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STORY: UN / WOMEN PEACE AND SECURITY
TRT: 4:50
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 20 OCTOBER 2022, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, UN Headquarters
20 OCTOBER 2022, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
“We cannot separate the perilous state of peace in our world from the destructive effects of patriarchy and the silencing of women’s voices. The challenges we face today – from proliferating conflicts to worsening assaults on human rights – are in many ways connected to the trampling of women’s rights and to deeply ingrained misogyny around the world.”
4. Wide shot, Security Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Despite decades of evidence that gender equality offers a path to sustainable peace and conflict prevention, we are moving in the opposite direction.”
6. Wide shot, Security Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
“At this time of peril, conflicts, and crises, we must pursue proven strategies for peace and stability. Protecting women’s rights and promoting women’s inclusion is such a strategy. Today, let us re-commit to put women’s participation at the center of everything we do – everywhere.”
8. Wide shot, Security Council
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Sima Bahous, Under-Secretary-General, United Nations / Executive Director, UN-Women:
“A reversal of generational gains in women’s rights is taking place against surging threats to security. Violent conflict, displacement, the repercussions of the global pandemic, and the growing climate emergency all exact their highest price from women and girls.”
10. Wide shot, Security Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Sima Bahous, Under-Secretary-General, United Nations / Executive Director, UN-Women:
“Around the world, from Iran to Tigray to Ukraine and more, women human rights defenders risk their lives every day in the name of peace and human rights and for the sake of their communities and our planet. They should be cherished by everyone. Instead, they are increasingly under attack. Examples are tragically numerous.”
12. Wide shot, Security Council
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Sima Bahous, Under-Secretary-General, United Nations / Executive Director, UN-Women:
“The Office of the High Commissioner recently reported that 60 percent of the nearly 350 individual cases of intimidation or reprisals for cooperation with the UN in the past year concerned women. UN Women’s surveys show us that nearly a third of women representatives of civil society who have briefed this Council have also faced reprisals. That briefing this Council should be cause for such reprisals should surely shock and compel us to action.”
14. Wide shot, Security Council
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Sima Bahous, Under-Secretary-General, United Nations / Executive Director, UN-Women:
“And lest any think that marginalizing women keeps them safe, let us be clear: It achieves the opposite. Denying women space, access, or funding because of safety concerns emboldens perpetrators and, in their eyes, validates their tactics. Women human rights defenders must be front-and-centre in our work ahead.”
16. Wide shot, Security Council
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Bineta Diop, Special Envoy on Women and Peace and Security, African Union (AU):
“The ‘triple C’ – crises of COVID pandemic, climate change, and conflict – has exacerbated the political, social, and economic fabric within which women and girls evolve, making it urgent for us to invent in strengthening women’s resilience and leadership.”
18. Wide shot, Security Council
19. Med shot, delegates walking to stakeout
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Michel Xavier Biang, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Gabon:
“We have a shared goal: To ensure that the Women, Peace and Security agenda is fully and meaningfully integrated into all aspects of the Council’s work - including in country-specific discussions, that the voices of women are heard around the Council table – and that the crucial work of women, peacebuilders and human rights defenders in conflict prevention and resolution, peacebuilding and sustaining peace is supported and recognized.”
21. Wide shot, delegates, stakeout
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Mona Juul, Permanent Representative Ambassador to the United Nations, Norway:
“Our common goal must be to promote and protect women’s full, equal and meaningful participation and leadership in conflict-affected countries or those facing humanitarian crises.”
23. Med shot, delegates leaving stakeout
Addressing the Security Council Open Debate on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) today (20 Oct) in New York, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said, “Despite decades of evidence that gender equality offers a path to sustainable peace and conflict prevention, we are moving in the opposite direction.”
Mohammed stated, “We cannot separate the perilous state of peace in our world from the destructive effects of patriarchy and the silencing of women’s voices.”
According to the Deputy Secretary-General, the challenges we face today – from proliferating conflicts to worsening assaults on human rights – are in many ways connected to “the trampling of women’s rights and to deeply ingrained misogyny around the world.”
She said that over the last 20 years, progress on the participation of women at all levels – from local communities to national parliaments has been slow.
Between 1995 and 2019, the percentage of peace agreements with gender equality provisions increased from 14 to 22 percent.
Four peace agreements out of five still ignore gender equality, and there remains a disconnect at decision-making levels.
Around the same period, women constituted, on average, just 13 percent of negotiators, 6 percent of mediators, and 6 percent of signatories in major peace processes.
Seven of every ten peace processes did not include women mediators or signatories.
Mohammed explained that the women, peace, and security agenda is an opportunity to do things differently and reach full gender parity – including through special quotas to accelerate the inclusion of women – across election monitoring, security sector reform, disarmament, demobilization, and justice systems.
She concluded, “At this time of peril, conflicts, and crises, we must pursue proven strategies for peace and stability. Protecting women’s rights and promoting women’s inclusion is such a strategy. Today, let us re-commit to put women’s participation at the center of everything we do – everywhere.”
Also addressing the Security Council today, Sima Bahous, UN Women’s Executive Director, said that a reversal of generational gains in women’s rights is taking place against surging threats to security.
She also noted that violent conflict, displacement, the repercussions of the global pandemic, and the growing climate emergency all exact their highest price on women and girls.
UN Women’s Executive Director said, “Around the world, from Iran to Tigray to Ukraine and more, women human rights defenders risk their lives every day in the name of peace and human rights and for the sake of their communities and our planet. They should be cherished by everyone. Instead, they are increasingly under attack. Examples are tragically numerous.”
The Office of the High Commissioner recently reported that 60 percent of the nearly 350 individual cases of intimidation or reprisals for cooperation with the UN in the past year concerned women.
Bahous added, “A UN Women’s survey shows us that nearly a third of women representatives of civil society who have briefed this Council have also faced reprisals. That briefing this Council should be cause for such reprisals should surely shock and compel us to action.”
She emphasized, “lest any think that marginalizing women keeps them safe, let us be clear: It achieves the opposite. Denying women space, access, or funding because of safety concerns emboldens perpetrators and, in their eyes, validates their tactics. Women human rights defenders must be front-and-centre in our work ahead.”
Bineta Diop, African Union Special Envoy on Women and Peace and Security, also addressed the Security Council today and said, “The ‘triple C’ – crises of COVID pandemic, climate change, and conflict – has exacerbated the political, social, and economic fabric within which women and girls evolve, making it urgent for us to invent in strengthening women’s resilience and leadership.”
Earlier today, the Permanent Representative Ambassador of Gabon, Michel Xavier Biang, and the Permanent Representative Ambassador of Norway, Mona Juul, briefed reporters in New York on behalf of the signatories to the WPS commitments (Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Norway, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Albania, Brazil, France, Gabon, Ecuador, Malta, and Niger).
Biang said, “We have a shared goal: To ensure that the Women, Peace and Security agenda is fully and meaningfully integrated into all aspects of the Council’s work - including in country-specific discussions, that the voices of women are heard around the Council table, – and that the crucial work of women, peacebuilders and human rights defenders in conflict prevention and resolution, peacebuilding and sustaining peace is supported and recognized.”
Juul said, “Our common goal must be to promote and protect women’s full, equal and meaningful participation and leadership in conflict-affected countries or those facing humanitarian crises.”
"Strengthening women's resilience and leadership as a path to peace in regions plagued by armed groups" under the agenda item "Women and peace and security.” The meeting is an opportunity for all Member States to share specific examples of how they are supporting women's resilience in conflict-affected countries and their capacity to contribute to peace and security.
In June 2022, the Secretary-General told the Security Council that gender equality offered a path to sustainable peace and conflict, yet we are moving in the opposite direction.
But while descriptions of current trends often include worrisome trends about the impact of conflict on women's health, education, food security, participation in public life, and their rights in general, it is equally important that the international community pay attention to the multiple ways in which women and women's organizations are organizing themselves, and joining up in ever-growing networks, to contribute to peace and security.
Despite the odds, women peacebuilders persist in their determination to help their communities and fight for their rights.
