Participation

Kyrgyzstan has made significant headway over the past two years in promoting the participation of women in the country's political life, conducting democratic reforms and peace-based initiatives. The 2010 national referendum resulted in the election of the first female president in Central Asia. Today, women occupy nearly one-third of the parliamentary seats.

We must continue to ensure that women play key roles in peacekeeping operations and political missions; we must not only look at gender as a thematic issue, but ensure that women hold key and responsible positions at every level.

The flagship agency on gender — UN-Women — has begun to prove its leadership in theimplementation of resolution 1325 (2000) through United Nations system-wide coherence. It has been able to pulled together a set of key universal and regional human rights instruments.

In addition, there must be dedicated budgets, targets, timelines and indicators aligned to national peacebuilding plans, overall national defence and security strategies or poverty reduction programmes. Focus in the post-conflict recovery phase must ensure that women's needs and rights are consistently addressed.

The promotion of women's participation in peacekeeping and peacebuilding is key to the protection and empowerment of women. The strengthening of gender expertise and perspectives in peacekeeping activities and increasing the number of female peacekeepers remain a challenge. In that regard, Japan deployed a female military liaison officer to the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste this year.

In order to prevent the recurrence of conflict and sustain long-standing peace, the needs of women and girls must be fully addressed in post-conflict peacebuilding. To that end, it is essential that women's full and effective participation be ensured from the very beginning of conflict prevention and mediation processes.

Third, it is not enough to simply advocate the participation of women in peace processes. We need to provide concrete support for women to build the skills needed for meaningful involvement. And education is crucial. At the same time, social barriers blocking women's access to peace processes need to be addressed.

In December 2010 Italy adopted a three-year action plan on Resolution 1325. The plan provides a strategic framework to improve implementation of 1325 by having a national focal point at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs monitor all relevant activities.

If we want to see tangible progress in this area, more needs to be done at the national, regional, and international levels. First, women and women's rights must be consistently included in peace talks. Women are formidable negotiators, mediators and peace-builders. But all too often they are denied access to negotiations at the highest level because of the lack of political will or commitment.

Eleven years after the adoption of Resolution 1325, we are all called to renew our commitment to ensure women may assert their right to determine the peaceful futures of their communities. Let's not miss this opportunity.