---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 14:04:19 -0800
From: Charlotte Utting <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [wa-afr] FW: UPDATE: UN Resolution on Women, Peace and Security
----------
From: [log in to unmask]
Organization: Africa Policy Information Center
Reply-To: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 16:04:31 -0500
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: UPDATE: UN Resolution on Women, Peace and Security
ADNA Update: 001113
Message from: Women's Int'l League for Peace & Freedom & IWTC
For contact information see also:
http://www.africapolicy.org/adna
Dear ADNA members,
Following find an update on the unprecedented resolution passed by
the UN Security Council, which ADNA member organization WILPF,
the International Women's Tribune Center and several other
organizations were actively engaged in. Feel free to share this
widely.
Regards,
Vicki Ferguson
ADNA Communications Facilitator
To: [log in to unmask]
From: iwtc <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Women's GlobalNet #159: Unprecedented UN
Resolution on Women, Peace and
Date sent: Fri, 03 Nov 2000 14:34:59 -0800
Send reply to: [log in to unmask]
IWTC Women's GlobalNet #159
Activities and Initiatives of Women Worldwide
By Anne S. Walker
November 3, 2000
UNPRECEDENTED UN RESOLUTION ON WOMEN, PEACE AND
SECURITY!
A resolution on Women, Peace and Security was passed
unanimously by the UN Security Council on October 31, 2000
A coalition of five organizations, Women’s International League for
Peace and Freedom (WILPF), International Alert, Amnesty
International, Women's Commission for Women Refugees and Girls
and the Hague Appeal for Peace, joined with UNIFEM to draft a
resolution that would call for gender sensitivity in all UN missions
including peace-keeping, for women to equally participate at all
negotiating tables and for the protection of women and girls during
armed conflict.
"Namibia held the presidency of the Security Council in October
and welcomed our initiative. This experience reflects the New
Democratic Diplomacy – whereby governments, the UN and civil
society work together for peace and justice. This is an historic
victory for women, and therefore for all of human kind. Now we have
to hold our governments accountable!" said Cora Weiss, President
of the Hague Appeal for Peace
The full text of the resolution reads as follows:
Security Council Resolution S/2000/1044
31 October 2000
The Security Council,
Recalling its resolutions 1261 (1999) of 25 August 1999, 1265
(1999) of 17 September 1999, 1296 (2000) of 19 April 2000 and
1314 (2000) of 11 August 2000, as well as relevant statements of its
President and recalling also the statement of its President, to the
press on the occasion of the United Nations Day for Women's
Rights and International Peace of 8 March 2000 (SC/6816),
Recalling also the commitments of the Beijing Declaration and
Platform for Action (A/52/231) as well as those contained in the
outcome document of the twenty-third Special Session of the United
Nations General Assembly entitled "Women 2000: Gender Equality,
Development and Peace for the twenty-first century" (A/S-
23/10/Rev.1), in particular those concerning women and armed
conflict,
Bearing in mind the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations and the primary responsibility of the Security Council
under the Charter for the maintenance of international peace and
security,
Expressing concern that civilians, particularly women and children,
account for the vast majority of those adversely affected by armed
conflict, including as refugees and internally displaced persons, and
increasingly are targeted by combatants and armed elements, and
recognizing the consequent impact this has on durable peace and
reconciliation,
Reaffirming the important role of women in the prevention and
resolution of conflicts and in peace-building, and stressing the
importance of their equal participation and full involvement in all
efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security,
and the need to increase their role in decision-making with regard to
conflict prevention and resolution,
Reaffirming also the need to implement fully international
humanitarian and human rights law that protects the rights of women
and girls during and after conflicts,
Emphasizing the need for all parties to ensure that mine clearance
and mine awareness programmes take into account the special
needs of women and girls,
Recognizing the urgent need to mainstream a gender perspective
into peacekeeping operations, and in this regard noting the
Windhoek Declaration and the Namibia Plan of Action on
Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective in Multidimensional Peace
Support Operations (S/2000/693),
Recognizing also the importance of the recommendation contained
in the statement of its President to the press of 8 March 2000 for
specialized training for all peacekeeping personnel on the
protection, special needs and human rights of women and children
in conflict situations,
Recognizing that an understanding of the impact of armed conflict
on women and girls, effective institutional arrangements to
guarantee their protection and full participation in the peace process
can significantly contribute to the maintenance and promotion of
international peace and security,
Noting the need to consolidate data on the impact of armed conflict
on women and girls,
1. Urges Member States to ensure increased representation of
women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and
international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention,
management, and resolution of conflict;
2. Encourages the Secretary-General to implement his strategic
plan of action (A/49/587) calling for an increase in the participation
of women at decision-making levels in conflict resolution and peace
processes;
3. Urges the Secretary-General to appoint more women as special
representatives and envoys to pursue good offices on his behalf,
and in this regard calls on Member States to provide candidates to
the Secretary-General, for inclusion in a regularly updated
centralized roster;
4. Further urges the Secretary-General to seek to expand the role
and contribution of women in United Nations field-based operations,
and especially among military observers, civilian police, human
rights and humanitarian personnel;
5. Expresses its willingness to incorporate a gender perspective into
peacekeeping operations and urges the Secretary-General to
ensure that, where appropriate, field operations include a gender
component;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to provide to Member States
training guidelines and materials on the protection, rights and the
particular needs of women, as well as on the importance of involving
women in all peacekeeping and peace-building measures, invites
Member States to incorporate these elements as well as HIV/AIDS
awareness training into their national training programmes for
military and civilian police personnel in preparation for deployment
and further requests the Secretary-General to ensure that civilian
personnel of peacekeeping operations receive similar training;
7. Urges Member States to increase their voluntary financial,
technical and logistical support for gender-sensitive training efforts,
including those undertaken by relevant funds and programmes, inter
alia, the United Nations Fund for Women and United Nations
Children's Fund, and by the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees and other relevant bodies;
8. Calls on all actors involved, when negotiating and implementing
peace agreements, to adopt a gender perspective, including, inter
alia:
(a) The special needs of women and girls during repatriation and
resettlement and for rehabilitation, reintegration and post-conflict
reconstruction;
(b) Measures that support local women's peace initiatives and
indigenous processes for conflict resolution, and that involve women
in all of the implementation mechanisms of the peace agreements;
(c) Measures that ensure the protection of and respect for human
rights of women and girls, particularly as they relate to the
constitution, the electoral system, the police and the judiciary;
9. Calls upon all parties to armed conflict to respect fully
international law applicable to the rights and protection of women
and girls as civilians, in particular the obligations applicable to them
under the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Additional Protocols
thereto of 1977, the Refugee Convention of 1951 and the Protocol
thereto of 1967, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women of 1979 and the Optional Protocol
thereto of 1999 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
the Child of 1989 and the two Optional Protocols thereto of 25 May
2000, and to bear in mind the relevant provisions of the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court;
10. Calls on all parties to armed conflict to take special measures to
protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly
rape and other forms of sexual abuse, and all other forms of
violence in situations of armed conflict;
11. Emphasizes the responsibility of all States to put an end to
impunity and to prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes
against humanity, war crimes including those relating to sexual
violence against women and girls, and in this regard, stresses the
need to exclude these crimes, where feasible from amnesty
provisions;
12. Calls upon all parties to armed conflict to respect the civilian and
humanitarian character of refugee camps and settlements, and to
take into account the particular needs of women and girls, including
in their design, and recalls its resolution 1208 (1998) of 19
November 1998;
13. Encourages all those involved in the planning for disarmament,
demobilization and reintegration to consider the different needs of
female and male ex-combatants and to take into account the needs
of their dependants;
14. Reaffirms its readiness, whenever measures are adopted under
Article 41 of the Charter of the United Nations, to give consideration
to their potential impact on the civilian population, bearing in mind
the special needs of women and girls, in order to consider
appropriate humanitarian exemptions;
15. Expresses its willingness to ensure that Security Council
missions take into account gender considerations and the rights of
women, including through consultation with local and international
women's groups;
16. Invites the Secretary-General to carry out a study on the impact
of armed conflict on women and girls, the role of women in peace-
building and the gender dimensions of peace processes and conflict
resolution, and further invites him to submit a report to the Security
Council on the results of this study and to make this available to all
Member States of the United Nations;
17. Requests the Secretary-General, where appropriate, to include
in his reporting to the Security Council, progress on gender
mainstreaming throughout peacekeeping missions and all other
aspects relating to women and girls;
18. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter."
International Women's Tribune Centre
777 United Nations Plaza
3rd Floor
New York, NY 10017, USA
Tel: (1-212) 687-8633
Fax: (1-212) 661-2704
Email: <[log in to unmask]>
***
This message from the Women's International League for Peace
and Freedom and the International Women's Tribune Center is
distributed through the Advocacy Network for Africa (ADNA).
Vicki Lynn Ferguson
Advocacy Network for Africa
Communications Facilitator
c/o Africa Policy Information Center
110 Maryland Ave, NE #509
Washington, DC 20002
Ph: 202-546-7961
Fax: 202-546-1545
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://www.africapolicy.org/adna
-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/5/_/23029/_/974498683/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
Our next meeting is Wednesday, Nov 29, Safeco Ctr, E Main and 23rd (enter on upper level), Seattle
7:00 PM WSAN business meeting
8:00 PM Program: Nigeria Military & Peace Keeping
We usually meet the last Wednesday of the month. To post a message: [log in to unmask] To subscribe sending a blank message to [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe send a blank message to [log in to unmask] For complete information on the Washington State Africa Network visit: www.ibike.org/africamatters
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
