ourna l of

PEACEBUILDING
DEVELOPMENT
Article
Journal of Peacebuilding
& Development
2019, Vol. 14(2) 125-137
A Multilevel Intervention: ª The Author(s) 2019
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The Case of the Cyprus sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1542316619843258

Gender Advisory Team (GAT) journals.sagepub.com/home/jpd

Achievements and Challenges

Maria Hadjipavlou1 and E. Biran Mertan2

Abstract
In this article, we discuss Gender Advisory Team (GAT)’s multilevel linkage strategy—Macro–Meso–
Micro—in promoting women’s ideas and views on the different issues discussed at the negotiating
table and raising public awareness on GAT’s recommendations regarding the issues of governance and
power-sharing from a gender and feminist perspective as well as on property, economy, citizenship,
and education in a federal reunited Cyprus. In this article, we give examples only on governance and
citizenship. Our feminist take on these issues necessitates a perspective that transcends the ethnic
divide and includes the Women, Peace and Security agenda. We argue that Cypriot women’s concerns,
needs, and gender mainstreaming as well an inclusive process should be prioritised at all levels of
institutions. We conclude with GAT’s impact and challenges.

Keywords
Cyprus, multilevel strategy, gender, conflict, negotiation, recommendations, feminist perspective

. . . mindful of the important role of women in peace negotiations, as recognized by the Security Council in
resolution 1325 (2000), I would encourage the sides to continue their engagement with the Gender Advi-
sory Team, consisting of civil society activists and scholars from across the island, and to seriously consider
its gender-focused recommendations on the main areas under discussion in the peace talks.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon (2010, §43).

Ethno-national conflict often sharpens traditional gender roles, whereby men become the fighters and
protectors of “women and children” (Yuval-Davies & Anthias, 1989), whereas women are seen as the
reproducers of the nation and mothers who “give” their sons to the “motherland.” Gender inequality

1
University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
2
Bahcesehir Universitesi, Nicosia, Cyprus

Corresponding Author:
E. Biran Mertan, Bahcesehir Universitesi, Nicosia, Mersin 10, Cyprus.
Email: biran.mertan@cyprus.bau.edu.tr
 126 Journal of Peacebuilding & Development 14(2)

reflects power imbalances on all levels of social, economic, cultural, and political life. Women stereo-
typically are depicted as victims and men as perpetrators. Ignoring women’s experiences and multiple
roles contributes not only to their exclusion but also to a process of self-selection, which results in an
overwhelmingly male population both in the centres of foreign policy and the executive where issues
of decisions on war and peace, development, and allocation of resources are taken.
In the Cyprus conflict, members of opposing parties are called through dominant national narratives,
which are patriarchal, militaristic, and oversimplified, to choose their side and locate themselves on the
conflict map. Chronology1 and issues, such as victimhood, truth, human rights violations, security, and
justice, acquire a monofocal, musculinist meaning according to the processes of reconstructing mem-
ories and forgetting which enter into what Volkan (1987) aptly termed “chosen glories and chosen
traumas” (Hadjipavlou, 2006, 2010). What are the implications of this binary scenario for women and
conflict resolution and reconciliation groups who view political and ethno-national conflicts as having
a multilayered texture? Does a conflict culture, as it is defined by dominant discourses and a patriar-
chal mentality, one of whose many tasks is that of “enemy construction,” allow space for the devel-
opment of alternative options and analyses? Feminism as an ideology in all its different
perspectives came to question polarisation, dichotomies of “us” and “them,” and social and gender
divisions as well as existing patriarchal ideologies and conventional norms (Cockburn & Enloe, 2012).
Patriarchy as an organising concept describes the power relations between men and women and how
male dominance permeates all walks of life be it in the family, education, politics, at work, and in
development projects. Millet (1970) described for instance “patriarchal government as an institution
whereby that half of the populace which is female is controlled by that half which is male.” She sug-
gested that patriarchy contains two principles: “male shall dominate female, elder male shall dom-
inate younger.” Patriarchy is thus a hierarchic social mode characterised by both sexual and
generational oppression. Connected to this is the maintenance of the private/public divide which
is often used as an excuse to exclude women from public life based on sexual biological differences.
Connected to patriarchy are nationalism and militarism, each sustaining the other, as for example, in
the case of Cyprus.
Such is the prevailing situation in Cyprus, where feminist peace voices are still muted and polls often
show women, mostly in the Greek-Cypriot community, to be staunch opponents to a peace settle-
ment (see http://www.seedsofpeace.eu/index.php/research/score-index/159-score-index-reflection-
2015-en). Patriarchy, as well as the private/public divide, still prevails in Cyprus. This division
overshadows women’s voices and views on what a solution would mean for them as well as their
experiences on issues of both as participation and as active agents. For example, when one of a
Turkish-Cypriot woman said in a dialogue session amongst women from the women’s nongovern-
mental organisation (NGO) Hands Across the
Patriarchy, as well as the private/public Divide (HAD) back in 2005, “I want a solution
divide, still prevails in Cyprus. (of the Cyprus conflict) to bring a culture of inclu-
sion, everyone having a voice, everyone having
an opportunity to contribute to change. I want an end to all divisions.” Another Greek-Cypriot
woman in urgency remarked, “I also want a settlement to gain freedom from fear of renewed vio-
lence, freedom from male suppression, freedom of movement, freedom to choose my own direc-
tion in life beyond social pressures . . . ” (Cockburn, 2004; Hadjipavlou, 2006). Such women’s
desires indicate that we cannot achieve gender equality without peace and we cannot achieve sus-
tainable peace without democratic participation of women in all levels of public life. Cypriot
women have engaged in this struggle for decades, but their “herstories” still remain unspoken
(Hadjipavlou & Mertan, 2010).
Hadjipavlou and Mertan 127

A Gendered View of Cypriot Experience

Cyprus has been ethnically, politically, geographically, and psychologically divided, since 1974 as in the
narrative in the Greek-Cypriot community and since 1963 as experienced by the Turkish-Cypriot commu-
nity. From 1974 to 2003, there was no direct communication or personal contacts amongst the commu-
nities. The first checkpoints opened in 2003 along the green line. This is the line that divides the north
from the south of the island, about a 110 miles long, variably designated as the demarcation line, the Attila
line, the Line of Shame, the no-man’s land, the dead zone, the ceasefire line, and the buffer zone—depend-
ing on one’s ideological and historical point of view. This indicates the linguistic vagaries that mire the
chiefly dichotomic ethnic-patriarchal readings of the conflict. It is a language that is often sexualised, poli-
ticised, and ethicised as part of the Cyprus conflict which is overwhelmingly a male “creation” and a male-
defined problem (Demetriou & Hadjipavlou, 2018; Hadjipavlou, 2010; Kamenou, 2011).
One of the consequences of the war in 1974 that impacted women and their families has been the issue
of missing persons. For the Turkish-Cypriot families, this goes back to the intercommunal violence of
1963–1964. Women have often been used as instruments by the state to promote its own nationalist
and political project. For example, Greek-Cypriot wives, mothers, sisters, and those grandmothers who
are still alive dressed in black and wearing headscarves, for decades carried the photographs of their
missing loved ones and stood in public squares and at crossing checkpoints asking for their right to
know what happened to their loved ones in 1974. For some of the Turkish-Cypriot’s relatives of the
missing, it has been 56 years (from 1963 to 2019) since they began seeking the truth (Hadjipavlou,
2010). These photographs, images, and narratives of women suggest this unresolved humanitarian
issue turned into a political project. In the Cyprus National Struggle Museums on both sides of the
divide, women feature in representations of the suffering and pain of the nation—as if men do not suf-
fer or are not expected to show their pain and trauma! Indeed, their depiction as the fighters and pro-
tectors of the “nation” has often disallowed this possibility. Issues of psychological trauma, past
atrocities, refugeehood, and loss—all deeply humanitarian issues are thus politicised, feminised, and
sexualised. The humanitarian issue of the missing persons has been given due attention only after
2007, when the Committee of Missing Persons was established under the auspices of the United
Nations (UN), with a mandate to investigate the fate of people missing from various periods in the
conflict and began exhumations and identification of bones.
In this context of no communication amongst people due to militarisation and political violence and
violation of people’s human right to meet, civil society groups found ways to meet and articulate a
different political discourse promoting conflict resolution, interethnic contacts, and rapprochement
either in the buffer zone or abroad with often with the assistance from third-party facilitators. We will
not dwell on this here, as this had been done elsewhere (Broome, 1998; Fisher, 1991; Hadjipavlou,
2005, 2006, 2009, 2010; Hadjipavlou-Trigeorgis, 1987, 1998). Suffice to say here that the island of
Cyprus is one of the most militarised places in the world and that nationalism and patriarchy as well
as sexism and racism have been on the rise throughout the conflict.2

The Cypriot Women’s Initiatives Against Militarism and Patriarchy

In an environment of multiple divisions and barbed wires across the divided north and south, there have
been citizens and women’s groups that have been articulating a different discourse on the national prob-
lem, which for decades has dominated all aspects of life on the island and undermined and marginalised
all other social issues, including women’s. Here, we mention some of the women’s resistance and
initiatives to peace and gender equality. One of the first such groups was the “Women Walk Home”
movement initiated by middle-class women from the Greek-Cypriot community—it was thus mono-
communal though supported by foreign well-known women. The first “Walk” along the partitioning line
 128 Journal of Peacebuilding & Development 14(2)

was in 1975 and there followed others in 1977, 1979, and 1985. The main focus of this initiative was to
demand the right of displaced persons to “return to their homes” and live in conditions of safety.
Since the late 1990s, bicommunal women’s groups were established, which were intercommunal and
more focussed on rapprochement, reconciliation, women, and conflict resolution and cooperation.
These included the “Metamorphosis Cypriot Women’s Group” established in 2000 by professional
women who worked on joint projects and produced an important video of ordinary women from both
communities who had struggled to bring about social change and challenge social and cultural taboos
in their communities (Hadjipavlou & Mertan, 2010). HAD was another such group which started
meeting in 1998 and then registered officially as an NGO in 2001. It was the first NGO to bring United
Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCR) 1325 to the attention of the Cypriot leaders, HAD
works for reconciliation and social justice at the grass-root level (Cockburn, 2004; Hadjipavlou,
2006). Feminist Atölye is a Turkish-Cypriot feminist organisation dealing with gender equality and
against gender-based violence in the Turkish-Cypriot community, as well as on reconciliation and
peace. These groups could be thought of as the predecessors of Gender Advisory Team (GAT) which
was established in 2009 to focus exclusively on the UNSCR 1325 and its implementation in Cyprus
and more specifically in the Cyprus peace process.

Why the GAT?

The founding members of GAT, including the two authors, come from academia and grass-roots activism.
Most of them have been scholars of conflict and peace and gender equality work, others are feminist peace
activists who organised workshops on gender awareness raising, some others are researchers on issues of
women’s rights and democracy, and others have been involved in grass-roots work and demonstrate on
issues of reconciliations and coexistence (see www.gat1325.org). The number of women involved varied
according to task allocation in the organisation of events. After 10 years of significant achievements at dif-
ferent levels, the active members are not many, but the group is open to anyone who wishes to join. Mem-
bers of GAT are now involved in a project with the participation of women from all Cypriot communities to
organise women’s dialogue groups island wide so as to make visible the diversity of women’s voices and
concerns and to gradually build a Cypriot women’s coalition movement.
GAT has closely followed the peace negotiations and drew up recommendations for the negotiators on
the mainstreaming of gender concerns in their discussions and the eventual political agreement and the
constitution of a federated state. Feminists working in the international sphere on Women, Peace and
Security (WPS) with whom GAT has worked have suggested that our set of recommendations could be
taken as a National Action Plan blueprint. This is an acknowledgement of the emancipatory potential
of UNSCR 1325 and perhaps also its difference to a number of other UNSCR in that the text itself is
not a call to practice but a call to local application.
This is foremost what distinguishes GAT from any previous bicommunal women’s groups: the
integration of gender equality provisions in the
No woman, from any of the Cypriot peace negotiations and the implementation of
communities, has in the over four decades UNSCR 1325. This resolution becomes both a
of conflict been assigned a substantial mechanism and a foundational text for building
a locally relevant set of measures. No woman,
role in the high-level negotiating teams
from any of the Cypriot communities, has in the
that discuss the future of the island.
over four decades of conflict been assigned a
substantial role in the high-level negotiating teams that discuss the future of the island. This is
what GAT has been resisting against.
 Hadjipavlou and Mertan 129

GAT’s Multilevel Strategy

In the late 1970s and 1980s, the field of conflict resolution came to challenge traditional official
diplomacy which was state-centred and top down in dealing with international and interethnic
conflicts. It has put the citizens in the process of political participation and empowerment by stressing
the importance of relationships between individuals and states in the context of continuous interaction
on multiple levels. New theories have advanced our understanding of inter-group and international
conflicts such as Burton’s theory of the “Basic Human Needs” (W. J. Burton, 1969, J. W. Burton,
1972; Burton, 1990; Fisher, 1991; Kelman, 1997; Montville, 1990). The role of the NGOs and of the
citizens has been since then part of the conflict resolution peace process. Ethno-national conflicts are
multilayered phenomena, and the field of conflict resolution invites us to delve into the root causes of
such conflict. Conflict resolution enables us to use different entry points into transforming the conflict
system (Michael & Hadjipavlou, 2018). Our “Linkage Triangle” approach is informed by this litera-
ture on unofficial interventions as well as by the Lederach’s (1997) model on peacebuilding theory and
approaches to peace and his peacebuilding pyramid. Lederach’s idea is that there are three levels of
leadership involved in any conflict and that there are different approaches to use at each level. Most
attention usually goes to the top-level leadership due to their high visibility. There are of course other
leaders lower down the top level who have a role to play such as community leaders, education offi-
cials, NGOs, academics, religious leaders, and others. Each level does things the other level cannot do
as former diplomat Harold Saunders (1985) said long ago,

some things only governments can do, there are other things citizens outside government can do better such
as probing the human dimension of conflict and changing relationships among groups enough to permit
formal mediation and negotiation or resolution of conflict by other means (§ 234).

Lederach’s model also proposes skill training according to the type of actors involved. Our Linkage Tri-
angle model derived from the local needs as this evolved through our GAT’s work and discussion. Below
we explain and discuss the different levels of our interventions and how the one reinforces the other.
Whatever success GAT has had in its efforts so far has been due in large part to the multilevel strategy
it has used, bringing together and mediating between the local, the national, the regional, and the glo-
bal. GAT has thus been working at the Macro–Meso–Micro levels. We believe that for a conflict sys-
tem to be transformed, there are many different points of entry where interventions for change should
occur simultaneously and in cooperation. All three
We believe that for a conflict system to be levels should be in dialogue and in conversation so
transformed, there are many different as to promote transformation of the conflict system
points of entry where interventions for into a peacebuilding system with an informed
change should occur simultaneously and polity. There is a dialectical relationship amongst
the different levels; each having its own areas of
in cooperation.
activities and function and at the same time when
in dialogue the one informs the other and the system of peacebuilding remains alive and constantly
producing new ideas and policies which will be inclusive, democratic, and fair. This is what we call
“The Linkage Approach” to conflict transformation and peacebuilding (Hadjipavlou-Trigeorgis, 1987,
1998).
GAT, after a process of team building and defining shared goals and values to guide the work, started
advocacy and lobbying at the Macro Level, that is, the national and decision-making levels. Specifi-
cally, GAT has written letters to the Cypriot leaders who were then the main negotiators, informing
them about UNSCR 1325 and its relevance to Cyprus peace process; about the sets of recommenda-
tions relating to governance, power-sharing, property, and citizenship chapters; and urged them to
130 Journal of Peacebuilding & Development 14(2)

ensure that these recommendations are mainstreamed in the discussion of these issues. GAT members
expressed readiness and willingness to engage in dialogue with any members of their working teams.
GAT also had several meetings with the leaders’ advisors and engaged them in discussions concerning
the incorporation of a gender-sensitive perspective in the negotiations. At first, we encountered resis-
tance because they viewed “gender” as an issue that could be brought up after the agreement is signed.
Our view was that gender equality and peace are inextricably linked and should be at the table in the
same way as they considered the ethnic divide issue. After a series of meetings, both negotiators recog-
nised the need for gender focal points within their offices, with whom GAT remains in contact when
the peace process is active (Demetriou & Hadjipavlou, 2018).
At the Meso Level, GAT has built channels of communication and alliances with the office of the UN
Secretary General’s representative in Cyprus who facilitates, as third party, the peace negotiations and then
reports to the UN Secretary General who then informs the security council on any progress or deadlocks on
the Cyprus talks. The engagement of GAT with 1325 and its work and activities have been of interest to the
UN Good Offices too. At our request, the UN Special Representative communicated our recommendations
to the UNSG Ban Ki Moon at the time and facilitated his visits to the island so as to include GAT in his civil
society contacts. As we mentioned at the beginning of our article, the Secretary General made special men-
tion in his semi-annual report (2010) to the Security Council and also met in person with us. The UN Sec-
retary General’s representative in Cyprus who facilitates the peace negotiations has often invited us to
present our work and be informed about the difficulties on their side. The present UNSG’s Special Rep-
resentative, Elizabeth Spehar who was appointed in June 2016, is very supportive of women’s and civil
society’s voices and their inclusion in the peace talks. This is indeed an acknowledgement of the signifi-
cance of GAT’s work as we mentioned above. She often attends and gives short addresses in all of our
conferences. In this way, GAT’s legitimacy increases both at the local and international levels.
GAT’s members are also in contact with the UN Good Offices’ gender focal point personnel in Cyprus
from whom we gain their international experience. We have also built relationships with the diplo-
matic community stationed in Cyprus who often attend our events and some have sponsored our con-
ferences. We have networked with the International Women’s Alliance for peace and equal rights, the
Women’s Network for Peace, and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. GAT mem-
bers give interviews in the mass media promoting the gender equality agenda in the peace negotiations
and the peacebuilding processes. GAT—myself and my co-author—were invited in June 2018 to the
European Parliament at the Council of Europe and spoke jointly about Cypriot women’s efforts to
peacebuilding and the implementation of 1325. Present were for the first-time Greek Cypriot and
Turkish-Cypriot parliamentarians, apart from other diplomats, amongst them Ambassador Anwarul
K. Chowdhury of Bangladesh who was instrumental in the adoption of UNSCR 1325 at the UN Secu-
rity Council in 2000. The Cypriot representatives commented and responded by expressing their sup-
port to our efforts and work and to be followed back at home. Thus, we took the work of GAT from the
local to the regional and international audience and a report on this event will be published to circulate
to all member states. Our latest invitation was in October 2018 at the international seminar on
“Squaring the Circle for Women, Peace and Security” organised by the German Federal Ministry for
Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth as well as by the German Women’s Council,
Women’s Network for Peace, and the International Alliance of Women. We again had the opportunity
to present our Cypriot women’s experiences and challenges as well as lead a group discussion on stra-
tegies towards achieving gender equality and women’s contribution to peacebuilding and to a peace
culture. In such forums, the WPS agenda dominates the experiences of women from different countries
especially the discussion on the three pillars—protection, participation, and prevention. One of the
recurrent themes that women from Africa, Asia, and Europe stressed as an omission was the lack of
macro level’s response and acknowledgement of women’s and civil society contributions at the micro
level. This concerns us in Cyprus too.
Hadjipavlou and Mertan 131

GAT also worked at the micro level. GAT reached out to the civil society and shared its work and rec-
ommendations with other NGOs working on peacebuilding in Cyprus. We organised joint activities
with HAD and FEMA, public events on UNSCR 1325, and addressed obstacles in women’s role in
peacebuilding and gender equality at all levels of life. Some collaborations with civil society took
place both under the auspices of the UN’s mission of Good Offices and on GAT’s initiative. Below
we give two examples to illustrate this collaboration.
In 2010 and 2012, GAT and other gender-focused NGOs and practitioners Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-
Cypriots worked together at a two open-day events and identified specific obstacles to women’s par-
ticipation in decision-making and in the formal or informal peace talks. These were codified under the
following factors:

(i) historical reasons—these included the legacy of occupation of the island by foreign powers
over the centuries including colonialism and ethnic nationalism.
(ii) structural obstacles—examples of these were the entrenched patriarchy and hierarchical-
gendered institutions such as the family, religion, education, and trade unions, weak political
party women’s wings, and the hegemony of the media and the essentialist social construction
of masculinity and femininity.
(iii) political obstacles—these included the male-centred culture in political parties, the gendered
separation of private and public realms of life, and hegemonic male discourses that leave no
space for women to voice their concerns and needs.
(iv) psychological factors—exemplified by women internalising their oppression and secondary
roles early on in their socialisation, fear of success and low self-confidence, and normalisa-
tion of traditional stereotypical roles.

Despite agreement on these obstacles, differences also emerged as Turkish-Cypriot women articulated
a host of other grievances, which the Greek-Cypriot women do not experience being members of the
dominant community, and living in the Cyprus Republic, which is internationally recognised and
enjoying the European Union membership with whatever benefits this entails. Based on all these
points, the participants developed five key recommendations within the principles of Resolution
1325 addressed chiefly to the UN but not only:

1) support the development and implementation of a Cyprus-wide campaign on human security

that would take into account the gender approach to security;
2) support women in decision-making processes to influence the political structures in their com-
munities including advocacy for the promotion of at least 30% quota as a temporary measure;
3) support the training of women in decision-making;
4) support rural women’s access to decision-making;
5) facilitate a women’s conference on the Cyprus problem so as to inform and engage women
from all communities and create a safe space for their inclusive participation.

These recommendations stem from GAT’s basic premise that peacemaking and peacebuilding should
not only be about ceasefires but about transforming society from bottom up. Women bring grass-roots
interests from community and households that should be taken into account. For this reason, gender
mainstreaming should be prioritised at all levels of public and private life. The women’s needs and
demands were communicated both to the policy centres and to the UN Good Offices in Cyprus. In this
sense, GAT worked as a funnelling mechanism, taking the experiences and concerns of grass-roots
women and gender activists and transformed them into a base for articulating specific interpretations
of UNSCR 1325 and utilising its links to local UN structures and the local leaderships. Thus, in using
the linkage model, whereby the one level informs the other and is in conversation, not only we
 132 Journal of Peacebuilding & Development 14(2)

achieved practical outcomes, but we enriched our understanding of both the complexity and multi-
layered aspects of the conflict as well as the opportunities to promote GAT’s work amongst the dif-
ferent stakeholders.
GAT’s recommendations from a gender equality perspective were based on the WPS Agenda. The spe-
cific recommendations have been outlined in details elsewhere (Demetriou & Hadjipavlou, 2014,
2016), and below we give examples from the governance and power-sharing chapter and citizenship.
All the recommendations we produced (governance, citizenship, property, and economy) have been of
a collective engagement and long discussions on different drafts before the final version was agreed by
all members. This was a very fruitful process which gave the opportunity to each one to use her exper-
tise and connected us to the shared outcome thus all of us feeling we owned it.

Governance and Power-Sharing

Having in mind the 1960 imposed constitution when the Cyprus Republic was established which was
not only gender-blind but discriminated against women on social issues like family law and divorce, and
so on, GAT proposes to abolish such articles.
Women, who constitute half of the Women, who constitute half of the population in
population in Cyprus, are the obvious Cyprus, are the obvious group finding itself at a dis-
group finding itself at a disadvantage advantage through the exclusive focus on the ethnic
divide. The ways the peace negotiations have been
through the exclusive focus on the ethnic
structured perpetuate in our view this situation into
divide. the future state. GAT views “power-sharing” as pri-
marily focussing on the political accommodation of
ethnic groups and is understood as a technical matter pertaining to numbers of the allocation of seats in gov-
ernment and state institutions. GAT advocates in its recommendations the inclusion of the WPS agenda in
the power-sharing mechanisms and to recognise women’s contributions to informal political processes too.
Thus, GAT recommends that the new federal and constituent states’ constitutions in both the preamble
and ensuing articles contain specific text on gender equality and on special temporary measures
intended to combat discrimination. It specified that the constitutions must prohibit any kind of direct
and/or indirect discrimination based on gender, sex, maternity, parental leave, marital status, and sex-
ual orientation as well as age, birth and conscience, language, religion, ethnic or social origin, disabil-
ity, ideology, and culture. The state, in GAT’s view, must take all necessary legal and institutional,
temporary, and special measures (such as quotas or affirmative action) to achieve genuine equality.
There should be equal distribution of positions to men and women in the federal cabinet, the federal
and constituent state parliaments, and local governments. To secure such provisions, temporary special
measures will be needed as well as a commitment by the parties to an agreement that such initiatives
will be placed on the legislative calendar of a United Federal Cyprus. There should also be gender bal-
ance in all public decision-making bodies namely, the Supreme Court, the Public Service Commission,
and independent offices inter alia. In addition, political and public institutions must be established to
ensure gender equality and non-discrimination such as gender equality mechanisms, gender focal
points, a special Ministry or a specific portfolio within a given Ministry, a parliamentary commission,
a special desk at the Ombudsperson’s office, and a separate unit within the federal police force. This
spelling out highlights the belief that structural and political changes will pave the way for social and
cultural changes—as mentioned earlier are the main obstacles to gender equality in Cyprus. Thus,
GAT by including the WPS agenda, it repositions the interpretation of “power-sharing” within more
pluralistic framings of democratic rights.
 Hadjipavlou and Mertan 133

Macro
Naonal Level-
Decision Makers-
Negoators & Official Advisors

Meso
Third Pares- Internaonal
Organisaons- Diplomac
Communies- the Media

Micro
NGOs- Civil Society - Notable Individuals

Figure 1. The Linkage Triangle—all three levels in dialogue.

Citizenship
GAT taking on the WPS agenda suggests that citizenship rights should be non-discriminatory and
should not be treated as a unitary bundle; transferability of rights between the two constituent states
should be provided for and different categories of rights should be accessible in both constituent
states on a non-exclusive basis (e.g., the granting of political rights in one constituent state should
not exclude access to cultural rights in the other
Regarding non-citizens, GAT constituent state). In GAT’s view, citizenship
recommends that the protection of should not be presumed on ethno-national hetero-
vulnerable groups of non-citizens should normative bases and should not be modelled on
the performance of militant violence. Therefore,
be guaranteed, including refugees,
the protection of women’s and children’s rights,
torture victims, and victims of trafficking.
and the rights of sexual minorities and the elderly,
should be equally guaranteed in both constituent
states and at the federal level. To achieve this, appropriate monitoring mechanisms should be set
up to scrutinise violations of anti-discrimination legislation in the mass media and any other public
information mechanisms (including parliamentary debates and speeches). These institutions pertain-
ing to equality should be staffed by professionals with expertise on intersectional gender issues and
provisions for ongoing training should be included in the law. Considering the primary role of edu-
cation in citizenship awareness, GAT recommends that all levels of education in both constituent
states should include gender awareness, reproductive health issues, and cultural pluralism, including
the institutionalisation of both languages (Greek and Turkish in the educational system, and the pur-
ging of discriminatory language and incitement to hatred references). In regards to family law, GAT
proposes that civil law should include gender-sensitive provisions in matters of marriage, divorce,
and custody legislation and in legislation pertaining to reproductive rights in both constituent states.
Equal parental responsibility be stipulated in law. Domestic violence (including marital rape and
physical and mental assault) should be combated at both levels through effective cooperation of the
police and justice system. Regarding non-citizens, GAT recommends that the protection of vulner-
able groups of non-citizens should be guaranteed, including refugees, torture victims, and victims of
trafficking.
 134 Journal of Peacebuilding & Development 14(2)

The Multilevel Intervention and Its Impact

The linkage model we have used helped us build alliances and communication all three levels (See
Figure 1). First, we put on the public agenda Macro–Meso–Micro the discussion on the participation
of women in the Cyprus negotiations and in all the imitations of the new federal and constituent states
government. Second, both Cypriot negotiators appointed a gender focal point with whom GAT
remained in contact. GAT’s lobbying at the macro level and its scholarly activism on UNSCR 1325
led to the negotiators’ rethinking the discussion from a purely ethnic lens to recognise gender and other
minority rights as important. Due to our pressure
GAT’s lobbying at the macro level and its and the election of a new leader in the Turkish-
scholarly activism on UNSCR 1325 led to Cypriot community in April 2015 who was more
the negotiators’ rethinking the discussion open to gender equality issues because of his wife,
together with the Greek-Cypriot leader established
from a purely ethnic lens to recognise
the Technical Committee on Gender Equality. Its
gender and other minority rights as mandate is to produce ideas on gender equality in
important. the negotiations. Six of GAT’s members were
appointed in this committee, of the 18members in
all, a recognition of our expertise on conflict resolution and gender issues as well as an acknowledge-
ment of our proposed recommendations. Third, GAT opened up the concept of “activism” as a plural
one that is a question of multiple voices and multiple perspectives, thus providing a mental shift from
the dominant rhetoric of the Cyprus problem in exclusive “ethnic terms.” These include issues of
minorities such as different sexual identities, religious affiliations, cultural practices, language rights,
migrants’ rights, youth’s rights, and disabled’s rights.
Fourth, GAT’s efforts have been acknowledged by different UN Secretary Generals in their Reports on
Cyprus to the security council, the latest one being the June 2018 Report on “Progress towards a set-
tlement in Cyprus,” where he makes ample mention of the significance of

. . . I believe that if negotiations are resumed, the involvement and contribution of civil society, especially
women’s groups and young people would need to be strengthened to ensure their voices are heard and that
they become instrumental in gathering and mobilizing greater support for the peace process in society at
large. (§28)

Fifth, as a way of connecting with the wider civil society and the wider local academic and practi-
tioner’s community GAT organised, in collaboration with the Cyprus branch of the Peace Research
Institute of Oslo, two international conferences on UNSCR 1325 in 2012 and 2016. To this end,
women were invited from regions of conflict and post-conflict transitions to share their experiences
in engaging with UNSCR 1325 with local women activists. Women came from Greece, Turkey,
Northern Ireland, Israel, Iraq, Croatia, Egypt, Syria, and Libya. These activists, together with women
placed in institutions working with UNSCR 1325 (UN Women, Norwegian Centre for Conflict Res-
olution in Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States universities), were invited to talk
about the usefulness of the resolution, thus a collaboration amongst activists, international organisa-
tions, and academics—Meso and Micro Level Linkage. Between these events, GAT also organised a
series of discussions on citizenship, inviting international academics to discuss radical reconceptua-
lisation of citizenship beyond its ethnic premises.
Sixth, a further impact GAT’s efforts exerted led to the replication of the basic questions posed by the
group regarding women’s representation and participation in the peace process and the WPS agenda.
Since 2009, other groups have also taken up this question. Examples are the “Where are the Women?”
project carried out by the Cyprus Community Media Centre in 2013–2014, a gender brief prepared by
 Hadjipavlou and Mertan 135

the polling project “Cyprus 2015,” an emergency motion by the European Women’s Lobby on the
peace negotiations in 2015, and a petition on mainstreaming gender in the negotiations signed by hun-
dreds of individuals upon announcement of the leaders’ decision to set up a Technical Committee on
Gender Equality tied to the negotiations in 2015. Other events included a civil society workshop
“Pathways towards sustainable peace” out of which a “White Book” was produced as guidelines for
Best Practices (2017). GAT members participated and chaired discussion during this event. Research
on WPS has also been carried out by the Centre of Sustainable Peace and Democratic Development
(SeeD) which produced up-to-date work on “Gender Equality Now” in both Cypriot communities.
GAT follows all the findings and is in conversation with these different research groups analysing new
up-to-date data to complement its interventions at multiple levels.

Challenges
There are many challenges that GAT is facing nowadays as primarily how to sustain the momentum
and active participation, when at the Macro Level there is no official peace negotiations taking place
for the last year and a half. The environment is marked by a breakdown of working trust at the lead-
ership level. The Meso Level, that is, the UN Good Offices in both Cyprus and the UN headquarters
in New York are trying to encourage initiatives for the resumption of the negotiations. The broader
civil society is frustrated and critical of this stalemate and is reconsidering its role amidst the Macro
Level stalemate.
Cypriot civil society pressures, lobbying and bicommunal dialogue, and projects must continue and
call upon the leaders to comply with the UNSG’s
Cypriot civil society pressures, recommendation to support civil society’s initia-
lobbying and bicommunal dialogue, tives. Thus, we need all three levels to be in
and projects must continue and call upon conversation and reactivate the reconciliation
the leaders to comply with the UNSG’s and peacebuilding environment. GAT is now
part of an initiative at the grass-roots research
recommendation to support civil society’s
project on gender assessment island wide to give
initiatives. women a voice and produce data to integrate
into the peace process when it resumes. This is
an opportunity for the Meso and Micro Levels to make their presence more engaging. Women
should also seize this space.
In conclusion, we believe our strategy for multilevel interventions and the Linkage Triangle model as
used in Cyprus, together with the Cypriot women’s experiences as presented here through the work of
GAT can have implications for other similar women’s struggles in conflict-related situations such as in
the Palestinian–Israeli conflict or the recent Syrian women’s struggles just to mention the ones near us.
As women living in protracted and complex political and ethnic conflicts, we need to work and inter-
vene at all three levels simultaneously so as to bring about a new definition of activism and politics.
Each level has a different contribution to make, but a conversation amongst all three can facilitate the
transformation of the conflict system. Such a strategy creates a stronger impact for social change and
peaceful conditions. The time is ripe for the establishment of an island-wide Cypriot feminist move-
ment which will bring together women beyond ethnic origin, ideological leanings, class, age, and sex-
ual orientation, all in solidarity for a new feminist vision on issues of gender equality, peacebuilding,
and sustainable development in a new federal Cyprus.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication
of this article.
136 Journal of Peacebuilding & Development 14(2)

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes
1. Indicatively, one could reference here December 1963, 1967, July 1974, November 1983, and April 2004, just
to mention the most recent and contested dates; they refer, respectively, to police shootings, paramilitary
attacks, coup, war, political secession, and a peace referendum, the causes and goals of which, as well as their
significance and definitions, are all matters of fierce debate.
2. For earlier analyses of the links between them, see Vassiliadou (2002) and Hadjipavlou (2010).

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Author Biographies
Maria Hadjipavlou is an expert in conflict resolution, gender and conflict, and women, peace, and security. Her
book Women and Change in Cyprus: Feminisms, Gender in Conflict (2010) became a reference book on women of
Cyprus. As a scholar/practitioner, she has cofounded many peacebuilding organisations across the divide includ-
ing GAT.

E. Biran Mertan as a developmental psychologist has coordinated a number of research projects on children and
women and organised seminars and workshops on enhancing women’s rights, empowering women, and gender
equality. As a cofounder of GAT, she has presented UNSC Resolution 1325 seminars in the northern part
of Cyprus.