<\/p>\n
The Security Council on Tuesday met to debate the best way to improve security for women caught up in conflict.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Liberian Delegate Lewis Garseedah Brown II said Liberia\u2019s experience of conflict had exposed a persistent gap between women\u2019s contributions to peace and women\u2019s participation in decision-making after violence ended. \u201cHow can women help bring a war to an end, yet still struggle for influence over the peace that follows?\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Liberian women\u2019s role in securing peace remained a source of national pride. However, Brown said Liberia\u2019s responsibility to preserve that legacy and strengthen women\u2019s participation remained unfinished.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Liberia proposed three tests for determining whether peace settlements adequately included women.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The first was whether women had meaningful influence over the content and implementation of a settlement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The second was whether women were free to monitor the peace agreement and hold responsible parties accountable.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The third was whether political, institutional and financial support for women would continue after the immediate peace process ended. \u201cWhether women have influence over the settlement; whether they are free to hold it accountable; and whether the support they receive will endure,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brown also questioned whether peace negotiations gave greater political influence to armed actors because of the ability to restart violence while marginalising people working to prevent conflict. \u201cWe must ask whether our peace processes give greater political weight to those who can renew violence than to those working to prevent it,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Liberia\u2019s position highlights the need for women\u2019s participation to extend beyond advocacy and community mobilisation into formal negotiations, implementation and oversight.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The proposed tests would measure women\u2019s actual influence rather than simply recording attendance at peace talks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brown said sustainable peace required women to have the power to shape settlements, scrutinise implementation and participate in the institutions established after conflict.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–UN\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":37873,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-49234","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Women who help end conflicts must be given meaningful influence over peace agreements and the political systems that follow, Liberia says.","published_date":"","news_description":"Women who help end conflicts must be given meaningful influence over peace agreements and the political systems that follow, Liberia says.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49236,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49234\/revisions\/49236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=49234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}