General Women, Peace and Security

Evelyn Kiapi interviews activist and Nobel laureate WANGARI MAATHAI. As the first Review Conference of the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court takes stock of the ICC's achievements and considers amendments to strengthen the pursuit of justice around the world, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize is one of its strongest defenders.

National laws must be overhauled to make it easier for women to prove that they are the victims of gender-based crimes, especially at the International Criminal Court, two Nobel peace prize laureates said on Friday.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General, in Liberia, Ms. Ellen Margrethe Loj yesterday interacted with Liberian Women Leaders at the Angie Brooks International Centre at the University of Liberia Fendell Campus.

The interaction was part of ceremony commemorate Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security as "Global Open Day for Women and Peace".

President Ernest Bai Koroma has in the most strongest of terms decried what he considered as the continued acts of sexual and gender-based violence being meted out on women and girls in the country.

Having seen first-hand how United Nations female peacekeepers helped her own country rebuild, Sierra Leone's highest-ranking female police officer is now hoping to duplicate those successes in the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur.

Women from all over Southern Sudan gathered in the regional capital of Juba for a one-day open peace forum on 9 June to identify the priorities, concern and needs of women within the context of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325.

Noa Raz, a young woman waiting to board a bus, was recently attacked by a man because her arm bore the imprints of tefillin straps, which Jewish men wrap around their arms during morning prayers.

"You're an abomination," the man shouted while kicking her.

2010 Annual Session

On Friday, 4 June, the final day of the UNICEF Executive Board's 2010 Annual Session, delegates were briefed on the progress of the organization's efforts to promote gender equality and heard Executive Director Anthony Lake reaffirm UNICEF's dedication to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

UNIFEM Executive Director Inés Alberdi paid an official visit to Georgia on 10-12 May. The objective of the mission was to meet with government and civil society partners, review the progress and achievements of UNIFEM's programme in the country and discuss further work.

This October we will mark the tenth anniversary of the Security Council's groundbreaking resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, which called for higher levels of women's involvement in peacemaking and peacebuilding.