Press Conference Launching ‘State of the World Population 2010’ Report

 

When women had access to the same rights and opportunities as men, they were more resilient to conflict and disaster, which could lead to better reconstruction efforts in their societies, according to Richard Kollodge, the editor of a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report launched at Headquarters today.  (Also released today was World’s Women 2010: Trends and Statistics, the latest report by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, launched in a separate press conference.)

He said The State of the World Population 2010 - From Conflict and Crisis to Renewal:  Generations of Change, launched simultaneously in New York and London, highlighted how women in conflict and post-conflict situations were faring 10 years after the Security Council adopted its landmark resolution 1325 (2000), on women, peace and security, which aimed to put a stop to sexual violence against women and girls in armed conflict and encourage greater participation by women in peacebuilding initiatives.

Women rarely waged war, but they often suffered the worst of it, said Mr. Kollodge, who was joined at the press conference by the report’s author, Barbara Crossette, and Neil Ford, UNFPA’s Chief of Media and Communications.  In many of today’s conflicts, women were disempowered by rape or the threat of it, HIV infection, or trauma and disabilities that often resulted from it.  Girls were disempowered when they could not go to school because of the threat of violence, when they were abducted or trafficked or when their families disintegrated or were forced to flee, Mr. Kollodge said.

“[However], when it comes time to wage peace, women are too often denied a place at the negotiating table,” he said, adding that through the stories of real people who lived through conflict in places like Liberia, or through natural disaster such as Haiti, the report showed that when women enjoyed the same rights as men, they were more resilient and could play a role in reconstruction, peace building and recovery.

Regarding violence against women in war, he said urgent and concerted action was needed to stop impunity and bring justice, and it was important to replace crisis and underdevelopment with peace, justice and stability.  Investing in development softened crises.  Rebuilding societies was as important as rebuilding houses, and it was key to renew societies and rectify entrenched inequalities.

This year’s report was different because it was in “storytelling form” and contained narratives directly from people in those countries, according to Mr. Ford.  Through the stories of individuals affected by conflict or catastrophe in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Haiti, Iraq, Jordan, Liberia, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Timor-Leste and Uganda, the report showed how communities and civil society were healing old wounds and moving forward.  However, he said that more needed to be done to ensure that women had access to services and had a voice in peace deals or reconstruction plans.

Having spent three months in the various subject countries compiling the report, Ms. Crossette said she was struck how long rebuilding took.  In the field, many positive steps had been taken, but persistent problems remained.  “Human beings continue to have trauma, women are in psychoanalysis and being medically treated for years and the violence has not stopped, and in at least two of the countries [featured in the report] domestic violence has increased in peacetime.”  She added that if a rape victim came back from a camp and their relatives said they dishonoured the family, it did not lend to women healing, “psychologically or any other way”.

Conflict and protracted humanitarian emergencies affected women and girls, men and boys.  However, the panellists agreed that many women and young people had overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles and had begun rebuilding their lives and societies.  Conflict today was less about soldiers engaging in battle with soldiers on the other side of a national border, and more about combatants struggling for control within a single country and employing any means to break the will of civilians by disempowering them physically, psychologically, economically and socially.

The report also stated that Governments needed to seize opportunities that arose out of post-conflict recovery or that emerged from natural disasters to increase the chances that countries were not just rebuilt, but built back better and renewed, with women and men on an equal footing, with rights and opportunities for all and a foundation for development and security in the long run.

In response to a question from a journalist, Ms. Crossette noted that in Liberia women blockaded the doors where talks where being held, and would not let the men come out until they had a peace deal in hand.

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For information media • not an official record