© UNESCO (Afghanistan, Kandahar)
Recently the United Nations Security Council voiced deep concern about the continuing under-representation of women at all stages of peace processes. Nearly nine years have passed since Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security was adopted, but to date only 16 countries* have developed national action plans.
The Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon urged all Member States to adopt national action plans before the 10th anniversary of the resolution next year. Having national plans is not enough however. Implementation is key to achieving the goals of the resolution. Member states were also encouraged to address such female needs as greater physical security, better socio-economic conditions through education, income generating activities, access to health services and access to justice.
The Secretary General pointed out that “a growing body of evidence suggests that bringing women to the peace table improves the quality of agreements reached, and increases the chances of successful implementationâ€. Yet, UNIFEM reports that women average less than 10 per cent of the members of official negotiating teams at peace talks.â€
What steps have been taken in your country towards implementing resolution 1325? What are the barriers to promoting women’s role as peace builders?
* Austria, Belgium, Chile, Côte d’Ivoire, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Liberia, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
2009 Security Council report: Women and peace and security by the Secretary-General
Rwanda has done a baseline study on the implementation of 1325/2000 UN Resolution in Rwanda and is developing an action plan. The level of understanding of the Resolution and its contents is very low even if Rwanda has achieved many things in peace building, restoring security, fighting against discrimination and various forms of violence. The only people who are really informed are the ones who work in the domain of gender (Ministry for Gender and Family Promotion, the Beijing follow up Secretariat, ProFemmes (the NGO umbrella organisation) and the Gender Desks staff in the Police and the Ministry for Defence. The Beijing follow up Secretariat has taken the initiative to disseminate the Kinyarwanda version of the Resolution among the local leaders up to the sector level. The development of an action plan has been a good opportunity for member associations of ProFemmes to disseminate the Resolution content and to involve civil society and decision makers in the implementation of this Resolution. In general, women organizations have trained various people on conflict management and gender based violence. Moreover, women have been involved in the promotion of good governance despite some challenges.
Australia officially supports Resolution 1325. The Australian Federation of University Women has worked to advocate for the government’s implementation of that support whenever Australia is engaged in military or peacekeeping operations, as in Fiji, Solomon Islands, Iraq and Afghanistan.
As part of our own actions in support, we made the theme of our Triennial Conference Women and Peace-Keeping.
In 2009 we took part with a number of women’s NGOs in a national consultation on the need for an Australian nationl Action Plan in Resolution 1325. The consultation was organised by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
News has just come through that the Government has accepted that the consultation showed overwhelming support and will proceed with a National Action Plan for implementing Resolution 1325. We will be part of the monitoring team scrutinising the NAp when it is circulated,
Jennifer Strauss
AFUW President