Global: SECURITY COUNCIL DEBATES WOMEN AND WAR
UNIFEM Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer has called on the Security Council to make sure that women, peace and security become a regular item on the political agenda and in thematic debates of the Council.
GLOBAL: SECURITY COUNCIL DEBATES WOMEN AND WAR
UNIFEM Executive Director, Noeleen Heyzer, addressed the Security Council open debate on Conflict, Peacekeeping and Gender on 24 July. Heyzer called on the Council to make sure that women, peace and security becomes a regular item on the political agenda, in thematic debates, and every time country situations are addressed. Following the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security in 2000, which requested the Secretary-General to carry out a study on women, peace and security, UNIFEM appointed two Independent Experts, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Elisabeth Rehn, to compliment this effort through a global, field-based assessment on the impact of armed conflict on women and women’s role in peace-building. Together with the Secretary-General’s report, a comprehensive agenda for action will be proposed.
Over the past year, the Independent Experts traveled to fourteen conflict areas. Their full findings and recommendations will be launched in October 2002 to mark the two-year anniversary of Resolution 1325. Principal findings and recommendations are as follows:
1. Prevention: Information from and about women in conflict situations has not informed preventive actions.
2. Protection: The glaring gaps in women's protection must be addressed. Impunity prevails for these widespread crimes against women in war.
3. HIV/AIDS: Wherever a woman lives with conflict and upheaval, the threat of HIV/AIDS and its effects are multiplied.
4. Peace processes: Formal negotiations that exclude half the population from the political process have little hope of popular support.
5. Peace Operations: The Experts found that a gender perspective is not sufficiently incorporated into peace operations. Women’s protection and participation should be central to the design and reform of law enforcement institutions and policies.
6. Codes of Conduct: The Experts were alarmed at reports of violations committed by peacekeepers, United Nations and other humanitarian personnel. They recommend stronger oversight, investigative, and disciplinary mechanisms.
7. Regional organizations play an important role in protecting women and supporting their participation in peace-building.
8. Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR): The beneficiaries of these programmes must not be limited to male combatants. Female combatants, the wives, widows and other dependents of ex-fighters must be included explicitly.
For more information, contact Sumie Nakaya, Adviser on Peace-building at UNIFEM, at [email protected]