Participation

To date, the African Peace and Security Architecture has striven to strengthen women’s participation in peace, security and post-conflict reconstruction in Africa and to improve the quality of early-warning mechanisms and the effectiveness of the institutions responsible for addressing issues related to protecting women and children in conflict and post-conflict contexts.

Time and time again, I see humanitarian agencies working to implement standardized programmes instead of adapting responses to the survivor’s concerns and needs. Yet, not all refugee camps and protection programmes are the same. Those where refugee women have been consulted in designing and implementing protection strategies are much safer. Refugee women are resilient. They have survived the unimaginable.

We also agree that there is a need to increase and institutionalize the involvement of women in conflict prevention and resolution. That requires not only normative advice but capacity- and institution-building at the ground level. Therefore, the issue of women and peace and security cannot be understood in isolation from the wider societal context involving gender and development issues.

Finally, it is extremely important to involve women and girls in decision-making processes and in leadership positions, as it is to promote a gender perspective at all levels of participation.

My delegation stresses that the Sudan is committed to making every possible effort to protect and promote women, particularly in areas of conflict.

First, in line with Goal 5 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, above all, we must continue to promote the full participation of women in decision-making in all areas of public life, in order to achieve inclusive and equitable societies.

The only way to effectively address the scourge is a comprehensive and integrated approach that entails prevention, early warning, justice and accountability, the participation of women in political processes and their political, social and economic empowerment.

In conclusion, Panama believes that the role that women can and must play in preventing and resolving conflicts and in the building and decision-making in sustainable peace processes is fundamental. Thus, the equality and the empowerment agendas take on greater meaning and constitute a global commitment.

As the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Uruguay and other members said this morning, it is important that women be actively involved in the peace process and now in the implementation process.

Fourthly, meaningful participation by women and girls in peace processes, including in mediation and peacebuilding, must be ensured. The inherent resilience of our women gives us the conviction that women themselves have the capacity to act as agents of change provided they find themselves in an enabling environment.