EXPERT GROUP MEETING ON PEACE AGREEMENTS TO PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY, WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION TAKING PLACE IN OTTAWA, CANADA, 10-13 NOVEMBER

EXPERT GROUP MEETING ON PEACE AGREEMENTS TO PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY, WOMEN’S

PARTICIPATION TAKING PLACE IN OTTAWA, CANADA, 10-13 NOVEMBER

(Reissued as received.)

NEW YORK, 30 October (DESA/DAW) -– The United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), in collaboration with the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women and the Department of Political Affairs, is organizing an expert group meeting in Ottawa, Canada, from 10 to13 November to explore ways of boosting women’s participation and integrating their concerns into the peace process.

Entitled “Peace agreements as a means for promoting gender equality and ensuring participation of women -– a framework of model provisions”, the meeting is hosted by the Government of Canada.

The expert group will review case studies of selected peace agreements from conflicts around the world and assess how women’s concerns and participation were addressed in the following areas:  political structures and electoral systems, constitutional and legal systems, judicial systems and access to justice, reconstruction of social structures and civil society, reconstruction of economic systems, as well as disarmament, demobilization and reintegration.

The meeting will seek to identify good practices and lessons learned for inclusion of gender perspectives in peace agreements and in the processes preceding such agreements, and also establish standards that incorporate gender perspectives into the formulation and execution of such agreements.

Recognizing the central role of peace agreements to both the cessation of hostilities and the political, legal, economic and social reconstruction of post-conflict societies, the experts will examine the impact of peace agreements on women, the equal participation of women in the process leading up to the negotiation of peace agreements, and the reflection of gender perspectives in such agreements, as emphasized by the DAW.

The expert group is expected to formulate a framework for the promotion of gender equality and the participation of women for use in future peace agreements.  They will proposemodel provisions that fully address the needs and priorities of women in the aftermath of conflict and can be used by all actors involved in the peace process.  The expert group will also provide critical input to the consideration of “women's equal participation in conflict prevention, conflict management and conflict resolution and in post-conflict peace-building” by the Commission on the Status of Women at its forty-eighth session in March 2004.

For further information, please contact: Amina Adam, tel: +1 212 963 3169, e-mail:  adama@un.org.  Additional information about the meeting, including the aide memoire, agenda, background papers, presentations and the final report of the meeting can be found on the DAW Web site:  www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/peace2003.

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