General Women, Peace and Security

After more than 10 years since it was passed, the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (Women, Peace and Security) is gaining more attention with the opportunity to develop and present a Regional Action Plan at the 2012 Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting.

Regional women's rights experts say there's not enough female involvement in conflict resolution, and peacekeeping.
At its inaugural meeting in Thailand this week, the Regional Advisory Group on Women, Peace and Security discussed how to implement a UN security council resolution from 2000, calling for action to address the impact of war on women and girls.

The ten year long armed conflict started by the Communist Party of Nepal -Maoist (CPN Maoist), with the objective of establishing a Republican state, claimed more than 13,000 lives and forced millions to live as internally displaced.

At this week's conference on Libya in Paris, the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) and the international community talk about "inclusiveness" in the new country's future. It seems strange, then, that half of the population - women - seem to be excluded from the discussions on the future of their country.

On screen, two senior United Nations officials in Bosnia are arguing about firing Kathy Bolkovac, an American police officer battling to stop peacekeepers from both trafficking in young women and frequenting the brothels where they became indentured prostitutes. “It is a point of honor for me that the U.N.

Whether one considers the direct effects of military rule and conflict on women, or the global economic implications of the US war-on-terror, militarism threatens to strip away all the 20th century gains in women's rights, dispossessing us once more.

Pacific leaders have made a commitment to increasing the numbers of woman parliamentarians, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said yesterday. Many Pacific countries do not have any female MPs, let alone women in positions of leadership. Many of the countries are with Middle East countries at the bottom of tables compiled by the Inter Parliamentary Union.

Guns may have fallen silent in Indian-administered Kashmir but the fallout of the conflict, particularly on the health of the people, is showing up by the day. A recent study has indicated that the conflict is now taking its toll on the reproductive health of Kashmiri women; many of whom are unable to conceive.

More policies and programmes must address the needs of female-headed households in Sri Lanka's former conflict zone, experts say. "Most programmes don't take into account the unique role of women here," Saroja Sivachandran, director of the Center for Women and Development (CWD), an advocacy body based in northern Jaffna, told IRIN.

It took almost 11 years to establish but it's better late than never.

Veteran, award-winning women's rights activists have set up the first-ever regional advisory group on women, peace and security in Asia Pacific, an area where millions of women have been affected by conflict.