and asylum seekers into national policies and legislations.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Increase the number of GVB units in hospitals/police stations/prosecutors/forensic clinics across governorates.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Increase service provision for medical, psychological care and legal aid in one place across governorates through one-stop centers.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Strengthen the capacity of all related players in the police, justice, social affairs and health sector in charge of gender-based violence issues.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Abolish Article 60 of the Penal Code.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Decrease the use of Article 17 in GBV crimes.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Establish a cross-governorate network of trained peacebuilding cadres consisting of local young women on WPS issues.</li>
</ol>
<hr>
References
<ul>
<li>
Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding. (2019). CCCPA to develop Egypt&rsquo;s first national action plan on women, peace and security. <a href="https://www.cccpa-eg.org/news-details/226">https://www.cccpa-eg.org/news-details/226</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Dobash, P., &amp; Dobash, R. (1981). Community response to violence against wives: Charivari, abstract justice and patriarchy. Social Problems, 28(5), 563&ndash;581. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/800231">https://doi.org/10.2307/800231</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Egypt Independent. (2021). Egyptian parliament committee approves tougher penalties for harassment. <a href="https://cutt.ly/YTav2PR">https://cutt.ly/YTav2PR</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Fathi, Y. (2013). The circle of hell: Inside Tahrir's mob sexual assault epidemic. Ahram Online. <a href="https://cutt.ly/nTavMFK">https://cutt.ly/nTavMFK</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Gad, S. (2012). We mold the collective memory of sexual assault. Egypt Independent. <a href="https://cutt.ly/MTav0wO">https://cutt.ly/MTav0wO</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Library of Congress. (2016). Egypt: New law enhancing the penalties for FGM approved by parliament. <a href="https://cutt.ly/zTavC7Q">https://cutt.ly/zTavC7Q</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Magdy, D., &amp; Zaki, H. A. (2021). After COVID-19: Mitigating domestic gender-based violence in Egypt in times of emergency. Social Protection in Egypt: Mitigating the socio-economic effects of the covid-19 pandemic on vulnerable employment. <a href="https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_journal_articles/502">https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_journal_articles/502</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Manshurat. (2020). ​​Addition of article 113 bis of the code of criminal procedure law 177 of 2020 [Idafat al-madat 113 mukarir qanun al-iijra&rsquo;at al-jinayiyat al-qanun 177 li-sanat 2020]. [In Arabic]. <a href="https://manshurat.org/node/67605">https://manshurat.org/node/67605</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Manshurat. (2021). Penal code no. 58 of 1937 [Qanun al-&lsquo;uqubat raqm 58 li-sanat 1937]. [In Arabic]. <a href="https://manshurat.org/node/14677">https://manshurat.org/node/14677</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
National Council for Women. (2013). A proposal for the draft law on the protection of women from violence and its explanatory note. [Muqtarah mashru&lsquo; qanun himayat almar&rsquo;at min al-&lsquo;unf wa-mudhakiratih al-idahia]. [In Arabic]. <a href="https://cutt.ly/JTabjIS">https://cutt.ly/JTabjIS</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Othman, S. (2017). 9 human rights organizations seek to prepare a law to combat violence against women. [9 Munazamat huquqiat tas&lsquo;a li-&lsquo;idad qanun li-munahadat al-&lsquo;unf did al-mar&rsquo;a]. Al-Mal News. [In Arabic]. <a href="https://cutt.ly/DTabzid">https://cutt.ly/DTabzid</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Ross, M. (1986). A cross-cultural theory of political conflict and violence. Political Psychology, 7(3), 427-469. <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/3791250">http://www.jstor.org/stable/3791250</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
United Nations Population Fund, Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics &amp; National Council for Women. (2015). The Egypt economic cost of gender-based violence survey (ECGBVS) 2015. UNFPA. <a href="https://cutt.ly/bRNsz5P">https://cutt.ly/bRNsz5P</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
United Nations Security Council. (2004). Statement by the president of the security council (S/PRST/2004/40). <a href="https://www.un.org/womenwatch/ods/S-PRST-2004-40-E.pdf">https://www.un.org/womenwatch/ods/S-PRST-2004-40-E.pdf</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
United Nations Security Council. (2005). Statement by the president of the security council (S/PRST/2005/52). <a href="https://www.un.org/womenwatch/ods/S-PRST-2005-52-E.pdf">https://www.un.org/womenwatch/ods/S-PRST-2005-52-E.pdf</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
United Nations Security Council. (2015). Resolution 2242 (S/RES/2242). <a href="https://cutt.ly/eTacS6c">https://cutt.ly/eTacS6c</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
United Nations Women. (2019). UN Women praises the decision of the government of Egypt to develop the country&rsquo;s first national action plan on UNSCR 1325 on women peace and security. <a href="https://cutt.ly/6TabTDL">https://cutt.ly/6TabTDL</a>
</li>
</ul>

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