Women, peace and security in the Arab region

In collaboration with UN ESCWA Center for Women and the Danish Center for Research on Women and Gender, the LAU Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW) opened on Monday an international conference entitled ‘Towards Prioritizing Women, Peace and Security on the Arab Agenda’. The purpose of the 3-day event was to enrich and expand the ongoing debate on issues related to women, peace and security in the Arab region, with focus on the role of institutions to this effect. In this respect, and during the opening session, LAU president, Joseph Jabra, noted that the principles of gender equality have started to gather momentum since 2000, especially with the adoption of the highly relevant UN Security Council Resolution No. 1325 promoting participation, prevention and protection. Jabra pointed out that gender sensitivity has reached the Arab countries after the request by the UN Council to comply and implement similar decisions. In the same spirit, IWSAW director, Lina Abi Rafeh, maintained that the participation of women in the making of peace and security is an essential component of human rights, noting that the Arab world has a historic opportunity to demonstrate this now, and calling for an end to normalization of violence in all its forms and everywhere. Deputy director of the ESCWA center for women, Mahrinaz Awadi, drew attention to three lessons she learned after 15 years of work in the Arab region. “Firstly, we cannot accomplish much through investment in a prevention scheme; secondly, the presence of women in leadership positions is very vital to achieve peace, and thirdly, the development of national work plans is at the core of the agenda for women, peace and security,” Awadi explained. (Al Mustaqbal, An Nahar, August 6 and 10, 2016)