WUNRN
Recommendations
from the Civil Society Advisory Group on Women, Peace and Security on Events
and Action to Commemorate the 10th Anniversary of SCR 1325
Concept
Note - 16 April 2010
The 10th anniversary of UNSCR 1325 on women,
peace and security in October 2010 offers a significant opportunity for Member
States, the United Nations, and civil society to work together to ensure that
concrete, measurable, and positive action is taken to empower and protect women
in conflict situations. Under the Presidency of Uganda in October 2010, the
Security Council has the opportunity to give new momentum to this effort and to
lay out clear systems for monitoring and accountability on its women, peace and
security obligations.
The Civil Society Advisory Group (CSAG) to
the UN on Women, Peace and Security (membership list attached) is tasked with
advising the High-Level Steering Committee for the 10th anniversary of UNSCR
1325, the Deputy Secretary-General and, ultimately, the Secretary-General, on
ensuring a coherent and coordinated approach by the UN system to implementing
UNSCR 1325. The CSAG is co-chaired by Mary Robinson, President of Realizing
Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, former President of Ireland and
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Bineta Diop, Executive Director,
Femmes Africa Solidarité. The CSAG
Secretariat is the Women Leaders Intercultural Forum of Realizing Rights, The
Institute for Inclusive Security and the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and
Security.
The following is a suggested agenda of events
on 28 and 29 October 2010 to mark the 10th Anniversary that will
ensure all relevant actors are translating policy into results for the second
decade of UNSCR 1325.
28
October 2010 Events:
Ministerial
Level Meeting on “Commitments to Action on Women, Peace and Security” and Arria
Formula Meeting
UNSCR 1325 of 31October 2000 called on all
Member States to enhance their contributions – financial, technical, logistical
and political – to empower and protect women in the context of armed
conflict. In 2008, more than forty women
leaders from government, business, and civil society asked UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon to convene a ministerial-level meeting in 2010 to mark this
anniversary. Events on 28 October could include an Arria Formula meeting
providing an opportunity for Member States to be briefed by women’s civil
society actors, followed by a ministerial-level meeting convened by the
Secretary-General on “Commitments to Action on Women, Peace and Security.” This ministerial meeting would occur just in
advance of the UN Security Council session marking the 10th anniversary, and
would provide a forum for Member States to make commitments to specific actions
which they will take on women, peace and security over the next 3-5 years.
Each Member State – be it conflict-affected,
a traditional donor, or other – would be challenged to make a new and additive
commitment at the conference to results-based, time-bound and measurable
actions. Such commitments could be to
expand financial resources by a stated amount over a specific timeframe to
address a concrete aspect of the UNSCR 1325 agenda, including financial support
to the pilot project on global indicators; to dedicate additional personnel
assigned to this challenge; and/or to change policies, laws, regulations and
practices so as to enhance participation and protection of women and create an
enabling environment for new efforts.
Joint commitments combining the efforts of several Member States would
be encouraged, matching not only donors and war-affected countries, but also
the contributions of
charitable foundations, the business community, civil society, regional
organizations, and UN agencies.
The UN itself may wish to
institutionalize the High-Level Steering Committee created for the
commemoration of the 10th anniversary of UNSCR 1325 into a permanent
High-Level Standing Committee on Women, Peace and Security with civil society
participation.
The commitments made at this conference
would be cataloged and progress made toward their achievement would be
monitored in a transparent manner under the UNSCR 1325 indicators framework. Member States will commit to reporting on
progress on their commitments at the
11th anniversary of UNSCR 1325 in 2011 and at subsequent 1325
anniversaries. These anniversaries would
also serve as opportunities to evaluate and revise past commitments and/or to
make new commitments.
The agenda for the Arria Formula meeting
could include:
–
Briefings by
representatives of women’s civil society organizations, especially those from
war-affected countries, on the urgency of strong new action on women, peace and
security issues.
The agenda for the ministerial meeting on
“Commitments to Action on Women, Peace and Security” could include:
·
Opening statement by
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, including his commitment to establish a permanent High-Level Standing
Committee on Women, Peace and Security and
his support for results-based, time-bound, measurable actions on women, peace
and security.
·
Statements by a Civil
Society representative on key challenges and innovative action on women, peace and
security.
·
Statements by Member States
and UN entities outlining commitments to action to achieve specific goals in
the women, peace and security agenda. Consistent with the UNSCR 1325 indicators
framework, these commitments would generally fall into one of four categories:
·
Participation: Promoting
the full engagement of women in peace processes and post-conflict
reconstruction and governance structures
·
Prevention: Taking
actions to prevent the outbreak of
conflict by addressing the root causes, including political and socio-economic
concerns that disproportionately impact on
women
·
Protection: Mitigating
the impact of armed conflict on women in the form of sexual violence,
displacement, and other hardships, including through a rights-based approach
consistent with international humanitarian and human rights law
·
Relief
and recovery programs: Ensuring that emergency relief and
post-conflict efforts are appropriately targeted to programs that exclusively or primarily benefit women and girls,
such as girls’ education, micro-enterprise, anti-trafficking in persons, and
mother-child health care
Ministerial
Meeting in the Security Council on
Women,
Peace and Security
29
October 2010
The Security Council will have the
opportunity on 29 October to demonstrate its commitment on women, peace and
security by addressing the systemic challenges that have impeded full
implementation of UNSCR 1325. A potential schedule for the Security Council’s
action, under the leadership of Uganda’s Security Council Presidency, could
include:
–
Briefing by the
Secretary-General on the outcome of the commitments conference on 28 October,
including the goals set for the UN actions, and the commitments and goals set
by Member States.
–
Reporting from UN
Secretariat actors – including OSAGI, DPKO, DPA, UNIFEM – on advancements and
challenges still remaining on women, peace and security, including their own
agency commitments to action and results.
–
Reporting from UN SRSGs on
the situation of women in their area of responsibility, underscoring the
importance of listening directly to women on the ground in conflict situations
and translating that learning into concrete actions for the implementation of
the women, peace and security agenda, particularly action that reflects the
specific rights and concerns of women.
–
Reporting from women’s
civil society organizations on the need for the Security Council and the
broader international community to provide concrete support to women, peace and
security commitments.
–
Open Debate among Security
Council members and Member States on systematic accountability and action by
the Security Council to ensure it meets the obligations set out in UNSCR 1325.
–
A Security Council outcome
document that reflects Security Council commitment to implementing its
obligations on women, peace and security.
Members of the Civil Society Advisory Group to the
UN
on Women, Peace and Security
Mary Robinson, Co-chair (Ireland) Mary Robinson is the President of
Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative. She served as United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002 and as President
of Ireland from 1990-1997. She is a member of the Elders. She serves as
Honorary President of Oxfam International, chair of the GAVI Alliance Board and
President of the International Commission of Jurists. She is a former chair of the Council of Women
World Leaders and a member of the Club of Madrid. The recipient of numerous honours and awards
throughout the world including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President
Obama, she serves on several boards including the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and the
Global Compact.
Bineta Diop, Co-chair (Senegal) Bineta Diop is the
Executive Director and founder of Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS), pan-African
civil society organization working on issues of women, peace and security. Ms.
Diop has led Femmes Africa Solidarité in numerous peace-building programmes,
including the creation of a strong West African women’s movement, the Mano
River Women’s Peace Network (MARWOPNET). She serves as Vice-President of
the African Union Women’s Committee, and chairs the United Nations Working
Group on Peace in Geneva, which is part of the NGO Committee on the Status of
Women monitoring the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution
1325.
Salim Ahmed Salim (Tanzania) Salim Ahmed Salim
served three terms as Secretary General
of the Organization of African Unity. Dr. Salim served as Prime Minister of
Tanzania from 1984 to 1985 and then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of
Defense and National Service. At the United Nations, Dr. Salim was elected
President of the UN Security Council in January 1976 and went on to serve as
President of the Thirty-Fourth Session of the UN General Assembly in September
1979. Dr. Salim was Chairman of the UN Security Council Committee on Sanctions
Against Rhodesia; President of the International Conference on Sanctions
against South Africa, as well as the Paris International Conference Against
Apartheid. Dr. Salim has also served as the African Union Special Envoy for
Darfur.
Hina Jilani (Pakistan) Hina Jilani is an
advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, an activist for peace, human rights and women's rights in Pakistan for the last three
decades, and co-founder, with her sister Asma Jahanghir, of Pakistan's first
all-female legal practice in 1980. She is also one of the founders of the Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan and the Women's Action Forum, as well as having
founded Pakistan's first legal aid center in 1986. She
served as UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and on the UN
International Fact-Finding Commission on Darfur.
Elisabeth Rehn (Finland) Elisabeth Rehn is a human rights expert who has previously served as a Member
of the Finnish Parliament, Minister of Defence, Minister of Equality Affairs, a
Member of the European Parliament, as UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights,
and as Under Secretary-General and Special Representative of the UN Secretary
General in the former Yugoslavia. In recent years, she has dedicated herself to
the impact of war on women and their role in peace-building. She co-authored with President Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf a landmark study entitled, Women
War Peace. She currently serves as
a member of the Board of Directors of the Trust Fund for Victims within the
International Criminal Court.
Lakhdar Brahimi (Algeria) Lakdhar Brahimi served as Foreign Minister for Algeria until 1993,
and has led numerous UN missions, including the United Nations Observer Mission
that preceded the 1994 democratic elections in South Africa. As Special
Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UN Assistance
Mission in Afghanistan, he was entrusted with overall authority for the
political, human rights, relief, recovery and reconstruction activities. Mr.
Brahimi also served as the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Afghanistan
from July 1997 until October 1999. In between his Afghanistan assignments,
Brahimi chaired an independent panel established by Secretary-General Annan to
review United Nations peace operations. The report, released by the panel in
2000 and known as the Brahimi Report, assessed the shortcomings of the existing
system of peacekeeping and made specific recommendations for change, focusing
on politics, strategy and operational and organizational areas of need. Since
2001, Mr. Brahimi has also served as UN special envoy in Iraq.
Swanee Hunt (United States) Ambassador Swanee
Hunt founded the Women and Public Policy Program, a research center concerned
with domestic and foreign policy, at Harvard’s Kennedy School of
Government. As President of Hunt Alternatives Fund, she also chairs The
Institute for Inclusive Security, which advocated for the full participation of
all stakeholders, particularly women, in conflict prevention and
resolution.
Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda (Zimbabwe) Nyaradzayi
Gumbonzvanda serves as General Secretary of the World YWCA, a civil society organization
representing over 2.5 million women and girl members worldwide. She served as
Regional Director for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in
Eastern and Horn of Africa covering 13 countries. She had previously worked as
a human rights officer with UNICEF in Liberia and Zimbabwe.
Donald Steinberg (United States) Donald Steinberg is deputy president for policy
at International Crisis Group, and is responsible for advocacy, policy
formulation and reporting for this non-governmental organization charged with
preventing and ending armed conflict.
During three decades with the U.S. diplomatic service, he served as
Ambassador to Angola, Director of the State Department’s Joint Policy Council,
Special Representative of the President for Humanitarian Demining, Special
Haiti Coordinator, Deputy White House Press Secretary, and Special Assistant
for African Affairs to President Bill Clinton. He is a member of the board of
the Women’s Refugee Commission and previously served on the advisory panel to
the executive director of UNIFEM.
Zainab Salbi (Iraq/United States) Zainab Salbi
is co-founder and CEO of Women for Women International, a grassroots
international humanitarian and development organization helping women survivors
of war rebuild their lives, families and communities. Ms. Salbi grew up in Iraq
and is a survivor of war herself. Women for Women International has spurred a
global movement to help women survivors of war and civil strife to rebuild
their lives and has distributed more than $79 million in direct aid, micro
credit loans, and other program services.
Thelma Awori (Liberia/Uganda) Thelma Awori is a
consultant on gender and development and a board member of a number of
prominent African civil society organizations such as the Sirleaf Market
Women’s Fund and Isis-WICCE. She served as Assistant
Secretary General and Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa at UNDP, New
York between 1997 and 1999. Prior to that, she was Deputy Assistant
Administrator, Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, UNDP, New York and UN
Resident Coordinator & Resident Representative, UNDP in Zimbabwe. Ms Awori
was Deputy Director, United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), and
prior to that, Chief of its Africa Section.
Sanam Anderlini (Iran/UK) Sanam Anderlini served as senior policy advisor to International Alert, where she advocated for and drafted United Nations Security Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. As director of the Women Waging Peace Policy Commission, Ms. Anderlini led groundbreaking field research on women’s contributions to conflict prevention, peace processes, governance, transitional justice, and post-conflict disarmament and reintegration issues in twelve countries. She served as lead consultant for the UN Development Programme’s global initiative on “Gendered Dimensions of Violence in Crisis Contexts.” She has taught at Georgetown University and is a research affiliate at the MIT Center for International Studies. Her latest book is Women Building Peace: What They Do, Why It Matters.
Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls (Fiji) Sharon
Bhagwan-Rolls gained national prominence in Fiji by organizing, through the
National Council of Women, a daily prayer vigil when government leaders were held
hostage for 56 days during the 2000 coup. She now produces the monthly e-news
bulletin “FemLINKpacific,” originally to give voice to women affected by the
coup and a quarterly magazine “femTALK 1325″ covering women’s peace
initiatives and post-conflict needs in the region and advocating for UN
Security Council Resolution 1325 implementation.
Susana Villarán de la Puente (Peru) Susana
Villarán de la Puente is an educator, journalist and politician. She was Concertación Descentralista's presidential
candidate for the 2006 national election. She has served as a member of the
OAS's Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She was a member of
Lima's Metropolitan Municipality from 1983 to 1985. She became Minister of
Women's Promotion and Social Development during Valentín Paniagua's transitory
government. In 2002 she assumed the role of Ombudsperson for the Police.
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