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UNIFEM Recommends Supporting Women's Role in Peace Building
The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Tuesday recommended a number of ways in which the United Nations Security Council could improve women's protection in conflict and support their role in peace building.
Addressing the open debate of the council on women and armed conflict, Noeleen Heyzer, executive director of the UNIFEM, said women have played the leadership role in the cause of peace, but their efforts have not been recognized, supported and rewarded.
Without international action, women caught in conflicts will have no security of any kind whatever the definition, and without their full participation, the peace process itself suffers for there will be neither justice nor development, the executive director said.
Noting that the open debate can go a long way towards maintaining and sustaining peace, the executive director recommended:
-- Ensuring that human rights verification, observer missions and peacekeeping operations focus on gender-based violations and women's human rights;
--Calling for all peacekeeping personnel to be trained in their responsibilities to women and children;
--Calling for the elaboration of a code of conduct for peacekeeping personnel and the establishment of clear reporting on sexual violence in a peacekeeping environment, which includes enforcement and monitoring mechanisms for peacekeeping personnel, through the creation of an inspector general or an office for that purpose;
-- Ensuring that field operations protect and support humanitarian assistance for women and girls, and especially those who are refugees and displaced. Special measures should be taken to protect women and girls from rape and other forms of sexual violence;
-- Ensuring that the peace-building elements of an operation are gender-sensitive, particularly when designing disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs, in strengthening governance and public security institutions;
-- Ensuring that any support offered by the council to a peace process, any investigation of disputes, or any attempts at mediation or settlement, make explicit the need to involve women and address the substantive concern they bring to the table.
For the UNIFEM's part, the executive director said it stands ready to support this call and any other that the council deems necessary.
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