Women empowerment, gender equality key to peace, security

UN Security Council reaffirmed Tuesday women's and girls' empowerment and gender equality are critical to efforts to maintain international peace and security.
Security Council members, in a presidential statement on women, peace and security, emphasized persistent barriers to full implementation of resolution 1325 that reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction.
The statement, adopted during an open debate on women, peace and security, and addressed by Argentina, welcomed its focus on implementation, sustaining progress and the need to translate commitments into improved outcomes.
International peace and security will only be dismantled through dedicated commitment to women's empowerment, participation, and human rights, and through concerted leadership, consistent information flows and action, in addition to support, to ensure women's full and equal participation at all levels of decision-making, it added.
The Council also encouraged the involvement of men in promoting gender equality and ending sexual and gender based violence.
Nevertheless, the Council reiterated its intention to increase its attention to women, peace and security as a cross cutting subject in all relevant thematic areas of work on its agenda, including on threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.
The Security Council recognized that refugee and internally displaced women and girls are at heightened risk of being subject to various form of human rights violations and abuses, including sexual and gender-based violence, and discrimination, which can occur during the various stages of the displacement cycle.
The Council urged Member States to take measures to prevent refugee and internally displaced women and girls from being subject to violence, and to strengthen access to justice for women in such circumstances, including through the prompt investigation, prosecution and punishment of perpetrators of sexual and gender based violence, as well as reparations for victims as appropriate.
On the behalf of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said the Council's consistent focus on women, peace and security has enabled the international community to move beyond viewing women as only victims of conflict to seeing them as agents of peace and progress.
The immense human and financial cost of conflict is starkly evident in the situation of refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced, she quoted Ban.
"We must urgently stand against abuses," Ban remarked.
Ban called for immediate action to end impunity and expressed concern by the continued discrimination against women and girls, she said.
Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmund Mulet said women often bear the brunt of any protracted conflict, especially in displacement.
Displaced women are frequently subject to heinous human rights violations, including sexual violence, he added.
It is critical for the international community to sustain all efforts to address and remove critical obstacles that impede womenآ’s full participation in peace and security, Mulet said.
"We have a responsibility to better protect women, but protection cannot exist without genuine understanding of womenآ’s right and acceptance of their full participation," Mulet closed his speech.