INTERNATIONAL: Postcard from New York

It's the eve of a busy week of collaboration, advocacy and action for "1325" activists who make the annual pilgrimage to the UN Security Council for a very important "anniversary" - the Open Debate on "1325".

This year FemLINKPacific is part of the gender focal point network of GPPAC - the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict who will be taking a media activism approach to ensuring greater space for Peacewomen to progress the commitments to our leadership in decision making for peace and security.

The Security Council Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security, scheduled for 28 October 2011 at the
United Nations Headquarters, New York will focus on the theme “Women's Participation and Role in Conflict Prevention and Mediation”

According to the Concept Note for the Open Debate from the Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the United Nations, the participation and representation of women in decision-making forums, institutions and mechanisms related to conflict prevention and resolution peacebuilding and post conflict recovery and the importance of mainstreaming gender equality perspectives at all stages of peace processes is at the core of all five Security Council resolutions on women and peace and security (S/RES/1325 (2000), S/RES/1820 (2008), S/RES/1888(2009), S/RES/1889 (2009) and S/RES/1960 (2010).

In resolution 1325 (2000), the Security Council urged Member States to ensure increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict (OP1) and called on all actors involved, when negotiating and implementing peace agreements, to adopt a gender perspective (OP8) yet the ten-year review of progress in implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) showed that while many important initiatives and strategies have been launched at international, regional and national levels, progress has been uneven. Many gaps and challenges still remain in the achievement of the goal of guaranteeing women's participation in decision-making in all stages of peace processes as well as in conflict prevention and preventative diplomacy.

This theme resonates with the focus of the (Pacific) Regional Working Group on Women, Peace and Security which was convened in December 2011 in order to progress the development and implement a Regional Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security.

Additional efforts by the Solomon Islands more recently, as well as Australia, and to some degree New Zealand, to develop national action plansn the scene is set to hear from Pacific Island Governments inform a multilevel approach to integrate women and peace and security issues in preventive diplomacy, early warning, and human rights and security monitoring.

Women's leadership, insights and expertise is also needed to address the root causes militating against women's effective participation in conflict prevention - after all the exclusion of women and lack of gender expertise in negotiations can produce near-irreversible setbacks for women's rights, leaving out crucial issues such as women's engagement in post-conflict governance, women's access to economic opportunity, justice and reparations for war crimes against women and girls.