SPEECH: GNWP Member Sharon Bhagwan Rolls Speaks at Ministerial Meeting on 1325

Source: 
GNWP
Duration: 
Friday, September 24, 2010 - 20:00
PeaceWomen Consolidated Themes: 
General Women, Peace and Security
Initiative Type: 
Statements

On Saturday September 25th, Member States, UN Agencies and Civil Society gathered at the UN for the Ministerial Meeting on Security Council Resolution 1325 ,”A Call to Action.” The objective of the meeting, convened by the Mission of Canada and a number of co-sponsoring missions, was to pledge concrete, measurable and time bound commitments towards the implementation of the resolution.

Sharon Bagwan Rolls of femLINKPACIFIC (Fiji) represented one of the civil society voices:

Excellencies,

Since the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 Fem'LINKPACIFIC has established a rural and regional women's media network on UNSCR 1325. We are also the regional secretariat for the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict.

Working with our partners in Fiji, Bougainville, Solomon Islands and Tonga we have championed implementation of 1325 in the Pacific.

We believe that:

UNSCR 1325 is a guiding tool for enhancing women's participation for prevention – for human security, human development and human rights;
It is therefore critical to strengthen and sustain regional and domestic efforts by women's civil society networks working on peace and security;
There is a critical need to enhance and institutionalize the formal recognition of the efforts of Pacific Peacewomen in the resolution's implementation.

Because, while 1325 has been translated into local languages we are yet to realize real results.

We therefore call for:

  • Greater investment of technical and financial resources to strengthen our Pacific Island regional women, peace and security architecture to ensure women, in all our diversities, and at all levels connect with the United Nations on all aspects of Peacebuilding;
  • Women, Peace and Security to be defined as a core mandate of UN Women and that the operationalization process ensures substantive civil society involvement including at regional and country level;
  • Support in 2011, the development of a Pacific Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security through a high-level Multi-Stakeholder Conference to develop a broad framework to assist Pacific Governments develop relevant national programme and strategies on women, peace and security to accelerate integration of UNSCR1325;
  • An annual high level Interactive Dialogue on Women, Peace and Security convened by Pacific based UN Resident Representatives to hear directly from Peacewomen (who are also leading conflict prevention and security activists);
  • Systematic reporting in official processes including by UN Resident Representatives on the integration of UNSCR1325 in national and regional security processes, which would enable Peacewomen to provide regular updates on our national women, peace and security context and priorities, lessons learned and good practices from interventions and implementation of UNSCR 1325.

We look forward to working in solidarity and partnership to advance our collective efforts for:

  • Enhanced participation of women in decision making including Security Sector Governance programmes:
  • Effective and regular gender inclusive assessment and analysis for conflict prevention through a human security lens;
  • Ensuring the protection of women at all times;
  • Ensuring that peacekeeping and peace support operations, as well as dialogue and mediation efforts are informed by women's peace and security expertise and experience

Excellencies, 2000 was the year for commitment, 2010 is the year for review. Let us ensure together that 2011 is the year for action.