Global Policy Forum

The United Nations must involve women in its peacekeeping and peace-building efforts, a group of women leaders from Afghanistan, Kosovo and East Timor told a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

A humanitarian worker from Afghanistan, Jamila, who is Director of the Afghan Women's Welfare Department, said women must be included in any peace-building effort in Afghanistan to ensure peace and lasting security in the country.

The women were among others who met Security Council members this morning on the implementation of Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security. The meeting took place under the Arria Formula and on the eve of the first anniversary of its adoption. The resolution promised to involve women in peace negotiations while protecting them from the abuses of war.

Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), said much had happened since the adoption of the resolution on 31 October 2000. There was much to celebrate, but there were also "several gaps" that needed to be dealt with.

The meeting with Council members included discussions of what had happened since the adoption of the resolution, what had not occurred and the critical challenges that remained. Some of the issues covered early warning and prevention, understanding the role of women, and their impact on peace-building. It was stressed by many of those present that without timely and well-channeled documentation and analysis, no political response would ever take into account women's rights. There would consequently be a very weak attempt to bring about sustainable peace.

She observed that after many years the protection of women in war-torn areas had not been widely guaranteed and their contributions in peace-building had been marginalized. From the presentations of women, it had been seen that peace-building suffered when women were not at the peace table. That was particularly true now with the current Afghanistan situation.

Improvement of protection for women also came up during the meeting with the Council, she said, observing that as long as international protection and assistance for women were neglected, critical concerns of the times could not be resolved. The gaps were still visible to anyone visiting war-torn countries -– the thousands of children born out of rape and the growing number of women dying of HIV/AIDS, and the issue of rape as a weapon of war. Another issue that came up very strongly was women's leadership in peace processes. "This is extremely important, again, in the Afghan situation", she said. The issue of gender justice in post-conflict peace-building was a very critical question, she said, adding that the East Timor case had been brought up.

She said it was possible to bring about participation of women in post-conflict situations if partnership between the United Nations system and civil society was right. She welcomed the fact that almost 27 per cent of all the people who had been elected at local and national levels today were women.

In terms of the framework that had been put in place in several countries in post-conflict situations, she said the issue of gender justice was extremely important. UNIFEM had organized a study in which two independent experts visited several post-conflict countries to study the impact of crises and the role of women in peace-building and post-conflict situations. The study would feed into another study being prepared by the Secretary- General. It would be part of a report to be presented to the Security Council next year.

Jamila, the Afghan humanitarian worker, said the notion that Afghan women were not political was an illusion. She began her humanitarian work 13 years ago when few women were able to study and were largely restricted to their homes. She saw role models in her own community who were capable of making a difference. Today, such role models were many. Together with other organizations, the Afghan Women's Welfare Department had joined forces with the Afghan Women's Network, an umbrella organization of non- governmental women's organizations.

They faced challenges within their communities, particularly when men were unemployed. Women's organizations worked in refugee camps and reached out to the refugee communities in several Pakistan cities where Afghan refugees did not receive United Nations assistance. "We are the role models for our youth, working for security and peace."

She said most women's organizations did not have political affiliation, and provided assistance to all Afghan people irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds. Their humanitarian work should be supported, so that they could play an active role in the rebuilding of Afghanistan. "Anyone searching for Afghan women to engage in peace does not have to look far", she said.

Another participant, Haxhere Veseli, a 15-year old refugee from Kosovo now living in the United States, spoke of her experiences and those of her friends, including their tribulations on their escape route. Her generation had not seen peace, she said. Even before the war, as an occupied people, they faced many difficulties. Over half the population of Kosovo was under 24 years of age. Peace for the country must address the concerns of adolescents and offer them an opportunity to be active citizens, she said. It was important for people to know where Kosovo was, what happened there and what was going on there now.

Natercia Godinho-Adams, from the Timor Aid organization in East Timor, said 96.6 per cent of East Timorese people had experienced trauma in the last 25 years. She said that with the assistance of the Gender Unit of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) under the leadership of Sergio de Mello, women had obtained 26 per cent of the seats in the recently elected Constituent Assembly. She said "this remarkable achievement occurred despite the mixed messages from United Nations departments and ultimate rejection of the proposal that would have required 30 per cent of each party's political candidates to be women". She said the will of the East Timorese must be celebrated by continued efforts at expanding women's roles within a patriarchal society.

Among several other successes, she said, was the formation of Timor Loro Sae's Women's Political Caucus, as well as the Women's Charter of Rights which would be proposed for the Constituent Assembly. Some of the proposals would be accepted neither in the United States nor Europe, and that marked a historical milestone, she said. Although much progress had been made in East Timor, much more needed to be done, and rural women in particular were very vulnerable. They were very grossly neglected in East Timor. They lived in extreme poverty and lacked access to adequate health care, particularly pre- and post-natal care. They also did not participate in decision-making. The women complained that their local chiefs had told them whom to vote for during the elections for the Constituent Assembly. Electoral observation efforts must therefore be gender sensitive, she asserted.

She said the efforts and the resilience of the commitment of East Timorese women constituted their plea for the establishment of an international tribunal to apportion accountability for the crimes that took place there.

Another speaker was Maha Muna, of the NGO Working Group on Women and International Peace and Security*. She spoke of the "amazing level" of commitment from the women present at the interaction with Council members and in the questions from Council members themselves.

She was amazed by their interest in how women changed the lives of teenagers, how women could play a leadership role and change their communities. United Nations missions to East Timor, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to Kosovo had met with representatives of women's organizations, she said. Mechanisms should be established to continue those dialogues. She said the women had urged Council members to implement resolution 1325, which put gender firmly on the Security Council's agenda.

In implementing the resolution, she said, Council members should ask for information on gender in the reports they received from the field, including both mission reports and thematic ones. The women had asked for the appointment of women Special Representatives of the Secretary-General or at the Special Envoy level. They asked the Council to consider new issues -- what the role of the peacekeepers should be in ensuring the safety of humanitarian personnel who were providing life-saving assistance; and what their role should be in providing protection to women who were emerging as leaders and peace-builders in their communities.

She said the Council members took their urging to heart. She hoped the resolution adopted following the report of the Secretary-General (to be issued by the middle of next year) would take account of some of the issues they had raised this morning.

Jamila told a questioner that involvement of women in any future political settlement in Afghanistan would not be anything new. In 1964 there were women ministers, parliamentarians and ambassadors. Women must be included because females were about 54 per cent of the population. She added that there were many Afghan women's organizations in Pakistan, and their activities must be supported.

Asked whether she could foresee a future broad-based government in Afghanistan which included Taliban elements and women, she said the Taliban were extremists who were not accepted by Afghan women. A government acceptable to Afghan women would be one that recognized equal rights for them as well.

Responding to a question about Security Council attitudes to the involvement of women in peace-building, the Executive Director of UNIFEM said a number of female ambassadors (including Angela King, the Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women) had met Lakhdar Brahimi, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan. What came out of the meeting was the sense that no United Nations mission should be filled without the presence of women. She said the Security Council was extremely interested in addressing the issue of women in Afghanistan.

*The Working Group on Women, International Peace and Security is composed of the following organizations: Amnesty International, the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, International Alert, International Women's Tribune Centre, Women's Caucus for Gender Justice and the Hague Appeal for Peace.

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