CHINA/INTERNATIONAL: 10th Anniversary of UN Resolution Opportunity for Action for Women in Peace and Security: UN Official

The current international focus on UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which deals with women's roles in peace and security, makes it an ideal time to take more concrete action on the resolution, UN officials said here Thursday.

"This year the Security Council has in front of it a set of unprecedented tools to advance 1325," Anne-Marie Goetz, chief advisor of governance, peace and security at the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), told a press conference examining the effectiveness of the landmark resolution in the month of its 10th anniversary.

The resolution calls for increased participation of women in peace-building processes like peace negotiations and UN peacekeeping missions. It stresses that further efforts should be made to address impacts of conflict on women, such as the perpetration of gender-based violence.

Said Djinnit, special representative of the secretary-general and head of the UN Office for West Africa (UNOWA), told reporters that two recently adopted measures in West Africa -- the Dakar Declaration and the related Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) plan of action -- are helping build momentum towards the full and effective implementation of 1325.

"These two unique and comprehensive documents were adopted in September at the regional forum in Dakar which was organized by our office in order to review the status of the implementation of Resolution 1325 in the sub-region and to evaluate challenges and opportunities to move forward," Djinnit said.

West African countries adopted the plan as an "instrument for women's effective participation in peace and security issues," he said.

"Concretely, all countries in West Africa have undertaken to have a national plan of action on Resolution 1325 by the end of the year," he added.

Goetz told reporters that national UN Open Days, as well as the Global Open Day that took place here Thursday have helped catalyze important dialogues between women's organizations and the UN that will help to advance Resolution 1325.

Twenty seven of these UN Open Days occurred between June and September of this year in 27 post-conflict countries, allowing women's peace-building groups and female community leaders to speak directly with UN senior officials about important peace and security issues.

"The idea is to make sure that the senior leaders are introduced to and know the opinion-makers who are women, because often they are not on top of the political hierarchy or they are not at the top of the economic hierarchy," said Goetz.

The Global Open Day gave these female leaders a chance to present UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as well as other high- level UN officials with a report and petition outlining the recommendations gleaned from national UN Open Days.

"I thank all of the women who participated in the Open Day events for being so candid and so active," Ban said at Global Open Day. "They have helped us to move towards ensuring that women are heard and that they are able to guide the work if the United Nations in peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace-building."

Goetz said that the Security Council has been presented with a new set of "comprehensive set of indicators" that can help monitor progress towards accomplishing the goals of Resolution 1325.

"You cannot advance an agenda without evidence," she said. "The indicators will provide evidence about what works and doesn't work and where we are on women, peace and security."

She also stressed the potential of the new consolidated gender entity, UN Women to provide leadership necessary to carry out the objectives of 1325.

"UN Women starts on January 1 and everyone is heralding its arrival as a new resource for championing women's rights across the system and in peace and security," said Goetz.

The UN officials at the conference emphasized the importance of maintaining momentum on 1325 beyond the 10th anniversary of the resolution.

"It's a good decade now that we have been pushing for this, and it shouldn't have to take a formal occasion to encourage women's voices to be heard at all times and in all decision-making," Goetz said.