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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PAKISTAN: Politics, Islam, and the Status of Women in Pakistan

Two months ago, in February 2012, a victory was won in the battle for more effective legal provisions for women in Pakistan, with the Senate approving the National Commission on the Status of Women Bill 2012. By creating an independent Secretariat for Pakistan's National Commission for Women, the law is viewed by many as strengthening the Commission's financial and administrative autonomy.

PHILIPPINES: Philippines On Track in Achieving Millennium Development Goals

The Philippines is on track in achieving the Millennium Development Goals particularly in education, health, women and children, President Benigno S. Aquino III told visiting Governor General of the Commonwealth of Australia Quentin Bryce on Thursday.

BURMA: Suu Kyi's Victory and Women's Empowerment

MYANMAR'S Election Commission announced last week the landslide victory of the opposition National League of Democracy (NLD) party, winning 43 out of 44 parliamentary seats (97 percent) in the by-elections of April 1.After the television announced the triumph, rapturous crowds thronged the streets yelling Aung San Suu Kyi's name.The victory will not result in more power for the NLD but it was taken seriously by supporters of Suu Kyi because it

EGYPT: Egypt's Women Face Rollback on Divorce Rights

CAIRO - In years past, when conservative members of Egypt's parliament spoke out to demand reversing the rights of women or Coptic Christians, most of the country laughed it off and moved on.

BOSNIA:Women of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Twenty Years Later

Twenty years ago this month, war broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the main act in the dissolution of Yugoslavia. In Sarajevo, the country's capital that once proudly hosted the Winter Olympics, 11,541 red chairs on the main street mark the grim anniversary. One for every citizen killed during the almost four years of the city's siege, the longest in recent history.

BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA: Amnesty Slams Bosnia for Neglecting Victims of Wartime Rape

Rights group Amnesty International has slammed the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina for neglecting women survivors of wartime rape.

In a statement issued Thursday, the group says that Sarajevo in 2010 made a commitment to ensure justice, truth and reparation for hundreds of survivors of wartime sexual violence, but failed to enact it.

EAST AFRICA: The Role of African Women in Post-Conflict Peace building

Most African societies have patriarchal structures whereby men dominate the social, economic, and political realms of communities while women's roles are either underrepresented in these realms or discouraged due to the perceived notions of the traditional roles of men and women.

SERBIA: Women in Black: The Voice of Peace in Serbia

They have been beaten, spat at and cursed. Jeered, mocked and ignored.

But a few dozen women dressed in black regularly stand silently on Belgrade's main streets. They hold signs demanding an end to war, advocating human rights or reminding people of the bloody ethnic clashes in the former Yugoslavia that Serbia itself had triggered in the 1990s.

They are the Women in Black.

COLOMBIA: UNHCR Supports Project to Help Displaced Colombians in Medellin

Isabel* thinks she's finally found a place where she can rebuild her life, seven years after fleeing her home and moving from one location to another in search of safety.

USA: Our Commitment to Afghan Women

Over the course of a decade and through the administrations of two presidents of different political parties, the United States has maintained a consistent commitment to support the women of Afghanistan through the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council (USAWC).

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