European Union and United Nations to Push for Action to Effectively Address Violence against Women
Urgent concerns of women's security in conflict and post-conflict
Published on Oct 11, 2008 - 7:38:03 AM

By: United Nations Development Fund for Women

BRUSSELS/PARIS, Oct. 10, 2008 - The French Presidency of the European Union and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) jointly call upon EU Member States today for urgent action on enhancing implementation and accountability for the security of women. "From Commitment to Action" -- the one-day conference organized in cooperation with the European Commission -- focuses on detailed practical response to systematic sexual violence faced by women in conflict and post-conflict situations.

"We are not here for another talking shop, where we lament the terrible and systematic nature of violence. Today we focus on what has worked to prevent it, and on what else needs to be done," said Inés Alberdi, UNIFEM Executive Director. "We look forward to supporting practical responses that ensure that sexual violence is no longer dismissed as an inevitable part of conflict."

The conference is expected to put forth clear recommendations for EU action that can ensure effective protection of women civilians from sexual violence in the context of the police and rule of law missions, through facilitating delivery of justice to women and bringing an end to impunity. "The French Presidency is committed to ensure that the Security Council resolutions will not remain mere rhetoric," said Rama Yade, French Minister for Human Rights, at the opening of the conference. "I'm particularly pleased to announce that the recommendations of this conference will be taken into consideration in the current review of the EU's operational guidelines."

While there has been significant progress with regard to women's security in post-conflict settings, significant gaps remain in policy and implementation. Recently, the Slovenian Presidency commissioned a report on "Enhancing the EU Response to Women and Armed Conflict," which, alongside other important areas, specifically highlighted the gaps in providing security to women in conflict and post-conflict contexts. Reviews of UN Security Council resolution 1325 on mainstreaming a gender perspective in peace and security have also emphasized the serious implementation failure related to the prevention of on-going high levels of sexual violence, particularly systematic sexual violence when used in continuing the conflict, and the failure to establish functioning security and justice systems that can end impunity.

The conference focuses on sharing best practices and developing a coherent and coordinated plan to protect women through enhanced, effective monitoring and bridging the gap between policy and implementation on the ground.

An earlier conference at Wilton Park in May 2008, organized by UNIFEM and the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations, in cooperation with the UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict and the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom, had made important recommendations after reviewing the security sector and military peacekeeping tactics. It was concluded that there are existing practices in UN and AU missions to deploy troops in ways that prevent attacks on women civilians, but that these tactics are not systematized into a consolidated body of best practices, and field-level and normative guidance is lacking on the issue. These findings fed directly into the formulation and passage of UN Security Council resolution (SCR) 1820 just three weeks later. SCR 1820 explicitly instructs military and other peacekeepers to refine methods of preventing sexual violence, through security sector measures but also through other efforts to prevent impunity.

The French Presidency in cooperation with UNIFEM has seized the momentum created by the adoption of SCR 1820 in June 2008 on violence against women in conflict and post-conflict situations, to address existing implementation gaps of EU policies in this domain. The overall purpose of the one-day conference is to strengthen the response of EU missions and crisis management instruments to address women's security needs, keeping in line with human rights obligations, as well as EU guidelines and policies.

Military and police representatives from EU and UN missions, Member States delegates, civil society representatives as well as human rights and gender experts from the field are participating in the conference. Focus is on ground realities that often see an absence of preventative and judicial response, which creates a climate of impunity in which abuses multiply. In post-conflict recovery efforts, this often results in women being prevented from participating in peacebuilding, economic recovery, and community and national leadership because of the risk of sexual violence. Women's engagement in influencing post-conflict policy-making and resource allocation thus diminishes, making their path to recovery all the steeper. While sharing experiences from the field, conference participants will discuss ways to ensure effective and stronger integration of women's involvement and perspectives in all phases of conflict and post-conflict activities.

As a precursor to the conference, the French Minister signed onto the "Say NO to Violence against Women" campaign (www.saynotoviolence.org) on behalf of the French government and handed over her signature after her opening speech to Inés Alberdi, Executive Director, UNIFEM. The campaign, which calls on governments and people around the world to make ending violence a national priority, is an initiative of UNIFEM and feeds into the UN Secretary-General's multi-year, system-wide global campaign UNiTE to End Violence against Women. The internet-based Say NO campaign, for which UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman is the spokesperson, was launched in 2007. To date, more than 35 governments have signed on, along with more than 190 civil society organizations and nearly 250,000 individuals from around the world.

Website: www.unifem.org

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