| answer text |
<p>The UK remains committed to ensuring that Syrian women participate fully in any
future negotiations to end the Syrian conflict. In 2014 we supported an initiative
by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom to improve the capacity
of women’s groups to participate in a political process in Syria, including through
learning lessons from similar women’s groups in Bosnia. The initiative also helped
to provide a platform for women to advocate for a solution to the conflict in UN fora,
including by influencing the UN during the review of Syria’s implementation of the
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.</p><p>
</p><p>We have raised the importance of the role of women’s groups in political processes
with senior UN officials, including UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan De Mistura.
We understand that Mr De Mistura involved women’s groups in his recent round of consultations
on a future political process in Syria. We also ensured that the following language
was included in June’s UN Human Rights Council resolution on Syria: “Calls upon the
international community to support the leadership and full participation of women
in all efforts aimed at finding a political solution to the Syrian Arab Republic,
as envisaged by the Security Council in its resolutions 1325 (2000) of 31 October
2000 and 2122 (2013) of 18 October 2013”.</p><p> </p><p>More broadly, our programmes
of support to grass roots peace-building initiatives and civil society groups inside
Syria seek to ensure that Syrian women’s voices are heard and that they are represented
in future political negotiations.</p>
|
|
