Need for women in peace-building

BY MANEL Abeysekera, President, Sri Lanka Women's Conference

IT IS heartening to note that Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the United Nations has highlighted at the UN Security Council open debate on "Women and Peace and Security" - as reported in your edition of October 2 - UN Security Council Resolution 1325 of 2000 on the degree to which women and children are affected by conflict situations and this in the context of the LTTE continuing to conscript children including girls, as militants.

UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and Resolution 1366 of 2001 - which recalls the provisions of the former and of the Beijing Platform for Action - also emphasise the obligation on the part of states afflicted by conflict to engage women in the process of searching for peace - in peace negotiations, peace building and the maintenance of peace.

While we welcome the Permanent Representative pointing out that Resolution 1325 was the result of the need to address violations of the human rights of women and children in situations of armed conflict "as well as the recognition of the capacity of women and the contribution that they can make in peace building", we regret that successive governments of Sri Lanka have not given effect to at least this latter aspect if they were unable to prevent the violations of the human rights of women and children.

The Sri Lanka Women's Conference has, on several occasions, drawn the attention of state actors to the absence of women from this role in our own conflict situation.

In fact, we had written to the President regarding this grave omission and copied our letter to the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and to the Secretary General of the Peace Secretariat.

We pointed out that the President's involvement is by virtue of the fact of her office and that the past dialogue on gender issues by the Government and LTTE appointed women's wings is not what we mean nor what we believe Resolution 1325 calls for what is necessary is for women to be in the mainstream of the peace process, not only on gender issues.

When, hopefully, peace talks are resumed, we consider it a fundamental gender right for women to be participants in them as negotiators on all aspects. Who knows, their participation may well succeed where only male participation has not!