YouSaid · the spoken record

Bahous

lines on the record: 412
first: 2016-10-19
most recent: 2023-11-22
sittings or episodes: 42
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“To transform the way that we do peace and security will take more than exhortations and consultations in the margins. Secondly, we need to broaden our reach to get resources to those who most need them but do not have them. The best tool that we have in the United Nations to channel funds to women’s organizations in conflict-affected countries is the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund, which has already funded more than 900 organizations since it was created in 2015 — a third of them in the past year alone. I am especially proud that almost half of those organizations received funding from the United Nations for the first time, and 90 per cent of them operate at the subnational level. We urgently need better ways to support civil society and social movements in those countries.”
2023-03-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9276 (2023) · source
“The concept note (S/2023/146, annex) for today’s meeting asks members for their plans between now and 2025, and I will close with two suggestions about what that change of direction could look like. First, we cannot expect 2025 to be any different if the bulk of our interventions continue to be training, sensitization, guidance, capacity-building, setting up networks and holding one event after another to talk about women’s participation, rather than mandating it in every meeting and decision-making process in which we have authority. I ask that Member States’ plans be remarkable for their special measures and accountability with regard to their application. I ask that that they be characterized by mandates, conditions, quotas, funding earmarks, incentives and consequences for non-compliance.”
2023-03-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9276 (2023) · source
“Back in 2020, in a world wracked by a new pandemic that showed the enormous value of caregivers and the importance of investing in health, education, food security and social protection, we had hoped that countries would heed the lessons from decades of activism by women peacebuilders and rethink military spending. Instead, that spending has continued to grow, passing the $2 trillion mark, even without the significant military expenditure of the past months. Neither the pandemic nor supply-chain issues prevented another year of rising global arms sales. As we meet today at the mid-point between the twentieth and twenty-fifth anniversaries, on the eve of International Women’s Day, it is obvious that we need a radical change of direction.”
2023-03-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9276 (2023) · source
“It is critical that Governments and private companies work together to foster technology as an enabler and accelerator of progress. We also just passed the one-year mark since the start of the invasion of Ukraine and of the largest refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War. Women and their children make up 90 per cent of the nearly 8 million Ukrainians who have been forced to move to other countries. Similarly, women and girls are 68 per cent of the millions displaced within Ukraine. Peace is the only answer, with women’s engagement in the process.”
2023-03-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9276 (2023) · source
“According to a recent study, for example, politically motivated online abuse about women from and in Myanmar increased at least fivefold in the aftermath of the military coup in February 2021. It mainly takes the form of sexualized threats and the release of home addresses, contact details and personal photos or videos of women who commented positively on groups opposing military rule in Myanmar. Yesterday the Commission on the Status of Women began its annual session with a priority theme dedicated to innovation and technological change. As my examples so far have demonstrated, women’s status is under siege. Aspects of technology, such as social media, have roles in sharing vital information and rallying support and also in causing further harm through spreading disinformation and fostering violent misogyny.”
2023-03-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9276 (2023) · source
“When a peace deal was signed two years later, some estimated the death toll to be in the hundreds of thousands. We may never know the number of women and girls who were raped, but the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia said that sexual violence had been committed on a staggering scale. Child marriage increased by 51 per cent in one year of conflict, and local health centres, aid organizations and human rights groups continue to report cases of sexual violence. Since the twentieth anniversary, there have been several military coups in conflict-affected countries, from the Sahel and the Sudan to Myanmar, dramatically shrinking the civic space for women’s organizations and activists if not closing it altogether.”
2023-03-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9276 (2023) · source
“Since then, the Taliban have announced more restrictions and detained more activists, including the women’s rights defenders Narges Sadat and Ismail Mashal, a university professor who bravely showed his solidarity with Afghan women and their right to education. Since the Council will be holding yet another meeting on Afghanistan tomorrow, I want to ask Council members to speak and act forcefully against that gender apartheid and find ways to support Afghan women and girls in their darkest moment. Afghanistan is one of the most extreme examples of regression in women’s rights, but it is far from the only one. Just five days after the Security Council met to mark the twentieth anniversary of resolution 1325 (2000), fighting broke out in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray.”
2023-03-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9276 (2023) · source
“At the Security Council meeting two and a half years ago marking the twentieth anniversary (see S/2020/1076), the Security Council heard from an Afghan woman representing civil society, Zarqa Yaftali. She was proud to be the tenth Afghan woman to be invited to speak to the Security Council. Like most of those who preceded her, she asked that women’s rights not be bargained away to reach a deal with the Taliban. And she expressed regret that women had been excluded from 80 per cent of peace negotiations from 2005 to 2020, including the talks between the United States and the Taliban. A few months later, Zarqa’s worst fears materialized, and the Taliban took control of her country once again. I visited Afghanistan with the Deputy Secretary-General only a few weeks ago.”
2023-03-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9276 (2023) · source
“Ms. Bahous: In the 20 years since the Security Council adopted resolution 1325 (2000), on women and peace and security, we have witnessed some historic firsts for gender equality. While we should pause to appreciate those firsts, we should also remember that we have significantly changed neither the composition of the people who sit at peace negotiation tables nor the impunity enjoyed by those who commit atrocities against women and girls. In fact, that twentieth anniversary was not a celebration but a wake-up call. We warned that the effects of ignoring our own commitments to women and peace and security would be long-lasting and intergenerational for women, and immediate and drastic for world peace. We were right to worry.”
2023-03-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9276 (2023) · source
“That includes the Government, as those are the goals of the first national action plan to implement resolution 1325 (2000) on women and peace and security, adopted by the Government six months ago and supported by UN-Women and the local action plans that we are working on for five federal member states and Banaadir district. Most important, we must continue to protect the space for the members of independent civil society, who are on the front lines of the fight, risking everything they have. Their patriotism should be celebrated, and especially should be supported, both politically and financially, in any way that the Council can. The Council has the opportunity to take decisive action and to stand with the women and girls of Somalia at this critical juncture. I urge the Security Council to seize this opportunity.”
2023-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9267 (2023) · source
“It includes participation in the civil service, the constitutional review, reform of the justice and security sectors and all efforts related to peacebuilding, State-building, preventing violent extremism, early warning, transitional justice and humanitarian aid. Only when women are included in all areas of public life will we have a chance at peace and at ensuring that we support the rebuilding of a society that is resilient to future shocks. By doing that, the Council will be amplifying the voices in Somalia fighting for those goals.”
2023-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9267 (2023) · source
“Despite the prevalence of sexual violence committed with high levels of impunity and targeted attacks on women in public life in Somalia, since 2014 none of the listings of the Somalia sanctions regime have mentioned sexual violence or women’s rights, including for the three Al-Shabaab individuals added in 2021. They continue to be gender-blind. The Security Council has repeatedly called for women’s meaningful participation. But we need members to demand it and to be more specific about what they mean and what they expect. That includes participation not only in elections, but also in the stabilization agenda that is a key current priority for the Federal Government and federal member states of Somalia.”
2023-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9267 (2023) · source
“A few months earlier, Al-Shabaab killed Hibaq Abukar, an adviser on women’s affairs in the Office of the Prime Minister. Its members target women activists and women working in local and national politics. In recent months, Sadia Yasin Haji Samatar, the first woman to occupy the position of First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, received death threats for speaking up in support of legislation that was favourable to women’s rights. In addition, women’s civil-society organizations are facing threats that attempt to control the agency and voices of women.”
2023-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9267 (2023) · source
“But that cruel violence against women and girls in Somalia is also very much linked to the conflict, both with Al-Shabaab and the Islamic State, and to inter-clan disputes. Al-Shabaab continues to abduct women and girls, force families to give them their daughters in marriage and occupy hospitals and maternity wards. Somali women are strong and resilient, but they are paying the ultimate price for defending their rights. Al-Shabaab has conducted many attacks to disrupt parliamentary elections. The deadliest targeted a bright young woman — Amina Mohamed Abdi — who had won a seat in Parliament at a very young age, in defiance of her own clan’s elders, and who was campaigning once again. Almost 50 people died in that attack, only 11 months ago.”
2023-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9267 (2023) · source
“Our own data indicates that 80 per cent of cases of sexual and gender- based violence do not reach the judiciary, and, when they do, they often meet with male judges in a system where fewer than 1 per cent of judges are women. And still we hear that women and girls are not prioritized in aid distribution and that local women’s organizations rarely get any funding. As donors and the United Nations worry about aid diversion and corruption, I would like to ask where the women are in camp management. Globally, we are sliding backwards on that score too. From 2020 to 2021, there was a drop in the participation of women in leadership and management structures in camps for refugees and internally displaced persons.”
2023-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9267 (2023) · source
“That year they doubled compared to 2019, and they have continued to rise as the worst drought in many decades is having a devastating impact on all Somalis, with women and girls disproportionately affected. CARE International recently documented a 200 per cent increase in gender- based violence cases among people displaced by the drought compared to previous years. In our own recent assessment on the impact of the drought, we found that women take on increased economic burdens, skip meals, find themselves separated from or abandoned by their husbands and are more vulnerable to sexual assault, as they travel longer distances to fetch water and firewood. Yet much of that goes unpunished.”
2023-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9267 (2023) · source
“The decline in women’s representation is not limited to the results of the last election. Only 13 per cent of the current Cabinet members are women, despite advocacy efforts in the talks during the Government’s formation. In the 2021 elections in Somaliland, after the rejection of a proposal for a 22 per cent quota, no women were elected to the 82-seat House of Representatives. In the South-West state Assembly, the representation of women also declined, from 22 to 15 per cent. In Puntland and Hirshabelle, women’s representation rates remain in the single digits. Conversely, the rates of sexual violence have seen an alarming increase since 2020.”
2023-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9267 (2023) · source
“Instead, its opponents are pushing for alternative legislation that would legalize child marriage, omit the age of consent, reduce the types of admissible evidence and take away the rights of survivors. In the 2016 elections, women’s representation jumped from 14 to 24 per cent, and a commitment was made to reach 30 per cent in the following elections. Instead, the total number of women in the two Chambers has declined from 80 to 67. Every Somali woman from civil society who has been invited to brief the Council in the past few years has warned that that would happen, has explained why and has provided details of the mechanisms that should be put in place for the 30 per cent quota to be met. Apart from a partial reduction in candidates’ fees, those ideas have not been implemented.”
2023-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9267 (2023) · source
“That situation exacerbates gender-based violence. In their deliberations and decisions on Somalia over the past few years, Council members have raised the importance of both the 30 per cent quota for women and new legislation on sexual violence. The two issues have been a top priority for the United Nations in Somalia and at Headquarters, including the two visits by the Deputy Secretary-General. Women’s political participation and leadership are prerequisites for more inclusive societies and for finding solutions to achieve lasting peace and sustainable development. Yet the quota in Somalia has not been met. Women’s representation has declined, sexual violence has increased and the sexual offences bill adopted unanimously by the Cabinet of Ministers five years ago has still not been adopted by Parliament.”
2023-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9267 (2023) · source
“Ms. Bahous: The last time I was in this Chamber was five months ago (see S/PV.9158) to present the annual report of the Secretary-General (S/2022/740) on women and peace and security. The Council members may recall that my main message that day was that we are sliding backwards rather than making progress, and that global trend is playing out in Somalia too. As we have just heard, the projections in Somalia are dire. In the past few weeks alone nearly 200,000 people have been displaced from Laascaanood, and more than 60,000, mainly women and children, have fled to neighbouring Ethiopia. The ongoing drought is expected to render half the population food-insecure by mid-2023 and put the country at increased risk of famine. The previous famine declared in Somalia in 2011 killed a quarter of a million people.”
2023-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9267 (2023) · source
“I ask that members follow through on measures to protect and empower human rights defenders, because they are there, on the front line, and their courage and leadership deserve nothing less than our full support. I call on Member States to demand that women be properly represented in peace processes. There are no real excuses for anything less. That we are going backwards is surely a simple failure of will. And I urge everyone to make the smart decision on funding and prioritize resources for women and peace and security. Our stated commitments are too far from the reality of where money goes right now, and that needs to change. We have choices to make. The right ones are clear and compelling and place women at the heart of our agenda. I hope that when we next meet it will be to discuss our success and progress in doing so.”
2022-10-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9158 (2022) · source
“It reflects our sister entities’ recognition not only of the role and contribution of UN-Women in that space but of how central gender equality is to effective humanitarian action. I assure the Assembly that I will tirelessly advocate for women’s leadership and gender equality, together with my entire team, across the breadth of humanitarian response. At UN-Women, we are also committed to ensuring that all we do contributes to the women and peace and security agenda. That includes the Generation Equality Forum, which provides a unique space for public and private partners to work together to achieve transformative change for gender equality. Let us make the Secretary-General’s report a milestone. The needs could not be greater, nor the cause more pressing. We must take its recommendations to heart.”
2022-10-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9158 (2022) · source
“The women and peace and security agenda demands both our individual commitment and our collective action. UN-Women is doing its part despite the challenges and will continue to do so. We are redoubling our efforts to support an ever more effective integration of women’s leadership, women’s empowerment and gender equality across humanitarian work. We are doing it through United Nations coordination, supporting meaningful intergovernmental action and supporting Member States to accelerate the implementation of the women and peace and security agenda in humanitarian settings. Just last week UN-Women joined the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, the highest-level humanitarian coordination platform of the United Nations system. I thank all the Member States that supported this.”
2022-10-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9158 (2022) · source
“In Myanmar, approximately half of women’s organizations had to close following the coup. I call on the international community to reverse that trend. All in a position to do so should significantly step up their funding for gender equality in conflict settings. To fail to do that is to fail to live up to our claims of commitment and support. I urge Member States to live up to their words and to make the choice to fund women’s rights defenders and the work of the United Nations and our partners. We are not naive. We understand that economic pressures around the world are part of what is driving those reductions. But this is also a matter of prioritization. It is a false economy that increases military spending, which has now reached an all-time high, while neglecting investments that make it less necessary.”
2022-10-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9158 (2022) · source
“I also welcome the 184 signatories of the Compact on Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action. However, those commitments can fulfil their promise only when they are supported with funding commensurate to the challenge. In 2021 there was a 72 per cent shortfall in funding aimed at preventing and responding to gender-based violence in humanitarian emergencies. The share of bilateral aid to fragile and conflict-affected contexts dedicated to gender equality remains at 5 per cent. Funding for women’s organizations in conflict-affected countries, where it is most needed, went from $181 million in 2019 to $150 million in 2020. In Afghanistan, 77 per cent of women’s civil-society organizations have received no funding at all in 2022 and are no longer running programmes.”
2022-10-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9158 (2022) · source
“I echo the Secretary- General’s call for the appointment of Special Envoys with a mandate to insist on women’s direct and formal participation and to take specific steps to facilitate it. It should not be — and it is not — beyond us. Let me turn now to funding, one of the key levers by which our words become reality. Investing in women’s leadership and women’s civil society organizations and supporting women human rights defenders in conflict contexts is more urgent, more needed and makes more sense than ever. It is encouraging that 103 countries have now adopted national action plans on women and peace and security compared to 37 a decade ago. It is heartening that a growing number of countries are choosing to adopt a feminist foreign policy, and I urge any countries that are going back on such decisions to reconsider.”
2022-10-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9158 (2022) · source
“And today the level of women’s representation in the national parliaments of conflict-affected countries is 5 per cent lower than the global average, while in local Governments it is 12 per cent lower. We know very well what to do. Quotas and temporary special measures remain our best tool to set right those damaging imbalances and promote equality in decision-making. In the past year, we have seen the Security Council use stronger language to demand women’s full, equal and meaningful participation in peace processes, such as in Cyprus or Yemen. Those are welcome demands and I thank the Council for them. Nonetheless, I urge all those supporting peace processes to insist on women’s direct and formal participation and on strengthening women’s resilience and leadership as a path to peace.”
2022-10-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9158 (2022) · source
“That point has been made here multiple times and is reflected in the Council’s own resolutions and supported by a wide range of evidence. Why then was the level of women’s representation in United Nations- led peace processes in 2021 only at 19 per cent — lower than it was in 2020? Why is the level of women’s representation even lower in processes not led by the United Nations? And why is it that from 2020 to 2021 we saw a decrease in the level of women’s participation in leadership and management structures in refugee and internally displaced persons contexts? In conflict-affected countries, the proportion of women represented in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) task forces was only 16 per cent — despite women’s leading role on the front lines of the COVID-19 response at home and in their communities and professions.”
2022-10-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9158 (2022) · source
“Secondly, we must provide material and political support to women human rights defenders and their organizations. Thirdly and finally, we must review and update legislation and administrative measures concerning asylum, temporary relocation or the temporary protected status needed due for gender-based persecution. Through those measures and more, we can make our political support visible and real. And lest any think that marginalizing women keeps them safe, let us be clear: it achieves the opposite. Denying women space, access or funding because of safety concerns emboldens perpetrators and in their eyes validates their tactics. Women human rights defenders must be front and centre in our work as we move ahead. We know that the pursuit of inclusive and sustainable peace demands the full participation of women.”
2022-10-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9158 (2022) · source
“For example, in Libya the United Nations has engaged with social media companies to fight misinformation and hate speech targeting women’s rights activists. In Colombia, more than 5,500 women leaders and human rights defenders have benefitted from protection strategies developed under a UN- Women programme. Those interventions save lives and help create space for the bravery of women human rights defenders to be translated into change, but there remains much more that we can — and therefore must — do. The Secretary-General’s report points the way forward. First, we must urgently strengthen reporting and coordination on the United Nations side and further build our partnerships with Member States, regional organizations and civil society.”
2022-10-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9158 (2022) · source
“The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights recently reported that 60 per cent of the nearly 350 individual cases of intimidation or reprisals following cooperation with the United Nations in the past year concerned women. Surveys conducted by UN-Women show us that nearly one third of the women representatives of civil society who have briefed the Council have also faced reprisals. The fact that briefing the Council is cause for such reprisals should surely shock and compel us to take action. The United Nations has stepped up its public condemnations of those reprisals, conducted visits to women human rights defenders at risk, facilitated the establishment of networks of women human rights defenders and supported the development of policies and laws that strengthen protection.”
2022-10-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9158 (2022) · source
“Siti Alnfor Ahmed Bakr, a 24-year-old nurse and activist in the Sudan, was killed by security forces in November last year when she participated in a peaceful demonstration in Bahry. We will soon hear from Ms. Zahra Nader, who will share with us the enormous risks taken and price paid by women human rights defenders in Afghanistan, who continue to demonstrate for their human rights in the face of the Taliban’s policies of systematic repression of women and girls — and for that they are harassed, detained and tortured. Each one of those incidents is appalling in its own right, but together they also reflect a bigger picture.”
2022-10-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9158 (2022) · source
“Around the world — from Iran to Tigray, Ukraine, Afghanistan and beyond — women human rights defenders risk their lives every day in the name of peace and human rights and for the sake of their communities and our planet. They should be cherished by everyone, but instead they are increasingly under attack. Tragically, there are numerous examples of that. Daniela Soto, an indigenous woman human rights defender from Colombia, has been advocating for human rights since she was a teenager. In May 2021, she was shot twice in her abdomen by armed civilians. She survived the attack and spoke here at the Security Council five months later (see S/PV.8879), bringing attention to the continuing killings of indigenous women leaders in Colombia.”
2022-10-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9158 (2022) · source
“It details crucial and specific implementation gaps that demand our collective and urgent attention. I urge everyone with a part to play in the pursuit of peace and security to read the report in full. I will focus on three cross-cutting areas highlighted by the report, for which I will have three corresponding asks for everyone. To be clear from the outset, those asks are to protect and support women human rights defenders as a powerful force for peace; guarantee a seat at the table for women when peace is made; and ensure that what we say about the priorities of women and peace and security is reflected in what we fund. We are a long way from where we should be on all three of those asks. I will begin with the subject of women human rights defenders, whose courage and commitment embody the ideals of the Security Council.”
2022-10-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9158 (2022) · source
“Ms. Bahous: At the outset, allow me to thank Gabon for organizing today’s open debate. It is an honour for me to be here this morning. This is a vitally important time for the women and peace and security agenda. A reversal of generational gains in women’s rights is taking place amid surging threats to security. Violent conflict, displacement, the repercussions of the global pandemic and the growing climate emergency all exact the highest price from women and girls. The Deputy Secretary-General has already made clear the linkages among the challenges we face. The retreat from and pushback against the rights of women and girls aggravates those challenges, while depriving us of the most powerful solutions. The report of the Secretary-General (S/2022/740) describes how the women and peace and security agenda has been driven back.”
2022-10-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9158 (2022) · source
“That is how we restore the balance, gain a chance of peace and stand up, together, for our shared values. The peace and security to which we aspire will only be possible when women play a central role.”
2022-06-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9064 (2022) · source
“The Fund also facilitated the evacuation of several Afghan women and dependents after the Taliban takeover, providing vital one-off emergency funds. The Fund is also providing life-saving support to women’s organizations in Ukraine that stay and continue to deliver services. In Mali, the Fund directly supported young women with income diversification, entrepreneurial and business opportunities. By investing in livelihoods, we invest in the future and in an inclusive and sustainable recovery. In conclusion, I hope those examples inspire us all. For our part, as UN-Women and partners, we plan to do much more. But we need the international community, including all regional organizations, to stand in solidarity with us and fully honour the commitments we have made to women and girls in conflict situations.”
2022-06-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9064 (2022) · source
“Regional organizations can spur those reforms in both legislation and administrative procedures among their membership. Less than a month ago, the Council of Europe adopted a new recommendation to protect the rights of migrant, asylum-seeking or refugee women and girls in the wake of the displacement of millions of Ukrainians. Let us also recall that civil society is our vital partner in such situations, yet often pays a heavy price when conflicts begin and its funding becomes jeopardized. Last year, the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund supported 215 civil society organizations, reaching 10.6 million people directly and indirectly, including forcibly displaced women, women and girls with disabilities and survivors of sexual and gender- based violence.”
2022-06-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9064 (2022) · source
“If we are to do that, we must honour our commitments and ensure that all response efforts fully include the voices of women leaders. We must ensure that women are part and parcel of finding peaceful solutions and of recovery and prevention mechanisms. When regional organizations convene negotiations, they must ensure that they do not have to ask where the women are. They must make sure that the women are there — in their own right, with their own lived experiences, knowledge and vision for their future. As was confirmed in the recent evacuation of human rights defenders and others from Afghanistan, we must all do a better job to provide support, protection and, in many cases, asylum, temporary relocation or protected status to people in harm’s way facing gender- based persecution.”
2022-06-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9064 (2022) · source
“But those activities seem separate from the political talks to bring about a solution to the rising violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where an increase in attacks by the Mouvement du 23 Mars and the Allied Democratic Forces and the growing influence of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Sham has led to the killing, rape, abduction and displacement of so many Congolese women once again. We must ensure that women’s networks and tracks are part and parcel of the political tracks, that women are equally included and that their voices and solutions are heard and included. I ask that the multilateral system — all of us — defend our values with the same determination as the women’s movement does. I ask that we all be undeterred by the current challenges and negative developments.”
2022-06-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9064 (2022) · source
“Take the Sahel, where we have the Group of Five for the Sahel Women’s Platform, the Network on Peace and Security for Women in the ECOWAS Region, the West African Network of Young Female Leaders and others. Many in the Security Council are members of the Group of Friends of Women in the Sahel, co-chaired by the African Union and the European Union. Yet we often see that the analysis and inputs from the platform are not adequately reflected in political updates. In the Great Lakes region, there is significant investment in mobilizing women and peace and security actors. The ministers of the member States of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region just adopted a new plan, and we have the Regional Women Forum and the Advisory Board for Women, Peace and Security in the Great Lakes Region.”
2022-06-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9064 (2022) · source
“The African Women Leaders Network has 29 national chapters now, and FemWise-Africa regularly deploys its members to peace processes and national dialogues led by the African Union. More recently, networks were launched that cover the Southern Cone in the Americas and the Arab States region. The Arab Women Mediators Network is the first of its kind, bringing together Arabic-speaking women leaders to be deployed to local and regional mediation processes. I encourage all Member States to utilize these networks. Yet, with all this institutional progress, almost every time there are political negotiations or peace talks, we still have to ask, “where are the women?” The reason is simply that we have not fully honoured our commitments.”
2022-06-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9064 (2022) · source
“What we have seen is that, when Member States get together and make commitments in the halls of regional organizations, national actions often follow. For example, once the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) committed to that goal, 12 out of the 15 countries in that region followed suit. The African Union committed to ensuring that half of its members would adopt plans by 2020 and has surpassed that target. Regional organizations have also played a key role in the development of networks of women mediators. Nearly every region and subregion now has at least one such network. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has had a registry of women experts in peace and mediation since 2018.”
2022-06-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9064 (2022) · source
“We have further sharpened those commitments through nine subsequent resolutions. Many in this Chamber have made national commitments as well, notably through national action plans on resolution 1325 (2000). We now have 100 national action plans globally. I applaud that historic figure. Even during the trials of the past years, Member States managed to continue that work. The United Arab Emirates, Malawi and Morocco are among the countries that announced their first national action plans on resolution 1325 (2000) in the past year. Most regional organizations have also committed to that path. Twelve regional organizations have adopted action plans on women, peace and security — up from five when we celebrated the resolution’s fifteenth anniversary in 2015. We applaud regional organizations for their efforts.”
2022-06-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9064 (2022) · source
“Reports of sexual violence are increasing, human trafficking is increasing and millions — mostly women, children and older persons — have fled their homes. Look to Syria, where 11 years of conflict has led to a surge in early forced marriage, gender-based violence and mass displacement. Look to the Sahel, where growing violent extremism is driving inequalities, food insecurity and violence. In all those conflicts, women face additional threats to their bodies, their livelihoods and their safety. Nevertheless, women are risking their lives as leaders in their communities, heads of households, peacebuilders and mediators. In the year 2000, through resolution 1325 (2000), we agreed to protect women and girls in situations of conflict and to ensure that women are front and centre in peace efforts.”
2022-06-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9064 (2022) · source
“It was also committed to in March this year at the sixty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which resulted in the first-ever agreed conclusions focusing on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in the context of climate, environment and disaster risk reduction. We must all work together to realize the promises made at the CSW. War and conflict impact the entire life cycle of women and girls — from disrupting education to early forced marriage, sexual and gender-based violence, insufficient livelihoods, food insecurity and lack of access to shelter, sanitation and dignity. It sets us back decades. Look to Ukraine, where the war has now surpassed 100 painful days.”
2022-06-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9064 (2022) · source
“Ms. Bahous: As we just heard from the Secretary- General, our world is facing the highest number of violent conflicts since 1945. By some estimates, democracy around the world has been backsliding for 16 consecutive years. Climate change is further increasing inequalities and fuelling tensions. As with all crises and conflicts, drought and desertification are directly increasing gender-based violence. Those inter-related facts hold us all back from achieving our aspirations, and women and girls are bearing the brunt of descent into conflicts or coups. That cannot continue. It is contrary to everything that has been agreed and decided in this Chamber, starting with resolution 1325 (2000). It is contrary to our collective promise in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and a more sustainable and peaceful future.”
2022-06-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9064 (2022) · source
“I have seen first-hand the impact that women’s leadership can have. Yet women are largely absent from any current negotiation efforts. We ask the Security Council, all Member States and our development and humanitarian partners to ensure the meaningful participation of women and girls, including from marginalized groups, in all decision-making processes, be they with respect to peace, diplomacy or humanitarian undertakings. Failing that, we will not have peace, development or human security. To conclude, we strongly echo the Secretary- General’s repeated calls for peace, an immediate cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory. Tatyana, the young girl from the shelter in Moldova, must be supported and enabled to pursue her medical degree and to be a part of the future of her country.”
2022-04-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9013 (2022) · source
“We know from experience that women’s participation makes response and recovery more effective and sustainable, and women’s organizations are uniquely qualified to help not just women but other marginalized and vulnerable groups. It is vital that they be consulted and engaged in all decisions related to the crisis response and to peace. They need to be seen not only as victims but also as agents and leaders of change, which they are. The Security Council has adopted 10 resolutions calling for women to be meaningfully involved in any decisions or negotiations about peace and security, and we know that women’s involvement is both a right and an opportunity for better outcomes. That is especially important in a war that has so starkly illustrated gender- based differences. Let us not lose sight of that.”
2022-04-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9013 (2022) · source
“The fund is also providing institutional support for these organizations to sustain them. With the Council’s help, we can do much more. Without fail, every Ukrainian man, woman and child I met had one dream: to be able to return home. However, as I heard yesterday, many do not have homes to go back to. I call on the Council to continue to use all avenues for peace. From UN-Women’s own rapid gender analysis, we know that women are asking to be part of the solution. I heard from women in shelters that they, too, are taking on leadership roles and supporting refugee responses in the host countries. Many of them are in touch with other women, their friends and families, who are supporting internally displaced persons in Ukraine.”
2022-04-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9013 (2022) · source