NEW YORK, MARCH 7 – On the eve of International Women’s Day, the Italian Permanent representative to the United Nations in new York, Ambassador Maurizio Massari, addressed the UN Security Council during a debate on “Women, Peace and Security – Toward the 25th Anniversary of Resolution 1325” convened by the rotating presidency of Mozambique to coincide with the opening of the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women.
“‘Participation’ is the challenge at the heart of Resolution 1325. However, if we look at the data, over the past two years we observe that the participation rate of women as mediators or delegates in peace processes has declined from 23 percent to 19 percent, despite their constructive contribution at the grassroots level and their presence on the front lines. Structural barriers to the implementation of the Resolution remain, and must therefore be addressed,” the Italian Permanent Representative said.
That is why Italy, said Ambassador Massari, welcomes all efforts in this direction, such as: i) bringing in more technical expertise, higher quality data, and adequate resources; ii) promoting strategic meetings on designing and sustaining inclusive processes to identify and then implement the measures with the greatest impact in each area; iii) strengthening gender mainstreaming in the work of political and peacebuilding missions; and iv) ensuring the support of regional organizations and member states to make these efforts sustainable.
Italy, Massari noted, “has a long tradition of promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment through its support for the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network, launched in October 2017 to promote gender equality and foster the inclusion of women in peace processes and peacebuilding in the Mediterranean region. The Network provides training, capacity building and networking opportunities and led to the creation of the Global Alliance of Regional Women Mediators Network, uniting the voices of 6 different regions of the world in a call to accelerate the implementation of the Women Peace and Security agenda on the ground.
“Peacebuilding, peacekeeping and mediation are areas where women have proven to be particularly effective. In this spirit, we welcome the prioritization of women and the peace and security agenda in Secretary General Guterres’ Action for Peacekeeping initiative and in the mandates of peacekeeping operations,” said the Italian Ambassador, arguing that it is time to commit to doing things differently: “The unsustainable consequences of armed conflicts, in Ukraine and elsewhere, call us to promote solutions to end the suffering of women and girls in conflict situations. We must listen to the call to action, accountability and justice coming from women-led grassroots civil society organizations, and incorporate this call into our individual and collective action, so that women are never again the victims, but true agents of change”. (@OnuItalia)
