General Women, Peace and Security

Women continue to pay a heavy price in ongoing conflicts around the world. Impunity for crimes against women in conflict-affected countries is the norm. Equally troubling, when women stand up and make their voices heard in peace negotiations and post-conflict reconciliation they often face security risks, are denied seats at the table, and are excluded from planning that determines their futures.

The Estonian government approved on Thursday of the Estonian action plan for implementing the UN Security Council resolution “Women, Peace and Security” in Estonia in 2010–2014, which supports bigger role of women in state defense, informed BC foreign ministry.

Five months ago, Nepal's fragile peace was on the brink of disintegrating. After ten years of civil war, a newly elected assembly was tasked with writing a constitution that would keep the peace, but was about to dissolve because the country's politicians could not agree on the terms of an extension. Women learned bitter lessons from their exclusion from the peace talks and mobilised.

Ten years after the Security Council issued its landmark resolution 1325, designed to address the "disproportionate and unique impact of war on women", U.N. officials and international human rights advocates say it is high time the principles it espouses move from paper to reality.

The current international focus on UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which deals with women's roles in peace and security, makes it an ideal time to take more concrete action on the resolution, UN officials said here Thursday.

Fewer women are taking part in post-conflict recovery even though they bear the biggest brunt of war, the country representative for the UN Population Fund has said.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today reiterated his pledge to empower women, underlining the crucial role they play in peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding.

"Whether we are discussing sustainable development, public health or peace, women are at the core," he told participants at the Global Open Day on Women and Peace and Security held at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 20, 2010 (IPS) - As the United Nations commemorates the 10th anniversary of a landmark Security Council resolution (1325) on the protection of women in war zones, a new study details the successes and failures of a long-drawn-out effort to battle gender-based violence and provide women a key role in male-dominated peacekeeping and peace-building operations.

The 1990s were brutal years for women in war-torn countries.

In Bosnia and Kosovo, they were rounded up and systematically assaulted in rape centres. In Rwanda, they were raped, mutilated and slaughtered. In Liberia and Uganda they were tortured and forced into sexual slavery. And in East Timor they were kidnapped and raped as their husbands were executed.

GOVERNMENTS SHOULD seize opportunities arising out of post-conflict or disaster recovery to address gender inequalities, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).