General Women, Peace and Security

Kinshasa, 2 November 2010 - On the 10th anniversary of the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1325, the UN system in partnership with the Ministry of Gender, Family and Children organized a Day of advocacy and sensitization for mobilization of funds in favor of the National Action Plan under the guidelines of Resolution 1325 in Kinshasa on October 30, 2010.

Women In Peace Building Network(WENIP), under the auspices of West Africa Action Network for Peace Building (WANEP), with support from Action Aid The Gambia recently ended a two-day training for some 60 women drawn from all the regions on UNSC Resolution 1325 at the Jenoi Agricultural Centre in Lower River Region.

It is lunch time at the Light Stream Academy School on Pagos Island in Monrovia. The stretch of land, with more than 4000 inhabitants, is completely cut off from the rest of the capital. It is surrounded by swamps and marshland. The only access routes are by foot. Dozens of children, wearing green and white uniforms play in the school yard.

A Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) on Sexual Violence was appointed. Four existing UN agencies focusing on gender were merged to create a new gender entity called UN Women. Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile, will head the new organization, and the UN hopes that the budget will soon reach $1 billion - double the combined budgets of the four existing agencies.

Women and children suffered terribly during the 2010 general election given the gun battles in border areas, according to a Women's League of Burma (WLB) statement issued on Thursday, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

This year's 16 Days of Activism campaign focuses on women and conflict, a timely theme considering we are also reviewing 10 years since the adoption of United Nations Security Council resolution 1325.

This resolution linked violence against women during conflict and their marginalisation during peace processes with the challenges of maintaining international peace and security.

The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, November 25th, is a powerful reminder that in every continent, in every country, at least one out of three women has been either physically or sexually abused at some time in her life. Globally, 20 percent of girls and 10 percent of boys experience sexual abuse as children and 20 percent to 50 percent of women indicate that their first sexual experience was forced.

In the frame of his visit to the Republic of Kazakhstan to participate in Astana OSCE Summit, UN Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon is going to hold a meeting with the group of women-peace activists from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan who are also the members of regional initiative “Women for peace and security in Central Asia, the Ferghana Valley region”.

The Security Council today once again called on parties to conflict to take steps to protect civilians affected by hostilities, demanding that they put an end to practices such as sexual violence, forced recruitment and other violations of international humanitarian law.