General Women, Peace and Security

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, where a Platform for Action was adopted by the United States and 188 other countries.

I come from a country where discrimination against women, and as a result domestic violence, has always been the norm rather than the exception—part of our culture and tradition in Zimbabwe. In the village where I come from, it was normal that girl children would not go to school while boys would go to school.

A few days ago, I was sent an article that accused the United Nations of not "walking the walk" on women's empowerment. My gut reaction was to agree. Working for UNA-UK – an NGO offering independent analysis on the UN – I am only too aware of the areas in which the UN could improve its performance. And gender equality is one of them.

Women of Georgia and South Ossetia are capable to bring their contribution into restoration of trust and peace between Georgians and Ossetians. This is the leitmotif of the two-day meeting of female-activists from Georgia and South Ossetia, which is taking place on June 11 and 12 in Baku, in the office of the Azerbaijani society in defence of women's rights named after Dilyara Alieva.

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Somalia (SRSG), Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, and the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden, invited Somali women to share their experiences, concerns and recommendations on the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1325 in Nairobi on 9 June, on the occasion of the Global Open Day on women, peace and security.

A national action plan to support women in conflict is deeply flawed, slipshod and will damage Ireland's reputation internationally, a group of civil society organisations has said.

The group has claimed the National Action Plan on UN Security Council resolution 1325 is being written by two interns at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The United Nations and civil society today said today that woman participation in decision-making levels was a must to avert violence against women in conflict and post-conflict settings and that the state should provide, without delay, the victims with adequate multi-sectoral responses and justice.

The Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Assistance to Pakistan, Jean-Maurice Ripert, met with representatives from women's peace organizations in Islamabad on 15 June, on the occasion of the Global Open Day for Women and Peace. The meeting aimed to build dialogue on the implementation in Pakistan of Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, as its 10th anniversary is coming up in October.

The Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Nepal, Karin Landgren, and the acting UN Resident Coordinator, Gillian Mellsop, received women peace activists at the Centre for Constitutional Dialogue in Kathmandu on 11 June, for a discussion on women's participation in the peace process in Nepal.

At a press conference held on 31 May 2010 during the Review Conference of the Rome Statute, the Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice released an advocacy paper titled Advancing Gender Justice - A Call to Action.