WUNRN
UN News Centre
UN Women
Director Stresses Need for Women's Empowerment & Political
Participation
10 June 2011 - The
head of the United Nation entity tasked with promoting gender equality today
reiterated that economic empowerment of women, political participation, ending
gender-based violence and raising women’s involvement in post-conflict
peacebuilding are the priorities of the body.
Michelle
Bachelet, the Executive Director of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the
Empowerment of Women (UN Women), told a news conference in
Asked
how she intended to address the problem of sexual violence against women, Ms.
Bachelet said prevention was most effective way of dealing with the scourge.
Prevention methods included raising awareness and educating both girls and boys
to eradicate gender stereotypes in society.
On
gender-based violence in conflict situations where UN peacekeeping forces are
deployed, Ms. Bachelet said UN Women will use best practices developed by the
UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) to train soldiers prior to their
deployment to increase their tactical readiness to respond to reports of sexual
violence.
It
was also important to end impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence and to
develop rapid response teams that could provide legal assistance to women in
places that did not have the legal capacity to handle such cases, Ms. Bachelet
said. Having more women in peacekeeping roles also had several benefits,
including the fact that women felt more comfortable talking to other women
about sexual violence, she said.
Ms.
Bachelet said UN Women had been actively involved in promoting the
participation of women – while respecting local ownership of the process – in
the democratic transitions under way in Middle East and North Africa. She said
had visited Egypt twice and will next visit Tunisia where a number of women’s
organizations have requested assistance from the agency.
She
pledged to work with all UN Member States and all sectors of society championing
the cause of women’s empowerment.
She
noted that some aspects of gender inequality were the result of poverty,
stressing that poverty alleviation was another way eradicating such
manifestations of injustice as human trafficking, early marriage and child
labour.
Addressing
a panel discussion on conflict-related violence against women at the UN Human
Rights Council in Geneva, Margot Wallström, the Special Representative of the
Secretary-General on sexual violence in conflict, stressed the need for upholding
human rights and enhancing social justice to prevent conflict.
Women’s
rights did not end when conflict began, she noted, adding that sexual violence
thrived in silence and impunity. The challenge was to prevent the cycle of
violence and vengeance, as well as discrimination and disempowerment that gave
rise to rape as a tactic of war, she added.