Rasmussen meets influential activists from Mideast

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen met here Thursday with Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman, from Yemen, and peace activist Hibaaq Osman, from Somalia, in the margins of a NATO-sponsored conference on women, peace and security. Karman and Osman were visiting NATO Headquarters as part of a group of sixteen female activists from Middle Eastern and North African countries, who discussed the implementation of the United Nation's Resolution on Women, Peace and Security (UNSCR 1325), noted a NATO statment. The NATO chief expressed his appreciation for the work done by Karman and Osman in raising awareness among the civil societies in Middle Eastern and North African countries and the broader Arab world in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Rasmussen said he agreed with the two women activists that more than 10 years after the adoption of UNSCR 1325, there is still some way to go before women across the globe have assumed their rightful place in matters of peace and security.