UNIFEM PRESS BRIEFING ON INDEPENDENT EXPERTS’ ASSESMENT ON WOMEN, WAR AND PEACE

UNIFEM PRESS BRIEFING ON INDEPENDENT EXPERTS’ ASSESMENT ON WOMEN, WAR AND PEACE

Two independent experts commissioned by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) to prepare a report on the impact of armed conflict on women in the world, told a Headquarters press briefing today there was a need for the review of national and international laws and standards that apply to the protection of women, in order to ensure that those laws recognized the vulnerability of women and their peculiar needs in a war situation. 

The experts, Elisabeth Rehn, a former Defence Minister in Finland, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first African woman Finance Minister, said what women needed was justice and truth.  Their report is entitled “Progress of the World’s Women, Vol. 1:  The Independent Experts’ Assessment on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Women’s Role in Peace-building.”

Ms. Rehn said there should be no impunity for anyone who had committed crimes against women.  The international community should address the weaknesses in the system that led to the subjection of women to crimes.  “If there are weaknesses, they must be immediately addressed, and when there are abuses, they must be handled in the right way.”  It was important, she added, to develop a code of conduct for United Nations peacekeeping operations, both for civilians and the military.

Through the report, she said, the voices of women from the war situation would be heard.  For the report, she said, they had travelled in East Timor, Cambodia, Colombia, Palestine, Israel, Balkan countries, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Rwanda and other nations.  They had found out that the similarities among the different conflict situations were strong.

She said it had been amazing to find out that despite the brutality they suffered, women were always prepared to assume their own part of the responsibility for building up sustainable peace in their countries.  She called on the United Nations to support a 30 per cent quota for women candidates in general elections.

Ms. Sirleaf said the study was an “attempt to bring to the world’s attention the voices, the feelings, the experiences of the women out there who are affected by conflict.”  She said the world should move away from merely talking about the situation to doing something about it, and stressed that the voices of women were strong.  "We were very shocked ourselves; we were not prepared for the intensity of the suffering to which women are subjected in times of conflict.”

Ms. Sirleaf highlighted some of their recommendations, including a call on the Security Council to address, in line with the United Nations Charter, the proliferation of arms, which contributed to much conflict.  “

She said the standards and laws that applied to the protection of women may need to be revisited to ensure that they recognized the vulnerability of women.  Those laws should contain provisions to address the particular needs of women and their vulnerabilities.  She was glad the International Criminal Court (ICC) now included rape as a crime that could be punished by the Court, and hoped to see some assistance so that women victims were provided with the means to bring their cases to the attention of the Court.

More women should be appointed to positions such as Special Representatives of the Secretary-General and Special Envoys.  They should also be appointed senior gender advisers in the field, particularly in peacekeeping operations where women could be affected.

In opening remarks, the Executive Director of UNIFEM, Noeleen Heyzer, said the experts’ assessment was very much grounded on their 14 visits to war-affected countries and zones to look at the impact of war situations on women, and what had been done or had not been done to address them.  Ms Heyzer added that the report showed women not just as victims, but also as people who, despite the kind of suffering and experience of war they had undergone, had also taken the role of leadership and had played a major role of peacebuidling and reconstruction at the community level.

* *** *