Elisabeth Rehn: Sustainable peace needs the inputs of women

There will be no sustainable peace without the participation of women at the negotiation tables, said the newly appointed independent expert of Unifem, Elisabeth Rehn, in a press conference in Helsinki on 26 April. Elisabeth Rehn and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf from Liberia were appointed independent experts by the UN Development Fund for Women, Unifem, on 24 April, to spearhead the organisation’s efforts to evaluate the role of the world’s women, particularly those affected by conflict. Rehn’s appointment is a continuation of her previous task as a member of an expert team assessing the role of UN peacekeeping and its organisation.

Former Minister of Defence and Equality Affairs of Finland and former UN Special Representative and Coordinator of UN operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rehn will submit her joint report with Sirleaf by March 2002 to Angela King, Special Advisor on Equality to the Secretary General of the UN. Rehn’s commission is mandated by the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 of October 2000, calling for increased participation by women in peacekeeping operations and in peacekeeping decision-making. Since the conclusion of Rehn's posting in Bosnia, no woman has been appointed among the group of 61 Special Representatives of Secretary General.

Rehn said they aim to provide proposals that are concrete enough to prevent member states from ducking out. It is vital to get women involved in peace negotiations from the beginning. Warlords get always attention, but for example, the Dayton Accords 1995 providing for the birth of the state of Bosnia-Herzegovina ignored the plight of women. Women who have been raped, abused, widowed remain ignored and neglected without means to provide for themselves and their children.

It is important, said Rehn, to be familiar with the situation and conditions in the field and have local people, not just wrlords, participating in peacekeeping operations. Rehn’s first field trip will be to the scene of the Latin American drug war in Columbia, Guatemala, followed by Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, East Timor, Cambodia, Somalia and Sierra Leone.