"I am quite confident that with your help we can maintain a peaceful, stable and violence-free environment in Liberia," Mr. Doss told the unit made up 105 female officers with 20 male supporting staff - the first largely female Formed Police Unit to be deployed to a UN peacekeeping operation.More
Contributed by Gwendolyn Beetham, Gender Consultant, Department of Peacekeeping Operations
It's that time of the year...the 37th Session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women is being held at UN Headquarters in New York. In this session, delegates from 15 of the 185 countries party to The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) get to talk about the "appropriate measures, including legislation and temporary special measures" that they have put in place in compliance with CEDAW, "so that women can enjoy all their human rights and fundamental freedoms." Experts get to ask questions. The country delegates respond. It's fun.
In this session, running from the 15th of January to the 2nd of February, countries reporting include: Austria, Azerbaijan, Columbia, Greece, India, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Namibia, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Peru, Poland, Suriname, Tajikistan, and Vietnam.
A run down of what's happened so far after the jump.
BBC: "Discrimination against women is holding back economic and social development across the Arab World, a report by the UN's development agency says.
"Women are facing increasing violence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, especially when they speak out publicly to defend women's rights, a senior U.N. official told the U.N. Security Council. Noeleen Heyzer, executive director of the U.N. Development Fund for Women, called on for fresh efforts to ensure the safety of women in countries emerging from conflicts, to provide them with jobs, and ensure that they receive justice, including compensation for rape." More
"Highlighting the role played by women in promoting peace in countries emerging from conflict, the United Nations Security Council today stressed it was essential to promote the full participation of women in helping rebuild such societies and also encouraged more female involvement in UN peacekeeping operations." More