PRESS CONFERENCE ON WOMEN AND PEACE AND SECURITY

 

The United Nations should fully implement Security Council resolution 1325, which would guarantee the inclusion of women in peace negotiations and all aspects of peacekeeping and reconstruction worldwide, Cora Weiss, President of the Hague Appeal for Peace, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this morning, marking the occasion of “Women’s Week” at the United Nations, and on the eve of the Council’s open debate on women and peace and security. 

Peace processes without the participation of women were not democratic, said Ms. Weiss, speaking on behalf of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security (NGOWG), a United States-based civil society coalition that monitors and promotes the implementation of resolution 1325, and which, together with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), sponsored today’s press conference.  Also speaking at the conference were Leymah Gbowee, from Liberia, Executive Director of the Women in Peacebuilding Network Africa; and Barbara Bangura, a Regional Adviser of the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET) in Sierra Leone.

To address the lack of progress on women and peacebuilding issues, NGOWG and UNIFEM had requested a meeting with Secretary-General-designate Ban Ki-moon next year, to hear his plans about increasing women’s participation in the United Nations, and specifically on peacekeeping, Ms. Weiss said. 

Resolution 1325 could only be workable if there was a vibrant women’s movement in Africa, said Ms. Gbowee, who said that if Liberia was a typical country, the advancement of women’s issues in Africa would need lots of time, work and support from the international community. 

A lot had been accomplished in Sierra Leone, said Ms. Bangura, as her country was now working towards achieving better gender-based laws which protected women from gender violence and other forms of discrimination, such as laws banning women from inheriting wealth.  Rape occurred before the civil war, she added, but it was not recognized, and at least now the country accepted it as a gender crime.  It had been a slow journey, she said, but Sierra Leone was getting there with the help of the international community.

On the issue of rape, Ms. Gbowee said a rape bill had been introduced in her country’s legislature, dramatically changing a culture where in the past, anyone accused of rape was given “a pat on the hand” and where now a convicted rapist could go to prison for life.

Answering a question from a correspondent about the impact the new United Nations Peacebuilding Commission could have on her country, Ms. Gbowee said she did not like efforts that attempted to fix a problem after the fact.  “Something needs to be done to prevent conflict,” she said, adding that just because you heard no shooting it did not mean a country was at peace.  A case in point today, she said, was Guinea-Conakry, where many feared that when President Lansana Conte, who is not in good health, passed away, there would be a power vacuum and chaos could unravel.  Some Peacebuilding Commission resources should go to early warning programmes to prevent conflict, she added, and not wait until the killing began.

On that question, Ms. Bangura said she was uncomfortable about how the Peacebuilding Commission would impact women’s issues.  Sierra Leone was one of two countries that was slated to receive funds from the Peacebuilding Commission, but she said that if those funds were only directed to the Government and did not include civil society, they would not further the work of grass-roots organizations, especially women’s groups.  She urged the Peacebuilding Commission to work with women’s groups in her country and around the world. 

Ms. Gbowee said advancements in general judicial reform were lagging because of the manner in which proposals for change had been introduced at the end of the conflict.  The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNIMIL) had set up a transitional programme at the end of the conflict, which had introduced laws that were an example of best practices in other countries, but which had been rejected by the Liberian judicial community as not being locally drafted.  That oversight had been remedied recently with the formation of a Liberian Judicial Reform Commission that was working with UNIMIL, she added.

Ms. Bangura said that the lack of a gender advisor at the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) had affected relations with women grass-roots groups in her country.

Asked whether diamond sanctions on Liberia should be lifted, Ms. Gbowee said yes, because they impacted communities that had traditionally depended on that trade and were now suffering economic problems.  The bad guys had been kicked out of the trade, she added.

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For information media • not an official record