skip to main content

UN Photo/Ryan Brown

Security Council Considers Report on Women, Peace, and Security
Wide-view of the Security Council meeting considering the report of the Secretary-General on Women, Peace, and Security, at UN Headquarters in New York.
Location: United Nations, New York
Date: 23 October 2007

Advocacy

"The fragility of peace in my country exacerbates the security challenges for us women and the overall feeling that women are at the edge of the world."


—Barbara Bangura, National Coordinator, Grassroots Empowerment for Self Reliance, Sierra Leone, in a Statement at the Security Council Arria Formula Meeting on the Role of Women in Peace Consolidation. October 2006.

Across the world, continued violence threatens the future of millions of women and their communities. The international community has recognized the valuable contribution women make to conflict prevention and sustainable peacebuilding. However, women and gender considerations are still largely absent from the structures that make the decisions to sustain peace or engage in conflict. As a key catalyst in advocacy for the integration of gender perspectives in all peace and security, conflict prevention, conflict management and peacebuilding initiatives of the United Nations, the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, via its strategic positioning in New York at United Nations headquarters, plays an important global role in monitoring policy and practice on women, peace and security. Together with its growing network of gender and security experts, the coalition has built a constituency of women, peace and security advocates among UN Member States, high-level UN decision makers, and civil society working on peacebuilding initiatives at the national and local levels.

NGOWG Addresses UN Security Council Urging Greater Accountability

23 October 2007

The United Nations Security Council invited the NGOWG to deliver a statement at the October 2007 Open Debate entitled "Towards a Coherent and Effective Implementation of Security Council resolution 1325". NGOWG Coordinator, Gina Torry, raised concerns and presented recommendations to the Council regarding accountability to SCR 1325 on behalf of the coalition.
continued ››
Download Statement [PDF]
View Archived Video Webcast - Original Language: 3 hours and 17 minutes
(Gina Torry's speech begins at minute 42:31)

Open Letter to Ambassadors on Need for Accountability to SCR 1325

16 October 2007

In a letter to Member States, the NGOWG urged a critical assessment of concrete and specific efforts to implement SCR 1325 at all levels and, in particular, the role of the Security Council in such efforts. The coalition pointed to persistent challenges including a lack of awareness of the importance of a gender perspective to peace and security and the gender dimensions of conflict, to problems around limited capacity, resources and information provision.
continued ››
Download Letter [PDF]

NGOWG Coordinator Delivers Keynote Speech at Pacific Regional Conference on Women, Peace and Human Security

24 April 2007

In a keynote speech at the Regional Conference on Women, Peace and Human Security organized by UNDP, Pacific Island Forum Secretariat, and femLINKpacific, Gina Torry discussed how civil society, in partnership with governments and international actors, can play a significant role in strengthening international and regional response and prevention at national, regional and global levels by analyzing existing gender dynamics within specific contexts and contributing to mechanisms and institutions for building change.
continued ››
Download Speech [PDF]
Download Fiji Times Article [PDF]