Recommendations for the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations

1. 1325 TRANSLATION UPDATE: MARATHI AND WOLOF TRANSLATIONS NOW AVAILABLE

TOTAL NUMBER OF AVAILABLE TRANSLATIONS: 65

PeaceWomen recently received a Marathi translation and a Wolof translation.

Marathi is one of India's official languages, and is the state official language of Maharashtra. Wolof is spoken in Senegal and Gambia, as well as in Mali and Mauritania.

The Marathi translation was completed by the WILPF India Section, Nagpur branch (Maharashtra)
For more information, contact Sushma Pankule at:
Email: sushma_pankule@yahoo.co.in
Tel: 091--0712-2228302
Fax: 091-0712-2248998

The Wolof translation was completed by:
Maam Daour Wad
Translated under the supervision of Africa Consultants International Baobab Center
BP 5270 Dakar-Fann, SENEGAL
Tel. 221-825.36.37 or 825.49.72
Fax: 221-824.07.41
E mail: aci@enda.sn
Website: http://www.acibaobab.org

For information about the translators, CLICK HERE.

To view the 65 available translations, CLICK HERE.

If you know of existing translations or potential translators, please contact sarah@peacewomen.org.

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2. WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY NEWS

AFRICA: WOMEN STORM ABUJA, WANT GENDER ISSUES ON AU AGENDA - INTERVIEW
January 30, 2005 - (Vanguard –Lagos) Top on the African Summit of the Presidents due to start today in Abuja would be such issues as health, food security and environmental degradation. But a coalition of 19 women's groups under the banner of Solidarity for African Women Rights are in the Federal Capital City saying issues of women's rights also need to be highlighted.

RWANDA: THE ONLY WOMAN ON GENOCIDE TRIAL AT ITCR TO START HER DEFENCE ON MONDAY
January 28, 2005 - (Hirondelle News Agency - Lausanne) The team defending Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, the only woman so far to be indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) begins its case on Monday.

GENDER EQUALITY AND DEVELOPMENT GOALS INEXTRICABLY LINKED, UN AGENCY SAYS
January 26, 2005 – (UN News) With the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to halve extreme poverty now placed at the centre of today's socio-economic programmes for developing countries, the national experience of each country with existing treaties on women's rights must be integrated into plans to achieve those targets, the United Nations women's fund says.

IN DISASTER ZONE, WOMEN ARE KEY
January 24, 2005 - (Christian Science Monitor) Alarmed at the near total absence of women's voices in the post-tsunami recovery and reconstruction now taking place in Sri Lanka, a group of women's associations has quickly formed there. Led by Visaka Dharmadasa, founder of the Association of War Affected Women, they have established the Tsunami Women's Fund and demanded a seat at the table at meetings on policy for rebuilding their country.

PROTOCOL ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA: PRECONDITION FOR HEALTH AND FOOD SECURITY
January 20, 2005 – (Pambazuka News 190, Special Issue) Included in this special issue is an analysis on “Masculinity, Peace Processes, Impunity and Justice,” by Ana Elena Obando.

FEMTALK ENEWS BULLETIN
January 2005 - (femLINKpacific) This issue of the bulletin includes a fem'TALK 1325 update from Fiji, Bougainville and the Solomon Islands.

1000 WOMEN FOR THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 2005 UPDATE
January 2005 – On 1 February 2005, the Association 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005, together with a team of international experts, will officially nominate the 1000 women in Oslo. Since the Nobel Peace Prize cannot be awarded to 1000 women, in December 2004, three women were chosen to represent the 1000 peace women.

For more country-specific women, peace and security news, CLICK HERE

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

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3. BEIJING +10 UPDATE: 3 WEEKS TO GO

SIGN-ON LETTER: Calling on Governments to Fully Reaffirm the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA)
Prepared by the NGO CSW International Planning Group

This is a call for your organization or network to sign-on to a letter in support of the reaffirmation and full implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. This letter is being circulated to all concerned with Beijing +10 being a progressive meeting, where governments commit to stronger action for the realization of women's rights and do not backtrack on commitments they have already made.

The ten-year Review and Appraisal of implementation of the BPfA and the Outcome Document of Beijing + 5 will take place during the 49th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York, February 28-March 11, 2005 (Beijing + 10). It is very likely that governments will adopt a political declaration at the close of this meeting. This declaration will be short but important in terms of its message. The sign-on letter below calls for governments to support full reaffirmation and implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.

We urge you to take part in this action. To sign the letter, please go to http://www.peacewomen.org/un/Beijing10%20/SignOnLetterB10.html,
where the signatories of the letter will also be posted.

We hope that your organization or network will use this sign-on letter in your lobbying, campaigning and media work at the national level, in preparation for the Beijing + 10 meeting. Work at the national level in advance of the Beijing + 10 meeting is going to be crucial since much if not all of the negotiation on a political declaration will take place in advance of the meeting itself.

If the political declaration is still under negotiation when the Beijing + 10 meeting begins we will make full use of this letter and the signatures attached in media and other work in New York. For this reason the larger the number of organizations which sign-on and the broader the geographical spread of those that do sign-on the more powerful will be the message!

Respectfully,
NGO CSW International Planning Group

A Sign-on letter Calling on Governments to Universally Reaffirm and Implement the Beijing Platform for Action

We, the undersigned international and national non-governmental organizations, networks, and parliamentarians from every region of the world, representing great political, social and religious diversity, underline the importance to us and to women worldwide of the ten-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action and the 30-year Anniversary of the First UN World Conference on Women, held in Mexico in 1975. Noting that the objectives of the ten-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Outcome Document of the 23rd Special Session of the General Assembly are to identify achievements, gaps and challenges in their implementation and emphasizing the need for high-level governmental participation at the 49th Session of CSW, we urge governments gathered at the 49th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women to:

1. Universally reaffirm the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Outcome of the 23rd UN General Assembly Special Session (Beijing +5);

2. Re-commit to immediate national level implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Outcome of Beijing + 5.

3. Recognize that the realization of the Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals depends on achieving the human rights and empowerment of all women, the attainment of gender equality and full implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action;

4. Commit to incorporating these into the discussions and outcomes of the Millennium Summit at all levels.

Sign on at: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/Beijing10%20/SignOnLetterB10.html

Bulgarian, French, Spanish, Arabic and Czech translations of the sign-on letter will be available shortly at:
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/Beijing10%20/SignOnLetterB10.html

For a list of the signatories (55 to-date), CLICK HERE.

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NEW RESOURCE: Pathway to Gender Equality: CEDAW, Beijing and the MDGs
United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in partnership with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
January 2005

This new publication “examines the gender equality dimensions of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through the lens of two important global processes: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the implementation of the 1995 Beijing Fourth World Conference of Women.

The publication draws on the wealth of information and experience on gender equality issues that CEDAW and Beijing already provide, suggesting that this be used to complement the MDG agenda. It identifies specific ways in which the three frameworks correspond to and support each other, and suggests resources and entry points for engaging in the process.

"Pathway to Gender Equality" was produced by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in partnership with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in anticipation of the ten-year review of progress in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action, commonly called Beijing+10.”

The above excerpts are found in UNIFEM's press release, available HERE.

For the report, CLICK HERE.

For timely information on the Review and Appraisal of the Beijing Platform, CLICK HERE.

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4. FEATURE REPORTS

Caught in the Middle: Mounting Violations Against Children in Nepal's Armed Conflict
Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict*
January 2005

Caught in the Middle documents the dangerous reality for children in Nepal, who are being killed, maimed and subjected to many other violations of their security and rights. The report compiles evidence gathered by child protection groups in Nepal. It documents systematic violations against Nepalese children and calls for immediate action to stop these abuses and end impunity enjoyed by those who commit them. Among the spectrum of violations documented in the report are killing, maiming, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, attacks on schools, abduction, trafficking, forced labor, underage recruitment into fighting forces, forced displacement, death and injury from landmines, and others.

Below are excerpts from the sections on Gender-Based Violence and Child Soldiers:

Gender-Based Violence
Very little documented information is available about gender-based violence (GBV) against girls under age 18 in Nepal. “Given the cultural and religious context in which rape victims can face social ostracism and shame, it is likely that many cases of rape are not reported. Moreover, the climate of impunity means victims may believe that little or no action will be taken against the perpetrators if they report the crime,” according to AI, Nepal: A Spiraling Human Rights Crisis, 2002. Nepal also lacks legal and social policies for witness and victim protection, without which many survivors of GBV may choose to remain silent…

Girls Associated with the Maoists
Maoists recruit and use both boys and girls. In one example of recruitment of girls, Rajdhani reported in March 2004 that the incidence of Maoists recruiting girls under age 18 in the Karnali region is increasing. The article, “Thousands of Women in Karnali Region Undergoing Military Training,” explains that parents are sending girls rather than boys, who are considered more valuable, to the Maoists in order to fulfill their obligation of sending at least one child from each household…

For the full report, CLICK HERE.

The report is available in English and Nepali on the Watchlist website at: http://www.watchlist.org

For the related press release, CLICK HERE.

*The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict is a network of NGOs dedicated to monitoring and reporting on violations against children in armed Conflict. The Watchlist is managed by a Steering Committee of leaders in child protection, including CARE International, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Save the Children Alliance, the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, and World Vision. Watchlist has worked with other local and international organizations on the preparation of this report.

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Gender Awareness in Research on Small Arms and Light Weapons: A Preliminary Report
Emily Schroeder, Vanessa Farr, and Albrecht Schnabel (swisspeace)
January 2005

A more multi-disciplinary approach to research on small arms in recent years is looking beyond simply “counting the weapons,” focusing also on the devastating human suffering facilitated by arms proliferation. Unfortunately, a discussion of how gender ideologies might influence people's attitudes to small arms has been largely absent in this discourse. Yet, gender shapes and constrains the behavior and attitudes of women and men, including creating differences in their approaches to and use of small arms. Because these differences have not yet been widely – or only inadequately – researched, we have little scientific evidence with which to influence the development of gender mainstreamed programs to curtail the impacts of small arms and light weapons. This Working Paper reports on the preliminary findings of a collaborative project on “Gender Perspectives on Small Arms and Light Weapons,” which aims to contribute to existing efforts to fill this research gap. Drawing on experiences and data from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, South America, the South Pacific, Europe and North America, the Working Paper identifies common themes, questions, challenges and recommendations that have so far emanated from the research project.

For the full report, CLICK HERE or visit the website of swisspeace.

For NGO and civil society reports, papers and statements, UN and government reports, and books, journals and articles on women, peace and security issues, CLICK HERE.

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5. GENDER AND PEACEKEEPING UPDATE

Recommendations for the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations (31 January-25 February)
NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security
28 January 2005

To further implementation of UN Security Council Resolution (SCR) 1325 on women, peace and security, at the 2005 session of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations (31 January-25 February 2005), the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security , respectfully submits the following recommendations.

We note the Secretary-General's comment in his report on women, peace and security (S/2004/814), “The Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations has increasingly paid attention to issues concerning women, peace and security and has called for the full implementation of…resolution [1325].” Accordingly, we set forth the following recommendations to assist the Special Committee in furthering its attention to women, peace and security issues, and respectfully urge the Special Committee to include the recommendations in its final report on the “Comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects.”

…2. Gender Expertise

Congratulating the DPKO Gender Advisor at Headquarters, and the Gender Advisors in the field for their excellent work to-date, while noting the respective ongoing staffing and financial limitations,

We urge the Special Committee to:

Ensure that Gender Advisors in peacekeeping missions have access to budgetary resources to facilitate implementation of gender mainstreaming activities;

Ensure that gender advisors are deployed at the onset of every new mission, in order to ensure effective integration of gender issues in the early stages of the mission; and

Strengthen the gender advisory capacity at Headquarters, by providing additional support staff, and upgrading the Gender Advisor post, in line with the recommendation proposed by the Permanent Mission of Norway to the UN during the 2004 session of the Special Committee.

For the full set of recommendations, including accompanying footnotes, addressing among other issues, gender training, gender balance and recruitment, and conduct and discipline issues, CLICK HERE.

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Update on the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations (C-34)
31 January - 25 February 2005, UN Headquarters, New York City

The 2005 session of the UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations (C-34) began with a 2-day General Debate during which C-34 members generally send their senior military advisors to address the Committee on the main peacekeeping priority issues of their country.
Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Mr. Jean-Marie Guehenno, opened the C-34 Session with his reflections on the most important developments in UN peacekeeping in 2004 and their implications for 2005. One of the three developments he highlighted concerned the allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers in the UN peacekeeping operations in DRC (MONUC).

Excerpted below are his remarks concerning the allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by MONUC personnel:

“...Never before in the history of the United Nations have we witnessed allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse in this order of magnitude. And, never before has the UN investigated them as intensively as it is now doing.

…It is, quite frankly, hard to believe that scores of allegations can emerge without being illustrative of a wide-spread problem. We do not know how many cases are going unreported, whether in MONUC or elsewhere. In all likelihood, peacekeepers have committed acts of sexual exploitation and abuse in other missions throughout the past decade, but the vast majority has not been formally reported to Headquarters. It is now apparent that neither you nor we have been aggressive enough to search for and expose these cases. That new allegations came to light in DRC, even after the OIOS investigation was launched, makes it patently obvious that some peacekeepers even still have not gotten the message.
We need your help to send the right message to them, by taking swift action where clearly warranted, while respecting due process and the presumption of innocence before guilt is proven. We need your help to address obvious shortcomings in our investigative capacities. Proving sex crimes is one of the most difficult prosecutorial challenges for even the most sophisticated criminal justice systems let alone for peacekeeping operations, which, at present, are woefully ill-equipped to investigate them. And, we need your help to make significant improvements in prevention measures.

The public relations dimensions of this problem are secondary. The most important priority is for us to collectively tackle this issue, substantively. We simply cannot abide by the vulnerable being victimized by even one peacekeeper sent to protect them. We need to do the right thing, even if that means exposing further weaknesses in the system in the short-term.

That is why we have taken several measures that are described in the report before you. It is also why we are proposing in our next Support Account submission to establish a dedicated unit, in my office, headed at the D-1 level to deal with all forms of personnel misconduct including sexual exploitation and abuse.

But these measures will not be enough. A drastic overhaul of the system is required. In the report before you, the Secretary-General indicates that he would be willing to put bold, imaginative and creative ideas on the table for you to consider, very quickly, building on the excellent work of Prince Zeid. I sincerely hope that you will take him up on the offer. The Secretariat cannot solve this problem on its own. We need your support and full cooperation…

For a more comprehensive compilation of relevant excerpts from Mr. Guehenno's remarks, CLICK HERE.

For Mr. Guehenno's full statement, CLICK HERE.

PeaceWomen's Gender and Peacekeeping Index: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/pkwatch/pkindex.html

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6. ACTION ALERT FROM THE NGO WORKING GROUP ON WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY

Millennium Declaration
The NGOWG provided recommendations on how to thoroughly incorporate women's issues and a gender perspective to drafters of the upcoming Secretary-General report on the Millennium Declaration. The report is scheduled to be released in March 2005 and will focus the issues for consideration at the Millennium +5 Summit in September 2005, based largely on the findings in the Millennium Project's report and the High Level Panel Report. At present, the UN states that due to security and space concerns, civil society will not be permitted to participate in the high-level Summit. The NGOWG and many other NGOs communicated to Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette at a meeting on January 24, 2005, that civil society must have the opportunity to participate with the world leaders during the Summit, not only during the DPI/NGO conference preceding the Summit from 8-10 Sept. For more information on the UN's current plan for civil society interaction, see http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N04/583/08/PDF/N0458308.pdf?OpenE...

Action:

* Please send requests for civil society interaction to the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service at: Tel +1 212 963-3125, Fax +1 212 963-8712, Email: ngls@un.org
* Please also contact your country's permanent representative to the UN (list of all permanent representatives available at: http://www.un.int/index-en/webs.html)

49th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women Workshops: 1325 in Practice
We invite you to participate in an NGOWG workshop on using SCR 1325 as a powerful tool to support your work on women, peace and security. Two opportunities to participate:

* ∑Friday, 4 March (time and location to be determined) and
* ∑Monday, 7 March, 1:15-2:45pm, UN Church Center, 777 UN Plaza (44th Street and 1st Avenue), 8th floor.

Action: Check the CSW calendar on PeaceWomen's Beijing+10 webpage for more information:
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/Beijing10%20/beijing10index.html

For more information about the NGOWG, CLICK HERE.

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7. WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY CALENDAR

European Conference Beijing +10
2-3 February 2005, Luxembourg
European Conference in February 2005 on the review of the implementation of the Beijing platform for Action and the follow-up documents of the 23rd session of the General Assembly 2000.

European Union Ministerial Meeting Beijing +10
4 February 2005, Luxembourg
Adoption of a common declaration by the EU Ministers of gender equality, which is to be presented at the 49th session of the Commission of the Status of Women, United Nations, March 2005, impacting the review of the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals.

For the provisional agenda for the European Conference and Ministerial Meeting, CLICK HERE.

Beijing +10 Overview Calendar for February and March 2005: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/Beijing10%20/OverviewCalB10.pdf

Call for Papers: Articles on Social Exclusion, Gender and Conflict needed for Critical Half, an international development journal
Women for Women International
Deadline: 15 April 2005
This issue of the journal will focus on the manifestation of social exclusion during and after conflict with special attention to gender issues. It is important to understand the role that gender plays in social exclusion and the effect that it has on women, as we understand women's experiences to be a barometer for the rest of society. We will look at various manifestations of exclusion in conflict and post-conflict settings: economic, social, cultural, and political, as well as strategies designed to extend opportunities for participation that are shared equitably between men and women. Articles should be 2,000-2,500 words long. Articles should be sent by e-mail. For more information, contact: Corey Oser at coser@womenforwomen.org or +1 (202)-737-7705, or visit http://www.womenforwomen.org/chpap.html.

For the complete calendar, CLICK HERE.

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