NGO RECOMMENDATIONS ON
WOMEN AND THE MAINTENANCE
OF INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY
The NGO grouping[1] recognizes the enormous and difficult role of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in addressing international threats to peace and security. Below we offer a set of recommendations for action to be taken by the UN Security Council regarding mandates, use of force, rules of engagement, peace accords, and troop-contributing country responsibilities. It is incumbent on the Council to ensure that women are equal participants in decision-making related to the achievement and maintenance of international peace and security, and that gender issues are fully integrated into all UN Peace Support Operations. The Council should:
1 Routinely give special consideration
to women affected by armed conflict by requiring that all field reports to the
SG and SG's reports contain gender component;
2 Ensure that senior gender
experts and women are included in all UNSC fact-finding missions to areas of
actual or potential conflict;
3 Ensure that comprehensive gender considerations are included in the terms of reference of
all UNSC fact-finding missions;
4 Ensure that all UN
fact-finding missions are mandated to consult with womenís organisations;
5 Require the UN system to
develop and ulitise common gender-based indicators for conflict early warning
and response procedures;
6 Adopt a mechanism to ensure
that there is a ready flow of information with a gender dimension, from a
variety of sources including NGOs to
the UNSC on issues of actual or potential conflict;
7 Ensure that in negotiations for ceasefire and/or peace agreements, all UN-sanctioned third party negotiators, especially all Special Representatives of the Secretary General (SRSG) are mandated to ensure indigenous women and local womenís organizations are an integral part of the negotiating team and process, and that gender issues are placed on the agenda and fully addressed in the agreements reached;
8 Encourage and require other
third party mediators/facilitators and warring factions to also ensure
consultation with and the participation of womenís groups and civil society in
peace processes;
9 Appoint more
women as special representatives and envoys to conflict regions, and senior
gender experts to all missions, towards attaining 50/50 gender distribution in
D-1 and senior levels of the UN Secretariat;
10 Ensure that all
UNSC resolutions setting up or extending peacekeeping/support operations
provide for a clear mandate on gender mainstreaming, and address protection of
women and girls, against all sexual violence, abduction, prostitution,
trafficking and threats imposed by military, paramilitary, peacekeeping and
other groups;
11 Ensure that all mandates for PSOs refer to
the provisions of CEDAW and relevant international legal instruments where
applicable;
12 Ensure that the human rights components of PK
are fully staffed and required to integrate womenís rights in all documents and
reporting.
13 Recommend the SG to establish a standard
means of ensuring accountability for violations of international law committed
by peacekeeping personnel against civilians.
14 Ensure that all DPKO personnel at
headquarters and in the field have training on gender including in the
protection, rights and needs of women and girls, DPKO code of conduct,
international humanitarian and human rights law including CEDAW, Convention on
the Rights of the Child, and are aware of the impact of local culture, history
and social norms on the status of women and girls.
15 The Council should continue to support member
states and regional organisations with
gender awareness guidelines, training and materials to be incorporated into
national training programmes for military and civilian police in preparation
for deployment.
16 Recommend that 50% women are included in all
reconciliation, peacekeeping, peace-enforcement, peace building, and conflict
preventive posts ñ including fact-finding and observer missions;
17 Recommend that all UN peace support
operations to ensure gender-disaggregated data collection and the monitoring
and analysis for conflict-affected adolescents and women.
1 Establish an independent
Expert Panel to report on a) women's role in peacebuilding b) humanitarian
issues and protection of women during peacekeeping and post conflict peace
support operations.
2 Request the SG to report on
Gender Mainstreaming in Peacekeeping and Peace Support Operations;
3 Request the Secretary General to implement fully and to monitor the
strategic plan of action for the improvement of the status of women in the
Secretariat (1995 - 2000) in order to make notable progress towards the goal of
50/50 gender distribution by the end of the year 2000
4 Recommend a follow-up
consultation between UNSC and NGOs involved in women, armed conflict and peace
building issues within a year.
5 Requests the
Secretary-General to submit a report to the Security Council on the
implementation of these recommendations within a year.
For more
information contact:
Sanam Anderlini/ Senior Policy
Adviser/International Alert Error! Bookmark not defined.
Felicity Hill/Director/WILPF UN Office wilpfun@igc.org
[1] International Alert, Women's
International League for Peace and Freedom, Amnesty International, Womenís
Commission on Refugee Women and Children, the Hague Appeal for Peace