By IPS Correspondents
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 31 2003 (IPS)

Three years after the U.N. Security Council recognised the plight of women in armed conflicts, the United Nations has launched a website aimed to become the most comprehensive databank on women and armed conflict.

"Security Council Resolution 1325 is a watershed political framework that makes women – and a gender perspective – relevant to negotiating peace agreements, planning refugee camps, programmes and peacekeeping operations, and reconstructing war-torn societies."

"None of this can be achieved without accurate information and analysis," said Noeleen Heyzer, executive director of the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) at a press conference this week.

Resolution 1325, passed three years ago Friday, calls on all actors involved in conflict resolution to include a gender perspective – that is, the roles and situations of men and women – when negotiating and implementing peacekeeping and peace-building plans.

The resolution stresses measures to ensure the full protection and respect of human rights of women and girls.

The Oct. 31, 2000 Security Council debate on women, peace and security was the first of its kind. While acknowledging the role of women as victims in conflict, it stressed the importance of including women in peacekeeping and peace-building operations.

Called a web portal, the site connects viewers to a wide range of resources, not only U.N. information but also civil society work on gender and conflict.

”Three years on, there has not been a dramatic increase in the quantity or quality of reporting on women in conflict and post-conflict zones, and existing data is scarce and scattered,” said a UNIFEM press release.

Hill told IPS that a recent study by the U.N. office of the special advisor on gender issues of 264 reports of the secretary-general to the Security Council from January 2000 to the present found gender perspectives severely lacking.

”The report revealed that only 17.8 percent of the reports make multiple references to gender concerns, 15.2 per cent make minimal reference, and 67 per cent of the reports make no or only one mention of women or gender issues," she added.

The portal targets policy-makers, journalists, researchers and activists. "It is sort of like spoon-feeding, but they can’t say they didn’t know anymore," said Kara Piccirilli of PeaceWomen, a project of the U.N. office of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, a non-governmental organisation (NGO).

”It’s sad but whenever we happen to meet with, for example, Security Council members, they always find that the gender information is new information..”

The portal includes more than 30 profiles of countries in conflict, research on issues that are known to effect women and girls in conflict and post-conflict situations and U.N. work on gender in conflict regions.

"The Security Council has noted a pronounced data gap on the situation of women in conflict and post-conflict zones," said Leigh Pasqual, a UNIFEM communications officer.

"Filling this gap is especially important now when it has been clearly acknowledged that more than 70 percent of casualties in recent conflicts are civilians and the majority of these women and children," she told IPS.

At an open debate hosted by the Security Council on Wednesday, "member states à asked for data so that this resolution is not just celebrated on the 31st of October, but that it becomes a routine item on every agenda of the Security Council, and that it is reported in all of the secretary-general reports to the council", Heyzer told the media.

Speakers stressed that Security Council mandates need to include gender perspectives, and requested necessary resources to make that happen.

”Much remains to be done to implement the thrust of SC (Security Council) resolution 1325," said Kerstin Muller, minister of state of the federal foreign office of Germany.

"Whether in the context of approving peace-keeping mandates or of reviewing the impact of sanctions, gender implications must be an integral part of the analysis and decisions of the council."

"Sooner, rather than later, we should guarantee that a gender perspective is fully integrated into resolutions and mandates," she told the council.

Piccirilli, who is compiling civil society resources for the web portal, told IPS that NGOs hope the information will find its way into future Security Council resolutions, provide sources of information to council fact-finding missions, and provide a way to monitor the implementation and follow-up of resolution 1325.

"Civil society has made a commitment not to allow 1325 to become another dead-letter resolution to be filled away somewhere."

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