Madame Deputy Secretary-General
Mr. President of the General Assembly
Mr. President of the Security Council
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am deeply honoured to have this opportunity to join such a distinguished Panel and discuss the critical issue of Women and Peace: Women Managing Conflict. Particularly as it coincides with a session of the Commission on the Status of Women which will focus on two key issues affected by conflict, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and gender dimensions of racism.

Much has changed since we all gathered here for the International Women's Day last year to discuss a similar theme "Women Uniting for Peace." The strong presidential statement made by Ambassador Chowdury of Bangladesh, President of the Security Council was followed a few hours later by the Statement of the entire Council recognizing women's role in peace operations. These acts signalled, from the principal organ of the United Nations dealing with peace and security, that women were on the map: they were recognized as being critical to preserving the social order and women and a gender perspective had to be incorporated in all aspects of peace from prevention and early warning to rebuilding of societies and future conflict prevention.

A further step forward was the Security Council's open debate on 24 and 25 October 2000, under the leadership of the Foreign Minister of Namibia, the Hon. Theo Ben Gurirab, when 40 Member States intervened to stress their support for the various roles women had to play and indeed were already playing in these operations and that for the most part they remained on the periphery of these operations. This debate built on the powerful Windhoek Declaration and the Namibia Plan of Action on Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective in Multidimensional Peace Support Operations adopted in Windhoek on 31 May 2000. On 31 October the Council adopted its resolution 1325 on women, peace and security which has resonated in national cabinets, newsrooms, and women's groups throughout the world.

The resolution's emphasis on women's equal participation with men at all levels of peace operations including especially as special representatives and special envoys, and on a gender perspective to be incorporated in all stages of conflict management. This means that when operations are being planned, when advance teams are being sent to conflict zones, when selecting observers, monitors, peacekeepers, civilian police and medical personnel, women should be included and the views of men as well as women and the different impacts of policies and strategies on women and men must be taken into account.

The special session of the General Assembly on "Women 2000:Gender Equality, Development and Peace in the Twenty-first Century" recognized in its Outcome Document the need to increase women's contribution to conflict management and decision-making. The Millennium Summit and Assembly reached historic consensus that no effort should be spared to free peoples of the world from the scourge of war and to protect the vulnerable, in particularly women and children.

The important stance taken by these assemblies of Member States supported by civil society opened the door for women to participate equally and to take leading positions in these operations. Resolutions however, do not always lead to de facto action. In this case equal partnership between men and women in peace operations, which have traditionally been male dominated, will not happen overnight, but will hopefully be a well-directed process till parity is reached.

Challenges are still faced. I shall mention three. The first is to have more women in leadership positions as defense ministers, deputy defense ministers and Secretaries of State for Defense. Today there are few. One former one is our distinguished Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Frechette. I am sure she will agree that skills honed during that period stand her in good stead in dealing with the complexity of the UN. Yesterday, in the Commission of the Status of Women, we heard about the appointment of many new ministers, including one deputy minister of defense, a woman, in Israel's newly appointed cabinet.

The second challenge is to raise awareness of the advantages of having a gender perspective in peace operations. Currently you have half of the population, with half of a country's community building and nurturing skills totally ignored. These skills have to be incorporated. You also have had successful initiatives to stop wars such as those of the Russian mothers in Afghanistan and Chechnya, women in Eritrea and Ethiopia, the Mano River Project covering Liberia and Sierra Leone, the mothers of Liberia, the women of Rwanda and Somalia, and the efforts of women in Burundi to have a voice in the Peace Accords, so vividly shown in the moving film we saw last year. These are only a few.

Several recent meetings, inspired by the Security Council resolution, focused on the need to attract the media into recognizing these efforts and to place existing women's movements and activities in the mainstream of ongoing United Nations and regional efforts. These included the high level First Summit of Arab First Ladies held in November 2000 in Cairo. A second was the Africa Leadership Forum in collaboration with the Government of Tunisia and the OAU/ECA African Women's Committee on Peace and Development (AWCPD) which convened the Third Africa Women's Forum in Tunis in January 2000. Both these meetings identified efforts, key women and established important strategic networks between women in government, civil society and activist NGO groups.

The third challenge is to do the necessary research. Institutions in Canada and Norway are trying to remedy this and funding bodies in other countries such as the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom are also assisting the UN and its family organizations to bridge this knowledge gap. I mentioned earlier the five-country case studies being finalized by the DPKO and we look forward to their publication. More recently the Forum on Gender and Peace Building on "Gender Relations in Post-conflict Transitions" was held in Oslo. The focus was the marginalization of women in peace-building. It concluded that gender perspectives were rarely taken into account in peace accords which also excluded civil society and women's groups. This often resulted in undermining the local population's trust in the process, which is so necessary to an effective and lasting peace settlement. This meeting built on a study issued by a Swedish NGO Kvinna Kvinna in 2000 analyzing the absence of a gender perspective in the Dayton Peace Accords on Bosnia. The impact resulted in cementing existing inequalities in these societies, and in not really affording women a fair chance to stand for or participate in the electoral process or be included in the decision making and employment opportunities associated with the rebuilding of the society. This is indeed an area where the United Nations and other interregional bodies, the OCSE, OAU, OAS, League of Arab States, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and many others, need to address the implications of plans for societies emerging from conflict. We call on academia to study the electoral results of Bosnia, Kosovo and soon to be East Timor to see how far gender perspectives where applied and how best we need to transform societies which have traditionally excluded women through these processes. Do we need to institutionalize proportional presentation, quotas or other mechanisms to bring women fully into decision making? Or do we leave states as they are? How can we encourage states to transform themselves democratically and at the same time cope with post conflict trauma, and the basic need for the return to normality: shelter, food security, being reunited with loved ones? Where are the priorities? And, do we have a right to choose?

A third meeting adding to our research base was held in Washington in December 2000, sponsored by the US Agency for International Development. Its theme Intrastate Conflicts and Women". Again, it based its findings, which coincided with those of other meetings and the DPKO study, on a five-country set of case studies on Bosnia Herzegovina, Cambodia, El Salvador, Georgia, Guatemala and Rwanda. Among its recommendations was a strong push for the greater involvement of civil society and women's local organization in conflict management. It also called for their adequate resourcing.

Many United Nations organizations play a key role in supporting women in different aspects of their conflict management activities by providing capacity building and financial support. In specific response to the Council's resolution, 1325 (2000), I was asked to coordinate the work of follow up and I established a Task Force on Women, Peace and Security of the Inter-Agency Meeting on Women and Gender Equality. The main purpose was to facilitate more systematic implementation of resolution 1325. A joint Action Plan is being finalized with the aim of providing a tool for accountability and monitoring. This plan involves humanitarian assistance, protection of women and children, training of all involved, particularly peace keepers, care of refugees and IDPS in post conflict situations, rehabilitation, reproductive health rights and access to health care of victims of war and accountability of war criminals.

The recent case in The Hague last week with the indictment by the International Criminal Court on Former Yugoslavia, of Karnac, Karunac and Vukovic sends a powerful signal to those who could commit such crimes in future. They can no longer do so with immunity. This historic legal precedent has been established. Systematic rape in times of war is clearly an indictable offence.

More importantly, key agencies are also collaborating in the preparation of the study requested by the Council on the effect of women in armed conflict. The outline is now being finalized in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. And I am greatly encouraged by the support of the Under-Secretary-General, Mr. Jean-Marie Guehenno, who has pledged to incorporate a gender perspective more forcefully into the work of the Department and has already proposed the establishment of gender units in peace operations and a gender unit at headquarters for more efficient planning and backstopping.

None of this would have taken place, ladies and gentlemen, without the full cooperation, energy and support of the NGO Community. I should like to single out the participation of the NGOs in the Arria formula meeting held immediately before the Security Council open debate and the persistence, persuasiveness and cohesion of this group of dedicated NGOs: International Alert, Peace and Freedom and others. A special tribute to you and your members all over the world who have lobbied for the cause and urged Member States and international organizations alike, to reach this point.

In this connection, I am very pleased that UNIFEM has initiated the First Millennium Peace Prizes which will be awarded tonight to three outstanding women and three organizations on the ground working for peace. We salute you. We know you are here and we look forward to your introduction shortly by Mr. Tharoor and to hearing your representative on the next panel.

Distinguished participants. Let us leave here today, not with the lingering memory that this is a once a year event offering displays of eloquence and humour, but for what the Day was originally intended - to draw attention to specific areas where the world has ignored half the world's resource power, brain power and special contributions in solving conflict. Principles of human rights and equality must underpin true development and peace. Let us ensure that this Day is just one step towards further concrete action.

Thank you.