Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury. Credit: UN Photo

By  Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury *

New York, March 8 —  Exactly to the date, 10 years ago, on the International Women’s Day, on behalf of the UN  Security Council as its President, I had the honor to  issue a statement that brought to global attention the unrecognized, under-utilized and under-valued  contribution women can make to preventing war, to  building peace and to engaging individuals and  societies live in harmony.

The members of the Security  Council recognized that peace is inextricably linked  with equality between women and men and affirmed the  equal access and full participation of women in power  structures and their full involvement in all efforts  for peace and security.

It is unfortunate that the  intrinsic role of women in global peace and security  had remained unrecognized since the creation of the  United Nations.
For a long time, there has been  an impression of women as helpless victims
of wars and  conflicts.

The role of women in  fostering peace in their communities and beyond has
often been overlooked. The inexplicable silence of 55  long years was
broken, for the first time, on the 8th  of March 2000. Thereby, the seed for the
Security  Council resolution 1325 was sown.

If one looks  into the relevance of contents, potential for change  and
expected impact of any global declaration for  women, two stand out head and
shoulder above all  others.

The Beijing Platform for  Action and 1325 are unparalleled in terms of what
they  can do to empower women, not only to give 50% of  world’s population
their due but also to make the  world a better place to live. But where do
we stand in  terms of there implementation?

Adoption of  1325 opened a much-awaited door of opportunity for  women who
have shown time and again that they bring a  qualitative improvement in
structuring peace and in  post-conflict architecture. One shining example of
this has been the Mano River Women’s Peace Network  that brings together women
from the West African  nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra  Leone.

What then can we do in the coming months  and years to move forward an
effective implementation  of 1325 in letter and spirit?  The main question  is
not to make war safe for women but to structure the  peace in a way that
there is no recurrence of war and  conflict.

That is why women need to  be at the peace tables, women need to be
involved in  the decision-making and in the peace-keeping teams,  particularly as
civilians to ensure real and faithful  implementation of 1325.

The time has come to  prepare an exhaustive and comprehensive list of
indicators to monitor and measure progress in the  implementation of 1325 in its
letter and spirit.   Included in that should be the statement by the
Security Council on 8 March 2000 as that laid the  foundation of the resolution.

The Security  Council resolution 1889 adopted on 5 October 2009  asked the
Secretary-General to submit to the Council  within 6 months a set of
indicators for use at the  global level to track implementation of 1325, which
could serve as a common basis for reporting by  relevant United Nations
entities, other international  and regional organizations, and Member States in
2010  and beyond.

What is the Secretary-General’s  role in all these? Not to speak of the
need for his  genuinely active, dedicated engagement in using the  moral
authority of the United Nations and the high  office he occupies for the effective
implementation of  1325, even his pronouncements have referred to this
landmark resolution in a cursory and non-substantive  manner.

On this year’s International Women’s  Day, which his office curiously
pushed on the CSW 54  to be observed on 3 March, Secretary-General Ban  Ki-moon
devoted one lonely sentence to 1325 in his  rather long oration claiming that
he has  ”made  women’s empowerment a priority”.

On the 2008 and 2009  International Women’s Day, he used his good judgment
not to say anything at all on 1325. 2007 was different  that being his
first year and policy direction was not  in place early in March.

Even worse, since  taking over, Ban has met hundreds of heads of
state/government, kings, emirs at the UN and  throughout the world, but in his
talking points with  them there has been no place for 1325 and its
implementation.

Would it not have strong,  positive impact on countries for the
implementation of  1325 if their leaders received a formal communication  from Ban
urging them compliance with the Security  Council resolution?

So far only 17 countries  have submitted their national implantation plans.
Why  does not the Secretary-General write to member-states  suggesting a
date for submission of these  plans?

Another area that deserves special  attention is the need for the
awareness, sensitivity  and training of the senior officials within the United
Nations system as a whole with regard to 1325.   At the same time, it would be an
eye-opener to know  what kind of instructions have been sent to the UN
Resident Coordinators who represent the SG and the  whole UN system at the
country level.

A matter  of urgent attention is that in the name of  peacekeeping, the
abuses which have been ignored,  tolerated and left unpunished for years by the
U.N.  cannot be acceptable in a civilized international  community. Out of
450 cases of abuse, only 29 have  been acted upon during 2007-2009.

The U.N.  leadership hides behind the position that it is the  sovereign
right of member-states to try their  peacekeepers. If the U.N. through its
tribunals, and  through the International Criminal Court, (ICC) can  put former
or sitting heads of state on trial, then  why not peacekeepers? The SRSG in
charge of each of  the 18 peacekeeping missions should be accountable for
sexual violence and abuse committed by any peacekeeper  in his/her
jurisdiction.

Also, critical here  is the role and contribution of civil society. At the
global level, the UN secretariat should not only make  it a point to
consult it, but at the same time, such  consultations should be open and
transparent.

During the 10th anniversary  ministerial meeting of the Security Council in
October, civil society should have seat at the Council  table. These days
one rarely hears about the Arria  formula meetings of the Council with NGOs.

An  experts group has been set up by Ban a few days ago  and it was handed
a tall agenda. For sure, the group’s  final report would not be out before
this October.  Conventional wisdom at the UN says that when the SG  wants to
skirt any responsibility, he calls an experts  group. Group’s co-chair Mary
Robinson said “We will be  consulting with civil society organizations
around the  world …” Civil society will wait for that  invitation, one hopes at
the first meeting of the  experts group in New York.

We should not  forget that when civil society is marginalized, there  is
little chance for 1325 to get implemented in the  real  sense.

* Former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the  UN