PRESS BRIEFING ON WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY

(Issued on 29 October 2004.)

While women were taking part in more peacekeeping missions, they were still largely excluded from high-level United Nations, civilian and military police jobs, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno said at a Headquarters press briefing today.

Speaking to correspondents following his briefing to the Security Council’s meeting on implementation of resolution 1325 (2000), which called for women’s equal participation in maintaining and promoting international peace and security, Mr. Guéhenno was joined by Pamela Delargy, Chief of the Humanitarian Response Unit of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Women, Mr. Guéhenno continued, held 10 full-time gender advisor posts out of 17 peacekeeping missions.  But all of the 18 humanitarian coordinators worldwide were men, and only two of the Secretary-General’s special representatives, 1 per cent of military personnel and 5 per cent of civilian police were women.  “Mission leadership has become much more sensitised to this issue than it used to be, but more effort is needed”, he said.

As for the sexual exploitation and abuse of women by peacekeepers, Mr. Guéhenno stressed that Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s zero-tolerance policy must be upheld.  The United Nations was working with its own staff, as well as troop contributors, to ensure that behavioural standards were heeded by all, including military and civilian police, and that any allegations of sexual abuse were pursued and punished.

Adding that sexual violence and abuse were increasing in conflict situations, Ms. Delargy noted that Council members had broached the topic for the first time in today’s meeting.  Although progress had been made to build up legal and judicial frameworks in tackling that problem, even making sexual violence and rape war crimes and crimes against humanity, they were still not functioning well.

She said that tackling sexual violence brought together a broad array of interventions, ranging from medical responses to community de-stigmatization, redress, ending impunity, protection, prevention and awareness.  Some of the actual structures in the present system might not be conducive to the types of integrated programmes needed to address the issue.

Responding to a question on women’s rights in Afghanistan, Mr. Guéhenno emphasized that women’s public roles there must increase, but pointed to the high percentage of women that had registered for the recent elections, which was a major achievement.  “The change is amazing (in Afghanistan), although if you compare it to standards of more open societies, there is still an obvious and big difference.”

Ms. Delargy added that maternal mortality in some parts of Afghanistan was the world’s highest, but that women’s access to education and health care there had increased tremendously over the past couple of years.  Now, those mortality rates were starting to drop, and women were also playing a greater role in community discussions.

Asked by a correspondent whether the Council would continue to seek implementation of resolution 1325, or adopt a stronger text, Mr. Guéhenno said resolution 1325 had succeeded in mobilizing the Council to focus on women in peacekeeping.  The purpose of the current debate was to build new consensus on the critical role of women in peace and security.

To another query on the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in building such consensus, Mr. Guéhenno replied that the Council’s public debate would reach beyond the walls of its Chamber.  At any rate, he added, one could see that NGO discussions on the issue had influenced the Council’s debate.

Ms. Delargy pointed out that the Belgian Government had agreed to fund a comprehensive programme in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the impact of war on women, focusing particularly on sexual violence.  Some nine United Nations bodies, 12 NGOs, and government authorities would be working together over the next four years in such areas as medical response, judicial reform, the rule of law and training.

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