General Women, Peace and Security

Remarks by UN Women Acting Head and Assistant Secretary-General Lakshmi Puri at a meeting hosted by H4+ and the Inter-agency Task Team on the Prevention and Treatment of HIV among Pregnant Women, Mothers and Children, during the Women Deliver Conference, 29 May 2013, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Good morning to all of you.

“Women's role in sustainable growth and development, peace and security in Africa,” Remarks by Lakshmi Puri, Acting Head of UN Women and Assistant Secretary-General of the UN, during the Fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, thematic session on “Driving Development through Gender Equality: Advancing Empowerment of Women” on 2 June, 2013, Tokyo, Japan.

When 13-year-old Kainat Soomro accused four men of gang rape, she risked everything: her reputation, her education and even her life. In Pakistan, just talking about rape and sexual violence is a cultural taboo. But bringing a case through the Pakistani courts and discerning truth from fiction is dangerous, complicated and, and as filmmakers Habiba Nosheen and Hilke Schellmann learned, fraught with challenges.

On Saturday 18/May a number of Afghan parliamentarians have branded the law on the Elimination of Violence against Women as un-Islamic.

We are very excited to invite you to join us online from May 28-30 for the Nobel Women's Initiative's fourth biennial conference, Moving Beyond Militarism & War: Women-driven solutions for a nonviolent world. The conference – hosted in Belfast by Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire – will for the first time bring together all six Laureates of the Nobel Women's Initiative.

The Twinning effect

One of the greatest benefits of being part of a world wide international organisation such as WILPF is the valuable experiences you gain from keeping in touch with members from all different corners of the world.

Women and girls have a unique perspective on the causes and effects of conflict on the population. Yet they are often under-represented, or even denied any role in efforts to resolve hostilities and address their root causes, and on deciding how to rebuild society in a manner that promotes peaceful resolution to conflicts.

In a London boardroom today - on April 10 - a new era in the longstanding fight to stop gender violence in conflict will be ushered in. Eight Foreign Ministers from the wealthiest countries around the world, the G8, will discuss conflict-related sexual violence and - if all goes according to plan - will emerge with a clear set of commitments to help end the global scourge.

The Iraqi delegation has concluded that ‘militarism is not a solution to maintain peace and security'. Iraq has recommended a few points that include eliminating marginalisation of women, and implementing SRC 1325. There also needs to be a ‘genuine' partnership between women and men to build peace and security.

Women's rights are increasingly heralded as a useful propaganda device to further imperial designs.

Western heads of state, UN officials and military spokespersons will invariably praise the humanitarian dimension of the October 2001 US-NATO led invasion of Afghanistan, which allegedly was to fight religious fundamentalists, help little girls go to school, liberate women subjected to the yoke of the Taliban.