General Women, Peace and Security

TODAY is the twelfth anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, on women and peace and security.

Last week, coffee in hand, I read a chilling email. Armed men had shot at Dr. Denis Mukwege, a Congolese surgeon globally renowned for his work to help the survivors of sexual violence, right outside his home. The bullets missed Mukwege — but killed his security guard, Joseph Bizimana.

The news hit close to home.

The Department for International Development (DFID) must do more to improve the lives of women in Afghanistan who continue to suffer discrimination and abuse, MPs have demanded today.

Chairman of the International Development Committee, Rt Hon Sir Malcolm Bruce MP, said:

Margarita Lopez begins to speak about the horrible events that marked the end of her daughter's life in a low, even tone. Some 40 women in a plush Washington, D.C. meeting room listen silently as tears roll down their cheeks.

Kurds are a forgotten people. Called the largest nation without a state, they have been fighting for social, cultural and, at times, national rights for decades. But most of the time, nobody cared. Recently the Kurdish Worker's Party's (PKK) renewed war against the Turkish government has made headlines. What bleeds, as journalists say, leads.

“Following the political change of 2006, concrete steps have been taken to empower women and increase the proportion of their involvement at all levels of decision-making,” said Adhikari while addressing the Third Committee of the sixty-seventh session of the UN General Assembly on Agenda item 28 Advancement of Women on Wednesday.

Despite laws, resolutions, decrees, protocols, and directives against gender-based violence, women victims of sexual violence during armed conflict face tremendous challenges in seeking justice, including discrimination, stigmatization, and the inexistence of a holistic strategy to combat impunity in these cases.

On December 19 2012, President Obama released the first-ever U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, and signed an Executive Order directing the Plan be implemented across the government. CDC works consistently to protect the health of women and girls throughout the world, including countries affected by conflict and disaster.

Today, the government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) insurgency group meet in Oslo, Norway, to begin deliberations aimed at concluding a 48-year civil war. The Colombian armed conflict has resulted in the estimated deaths of around 100,000 people, forcibly displaced more than 5 million people, and produced as many forced disappearances as the most egregious cases in Latin America.

Fifteen brave Guatemalan women from the indigenous q'eqchí people testified before the High Risk Court in Guatemala City on Sept. 24-28, as part of the first criminal trial for sexual slavery and rape during the armed conflict.