Women are often the first victims of any armed conflict, but they must also be recognized as central to any solution of that conflict, instead of being marginalized or ignored, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette said Wednesday as she opened a conference in New York devoted to gender justice in post-conflict countries.
In the keynote address to the three-day conference, Ms. Fréchette said the UN is developing a more systematic approach to responding to issues faced by women in warring or post-conflict nations, consulting them at all stages of a peace process, including reconciliation, judicial reform and constitutional development.
But she said women still suffer from a “gender deficit” when it comes to justice, exposed to greater risk of sexual violence and abuse, and lacking the same protections as men.
– They are usually neither the initiators of conflict nor the wagers of war, and yet they are specifically targeted, often as a way to humiliate the adversary and break the morale and resistance of whole societies, she said.
Ms. Fréchette said governments and civil society organizations in States affected by conflict need to do much more than simply share information about the issue.
Women must be consulted at every level of justice reform, and States and agencies – including those within the UN – must work together more closely to identify best practices and encourage their spread around the world.
The Deputy Secretary-General also called on delegates at this weeks conference to speak out about what they identify as necessary to improving justice for women. She cited improving legal training, providing lawyers specializing in sexual violence cases and strengthening victim support programmers as some examples.
Women who work in the justice field in 12 war-affected areas take part in the conference. The participants come from Afghanistan, Burundi, DR Congo, Haiti, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia, Namibia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Timor-Leste.
– Thre is a justice deficit for women in countries that have been in conflict and coming out of conflict – in terms of the protection, in terms of the violations, in terms of the sexual violence that has been used on women, stated Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) adding:
– But at the same time there is a tremendous opportunity when countries are coming out of conflict to strengthen gender justice in the context of the rule of the law.
The conference has been organized by UNIFEM and the International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC), which is based in Stockholm.
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