Today, on April 20, Vilnius hosted a conference dedicated to the role of women, peace and security organized by the OSCE along with the UN Women. Verkhovna Rada deputy and member of the Rivni Mozhlyvosti [Equal Opportunities] Association Mariya Ionova took part in the conference dedicated to evaluation of the progress in promotion of women’s role in protection of peace and security in the OSCE region.
The participants of the event, in particular, President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier and OSCE Senior Advisor on Gender Issues Miroslava Beham, discussed actual issues related to enhancement of women’s participation in peacekeeping processes and consolidation of their role in peace decision-making.
The participants of the meeting eyed the issues of protection of women’s rights in the conflict in the east of Ukraine. In particular, President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite called on the world community to pay greater attention to Ukraine. "Russia must fulfill its international obligations and stop aggression against Ukraine. Peace is of responsibility of the whole world community," she said.
In her turn, Verkhovna Rada deputy Mariya Ionova informed about the status of implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. “In conditions of the conflict in Donbas, women and children are the most vulnerable strata of population as they are facing enhanced threats to their lives due to displacement, and ruining of infrastructure. Taking this in account, the implementation of provisions of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and introduction of the National Action Plan for implementation of the said resolution are important instruments to protect rights of women in conditions of the conflict and to recognize women’s experience in the whole process of peacekeeping in Ukraine,” Mariya Ionova noted.
She also said that although the National Action Plan has been elaborated by the Ministry of Social Policy along with non-government organizations, the Government is protracting its signature and introduction, as well as the implementation of other international obligations in the field of gender equality.
The people's deputy said that one of the existing crucial problems is insufficient level of representation of women in political decision-making process. In particular, despite the conflict in the east of Ukraine, the field of national security and defense remains one of those fields, where the number of women is extremely low. “Taking in account the fact that one of the purposes of the National Action Plan is the assistance in attraction of women to settlement the conflict and peace decision-making, women-people's deputies of Ukraine insist on speeding up implementation of the National Action Plan by the Government,” she said.
At the same time, Mariya Ionova stressed that Ukraine requires greater support of the UN and the OSCE as well as the whole world community to prevent from further escalation of the conflict and stop Russia’s aggression.