UNIFEM to promote women's role in peace building

Three independent experts are visiting the DRC, Rwanda and Somalia to assess the impact of armed conflict on women and women's role in peace building, the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) announced on Wednesday. Former UN Under-Secretary-General Elisabeth Rehn, former Assistant Administrator and Director of the UN Development Programme regional bureau for Africa Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Associate Foreign Editor of the UK-based newspaper The Guardian, Victoria Brittain, will be traveling from 5 - 9 September in Rwanda and Somalia and from 10 - 15 September in DRC to consult with women "to understand and articulate their experiences during and after conflict," according to UNIFEM. "The assessments are in response to [prominent Mozambican women's and children's rights advocate] Graca Machel's call to mobilise a gender dimension in conflict resolution, and part of UNIFEM's ongoing efforts to engage women's participation in [resolution of] crisis situations and to facilitate consultation with grassroots, national and regional organisations involved in peace building, protection and assistance," UNIFEM noted. This is the second of six field visits to countries affected by conflict in Africa, the CEE/CIS, Asia and Latin America due to be completed by 30 January 2002. The first such visits were to East Timor and Cambodia last July.

The assessments will complement efforts already underway following the October 2000 Security Council resolution 1325 on Women and Peace and Security and will contribute to the preparation of a study by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.