FW: Women's GlobalNet #159: Unprecedented UN Resolution on Women, Peace and

2000. Nov. 7., K, 22:49:04 CET

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From: iwtc [mailto:iwtc at iwtc.org]
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2000 11:35 PM
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Subject: Women's GlobalNet #159: Unprecedented UN Resolution on Women,
Peace and

IWTC Women's GlobalNet #159
Activities and Initiatives of Women Worldwide
By Anne S. Walker

November 3, 2000

UNPRECEDENTED UN RESOLUTION ON WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY!

A resolution on Women, Peace and Security was passed unanimously by the
UN Security Council on October 31, 2000

A coalition of five organizations, Women?s International League for
Peace and Freedom (WILPF), International Alert, Amnesty International,
Women's Commission for Women Refugees and Girls and the Hague Appeal for
Peace, joined with UNIFEM to draft a resolution that would call for
gender sensitivity in all UN missions including peace-keeping, for women
to equally participate at all negotiating tables and for the protection
of women and girls during armed conflict.

"Namibia held the presidency of the Security Council in October and
welcomed our initiative. This experience reflects the New Democratic
Diplomacy ? whereby governments, the UN and civil society work together
for peace and justice. This is an historic victory for women, and
therefore for all of human kind. Now we have to hold our governments
accountable!" said Cora Weiss, President of the Hague Appeal for Peace

The full text of the resolution reads as follows:

Security Council Resolution S/2000/1044
31 October 2000

The Security Council,

Recalling its resolutions 1261 (1999) of 25 August 1999, 1265 (1999) of
17 September 1999, 1296 (2000) of 19 April 2000 and 1314 (2000) of 11
August 2000, as well as relevant statements of its President and
recalling also the statement of its President, to the press on the
occasion of the United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International
Peace of 8 March 2000 (SC/6816),

Recalling also the commitments of the Beijing Declaration and Platform
for Action (A/52/231) as well as those contained in the outcome document
of the twenty-third Special Session of the United Nations General
Assembly entitled  "Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace
for the  twenty-first century"  (A/S-23/10/Rev.1), in particular those
concerning women and armed conflict,

Bearing in mind the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United
Nations and the primary responsibility of the Security Council under the
Charter for the maintenance of international peace and security,

Expressing concern that civilians, particularly women and children,
account for the vast majority of those adversely affected by armed
conflict, including as refugees and internally displaced persons, and
increasingly are targeted by combatants and armed elements, and
recognizing the consequent impact this has on durable peace and
reconciliation,

Reaffirming the important role of women in the prevention and resolution
of conflicts and in peace-building, and stressing the importance of
their equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the
maintenance and promotion of peace and security, and the need to
increase their role in decision-making with regard to conflict
prevention and resolution,

Reaffirming also the need to implement fully international humanitarian
and human rights law that protects the rights of women and girls during
and after conflicts,

Emphasizing the need for all parties to ensure that mine clearance and
mine awareness programmes take into account the special needs of women
and girls,

Recognizing the urgent need to mainstream a gender perspective into
peacekeeping operations, and in this regard noting the Windhoek
Declaration and the Namibia Plan of Action on Mainstreaming a Gender
Perspective in Multidimensional Peace Support Operations (S/2000/693),

Recognizing also the importance of the recommendation contained in the
statement of its President to the press of 8 March 2000 for specialized
training for all peacekeeping personnel on the protection, special needs
and human rights of women and children in conflict situations,

Recognizing that an understanding of the impact of armed conflict on
women and girls, effective institutional arrangements to guarantee their
protection and full participation in the peace process can significantly
contribute to the maintenance and promotion of international peace and
security,

Noting the need to consolidate data on the impact of armed conflict on
women and girls,

1. Urges Member States to ensure increased representation of women at
all decision-making levels in national, regional and international
institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, and
resolution of conflict;

2. Encourages the Secretary-General to implement his strategic plan of
action (A/49/587) calling for an increase in the participation of women
at decision-making levels in conflict resolution and peace processes;

3. Urges the Secretary-General to appoint more women as special
representatives and envoys to pursue good offices on his behalf, and in
this regard calls on Member States to provide candidates to the
Secretary-General, for inclusion in a regularly updated centralized
roster;

4. Further urges the Secretary-General to seek to expand the role and
contribution of women in United Nations field-based operations, and
especially among military observers, civilian police, human rights and
humanitarian personnel;

5. Expresses its willingness to incorporate a gender perspective into
peacekeeping operations and urges the Secretary-General to ensure that,
where appropriate, field operations include a gender component;

6. Requests the Secretary-General to provide to Member States training
guidelines and materials on the protection, rights and the particular
needs of women, as well as on the importance of involving women in all
peacekeeping and peace-building measures, invites Member States to
incorporate these elements as well as HIV/AIDS awareness training into
their national training programmes for military and civilian police
personnel in preparation for deployment and further requests the
Secretary-General to ensure that civilian personnel of peacekeeping
operations receive similar training;

7. Urges Member States to increase their voluntary financial, technical
and logistical support for gender-sensitive training efforts, including
those undertaken by relevant funds and programmes, inter alia, the
United Nations Fund for Women and United Nations Children's Fund, and by
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other relevant
bodies;

8. Calls on all actors involved, when negotiating and implementing peace
agreements, to adopt a gender perspective, including, inter alia:

(a) The special needs of women and girls during repatriation and
resettlement and for rehabilitation, reintegration and post-conflict
reconstruction;

(b) Measures that support local women's peace initiatives and indigenous
processes for conflict resolution, and that involve women in all of the
implementation mechanisms of the peace agreements;

(c) Measures that ensure the protection of and respect for human rights
of women and girls, particularly as they relate to the constitution, the
electoral system, the police and the judiciary;

9. Calls upon all parties to armed conflict to respect fully
international law applicable to the rights and protection of women and
girls as civilians, in particular the obligations applicable to them
under the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Additional Protocols
thereto of 1977, the Refugee Convention of 1951 and the Protocol thereto
of 1967, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women of 1979 and the Optional Protocol thereto
of 1999 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of
1989 and the two Optional Protocols thereto of 25 May 2000, and to bear
in mind the relevant provisions of the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court;

10. Calls on all parties to armed conflict to take special measures to
protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape
and other forms of sexual abuse, and all other forms of violence in
situations of armed conflict;

11. Emphasizes the responsibility of all States to put an end to
impunity and to prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes against
humanity, war crimes including those relating to sexual violence against
women and girls, and in this regard, stresses the need to exclude these
crimes, where feasible from amnesty provisions;

12. Calls upon all parties to armed conflict to respect the civilian and
humanitarian character of refugee camps and settlements, and to take
into account the particular needs of women and girls, including in their
design, and recalls its resolution 1208 (1998) of 19 November 1998;

13. Encourages all those involved in the planning for disarmament,
demobilization and reintegration to consider the different needs of
female and male ex-combatants and to take into account the needs of
their dependants;

14. Reaffirms its readiness, whenever measures are adopted under Article
41 of the Charter of the United Nations, to give consideration to their
potential impact on the civilian population, bearing in mind the special
needs of women and girls, in order to consider appropriate humanitarian
exemptions;

15. Expresses its willingness to ensure that Security Council missions
take into account gender considerations and the rights of women,
including through consultation with local and international women's
groups;

16. Invites the Secretary-General to carry out a study on the impact of
armed conflict on women and girls, the role of women in peace-building
and the gender dimensions of peace processes and conflict resolution,
and further invites him to submit a report to the Security Council on
the results of this study and to make this available to all Member
States of the United Nations;

17. Requests the Secretary-General, where appropriate, to include in his
reporting to the Security Council, progress on gender mainstreaming
throughout peacekeeping missions and all other aspects relating to women
and girls;

18. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter."

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