Open day in the South on ‘Women, Peace and Security’

In coordination with southern women associations, the UNIFIL’s Gender Unit celebrated an open day yesterday devoted for ‘Women, Peace and Security’ at Bassel Assad’s cultural center in Tyre. In this respect, the coordinator of the gender action group in Tyre, Hadiyya Abdallah, outlined the recommendations that call for addressing gender issues and creating support groups, in addition to organizing awareness workshops on the subject for both men and women. Similarly, the Bint Jbeil coordinator, Nada Bazzi, noted that stereotypes about women and their achievements need to change through relevant campaigns and the appointment of women in decision making positions, notably in the public sector. Sabah Abu Abbas, the coordinator for the Marjeyoon action group pointed out that the limitations forced on women because of outdated social traditions undermines their power to build a social network, and consequently weakens public capital allocated for their potential contributions. In conclusion, the UNIFIL General Commander, Luciano Portolano, said in his intervention that despite the slight progress in observing the United Nations resolutions on women, peace and stability, there are still loopholes that need to be addressed. And while he pointed to a significant rise in sexual and gender-based violence particularly in societies witnessing conflicts or post conflicts around the world, he said the participation of women in conflict resolution and in peace-building is still relatively low. Portolano also underlined the importance of implementing the above recommendations, including the creation of the necessary mechanisms for the active implementation of the Global Women, Peace and Security Agenda as shown by the various women’s groups. (An Nahar, January 22, 2016)