West Africa: Call for women's inclusion in peace & security efforts– UN Women Chief | United Nations

The UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director, Sima Bahous, today (7 Aug) called on Council members to urge governments and regional bodies to ensure women’s full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation in transitional governments and peace and security efforts. She also called on Members “to urge governments and regional bodies to ensure women’s full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation in transitional governments and peace and security efforts; implement affirmative action laws, and ensure a safe, open space for civil society; invest at least 15 percent of violent extremism prevention funding in gender equality, and ask for engendered updates from sanctions and counterterrorism bodies; support the rapid deployment of Women Protection Advisors to UNOWAS to monitor sexual violence trends, engage with parties to conflict, and secure time-bound commitments; and, even in a challenging financial landscape, I urge international partners to provide direct, flexible, long-term funding to women-led and women’s rights organizations through mechanisms such as the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund and the Peacebuilding Fund.” Before the meeting, Panama’s Ambassador Eloy Alfaro, who is presiding the Council during the month of August, read a statement on behalf of the signatories of Shared Commitments on Women, Peace and Security (WPS). He said, “this region is facing multiple interest acting challenges, the erosion of democratic governance and of the institutional regional architecture. Limited economic opportunity and water and food insecurity have led to persisting transnational crime and forced displacement. These issues, exacerbated by the growing threats of terrorism and the effects of climate change, pose urgent and significant threats to international peace and security, and disproportionately impact women and girls.” Also speaking to reporters after the meeting, Sierra Leone’s Ambassador Michael Imran Kanu, speaking on behalf of the Permanent Representatives of ECOWAS on Combatting Terrorism through Regional Leadership and Multilateral Cooperation. Kanu said, “we strongly condemn all acts of terrorism and expressed grave concern over the use of unmanned aerial systems and aircraft capabilities and improvised explosive devices to target civilians and civilian infrastructure. The deliberate targeting of children, the equipment and radicalization of youth, attacks on schools and healthcare facilities, and restrictions on humanitarian access have compounded human suffering. This gets further aggravated by ethnic and communal tensions, particularly between herders and farmers, and exacerbated by the adverse effects of climate change, which perpetuate cycles of violence.”


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