Brussels, 29/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - In a resolution passed on a show of hands in Strasbourg on Thursday 25 November, the European Parliament (EP) called for increased financial and human resources to be made available to support the involvement of women in the foreign and security policy. The resolution, reported by EUROPE in yesterday's newsletter, marks the 10th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, which dates from 31 October 2000. Parliament is calling on:
(1) EU High Representative Catherine Ashton to strengthen the EU taskforce on women, peace and security by “reinforcing and promoting gender mainstreaming practice and making substantial and highly visible commitments with regard to staffing, financial resources and the organisational hierarchy”. Within each geographical department of the European External Action Service and each EU delegation, at least one full-time post should be dedicated to women, peace and security, it says, adding that all common security and defence policy missions should have at least one gender adviser and an action plan for implementing Resolution 1325;
(2) member states to increase the involvement of women, inter alia as mediators and negotiators, in every area of operations, including reconciliation work, peace negotiation, peace-building, peace enforcement, peace-keeping and conflict prevention; they also call for more women to be deployed in police, military and justice and rule-of-law missions and peace-keeping operations, and for more female police officers and soldiers to take part in common security and defence policy missions;
(3) EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs to make support for work by women's organisations in conflict-affected areas a priority. The Instrument for Stability (IfS) should be used to allocate short-term and long-term funding to support women's participation in peace, security and reconciliation-related processes.
In a press release, the EP says that Resolution 1325 also called for special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse, in situations of armed conflict. It notes, too, that only a minority of EU member states, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, have drafted national action plans to implement the resolution. (G.B./transl.rt)