Thursday 03 March 2005

Concern has been raised, by the NGO delegates at the 49th session of the Commission of the Status of Women (CSW) at the United Nations Headquarters that the increase in conflict worldwide, including an increased focus on national security over human security has resulted in increasing violence against women and girls. Governments aare not fulfilling the commitments in Section E “Women and Armed Conflict” in the Beijing Platform for Action because there is not enough political will and action to involve women in decision making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, resolution of conflict, and maintenance of peace with justice even though women are becoming more active in the peace processes and other informal processes to prevent the resurgence of violence.

And so, Women and Peace networks from Asia and the Pacific region are hoping that the Fiji Government will assist them by sponsoring a resolution to reaffirm the commitments made in the Beijing Platform for Action and the Beijing Plus 5 outcome document, as well as the revised Pacific Platform for Action on the advancement of women and gender equality (2005 – 2015) to reaffirm UN Security Council Resolution 1325, titled Women, Peace and Security. This landmark resolution which was unanimously adopted by the UN Security Council on October 31, 2000 provides a comprehensive framework for the promotion and support of the protection of women in the area of armed conflict, and their roles in peacemaking, peace-keeping and peace-building including reconciliation and reconstruction of their countries.

Fiji’s Ministry of Women, presently chairs the Fiji Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Coordinating Committee on “1325” which aims to accelerate the implementation of 1325. This is a working partnership between the government national machinery for women and women’s peace-centred NGOs which has been facilitated by the work of UNIFEM Pacific in Melanesia. Similar committees have been set up in Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea/Bougainville.

The WPS initiative aims to address the four key points in the resolution which include the participation of women in decision-making and peace processes.

At the UN-ESCAP High Level Meeting (HLM) in September last year, the Asia-Pacific regional consultations in the lead up to CSW49, Fiji, as well as the Pacific regional statement, not only reaffirmed the Beijing Platform for Action but also cited the WPS Coordinating Committee has the structure through which the gender dimension of peace and security, could be addressed.

The women and peace NGOs are therefore banking on Minister Asenaca Caucau to reiterate her September 2004 statement at the HLM where she reaffirmed the UN Security Council resolution 1325 has a milestone resolution, as she linked social and political upheavals with political and economic instability and acknowledged the gender dimension of conflict is acutely felt by women and children.

The draft resolution also calls for the mainstreaming of gender perspectives across all areas of the Security Council operations, and this is especially critical for the United Nations’ Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the U.N. Department of Political Affairs (including Preventive Action, Peacemaking and Peace building), as “1325” also addresses the inclusion of gendered perspectives and training for peacekeepers, as the UN and the Security Council are in control of sending out peace missions and the need for protection of women and girls in conflict zones and refugee camps for example issues such as repatriation and ensuring women are consulted in the design and layout of refugee camps.