Women Are Key to Peace

May 7, 2008 - (The News- Monrovia) Vice President Joseph N. Boakai says women are key to the sustainability of peace and development in Liberia, and as such, they must be allowed to play their role.

He said to sustain peace and development requires that "we support the institutionalization of a new social contract in which women and men are partners."

Ambassador Boakai made the assertion Monday at the opening program of a five-day National Women Conference held at the Monrovia City Hall.

The Conference is held under the theme: "Advancing Women's Human Rights in Peace Building, Recovery and Development in Liberia."

He said now is the time to urgently engage in building institutions in Liberia and re-establish livelihoods that stress gender equality and the training of women to assume more effective leadership roles.

The Liberian Vice Head of State told the gathering that peace building, recovery and development processes require real justice for women in accordance with the international human rights standards.

This, he said, means removing all laws that discriminate against women, formulating new gender equality laws, strengthening institutions to implement these rule of laws and empowering women to access these institutions and demand their rights.

Ambassador Boakai emphasized that women are a crucial resource in the process of peace, recovery and development, saying "maintaining peace, early recovery and post-conflict governance would do better when women are involved; women make a difference because they adopt a more inclusive approach to peace and security and address key social and economic issues that provide the foundation of sustainable peace."

He intimated that the advancement of women and their rights should be a central theme in all development efforts and in Liberia's national fight against poverty.

Ambassador Boakai pointed out that advancing human rights, peace building, recovery and development processes in Liberia must include the ending of impunity for sexual violence and raising the political and economic benefits of women, making sure that they are seen not just as humans, but key players in development.

The Vice President then hoped that the National Plan of Action for Prevention and Management of Sexual and Gender based Violence that would come out of the conference would holistically address the issues of gender based violence with the aim of tackling it from a psycho-social, health, protection and legal perspective so as to provide better coordinated services to survivors.

For her part, Gender Minister Vabah K. Gayflor said despite achievements and progress made in stabilizing peace in Liberia, women continue to face some of the same challenges that they identified in 2004 at the first women national conference in Liberia.

She observed that women were still experiencing gender based violence, rape, lack of access to financial resources, crumbling infrastructure and lack of access to education and health.

According to her, access to justice for ordinary Liberians especially women and girls remains an illusion.

Minister Gayflor: "We need to collectively think of means and innovative methods to ensure equal and just access to justice for all; no conference on women's issues in Liberia can be complete without addressing the scourge that continues to blight women's lives in the country.

Minister Gayflor told the gathering that the primary focus of the national women conference is to critically assess the role of grassroots women, women's organizations and the government to ensure that issues from basic security to sexual violence, education and health opportunities to improved agriculture and rural markets as well as participating in local governance are appropriately addressed.

Over 300 women from across Liberia are attending the conference which is organized by the Ministry of Gender and Development in collaboration with the United Nations system in Liberia as well as other key partners.

From:http://allafrica.com/stories/200805070830.html