African Women
Leaders Forum Calls for More Female Peacekeeping Troops to Protect Women in
Conflict
Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt (PANA) - African women
leaders on Sunday vowed to press for the deployment of more female
peace-keepers to protect women in conflict and called on the African Union
(AU) to appoint more female peace envoys.
The African women, who met to discuss the state of women affairs in the
continent ahead of the African Union (AU) semi-annual conference convening in
the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El Sheikh, also called for an urgent end to
violence against women in Africa.
The pre-AU Summit meeting was sponsored by the Fammes Africa Solidarite (FAS)
to discuss the state of women, with a special attention on the implementation
of specific declarations by the AU over the last four years, seeking to
improve the women welfare.
The talks also agreed on a raft of measures, touching on the health and
economic welfare of women.
The gender rights activists sought urgent removal of school fees in primary
schools and urged African leaders to work on a staggered plan to phase out
fees in secondary schools to enable more women in the continent to access
education.
The conference was attended by African ministers in charge of gender, legal
experts within Africa and the Diaspora and regional institutions engaged in
the campaign to improve the women welfare, among a host of other institutions
to popularise the gender campaign.
It was convened to provide a platform for following up on the pledges made by
the African leaders to improve the status of the women welfare in the
continent and brought together women rights organisations, under the 'Gender
is My Agenda' campaign network.
The participants urged the AU to strengthen its campaign against violence,
noting that the women in the continent remained less active in peace
negotiations, even though they were the worst affected by the conflict.
"Peace and security is a pre-requisite for development," said
Monica Juma, the Executive Director of the South Africa-based Africa Policy
Institute.
She said the meeting agreed to push for the nomination of women in senior
political positions and as lead envoys for peace in the continent.
The conference urged the African leaders due to meet here to consider nominating
more women to lead conflict negotiations.
In particular, the women leaders urged the AU to appoint former Mozambican
First Lady Graca Machel, who also joined the Kenya peace mission early this
year, to lead the mediation efforts for an end to the political crisis in
neighbouring Zimbabwe.
Other measures agreed upon by the women include the need to recruit more
female soldiers for the peacekeeping operations within the continent to
protect girls and provide specialised care to women; and for the AU
Commission to tackle the crisis facing women in countries emerging from
conflicts, especially Burundi and Liberia.
The AU Gender Directorate, the women said in their communique, should be
strengthened to become very watchful on violations of women rights.
Meanwhile, the AU has been urged to convene a round table discussion on women
land ownership ahead of the 2009 land Summit, to enable African women make
specific contributions on the issue of land ownership, still a major issue
for most of the women folk in Africa.
Juma, who read the communique on behalf of the participants at the gender
event, said special focus should also be turned to the people living with
HIV/AIDS.
She said the meeting agreed to push for women contraceptives to be available
on demand.
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