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: Exploring Ways to End Gender-based Violence

Steps should be taken to explore opportunities making police more responsible and responsive towards gender-based violence, said experts in inaugural session of a regional conference organised by Rozan in collaboration with Ministry for Human Rights and Islamabad police the other day.

The moot was titled ‘21st Century and policing in South Asia, Response towards Gender Based Violence: Challenges and Prospects'.

TIMOR-LESTE: Rights-East Timor: Women Learn the Political Ropes

Like many women in East Timor, 34 year-old Mariquita Soares joined the Revolutionary Front for an
Independent East Timor (FRETILIN) party during the nation's 24-year resistance struggle against Indonesian occupation from 1975 to 1999.

SOUTHEAST ASIA: ASEAN Women's Organizations to Meet in Vietnam

HANOI (Xinhua) - Vietnam will host the 14th meeting of the General Assembly of the ASEAN Confederation of Women's Organizations (ACWO) from Oct. 19 to 20, according to the Vietnam Women's Union on Tuesday.

The meeting is expected to draw more than 200 delegates from women's organizations of countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and several international organizations.

SUDAN: Southern Women Struggle for Justice

RUMBEK, 6 October 2010 (IRIN) - If there is one group that faces special challenges in Southern Sudan, it is women. Principal among them is gender-based violence, which is under-reported and spreading given the long history of conflict, certain traditional practices and weak judicial systems, say specialists. Below are some key obstacles to tackling GBV in Lakes State.

SRI LANKA: Women Clear Sri Lanka's Landmine Legacy

Valmathi Jegadas is a different sort of mine clearer to the testosterone-fuelled explosives specialists portrayed in the 2008 Oscar-winning Hollywood hit, The Hurt Locker. A farmer's wife in northern Sri Lanka, Jegadas, 37, earns 200 dollars a month risking her life, and she admits being scared each time she steps into the minefields that are a legacy of the island's long and bloody civil war.

PHILIPPINES: Launch of Women Corps in Mindanao's Peace Process a Breakthrough - Peace Group

The Mindanao Peoples' Caucus (MPC), a Davao City-based peace advocacy group, considered Monday's launching of the women contingent in the Civilian Protection Component (CPC) of Malaysia-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) a breakthrough.

This is also a first time that Bangsamoro women, lumad women and Christian settlers joined their efforts, regardless of race and religion, to protect peace in Mindanao.

SRI LANKA: Seeks Help for 90,000 War Widows

Sri Lanka is seeking foreign help to care for nearly 90,000 women who have been widowed due to the island's Tamil separatist war which ended last year, a minister said Wednesday.

Child Development and Women's Affairs Minister M. L. A. M. Hizbullah told reporters some 12,000 war widows were below the age of 40. Around 8,000 widows have three or more children to care for.

IRAQ: Women's Education Expands in Iraq

The hallways of a grade school were uncharacteristically silent and absent of students as they had been for months prior to this day. Despite the vacancy, the classrooms had many new additions.

KURDISTAN: Women to Women

‘Girls are forced to get married by their families at an early age, because once she goes to university and graduates, then her reputation is down the drain. She becomes expired,' explained Intisar Al-Maylie, branch head of the Iraqi Women League in the Najaf province, to a group of women at an Erbil conference.

IRAQ: Iraq's 'Al-Qaeda Widows' Seek Help, Rehabilitation

Scores of Iraqi women forced into marriages with Al-Qaeda fighters following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 are seeking government help to rebuild their lives and provide for their children, RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq (RFI) reports.

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