Note to Correspondents

PANEL DEBATE ON WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY TO TAKE PLACE ON 31 OCTOBER

The Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, the United Nations Department of Political Affairs and the Inter-Agency Taskforce on Women, Peace and Security will host a panel discussion on the third anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325 on Friday, 31 October from 1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. in Conference Room 4.

At the event, entitled “Resolution 1325: Fact or Fiction?”, panellists will examine progress made in efforts to integrate women more fully into the planning and execution of peacekeeping operations, as well as during disarmament, demobilization, reconciliation and reconstruction.

Panellists will include Ruth Sando Perry, former interim President of Liberia; John Negroponte of the United States Permanent Mission; Kieran Prendergast, Under-Secretary-General for the United Nations Department of Political Affairs; Noeleen Heyzer, Director of United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM); and Amy Smythe, Senior Gender Adviser to the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  The panel moderator will be Angela E.V. King, Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women.

The panel will be the culmination of several activities commemorating Security Council Resolution 1325, including a Security Council open meeting on Wednesday, 29 October and a screening of the documentary Peace X Peace -– Women on the Frontlines narrated by Jessica Lange on Thursday, 30 October.

Additional information is available on the Internet at www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi.

For more information, or to set up an interview with Ms. Sando Perry, please contact Vivienne Heston-Demirel, Department of Public Information, tel.: (212) 963-2932.

* *** *