Committee on the Status of Women

Noor ul Ain and Abdullah Khan

Topic Area A Female Peacekeepers:

This topic is meant to include all women involved in peacekeeping, from security sector reform to post-conflict reconstruction. Which means not only peacekeepers will be included, but also unarmed monitors for elections, police officers, and humanitarian workers. This topic falls under the committees scope because of its focus on promoting equality within the United Nations Peacekeeping forces as well as in the states the UN forces are active in. The Security Council has adopted five resolutions related to this topic. This has led the UN Secretary-General to personally address the issue and has allowed UN Women to initiate programs in many different states. The CSWs session number 55 reviewed progress made in enhancing womens post-conflict participation in political processes, in security sector reform and in the protection of women and girls. However, still more needs to be done, especially since the percentage of women in sectors of peacekeeping operations is still far below men. Delegates will find this topic interesting because it will force them to change all of their perceptions of what a soldier is. Rather than the image of the Halo soldier they are used to, they will be shown the portrait of women involved in every aspect of UN Peacekeeping Forces, from soldier to senior leaders in nation building initiative.

Topic Area B Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls
Deeming it one of the most pervasive human rights violations in the world, rooted in structural gender inequality and discrimination, the CSW has chosen the topic of the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls as its priority theme for the 57th session of the Commission. Within this, it has chosen to focus on the provision of services for victims/survivors of violence in addition to primary prevention. In terms of provision of services, it has come to light that there has been an inadequate amount of funding and supplies and also a difficulty accessing such services, amongst other conflicts. The UNCSW wishes to use a rights-based and gender-sensitive approach to eradicate this problem and believes that this method is necessary. In regards to prevention, the UNCSW has stated that prevention is the first and key step in dealing with this global issue.

This would require the involvement of communities, local leaders, and men and boys. Programs that have already been implemented in raising awareness and prevention have shown to be both possible and effective thus far, and it would be ideal to further expand them and use them to serve as the basis for further interventions. This being said, these are the two main tiers that this committee will focus on when discussing this topic; however, this list does not have to be exhaustive.