Participation

When the Security Council adopted the landmark resolution 1325 on 31 October 2000, it acknowledged the negative impact of armed conflicts on women and highlighted their decisive role in conflict prevention and in consolidating peace. Ten years later, however, the plight of women and girls in armed conflicts goes on unabated. The implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda remains slow and uneven at best.

However, we have taken some concrete steps, and the plans for the next two years include the development of a strategy to ensure 20 per cent participation of women in the security sector by 2011. Presently, women constitute 30 per cent of immigration officers and 15 per cent of the national police.

A gender equity in politics bill, designed to increase women's participation in governance, political parties and other institutions, has been introduced in Parliament and is awaiting approval for passage into law.

In recent peace negotiations, women represented less than 8 per cent of the participants and less than 3 per cent of the signatories. That endangers the prospects for long-lasting peace since women are crucial partners in shoring up three of its pillars: economic recovery, social cohesion and political legitimacy, as affirmed by the Secretary-General in his recent report (S/2010/466).

As pointed out by the Secretary-General, Member States must ensure that their support for women's engagement in peacebuilding is consistent. While Governments have the primary responsibility to take action in their countries, when need be, they must be able to count on the predictable support of United Nations partners.

Pursuant to this resolution, Kenya has made deliberate efforts to increase the participation of women in peacekeeping missions. Currently, we have women in uniform deployed in the peace keeping missions that Kenya is participating in and we are determined to increase this number.

In Kenya, the newly promulgated Constitution has entrenched pertinent provisions relating to the participation of women at the highest levels. The legislature will now have 47 and 16 seats reserved for women in both the national assembly and the senate respectively, in addition to those who will be elected from the various constituencies.

While individual success stories are inspiring, women on the whole, remain marginalized in mediation roundtables with their needs and voices unheard. UNIFEM reports that in 24 peace processes over the past two decades, women formed less than 8% of negotiating teams, and were only 3% of signatories to peace agreements - a very small ratio considering that women constitute 50% ofthe world's population.

To conclude, as we go forward, let us work in a determined way to strengthen women's participation and influence in conflict prevention, social justice, coexistence, and peacebuilding efforts, in situations of closed political space and conflict-affected states. UNSCR 1350 is structured on the three main pillars of participation, protection and prevention, and is a most powerful tool for women's organizing, mobilization and action.

Kazakhstan also pays great attention to measures recommended by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) aimed at increasing the proportion of women sent by troop contributing countries, and deploying more police officers in peacekeeping operations to 20 % by 2014.