[WCUSP] Security Council and Women

[Odile Hugonot Haber]

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http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20382&Cr=women&Cr1=

Security Council Highlights Women's Role in Peace Process, Urges More
Involvement

Security Council
26 October 2006 – Highlighting the role played by women in promoting
peace in countries emerging from conflict, the United Nations Security
Council today stressed it was essential to promote the full
participation of women in helping rebuild such societies and also
encouraged more female involvement in UN peacekeeping operations.

"The Security Council recognizes the vital roles of, and contributions
by women in consolidating peace... [it] recognises that the protection
and empowerment of women and support for their networks and
initiatives are essential in the consolidation of peace," the
15-member body said in a presidential statement at the end of a
day-long open meeting.

"The Council further encourages Member States and the
Secretary-General to increase, the participation of women in all areas
and all levels of peacekeeping operations, civilian, police and
military, where possible."

The statement came after speeches from almost 50 UN and other
officials following up on Secretary-General Kofi Annan's report on
women, peace and security, which was released earlier this month.
Speakers also emphasized the need to achieve gender equality, as set
forth in the UN Charter and Council resolution 1325, and acknowledged
that more needed to be done, especially in regard to peacebuilding.

"Women are critical to the consolidation of peace. In today's mostly
internal conflicts, the socio-economic fabric of a country and its
societal dynamics become a key guide to finding entry points into
resolving and preventing conflicts," Rachel Mayanja, Assistant
Secretary-General, Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of
Women told the Council.

"The past year has demonstrated that our collective efforts to ensure
equal participation of women in the consolidation of peace so far have
generally fallen short of what is required. From the Democratic
Republic of the Congo to Sudan and from Somalia to Timor-Leste, women
continue to be exposed to violence."

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie
Guéhenno, acknowledged there remained "challenges to women's rights
and gender equality in post-conflict societies," but he also pointed
to progress made during the past year, especially with the election in
Liberia of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first woman head of
State in Africa.

However he said much remained to be done, highlighting in particular
the problem of insecurity that many women endure even after conflict
has ended, and he also repeated the call to Member States to put
forward more female candidates for UN peacekeeping operations.

"Our predominantly male profile in peacekeeping undermines the
credibility of our efforts to lead by example in the host countries in
which we are engaged. We need Member States to nominate more women
candidates for senior civilian positions in missions… Less than two
per cent and five per cent respectively of our military and police
personnel are women."

The head of the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) said that
through its work in over 20 conflict-affected countries, her
organization recognized that "women are a crucial resource" in
peacebuilding and consolidation, while she also stressed that in order
to strengthen any peace process there must be justice for women.

"Peace agreements, early recovery and post-conflict governance do
better when women are involved. Women make a difference in part
because they adopt a more inclusive approach to peace and security and
address key social and economic issues that provide the foundations of
sustainable peace and that would otherwise be ignored," said Noeleen
Heyzer, UNIFEM Executive Director.

"The question is not only what women can bring to peace consolidation,
but also what peacebuilding can do to promote women's human rights and
gender equality – transforming social structures so they do not
reproduce the exclusion and marginalization that underlie conflict."

Carolyn McAskie, Assistant Secretary-General in the Peacebuilding
Support Office, told the Council that "all three main peacebuilding
pillars" of the UN, namely the recently set-up Peacebuilding
Commission, the Peacebuilding Fund and the Peacebuilding Support
Office, have important roles to play in getting women more involved.

"As such, the Peacebuilding Commission, supported by the Peacebuilding
Support Office, is currently exploring ways by which we can engage
civil society in general and women's organizations in particular to
support the process of peacebuilding."

"Women have a key role to play in building peace, in their own right,
and not only because they are disproportionately victimized nor seen
more naturally as agents of peace. Women's key role must be recognized
because societies where women participate fully enjoy more peace, more
prosperity and more opportunity."

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