PRESS BRIEFING BY UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT FUND FOR WOMEN

Women were key players in promoting peace, reconstruction, and democracy, Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), told correspondents at a press briefing at Headquarters this afternoon.

Joined by Jessica Lange, actress and narrator of the documentary “Women on the Frontlines”; Patricia Smith Melton, Executive Director of PeacexPeace; and Fatima Gailani, member of the Drafting Committee of Afghanistan’s Constitutional Commission, Ms. Heyzer also announced the launch of UNIFEM’s web portal on women, peace, and security.

She noted that today marked the third anniversary of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), which expressed concern that women and children accounted for the majority of those adversely affected by armed conflict, and reaffirmed the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts.  She observed that, during yesterday’s open debate in the Council, representatives had briefed that body on action taken to implement resolution 1325.  Such information, coupled by suggestions on how to promote the role of women in peace-building, was crucial to improving the position of women.

For its part, UNIFEM’s new web portal highlighted situations in 27 conflict-ridden and post-conflict countries.  Included in its summaries were analyses of what women were facing in those countries, references to organizations that were working on the ground, and updates on political developments.  The Fund was also interested in using film and other media to effectively illustrate work being done by women to hold communities together and build peace on the frontlines.

Speaking after Ms. Heyzer, Ms. Melton said women were the “weavers who patched together cultures that had been decimated by violence”.  However, the work they did was often taken for granted.  Stressing that peace was meaningless unless bolstered by certain elements, such as education, financial equity, restorative justice, participatory democracy, freedom of speech, truth in media, and forums to help bring about societal reconciliation, she noted that women were currently working hard at the grass-roots level to attain such things.  The documentary “Women on the Frontlines” highlighted such examples, in Afghanistan, Burundi, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Argentina and the United States, in order to encourage the flow of resources to such work.

Ms. Lange, referring to the speech that former United States President Jimmy Carter gave upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, told correspondents that peace could never be achieved as long as people continued to kill each other’s children.  Having recently visited Bunia, Bukavu and Goma, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, she said she had seen former child soldiers calling for peace and education in powerful voices.  Additionally, a common refrain heard from girls and women who had suffered from mutilation, sexual violence and sexual slavery, was that, without peace, there was nothing.

Highlighting the situation in Bukavu, she said she had been deeply moved by a grass-roots women’s organization that had formed on its own, without the help of outsiders, to care for orphans and the sick.  Most of the women in that organization had never had any formal education.  Nevertheless, their intelligence and compassion had been extraordinary.  Going door-to-door and asking women if they had been raped, abused, or hurt during the conflict, they were amassing a formidable force dedicated to peace and reconciliation.

Speaking next, Ms. Gailani, one of seven women helping to draft the Afghan Constitution, said that, as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the people of Afghanistan, more than anything, truly desired peace, security, and education.  Having travelled to every province in her country to ask citizens what they expected from their Constitution, she had seen the immense thirst for knowledge among girls and their fervent desire to go to school.

Telling correspondents that the new Constitution accommodated Islam while adequately addressing democracy, human rights, and women’s issues, she stated that working with Ms. Melton on the documentary had opened her eyes to the powerful role women could play.  Initially concerned only with women gaining more political power, she now saw it was more important to foster transnational friendships between women throughout the world.  Through getting to know each other, women could teach other that difficult situations in one part of the world could negatively affect other regions, as well.

Asked how the work of UNIFEM was empowering women, Ms. Heyzer said women’s experiences could be taken into account to make new policies.  For example, the partnership women had been able to create with the Security Council had led to resolution 1325 (2000).

Responding to a question about how such a resolution could truly help women in Bunia, for example, she said that, because of that document, many women had been able to participate in peace processes and push for the inclusion of article 51, designed to protect women, in the transitional constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  She added that, through further work, women would be able to push for an end to violence and impunity, peace education, adequate assistance to female ex-combatants, support for women with HIV/AIDS, assistance to widows, and investment in women’s organizations on the ground to preserve social fabrics and prevent the phenomenon of child soldiers.

Asked when the film would be shown, she responded that it would be screened at 7 o’clock this evening in Conference Room 4.

* *** *