Reconstruction and Peacebuilding

The Reconstruction and Peacebuilding theme focuses on the application of a gender perspective to peacebuilding. The response of local, national, and international systems to women’s priorities in post-conflict situations can significantly impact stability and development.

The realisation of women’s right to full participation in preventing, resolving and recovering from conflict, is critical to building sustainable peace and the fulfilment of human security. Furthermore, the response of local, national and international systems to women’s priorities in post-conflict situations, can significantly impacts the stability and development of communities.

The engagement of women in early stages of peacemaking can increase gender analysis in post-conflict planning, lead to improved outcomes for women, and enhance their capacity to participate in longer-term peacebuilding. However, women’s rights and concerns should not be dependent on the presence of women in peace processes. Systems must be in place to ensure their inclusion is standard operating procedure.

In SCR 1325, the Security Council recognises that addressing the unique needs of women and girls during post-conflict reconstruction requires integrating a gender perspective at all stages (1325,OP8). The Security Council acknowledges the need to counter negative societal attitudes regarding women’s equal capacity for involvement, and calls for the promotion of women’s leadership and support for women’s organizations (1889,OP1). In addition, the Security Council requests training on the protection, rights and needs of women in all peacebuilding measures (1325,OP6).

To achieve this, the Security Council tasks the Secretary-General to report on challenges and make recommendations relevant to the participation of women and gender mainstreaming in peacebuilding and recovery efforts (1888,OP19). In response, the Secretary-General issued a report on women’s participation in peacebuilding in 2010. The report details the challenges obstacles women must confront in participating in recovery and peacebuilding efforts, and advocates for a Seven-Point Action Plan to respond to these challenges.


First, the plan calls to increase women’s engagement in peace processes and to address gender issues in the context of peace agreements. Secondly, the plan urges for the inclusion of gender expertise at senior levels in the UN’s mediation support activities. Thirdly, the plan notes that, while the international community cannot control the gender composition of the negotiating parties, it must investigate strategies for the inclusion of more women. Fourthly, the plan calls for the establishment of mechanisms to ensure that negotiating parties engage with women’s civil society organisations. The Action Plan’s fifth commitment involves increasing the proportion of women decision makers in post-conflict governance institutions. The sixth point addresses rule of law, emphasising the importance of issues such as women’s access to justice and a gender perspective to legal reform. The Action Plan’s seventh commitment is concerned with women’s economic empowerment. The Action Plan’s implementation remains the challenge.

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UNITED STATES: Are Human Rights Becoming a Tool of US

Some nonpartisan commentators finally recognize that current US foreign policy continues to escalate militarily as though on steroids. It has become evident that use of deadly force by a US-dominated NATO is not only outside the parameters of international and constitutional law, but also in some cases outside basic legal principles that have stood the test of time not only for decades, but for centuries.

LIBERIA: Sirleaf Women's Market Fund Continues to Grow, Bringing Aid to Thousands of Female Vendors

UN Women has donated US $3 million to the Sirleaf Market Women's Fund (SMWF) for the construction of eight markets in Liberia. The new venues will feature a bank, nursery school, warehouse, and adult literacy school.

GUATEMALA: Goldcorp on Trial First Ever People's Health Tribunal Shows Commonalities Throughout Mesoamerica

“A few years ago, our people, the people you can see around you, we began to realize what was happening,” Maudilia López told the hundreds gathered to attend the first ever People's Health Tribunal in San Miguel Ixtahuacán, Guatemala. The event was packed, even as some attendees spilled out of the entrance of the crowded room, others shuffled to find a spot.

UNITED STATES: Obama Appoints Record Number of Women Judges to Federal Bench

On Monday, President Obama set the record for most women judges appointed to the federal bench in one term when Stephanie Rose was confirmed on a 89 to 1 Senate vote as a new U.S. District Court Judge in Southern District of Iowa. Obama has now appointed 72 women to federal judgeships. This is the same number of women judges appointed to the federal bench during George W. Bush's entire presidency.

GEORGIA: Women's Peace Initiative in Gori

In the beginning of August, a memorial evening was held in Gori, a city in eastern Georgia, to commemorate the anniversary of the 2008 August war that broke out between Georgia on one side, and Russia and the breakaway state of South Ossetia on the other side.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - Advocacy for Women Under Domestic Violence Must Work From 'Ground Up'

(WNN/PI) Santa Domingo, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: With Dominican Republic's national legislation against violence in place, as well as the international laws on human rights, it is clear that the duty to exercise due diligence to prevent, prosecute and punish violence against women should exist. But very little real protection exists for women in reality as many continue to suffer violence on a daily basis as the majority of perpetr

NORTH AFRICA: ICTJ Program Report - Middle East and North Africa

The latest ICTJ Program Report explores transitional justice issues in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and charts our work in this important and dynamic region.

Claudio Cordone, ICTJ's program director covering the MENA region, discusses individual country scenarios, prospects for transitional justice processes and explains ICTJ's involvement and impact.

INTERNATIONAL: ICC Prosecutor Appoints New Special Gender Adviser

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Fatou Bensouda announced on Tuesday that she has picked a veteran advocate of women's human rights to be her new special adviser on gender issues.

Brigid Inder, Executive Director of the Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice based in the Hague, will assume the new position to will replace Catherine MacKinnon who held this role since November 2008.

SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa's Tribal System Strips Rural Women of Rights

He brushed it off as a family affair, she said. Male relatives took her brother's side, and Dlamini fled to avoid what she feared would inevitably be rape.

After two decades away, Dlamini, 32, came home last year to this village in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal. She approached the head man asking for land to build a house with her savings where she could raise her two children.

SOUTH SUDAN: Independence not Providing Dividends for Women in South Sudan

Since South Sudan's independence on 9 July 2011, the positive role that women played in the independence struggle barely features in development policy discourse. As in many post-conflict situations in Africa, despite their active role in bringing peace and independence, women tend to fade into the background when official peace negotiations begin and when the consolidation of peace and rebuilding of the economy become formal ventures.

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