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WAND
and the UN |
UN
Report: February 2007
by Sayre Sheldon, WAND representative
on the NGO Working Group for Women, Peace and Security
Once again the
UN comes to the time of year for evaluating what progress
women have made around the world. From February 28
to March 9 the Commission on the Status of Women will
be meeting. WAND will be represented by the Working
Group for Women, Peace and Security which will be
holding round-table meetings and trainings for increasing
women's presence in peace-keeping and conflict prevention.
You may have seen the photograph of
the all-female group of peacemakers assigned to Liberia
made up of 100 women from India. A first -- but the
fact remains that only 1% of all peacekeepers are
women at present. This year's status of women meetings
will focus on protecting girls from violence and in
Liberia itself there have been many rapes of young
girls which as yet go unpunished, so difficult is
it to enact new laws after years of war.
On
a more cheerful note, we at home may be debating whether
we can elect a woman president but women in leadership
positions around the world are increasing.
Sayre
Sheldon, WAND president emerita
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A founding member of WAND and President Emerita
of the National WAND Board, Sayre has been a
long time political and social activist. She
is a college professor of literature and an
author of several plays and articles about women's
issues and peace issues.
She
edited the anthology Her War Story: 20th
Century Women Write About War, published
in 1999 by Southern Illinois University Press.
She represents WAND as an NGO at the United
Nations. |
