Focus on the 52nd CSW

1. EDITORIAL
Sam Cook

This month's edition of the 1325 PeaceWomen E-News focuses on the 52nd Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) that is currently taking place here in New York. The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom is once again monitoring this process. In order to bring the activities in New York to women, peace and security advocates more broadly, we have developed CSW focused web pages and have included here links to these and other useful CSW resources and events (Item 3). Also included in this edition is our WILPF statement submitted to the CSW (Item 4). This and our leaflet ‘You get What You Pay For !' in this month's Feature Resources (Item 6) bring across WILPF's key messages around disarmament and gender equality. The levels of the world's military expenditure should sound the alarm for those focusing on the priority theme for this year's CSW on which governments are currently negotiating new policy commitments – Financing for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment. WILPF has gathered over 100 women from more than 40 countries in Geneva for the annual International Women's Day Seminar to echo the concern heard and felt at the CSW that current military spending is over USD$ 1200 billion, which amounts to organized crime and corporate welfare for the arms traders and weapons profiteers. As our CSW statement notes, ‘no amount of policy will make a difference unless : gender equality is seen as a critical part of public finance management ; is factored into macroeconomic policy and development financing ; and is seen as more important than weapons.'

A measure of commitment to gender equality is the levels of women's equal participation and this CSW also offered an opportunity for governments to review the implementation of their previous commitments from the 48th Session on Women's Equal Participation in Conflict Prevention, Management and Conflict Resolution and in Post-Conflict peace-building. As evidenced by several of our news stories, while women's participation in peace processes remains inadequate women continue to engage in exciting initiatives for change – from the engagement of Kenyan women in bringing peace to calls for women's political participation in the diverse contexts of Iraq, Liberia, Nigeria and Pakistan. Governments engaged in this theme at the CSW through an interactive dialogue held on February 29th. As was made clear by panelists, the issues of women's participation must go beyond numbers. There is a need, for example, to address issues such as sexual and gender-based violence which limit women's possibilities for full engagement. Action on such issues needs to take place on a multiplicity of fronts but one thing is abundantly clear – that without resourcing the chances of success are severly limited. This point was recognized in the interventions of governments during the interactive dialogue but it is not a new problem. As cited in the NGOWG Update (Item 7), the Secretary-General in his 2004 report on women, peace and security noted that “[i]nadequate specific resource allocations have contributed to slow progress in the implementation of [SCR 1325] in practice.'

A further challenge to implementation efforts is one that goes beyond resources. When one considers the UN's own efforts to implement 1325, it is clear that there is a need for a more coherent, coordinated and strategic approach. What is lacking, however, is an entity within the UN with the status, resources and on-the-ground presence to make this a reality. This gap within the women, peace and security sphere is felt as keenly in the broader work on gender equality and women's human rights. The campaign to reform the UN's gender equality architecture is a response from women around the world to address this crucial gap. The GEAR Campaign, this month's Feature Initiative (Item 5) calls for a stronger women's entity that can deliver results on the ground. At this year's CSW, women are taking forward this call and the GEAR Campaign message that : ‘[s]trengthening the UN's gender equality machinery is a crucial part of financing for development. It will better enable the UN and governments to deliver on promises made to advance gender equality and women's human rights, which are essential components of development at the global and country levels.' As the negotiations on the CSW outcome documents progress, we hope that governments demonstrate their commitment to furthering gender equality by taking on these and other concrete proposals for change.

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We continue to welcome contributions to the newsletter's content. Contributions for the March 2008 edition should be sent to enewssubmissions@peacewomen.org by Thursday 20 March 2008.

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2. WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY NEWS

We ‘cannot wait' to end violence against women – Secretary-General Ban
February 25, 2008 – (UN News Center) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today kicked off a multi-year global campaign bringing together the United Nations, governments and civil society to try to end violence against women, calling it an issue that “cannot wait.”

Central African Republic: Thousands Fall Victim to Sexual Violence
February 22, 2008 - (UN News Service ) Over 15 per cent of women and girls in the violence-ridden north of the Central African Republic (CAR) are victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today.

Kenya's "women in white" to circle peace talks
February 21, 2008 - (Reuters) Kenyan women wearing white clothes to symbolise peace vowed on Thursday to surround the venue of crisis talks until a solution is found to the east African country's worst turmoil since independence.

Liberia: Women Re-Awaken 30 Percent Participation in Gov't
February 20, 2008 - (The News) The struggle for women to participate in government on par with their male counterparts has again come to the fore as more than 60 Liberian women gathered at the Ministry of Gender and Development yesterday to discuss their participation in political dispensation.

Zimbabwe: Move to Empower Women Politicians
February 20, 2008 – (AllAfrica) A women empowerment group has started holding training workshops for aspiring women parliamentarians. Women Trust began the programme to empower women candidates yesterday in Harare with 65 aspiring Zanu-PF women MPs in attendance.

Some Pakistan Women Warded Off Voting
February 18, 2008 - (The Associated Press) Despite the historic elevation to the premiership in the 1990s by Bhutto, who was assassinated in December, women still have little political clout in Pakistan. In the ethnic Pashtun belt bordering Afghanistan, things are going from bad to worse.

AFRICA: First ladies fight for peace
February 18, 2008 (IRIN) - In a bid to support initiatives to restore and strengthen peace on the unrest-prone continent, wives of African heads of state or their representatives have formed a conflict-resolution group.

iran: Campaign Members Raheleh Asgarizadeh and Nasim Khosravi Arrested
February 15, 2008 - (Change for Equality) Raheleh Asgarizadeh and Nasim Khosravi, two members of the One Million Signatures Campaign were arrested on the afternoon of February 14th, in Daneshjoo Park, while collecting signatures in support of the Campaign's petition.

Iraq: Conference addresses role of women in Iraq
February 14, 2008 - (Middle East Times) A newly formed women's committee met before community leaders and their colleagues in a school in Iraq to discuss issues regarding community welfare. Representatives of the Hawr Rajab's Women's Committee said women were faced with taking on head-of-household roles as many of the Iraqi men have died from the violence since the 2003 invasion, the Multi-National Force-Iraq said.

Can a Kenyan Peace Agreement Stem Rape?
February 12, 2008 - (Alternet) While Kofi Annan gets closer to a peace agreement, the women of Kenya are still paying for the devastating rise in sexual violence in the post-electoral conflict.

Influential Women's Magazine Silenced in Iran
February 10, 2008 - (WOMENSENEWS) Iran's most influential women's magazine, Zanan, has become the latest victim of a government intent on censoring, harassing and imprisoning opponents, journalists in particular. Officials accused the monthly journal of damaging society by being too negative toward Iran and closed the publication Jan. 28.

Congolese officials receive UN-backed training on sex crime investigation
February 8, 2008 – More than 40 military and justice officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have benefited from a United Nations-sponsored training workshop on investigating sex crimes, which are rampant in the vast African nation.

Southern Africa: NGOs demand that SADC leaders prove their commitment to gender equality
February 5, 2008 – (Pambazuka News) NGOs meeting in Johannesburg have challenged leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to put their money where their mouths are by adopting a binding protocol for promoting gender equality at their August summit

Europe: 2008, European Year of the Intercultural Dialogue – With Women?
February 2, 2008 - (Women Living Under Muslim Laws) The Intercultural Dialogue can be a good mechanism to voice, expose & condemn those practices that violate women's rights and silence women's voices. Intercultural dialogue and diversity of culture should be promoted in a way that respects women's rights.

Vietnam: Woman Writer Released, but Crackdown Continues
February 1, 2008 – (Human Rights Watch) The Vietnamese government released the award-winning writer Tran Khai Thanh Thuy from prison yesterday, but continues to hold dozens of other peaceful activists in prison or under house arrest, Human Rights Watch said today.

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For more regional women, peace and security news, CLICK HERE

For more international women, peace and security news, CLICK HERE

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3.FEATURE event

52nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women

25 February – 7 March 2008, UN Headquarters, New York

The 52nd Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women is currently taking place in New York. The themes for this session are :

Priority theme : Financing for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
Review Theme : Women's Equal Participation in Conflict Prevention, Management and Conflict Resolution and in Post-Conflict peace-building

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CSW on the Web:

The PeaceWomen Project has developed web pages for the 52nd Session of the CSW featuring :
ß UN Documents & links,
ß NGO Documents & links,
ß Governmental Participation

For these pages please visit : http://www.peacewomen.org/un/ecosoc/CSW52/index.htm

For the official UN website for the CSW 52: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/52sess.htm

For the NGO Committee on the Status of Women please visit : http://www.ngocsw.org/

Women UNlimited blogging the CSW 52nd session:
Several participants are blogging live from the CSW on the OpenDemocracy website.

For this blog please visit : http://www.opendemocracy.net/blog/csw_2008

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Women, Peace and Security-Themed Parallel Events:

WILPF Events at the CSW this Week :
This week WILPF will be hosting two events at the Church Centre at the UN on 44th Street & 1st Ave, New York.

"Women and Armed Conflict: The Case of Colombia"

Date: 5-March-2008
Time: 1:30 PM - 3 PM
Room: Church Center - Hardin Room (11th Fl.)

This panel and discussion explores the difficulties faced by Colombian women in participating in the processes of peace in Colombia and looks at some of the recommendations for the Colombian to consider to improve women's participation.

"Women, War and Budgeting for Peace"

Date: 6-March-2008
Time: 11:45 AM - 1:15 PM
Room: Church Center - Boss Room (8th Fl.)

This panel will explore gender budgeting. It will examine the waste of human and economic resources on war and armaments and the cost of this for investment in gender equality and sustainable peace and development.

We look forward to see you there!

Calendar of Events:

The PeaceWomen Project has developed a calendar highlighting women, peace and security events taking place at the 52nd session of the CSW.

This calendar can be found at :

For a compilation of women, peace and security events, please visit :
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/ecosoc/CSW52/NGOdocs/WPS_calendar.pdf

For the calendar of other UN events, please visit :
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/conf/seforms/dspUNcalendarUN.html

For the calendar of other NGO events, please visit :
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/conf/seforms/dspUNcalendar2.html

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4. FEATURE statement

WILPF CSW STATEMENT

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) was among the first group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to receive consultative status with the United Nations and has monitored every session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). The 52nd Session offers an opportunity for Member States to demonstrate their commitment to the broad goals of women's empowerment, human rights and gender equality, goals WILPF has continually worked towards since its inception in 1915 as part of its ongoing work to prevent armed conflict and to establish the conditions for sustainable peace on a global scale.

WILPF recognizes the many commitments expressed by Member States and applauds the concrete achievements by governments and the UN system towards realizing equality between women and men as outlined in the preamble of the Charter. Unfortunately a significant gap between policy and practice still remains. We look forward to the Commission addressing the persistent gaps in implementing policy commitments, particularly to the role played by the failure to allocate adequate human and economic resources devoted to implementation of gender equality goals.

WILPF looks forward to Member State's evaluation of their prior commitments from the 48th Session of the CSW on “Women's equal participation in conflict prevention, management and conflict resolution and in post-conflict peacebuilding.” While laudable work is being undertaken, particularly through efforts to implement Resolution 1325, much remains to be done. Women remain excluded from or marginalized in decision-making on the full spectrum of security issues, within peace processes and within the UN system itself.

In the work of the Peacebuilding Commission, it is unclear whether commitments to include women in post-conflict peacebuilding have made a practical difference on the ground. While there is a lack of demonstrated political will to ensure women's participation, more tangible still is the poor commitment of resources to these issues. This despite agreement in the 48th Session to “continue to make resources available nationally and internationally for prevention of conflict and ensure women's participation in the elaboration and implementation of strategies for preventing conflict.”

WILPF thus welcomes the Commission's consideration of the important theme of Financing for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment. In developing policy in this area, it is critical that the clear and strong connections be drawn between this issue of financing and resources and the realization of all other commitments to development and gender equality made by the Commission and Member States more broadly; including commitments to women's full and equal participation. It is not simply that women have the right to participate as equals. It is also that without women's participation and empowerment and without gender equality, sustainable peace, sustainable development and true human security are unattainable.

As then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan repeatedly articulated:

“study after study has taught us that there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women. No other policy is as likely to raise economic productivity, or to reduce infant mortality. No other policy is as sure to improve nutrition and promote health – including the prevention of HIV/AIDS. No other policy is as powerful in increasing the chances of education for the next generation. And I would also venture that no policy is more important in preventing conflict, or in achieving reconciliation after a conflict has ended.”

WILPF welcomed the recognition of the links between participation, equality and development in the Outcome Document of the 2005 World Summit. In particular WILPF welcomed the recognition that the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and outcome of the 23rd Special Session of the General Assembly “is an essential contribution to achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration.” This contribution is not possible without resources and gender-centered financing policy. The failure to finance gender equality is the failure to finance development and human security.

The consideration of Financing for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment requires providing direct, sustained and increased financial and human resources to discrete budget lines, as well as support to women's groups and organizations. It is, however, critical also to look beyond this level and type of support. Financing for Gender Equality is not just about adding more resources to existing efforts. It is also about how resources are spent by government in the economy as a whole. WILPF welcomes the work done by some governments to engage in gender responsive budgeting and calls on all governments to do so and to enhance these efforts. This involves not only analyzing the differential impact of government spending on men and women but also offers a means to critically reflect on government spending priorities and to prioritize human security and gender equality.

WILPF finds it unacceptable that despite the many commitments made to gender equality and women's empowerment the figures tell a different story:

- Women make up 70 percent of the world's poor and 67% of the world's illiterate. They own just one per cent of assets worldwide;

- According to a 1995 UNDP study, more than two-thirds of the world's unpaid work is done by women – the equivalent of $11 trillion (approximately half of the world's GDP);

- Out of $69 billion of overseas development assistance made available in 2003, only $2.5 billion or 3.6% was earmarked for gender equality as a significant or principal objective. Yet, in the three year period from 2002 to 2004, US military aid to Israel alone totaled over $9 billion with another $6 billion to Egypt and $4 billion to Pakistan;

- Of $20 billion in bilateral aid in 2001-2005, an OECD DAC study reports only $5 billion was allocated to projects promoting gender equality; that is the cost of approximately 2 weeks of the occupation of Iraq;

- The combined budgets of the UN women's entities is only $65 million only 0.005% of world military expenditure of $1204 billion in 2006;

- The entire budget of the only operational women's entity – UNIFEM – in 2006 was only $57 million only 2 % of the $2.34 billion budget of UNICEF for the same period;

- The World Bank estimates the cost of interventions to promote gender equality under MDG 3 is $7-13 per capita. The world's military expenditure in 2006 amounted to $184 per capita.

What is clear is that in scales that matter, commitments to gender equality are not yet real. No amount of policy will make a difference unless: gender equality is seen as a critical part of public finance management; is factored into macroeconomic policy and development financing; and is seen as more important than weapons.

WILPF calls on Member States:

- To invest in human security, equality and sustainable peace and to end the prioritization of war and military spending and the impunity enjoyed by war and weapons profiteers.

- To strengthen the development and human rights work of the United Nations by strengthening and better resourcing its gender equality architecture as a critical aspect of financing for gender equality.

- To include women as senior decision makers in economic and trade policy including through ensuring their input in the decision making of supra-national institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the Bretton Woods Institutions. WILPF calls on Member States to provide mechanisms by which women are guaranteed an opportunity to input into the decision-making processes of these institutions at a local level and that these processes take account the needs of gender equality and women's empowerment.

- To pressure the Security Council to implement Article 26 of the United Nations Charter, which charges the Security Council with formulating a system to regulate armaments and reduce military expenditures, in order to promote international peace and security and free up human and economic resources for development.

- To participate in the UN Register of Conventional Arms in order to enhance transparency of international arms transfers, procurement through national production, holdings, and relevant policies, and in the UN Instrument for Reporting Military Expenditures to enhance transparency of spending on military personnel, operations, maintenance, procurement, construction, research, and development.

WILPF looks forward to the development of policy during this 52nd Session of the CSW that will ensure a gender-perspective in the 2008 follow-up to the Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development in Qatar and the follow-up to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in Ghana.

As a 92-year old organization, WILPF continues to work toward collective human security and sustainable peace and away from militarism and economic violence, in collaboration with civil society, governmental and international actors, including within the United Nations system. We look forward to working with others from around the world to dismantle the prevailing culture of militarism and create a culture of peace in which gender inequality, racism and discrimination, economic injustice, violence and oppression are absent and in which women are full and equal participants.

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For other WILPF statements, please click HERE

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5. FEATURE initiative

Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign

A Stronger UN Entity for Women

The global campaign for Gender Equality Architecture Reform welcomes consideration of “financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women” as the priority theme for the 52nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

We welcome also statements by the Secretary-General and member states in support of strengthening the UN's gender equality architecture.

The campaign for Gender Equality Architecture Reform now comprising 82 organizations in over 35 countries believes that the creation of a stronger UN entity for women will greatly advance gender equality, the empowerment of women and their human rights throughout the world.

For the past three decades, the UN has been a galvanizing force in efforts to define a comprehensive global agenda for peace and security, human rights, gender equality, women's empowerment, poverty eradication and sustainable development. As a result, there have been significant advances for women, including through the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, the Beijing Platform for Action, the Millennium Summit, and various UN agencies have done important work on specific aspects of gender equality.

The UN, however, still lacks an effective mechanism to deliver on many of the essential commitments made. It has several small under-resourced agencies focused exclusively on women's issues and other larger agencies make critical contributions to women's human rights and gender equality, but it is usually a small part of their mandate, and often receives low priority.

As the Secretary-General has already stated on 25 November 2007, a stronger United Nations entity for women should be able to “call on all of the United Nations system's resources in the work to empower women and realize gender equality worldwide” and “mobilize forces of change at the global level, and inspire enhanced results at the country level.”

The campaign for Gender Equality Architecture Reform therefore calls on member states of the UN, with the support of the women's movement, to act now to create a stronger UN entity for women.

- An Under-Secretary-General should head this entity for women, to ensure the necessary status required for representation and decision-making at the highest levels both in policy-development and program operations at the global and country levels. The new Under-Secretary-General post would provide higher level leadership than at present to more effectively drive the gender equality and women's empowerment agenda.

- Extensive field presences and a strong policy and programmatic mandate is essential for a strengthened UN entity for women to effectively improve the lives of women on the ground.

- Substantial and predictable resources to ensure that the new entity for women has the capacity to meet expectations and deliver results at all levels. It must be funded initially at a minimum level of $500 million to $1 billion USD with increases over time.

- Accountability within the new entity for women, at both national and international levels, including through meaningful involvement of civil society, in particular non-governmental organizations for women.

- The new entity should also promote gender mainstreaming by the integration of gender equality and women's human rights throughout the UN and especially in the UN Country Pilots and in all UN reform processes.Strengthening the UN's gender equality machinery is a crucial part of financing for development. It will better enable the UN and governments to deliver on promises made to advance gender equality and women's human rights at the global and country levels.

Statement submitted on behalf of the global campaign for Gender Equality Architecture Reform in the United Nations by Amnesty International, Asia Pacific Women's Watch, Association for Women's Rights In Development, Center for Women's Global Leadership, Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era, African Women's Development & Communication Network, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Women's Environment and Development Organization, WIDE - Globalising Gender Equality and Social Justice non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council

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For more Global & Regional Initiatives, click HERE

For more Country-specific Initiatives, click HERE

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6. feature Resource

AWID- Resources on Aid Effectiveness
AWID is pleased to announce that their Aid Effectiveness and Women's Rights Series is now available online for download.
This set of Primers shares critical information and analysis about the new aid architecture that has emerged as a result of the Paris Declaration (PD)-the most recent donor-partner agreement designed to increase the impact of aid. This aid effectiveness agenda, the result of the signature and implementation of the Paris Declaration process currently determines how and to whom aid is being delivered as well as how donor and aid-recipient countries are relating to one another. We hope the information, analysis and proposals included in these primers will encourage women's rights advocates and other actors to understand the relevance of this process and to engage in it to support the call for a more comprehensive, balanced, and inclusive approach to reforming aid so that it reaches the people who need it most, including women! Stay tuned for the 5th and final primer in this series devoted to highlighting some of the specific concerns and recommendations from a women's rights perspective.

To download the primers, please visit : http://www.awid.org/go.php?pg=aid_effectiveness

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WILPF Resource :You Get What You Pay For
Disarming for gender equality

Achieving universal gender equality is an ambitious goal, on that was articulated in the UN Charter and many resolutions, conference outcome documents and decisions of governments. It will require a shift in the way we think about gender roles and the relationship between men and women, boys and girls. Legislation needs to be changed, as well as social attitudes and norms. Serious financial resources will need to be made available. Compared to military spending, however, the amounts required seem ridiculously small. In 2006 the world's military expenditure was estimated to be US$ 1,204 billion or US$ 184 per capita.1 Funding gender equality, as set out in the Millennium Development Goals, costs less than 20 percent of military spending.

For the full resource please visit :

http://www.peacewomen.org/un/ecosoc/CSW52/NGOdocs/YouGetWhatYouPayFor.pdf

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For more women, peace and security resources, click HERE

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7. ngowg update

Financing for Gender Equality 52nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women
Gina Torry, Coordinator

“Inadequate specific resource allocations have contributed to slow progress in the implementation of the resolution [Security Council resolution 1325] in practice. We must ensure that regular budgetary resources are specifically allocated for both gender mainstreaming and initiatives targeted at women and girls.” Secretary-General's report on Women, Peace and Security (S/2004/814).

Despite laudable efforts by many women's groups, Member States and United Nations actors, the lack of dedicated regular budgetary funds allocated to ensure the broad implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 continues to impede women's equal participation in conflict prevention, management and conflict resolution in post-conflict peacebuilding peacemaking and peacebuilding processes.

The NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security urges Member States at the 52nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women to:

∑ Recognize the serious under-resourcing of the United Nation's gender-specific entities necessary to support women's equal participation in conflict prevention, conflict resolution and in post-conflict peace-building;

∑ Recognize that extra-allocated funding alone for gender equality is not sufficient. The United Nations must guarantee that adequate, dedicated and sustained regular budgetary funds are enhanced in order to build and consolidate the capacity of women and women's groups to participate fully in peacebuilding processes;

∑ Reiterate a call for improved collection, analysis and inclusion of information on women and gender issues, including sexual violence, as part of conflict prevention and early warning efforts;

∑ Support the UN Secretary-General's recommendation for a dedicated Security Council mechanism. A dedicated mechanism would provide more effective monitoring of women's equal participation in conflict prevention and peacebuilding and sexual violence against women in conflict;

∑ Support the call for stronger UN women's entity, including enhanced resources, operational capacity in the field, and high level leadership to drive the agenda, including the protection of women's rights and equal participation in conflict prevention, management and conflict resolution in post-conflict peacebuilding peacemaking and peacebuilding processes.

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8. WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY CALENDAR

Training of gender audit facilitators
March 3-8, 2008, Turin, Italy
International Training Centre, Gender Coordination Unit

This course draws on the extensive experience the ILO has developed in-house in a series of groundbreaking gender audits involving staff and constituents from virtually every region in the world.

For more information, please click HERE

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Fourth Annual International Women's Day Celebration Breakfast
March 4, 2008, San Diego, CA
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice University of San Diego

The Fourth Annual International Women's Day Celebration Breakfast, co-convened with Voices of Women, the Women's Equity Council of the United Nations Association of San Diego and the University of San Diego Women's Center will report on the 52nd annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the United Nations in New York.

For more information, please click HERE

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Meaningful Movies: Film ScreeninIng
March 7, Seattle, USA
Wallingford Neighbord for Peace and Justice

This documentary explores how Rwanda is increasing women's participation in politics and civil society and what that gender justice means to ending and preventing war and other forms of violence.

For more information, please click here

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International Women's Day
March 8, 2008, Worldwide
United Nations

In 1975, during International Women's Year, the United Nations began celebrating 8 March as International Women's Day. Two years later, in December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions.

For more information, please click HERE

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Women, Power & Politics exhibition
March 8, 2008, San Francisco, CA
International Museum of Women

For more information, please click HERE

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Women and Sustainable Communities - a Little Goes a Long Way
March 12, 2008, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Norwood Hotel, 112 Marion Street, Winnipeg, Canada
The Winnipeg Chapter of UNIFEM

Diana DeLaronde-Colombe, the 1st Canadian to receive the Women's World Summit Foundation Prize for Women's Creativity in Rural Life, will speak about her work for the grassroots Northern Foods Initiative in Manitoba.

Tickets $30 from McNally Robinson Bookseller locations.
For more information, please contact Liz 779 9169 or email: unifem@shaw.ca

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Women, Action & the Media (WAM): A Conference for Activists, Journalists & Everyone
March 28-30, 2008, Cambridge, MA