 |
WAND
and the UN |
UN
Report: March 2008
by Sayre Sheldon, WAND representative
on the NGO Working Group for Women, Peace and Security
WAND recently signed onto a letter
for the Security Council debate on violence against
women. The U.S.is taking a lead role in asking for
a new resolution and Condi Rice will be the speaker.
The letter goes to ambassadors of all 14 member countries.
Excerpt:
Full
Letter Here
The NGO Working Group on Women, Peace
and Security looks forward to the Security Council
Open Debate on 19 June 2008 on the theme: “Women,
Peace and Security: Sexual Violence in Situations
of Armed Conflict.”
The NGO Working Group advocates for
the equal participation and full involvement of women
in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of
peace and security and for their protection during
conflict. Many gaps and challenges to the full and
effective implementation of Security Council Resolution
1325 remain, including the lack of prevention and
protection of women and girls from sexual and gender-based
violence in conflict situations, and the need to end
impunity for such acts of violence.
We
therefore share the Security Council’s concern
raised in its Presidential Statement of October 2007
(PRST/2007/40), that despite its efforts to date,
acts such as “gender-based violence, particularly
rape, and other forms of sexual abuse… remain
pervasive, and in some situations have become systematic,
and have reached appalling levels of atrocity.”
We also share the view of the Security Council, expressed
in several resolutions, that violence against women
and girls as a tool of warfare needs to be addressed
(S/RES/1509/2003, S/RES/1468/2003, S/RES/1493/2003,
S/RES/1590/2005).
Sayre
Sheldon, WAND president emerita
|
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. |
