UN launches new portal on Women, Peace & Security by United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) 12:20pm 31st Oct, 2003   30 October, 2003    An Internet portal offering comprehensive information on the dangers and responsibilities facing women and girls during armed conflicts and women's roles in peace building was unveiled today by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).    UNIFEM Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer said the portal would address the information gap, providing accurate reports and helping to track progress towards implementing Security Council resolution 1325. That text was unanimously adopted in October 2000 and urges an enhanced role for women in preventing conflict, promoting peace and assisting in post-conflict reconstruction within UN operations.    The resolution, she said, "is a watershed political framework that makes women - and a gender perspective - relevant to negotiating peace agreements, planning refugee camps, programmes and peacekeeping operations and reconstructing war-torn societies."    UNIFEM is the women's fund at the United Nations. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies that promote women's human rights, political participation and economic security. Within the UN system, UNIFEM promotes gender equality and links women's issues and concerns to national, regional and global agendas by fostering collaboration and providing technical expertise on gender mainstreaming and women's empowerment strategies.    UNIFEM’s framework for action on Women, Peace and Security.    Women’s protection in armed conflict and their centrality to conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peace building is a primary concern of the international community. Yet the deliberate killing, rape, mutilation, forced displacement, abduction, trafficking and torture of women and girls continue unabated in contemporary armed conflicts. As soldiers, as refugees, as survivors of landmine incidents and sexual violence, women experience conflict differently than men. For almost ten years, the United National Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), in co-operation with governments, other United Nations bodies, international and national organizations and non-governmental partners, has assisted women in conflict situations and supported their participation in peace processes. This work is guided by international humanitarian and human rights standards. UNIFEM provides strategic and catalytic support to mainstream gender and to support women’s participation in all efforts to build peace and resolve conflicts.    UNIFEM’s supports:    1. Early warning and prevention: understanding the impact of armed conflict on women    UNIFEM provides policy support, information and gender analysis of the political, humanitarian and human rights dimensions of conflicts. Key aspects of this work include collecting and disseminating information, disaggregating data, assessing lessons learned, and fostering cross-regional and inter-agency collaboration and learning.    1. Improving protection and assistance for women    Women and girls are often neglected in the delivery of protection and assistance during conflict and in post-conflict reconstruction. UNIFEM helps mobilize protection, humanitarian, psycho-social and economic assistance for women. Special focus is given to preventing gender-based violence and sexual exploitation and improving the monitoring and reporting of gender-based violations.    3. Making women and gender perspectives central to peace processes    From the grassroots level to the negotiating table, UNIFEM supports women’s participation in peace-building, and helps to leverage the political, financial and technical support needed for these efforts to have an impact on peace efforts nationally, regionally and internationally. UNIFEM fosters strategic partnerships with regional and intergovernmental bodies and brings its operational experience into mainstreaming gender in peace support operations by involving women in their design and implementation.    2. Gender justice in post-conflict peace building    During the transition to peace, a unique window of opportunity exists to put in place a gender responsive framework for a country’s reconstruction. As a central element of peace building, UNIFEM seeks to strengthen a gender focus in electoral, constitutional, legal, judicial and policy reform.    Click on the link below to visit this site. Visit the related web page
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