On Thursday, the United Arab Emirates Permanent Mission to the United Nations hosted a panel discussion on "The Implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda: Harmonising the High-Level Review Processes".

The discussion centred around the need to harmonise all of the concurrent high-level review processes to ensure that gender equality remains central to all peace and security efforts. The panel was the sixth and final part of a Panel Series on Women, Peace and Security hosted in partnership with UN Women as the Secretariat of the Global Study on the Implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), and the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security.

The panel brought together high-level UN officials and experts, including Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, the Honourable Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire, President, Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire Foundation; Founder, The Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Executive Director, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. Other panelists included Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy, Lead Author, Global Study on 1325 (Member of the High-Level Review on Peace operations), Youssef Mahmoud, Senior Adviser, International Peace Institute (Member of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations and High-level Advisory Group for Global Study, Saras Menon, Member of the Advisory Group of Experts on the peacebuilding Architecture, and Yannick Glemarec, Assistant Secretary-General, Deputy Executive Director of Policy and Programme, UN Women.

In her opening remarks, Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh, Permanent Representative of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations, highlighted the centrality of the topic, saying that "it represents a critical juncture as the UN approaches its 70th year and continues to confront serious challenges across every core security and development mandate that it holds, and questions surrounding UN's effectiveness."

"The global context is changing rapidly, characterised by a volatile mix of political, economic and security factors, exacerbated by trends including the growing impact of non-state actors and violent extremism, demographic pressures, and ever-more complex and protracted conflicts forcibly displacing 52 million people, a greater number than any other time since World War Two," she said.

Nusseibeh pointed out that a number of high-level reviews have been initiated to enhance the UN system's ability to deal with the evolving context, citing the inter-governmental agenda this year from the Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa, to Paris Climate Change Conference and the World Humanitarian Summit as an opportunity to profoundly reshape the UN's capabilities and capacities to advance the Women, Peace and Security agenda beyond rhetoric to achieve real impact. She said, "It is our belief that he Women, Peace and Security agenda must be a key linkage across these processes.

"The evidence base, since the resolution was adopted in 2000 and since the first acknowledgement of the role of women in Peace Operations included in the Brahimi report 15 years ago, has grown and further confirmed the qualitative and quantitative contributions that involving women at every stage of these processes makes societies more stable," she said.

Ambassador Nusseibeh concluded by thanking the panelists for their invaluable contributions to the UAE's initiative, outlining the importance of partnerships in tackling the shared priorities in today's increasingly fragile world.

Deputy Secretary-General Eliasson congratulated the UAE for its continued leadership on WPS, pointing out that the rise in violent extremist groups, who are targeting girls and women makes the promotion of gender at the top of priorities. "Our peacebuilding architecture must place women's empowerment and gender equality at the heart", he said.

Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Executive Director of Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, who moderated the panel, applauded the UAE's for its commitment to women, peace and security agenda, saying that the series of panels brought very intensive discussions over a variety of important topics related to WPS agenda.

Lt. General Romeo Dallaire, President of Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire Foundation and Founder of Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, shared his perspective on the importance of women's leadership in peace operations, and in peacebuilding. He pointed out that peacekeepers have a fundamental duty to protect local populations including women, but often they are ill prepared to deal with such complex situations such as those in which sexual violence against women is being used as weapon of war.

Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy, Lead Author of the Global Study, remarked on the diversity of ways that 1325 is interpreted around the world, from political and economic participation, to basic survival needs in the post-conflict period. She emphasised that "we must bring the voices of women from the ground into the Global Study, so that our recommendations reflect the needs and capacities of all."

Youssef Mahmoud, Senior Adviser at International Peace Institute, stressed the need to promote women's participation in peace and security efforts, adding that more time need to be devoted to understand women's perceptions of the causes and contributors to the conflicts, and these perspectives must be integrated into the review processes.

Saras Menon, Member of the Advisory Group of Experts on the peacebuilding Architecture, discussed how gender equality considerations could inform the review, emphasising that "a meaningful peace will not be addressed for men and women, boys and girls, unless shared future of equality rights and justice, then gender equality is prioritised".

Assistant Secretary-General Glemarec highlighted that in recent years, women's participation and inclusion makes humanitarian efforts more effective, strengthens peacekeeping and accelerates economic recovery. He stressed that there is a need for financial support to accelerate women's rights and leadership, urging at the same time the Security Council to establish a mechanism to evaluate the WPS implementation to ensure means of furthering peace and security.

Interventions praised the role of the UAE in leading the debate in this important agenda. The Ambassador reaffirmed the UAE commitment to continuing its work in this field.
Source: WAM