Building Peace through Gender
Equality
New UN-INSTRAW Guide on Women, Peace and
Security
[Santo
Domingo, Dominican
Republic] To commemorate the International Day
of Peace, September 21st 2006, the United Nations International
Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women
(UN-INSTRAW) offers a new manual on how to create a successful action
plan on women, peace and security.
Designed as a resource for
governments, international and regional agencies and civil society
organizations, the guide -“Securing Equality, Engendering Peace: A guide to
policy and planning on women, peace and security”- provides good practices,
specific recommendations and a practical six-step model process.
Six years ago, UN Security Council
Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security called for equal representation of
women in all peace and security initiatives, among other things. An action plan
can be a valuable way to effectively and sustainably implement this and other
international mandates such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform for Action.
“This is not just for countries in
armed conflict, but for any nation involved in post-conflict reconstruction or
committing peacekeeping troops, such as the ones currently being deployed in
Lebanon”, pointed out Kristin
Valasek, UN-INSTRAW Specialist in Gender, Peace and Security issues. “Without an
action plan, initiatives on women, peace and security tend to be ad hoc,
isolated and unsustainable”, she added.
Since the adoption of Resolution
1325 by the Security Council in 2000, only four countries in the world have
developed national action plans on women, peace and security. A few others have
integrated these issues into their national policy and legislation. Still, women
continue to be largely excluded from decision-making in the sphere of peace and
security and from conflict resolution and peacebuilding
processes.
With this how-to manual, based on
existing experiences and lessons learned, UN-INSTRAW seeks to place women, peace
and security as well as violence against women at the center of national and
institutional security agendas.
“The conflict in
Lebanon and
Israel shows us that both concrete
actions and strategic policies are needed in order to stop violence against
women, ensure their security and prevent armed conflict”, stressed UN-INSTRAW
Director Carmen Moreno. “Through policy and planning may seem far removed from
the realities of violence and insecurity, they aim to keep women and girls
alive, healthy and free of fear”, she
continued.
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