Soderberg's UNSC Remarks on Women and Armed Conflict

Women Must Be Included At the Peace Table, Envoy Says

United Nations -- Women are an "under-utilized positive force for peace," U.S.  Ambassador
Nancy Soderberg said October 24.

Soderberg, the U.S. representative to the U.N. for special political affairs, told  the U.N. Security
Council that "we in the international community have failed to  make maximum use of the
contributions of women in our efforts to promote peace  and security throughout the world."

She suggested, among other things, that the U.N. have more women in peacekeeping 
missions, get more input from women's community groups when drawing up  reconciliation and
reconstruction agreements, and train all U.N. peacekeepers on  gender issues especially on
codes of conduct, cultural and societal norms with  respect to women.

For the first time in its history, the U.N.SC October 24 held an open debate  solely on the issue
of women, peace, and security. The Council has focused on  protecting women from the
devastating effects of armed conflict including forced  displacement, trafficking of women,
torture and rape, but had never looked into  how women can play a leadership role in restoring
peace.

"We need more than influential women at the highest levels of power and  prestige," Soderberg
said. "The United Nations must ensure that women's voices  are heard wherever the U.N.
assists in the settlement of conflict and in  post-conflict peace-building."

Following is the USU.N. text:


Mr. President,

The United States warmly welcomes this Open Debate on Women and Peace and  Security.
We thank Secretary-General Annan for his remarks and fully concur with  the statement in his
report that "equality of rights, opportunities and access  to resources between men and women
are fundamental requirements" in building a  durable peace. I commend President Ben Gurirab
and Ambassador Andjaba for their  leadership in bringing about this important meeting. In
particular I want to  extend a warm welcome to Ms. Angela King, the Special Advisor on Gender
Issues  and Advancement of Women and Ms. Noeleen Heyzer, the Executive Director of 
U.N.IFEM. I hope this body will meet the historic challenges you have put forward  today. I also
want to extend a warm welcome to our guests in the gallery. Your  support and participation is
important, it's the first time I've heard applause  in this chamber.

Today's meeting must not only make us all more aware of the important role women  play in
preventing conflict, encouraging reconciliation, and helping to rebuild  conflict-ridden societies,
but it must also spur us to concrete action. We, in  the international community, have failed to
make maximum use of the  contributions of women in our efforts to promote peace and security
throughout  the world. As Secretary of State Albright pointed out in a recent speech to a  group
of businesswomen, "in too many places, women remain an undervalued and  underdeveloped
human resource."

We applaud the unwavering efforts of the U.N. and its specialized agencies to  confront the
problems that affect mostly women. The work of these bodies and the  international
community's moral and financial support for such efforts have  changed the lives of many, both
young and old. Working together, we have taken  steps to promote equal opportunity, educate
girls and women, change unbalanced  inheritance and divorce laws, advance political and
economic equality, and  eradicate traditional practices harmful to women and girls.

Much of our attention has been directed toward protecting women, especially from  the
devastating effects of armed conflict -- including forced displacement,  trafficking of women,
torture, rape and other acts of sexual violence, as well  as a host of other crimes. For example,
the 1993 World Conference on Human  Rights focused solely on women as victims of armed
conflict. While the issue of  protection of women cannot be ignored, I hope that Security Council
action will  emphasize the leadership role women can and should play in restoring peace.
Women are an under-utilized positive force for peace. The Fourth World  Conference on
Women recognized that they must be fully involved in preventing  and resolving conflicts. We
must actively promote formal mechanisms, which  support a consistent female presence at the
peace table, in peacekeeping  operations and in the peace building efforts to reconstruct
institutions vital  to lasting stability.

The Secretary-General, by appointing qualified women to visible positions of  influence, has set
a laudable example for us to follow. Deputy Secretary-General  Louise Frechette, High
Commissioners Mary Robinson and Sadako Ogata, U.N.ICEF's  Carol Bellamy, and the World
Food Program's Catherine Bertini, just to name a  few, demonstrate daily that women do make
a difference in defusing conflict and  promoting equality, peace, and security. The challenge
before us is to emulate  their achievements in other international and regional organizations, in 
national governments, and across all levels of society. The United States  applauds the
appointments of these women, and we want to see more done. In  particular, we need more
women as Special Representatives of the  Secretary-General, as special envoys, and as
human rights investigators and  monitors. We hope the Secretary-General will strive to appoint
more fully  qualified women to these important positions. We strongly encourage member 
states to bring such candidates to his attention and to support the idea of the  U.N. maintaining
a roster of qualified women maintained as part of the United  Nations Standby Arrangements
System.

We need more than influential women at the highest levels of power and prestige.  The United
Nations must ensure that women's voices are heard wherever the U.N.  assists in the
settlement of conflict and in post-conflict peace-building. With  all due respect to my colleagues,
just look around this room. A good place to  start would be for member states to appoint more
women as Ambassadors to the U.N..  Certainly, one woman Permanent Representative, the
distinguished Ambassador  Patricia Durrant, out of fifteen on the Security Council, is at least six
or  seven too few. And 10 women out of 189 Permanent Representatives is a sad  commentary
on the state of women in leadership positions of the member states.  If we are to heed
President Ben Gurirab's challenge we all saw in the video, to  make women half of every
solution, member states must be able to do better than  5 percent. In all phases of
peacekeeping and peace-building missions the  presence of women must be visible and
consistent. When possible, fact-finding  missions should include gender advisors and the terms
of reconciliation and  reconstruction should draw on the expertise of women's community
groups.

The immediate aftermath of a conflict provides a unique window of opportunity to  re-build, with
the equal participation of women, the public security  institutions vital to lasting stability. In order
to facilitate this, states  should be committed to gender balance in their contributions to civilian
police  and other peacekeeping contingents and to assisting other states in achieving a 
gender-balanced perspective. In place after place -- from Northern Ireland to  Guatemala to
South Africa, we see that women are most effective when they are  able to organize and be
heard. Our First Lady's involvement in Vital Voices  around the world has demonstrated that
fact time and again.

We, as members of the Security Council, cannot be content with token  representation of half of
the world's population. The Security Council should  consider establishing a very specifically
mandated, expert panel or working  group to report on mechanisms that will ensure equal
representation of women in  peacekeeping and peace-building operations.

We also need to prepare our U.N. peacekeepers for encounters with the entire  population in a
mission area. This means that peacekeepers -- military, civilian  police and civil servants --
should be trained on gender issues. Those who  violate women's most basic rights must be
brought to justice. The training  should focus on codes of conduct, cultural and societal norms
with respect to  women, and study of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of 
Discrimination Against Women. At managerial levels, training should include the  participation
of women in institution building, particularly in rule-of-law  areas. The training unit in the
Department of Peacekeeping Operations should  develop exportable modules that may be used
in national and regional programs  and all U.N. training programs should include elements on
gender issues.

We encourage states to assist in other meaningful ways, as well. The United  States, for
example, has provided funding to the U.N. High Commissioner for  Refugees to support the
Bosnian Women's Initiative, which promotes the  reintegration of women into the economy. It
emphasizes training, legal  assistance, and support for micro-enterprise projects. Likewise, the
U.S. has  supported the Rwandan Women's Initiative to address refugee women's 
reintegration. The U.S. Department of State has also provided support to the  Women's
Commission for Refugee Women and Children that operates in Sierra Leone,  Afghanistan,
Azerbaijan and Sudan. These programs not only provide services to  women in war-torn areas,
but they seek also to integrate them into the political  and economic lives of their countries.

As we move forward, we should take care that our efforts to further empower  women in no way
disadvantage men. We should strive for equality, not special  treatment. What we really need is
a commitment from U.N. member states, the  Secretariat, and all concerned parties to honor
the obligations and promises  already made to women. Now we should look ahead to concrete
initiatives in  support of those promises.

Let me again commend President Ben Gurirab and Ambassador Andjaba for calling  for this
meeting today. I hope it is the beginning of regular discussions in  this chamber and that one
day there will be equal gender representation around  this table and throughout these halls.

Thank you.