UN Wire Today

Octover 31, 2001

Women Peace Leaders Address Security Council On Abuses

Women peace leaders from Afghanistan, Kosovo and East Timor yesterday spoke to U.N. Security Council members about violations committed against women during and after conflicts, as well as women's role in peace negotiations and peace-building efforts. The briefing comes exactly one year after the council passed Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.

Jamila, director of the Afghan Women's Welfare Department, told the council that women in Afghanistan must be included in any future peace negotiations for the country. "Do not think that because women wear a veil we do not have a voice," she said. "When the U.N. is looking for leaders, look to us. Tap our networks that reach and assist women and their families in refugee camps."

"The entire peace process benefits when women are at the table," said Noeleen Heyzer, executive director of the U.N. Development Fund for Women. "Recognizing and supporting women's contributions can prevent many lifetimes of untold sorrow. This is especially poignant for Afghanistan. Any U.N. response for Afghanistan must include women and their concerns."

Also addressing the council was Elisabeth Rehn, former U.N. undersecretary general and one of two independent experts appointed by UNIFEM to carry out a global assessment of the impact of conflict on women and women's role in peace-building. "We have to challenge the world's silence about the situation of women in war," she said. "Their protection is glaringly neglected. Their contributions to peace-building are often marginalized, and no one is picking up the pieces."

Rehn briefed the council on preliminary findings from recent field assessments in East Timor, Cambodia, Somalia, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Balkans.

The council members also heard from Natercia Godinho-Adams, a representative from Timor Aid, who appealed to the council to create an international tribunal for crimes committed in East Timor during the territory's occupation by Indonesia, including sexual assault.

Haxhere Veseli, a 16-year-old refugee from Kosovo, appealed to council members to not forget youth concerns. "Teenagers lost a lot of control during the war in Kosovo," she said. "They exchanged sex for money and access to assistance and they did so with little or no knowledge of HIV/AIDS" (UNIFEM release, Oct. 30).

http://www.unwire.org/unwire/current.asp#20549