Most of today’s conflicts take place within states. Their root causes
often include poverty, the struggle for scarce resources, and violations of
human rights. They have another tragic feature in common: women and girls
suffer their impact disproportionately. While women and girls endure the
same trauma as the rest of the population — bombings, famines, epidemics,
mass executions, torture, arbitrary imp risonment, forced migration, ethnic
cleansing, threats and intimidation — they are also targets of specific forms
of violence and abuse, including sexual violence and exploitation.
Efforts to resolve these conflicts and address their root causes will
not succeed unless we empower all those who have suffered from them —
including and especially women. And only if women play a full and equal
part can we build the foundations for enduring peace — development, good
governance, human rights and justice.
In conflict areas across the world, women’s movements have
worked with the United Nations to rebuild the structures of peace and
security, to rehabilitate and reconcile societies, to protect refugees and the
internally displaced, to educate and raise awareness of human rights and the
rule of law. Within the Organization itself, the integration of gender
perspectives in peace and security areas has become a central strategy. An
Inter-agency Task Force on Women, Peace and Security has been established
to address the role of women in peacemaking, peacekeeping, humanitarian
assistance and other activities.
This study, like the Inter-agency Task Force, is an initiative
undertaken in response to Security Council resolution 1325 on women,
peace and security adopted in October 2000 – in which the Council
underlined the vital role of women in conflict solution, and mandated a
review of the impact of armed conflict on women and girls, the role of
women in peacebuilding, and the gender dimensions of peace processes and
conflict resolution.
While the study shows that many positive steps have been taken to
implement the resolution, women still form a minority of those who
participate in peace and security negotiations, and receive less attention than
men in post-conflict agreements, disarmament and reconstruction. Our
challenge remains the full implementation of the landmark document that
resolution 1325 represents. This study points the way to a more systematic
way forward.
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