Statement by Mr. Kieran Prendergast
Under-Secretary-General
Department of Political Affairs

Concrete Steps taken by DPA and Further Plans

• DPA has been working closely with the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement for Women on the follow-up to SC Res. 1325. The DPA Focal Points for Women are members of the Task Force on Women, Peace and Security which, in conjunction with Angela King’s Office, has put together the Inter-Agency Action Plan for the resolution’s implementation.
• Our field offices have provided us with in-depth reports on the question of women’s role in peace building efforts in their respective areas. In their reports they have also made recommendations for possible government, as well as UN action, which could facilitate more involvement by women in the different stages of peace building.
• Our efforts have also focused on encouraging governments to include in their legislation laws which protect the rights of women and girls. While these activities have been the focus of all our field missions, the countries which would represent our best practices are perhaps Burundi, Guatemala and Bougainville
• DPA recognizes the importance of engaging civil society with regard to gender mainstreaming. Our field offices will continue to establish dialogue with local NGOs and grassroots women’s groups involved in conflict resolution, peace initiatives, as well as peace-building activities. This includes activities related to the electoral process in which the UN is involved.
• The appointment of women to serve as the Secretary-General’s special representatives and envoys remains a high priority for us in DPA and I continue to encourage Member States to provide us with names of suitable candidates. We unfortunately lost two excellent women special representatives who resigned because of personal reasons.
• DPA continues to advise the Special Advisers and Special Representatives of the Secretary-General that, in their discussions with government officials, they strongly emphasize the need to protect and respect the human rights of women and girls. We also make every effort to ensure that this is clearly articulated in any UN-brokered peace agreements.
• DPA will continue to encourage governments to exclude from peace agreements any amnesty provisions for non-political crimes, including sexual and other violent crimes against women and girls.
• DPA will ensure that our field offices facilitate meetings for visiting Security Council missions with local women’s organizations involved in peace-building activities. Prior to these visits, the missions will be provided with briefs reflecting relevant gender issues.
• The DPA Focal Points and I recently met with the two Independent Experts, Elizabeth Rehn and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who are heading the expert assessments field visits on the impact of armed conflict on women and women’s role in peace building. Our discussion focused on (i) the aims of the expert assessments (ii) the objectives of the planned assessment field visits and (iii) measures which could be taken by DPA to support the Experts in this endeavour.
• DPA has also contributed to the Secretary-General’s Study on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Girls, which is being coordinated by the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women.
• Here at headquarters, we have been inviting the Departmental Focal Points for Women to attend meetings on the substantive work of the Department in order to include a gender perspective in our activities. They have provided me with an assessment of the Department’s gender mainstreaming efforts thus far, and have included proposals to further these efforts. These proposals will be brought to the attention of senior management to ensure that all our substantive programmes reflect a gender mainstreaming perspective. We will also need to ensure that there is a follow-up mechanism in place, which can assess the impact of our efforts, which will enable the Department to draw on lessons learned.
• Recently, at her request, the Special Adviser has been invited to participate in the Executive Committee on Peace and Security (ECPS) and her office is now represented in the Integrated Mission Task Force (IMTF) on Afghanistan. I hope that this participation at an early stage of the UN involvement in the country will contribute to ensuring that the role of women in post-conflict peace-building in Afghanistan remains.