From the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG)

http://www.unog.ch/80256EDD006B9C2E/%28httpNewsByYear_en%29/64306488DAB18D14C12576BD00381DED

The United Nations Com­mit­tee on the Elim­i­na­tion of Dis­crim­i­na­tion against Women urged the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity, United Nations agen­cies and all human­i­tar­ian relief agen­cies to actively involve women at all stages of emer­gency man­age­ment pro­grammes, in both the plan­ning and imple­men­ta­tion processes, so that they can bring valu­able per­spec­tives and con­tri­bu­tions to the emer­gency response.

“The needs and capa­bil­i­ties of women must be taken into con­sid­er­a­tion in all sec­tors and clus­ters of the emer­gency response, as the role of women in early recov­ery is crit­i­cal to effec­tive imple­men­ta­tion and long term sus­tain­abil­ity”, said women rights Expert Naéla Mohamed Gabr, who heads the Committee.

The Com­mit­tee, which is cur­rently in ses­sion in Geneva, noted in a recent state­ment* that women and men are impor­tant resources in deliv­er­ing assis­tance and rebuild­ing soci­eties fol­low­ing nat­ural dis­as­ters. How­ever, the Experts stressed that the respon­si­bil­i­ties of women are greater on account of their roles as care­tak­ers of chil­dren, the elderly, the dis­abled, the injured and other survivors.

“Whilst the strength and resilience of women are in high demand fol­low­ing such emer­gen­cies, they can­not ade­quately ful­fil these roles if their basic needs are unmet and if decision-makers ignore them”, Ms. Gabr warned. “If women are to look after the needs of oth­ers, their own safety, dig­nity, health and nutri­tional con­cerns must be met as well.”

“Under­stand­ing the gen­der dynam­ics in com­mu­ni­ties is a cru­cial ele­ment for effec­tive human­i­tar­ian relief, reha­bil­i­ta­tion and recon­struc­tion. The Com­mit­tee calls upon all human­i­tar­ian relief agen­cies to bol­ster the strength of women by iden­ti­fy­ing and meet­ing their spe­cific needs”, Ms. Gabr said.

The Com­mit­tee is alarmed by the threat to law and order. Sex­ual vio­lence is com­mon in human­i­tar­ian crises and may become acute in the wake of a national dis­as­ter. In a time of height­ened stress, law­less­ness and home­less­ness, women face an increased threat of vio­lence and will find it harder to sup­port them­selves, the chil­dren, the elderly, the injured, the dis­abled and other sur­vivors who are in their care.

“The pro­tec­tion of human rights of women is as impor­tant as pro­vid­ing imme­di­ate med­ical atten­tion, food and shel­ter. We urge emer­gency assis­tance teams to put in place a coor­di­nated secu­rity sys­tem and to take all nec­es­sary mea­sures to pro­tect women and chil­dren and the most vul­ner­a­ble”, said the Committee’s head.

The 23-member Com­mit­tee on the Elim­i­na­tion of Dis­crim­i­na­tion against Women is the body mon­i­tor­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of the United Nations Con­ven­tion on the Elim­i­na­tion of All Forms of Dis­crim­i­na­tion against Women, which has been rat­i­fied by 186 States par­ties. A total of 104 Experts have served as mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee since 1982.