Women NGOs Warn of UN’s Loss of Credibility in the Middle East
April 1, 2017
Photo: Ibtisam Majareesh, head of the refugee camp women’s committee and member of the camp refugee committee briefs UN Secretary-General António Guterres on cash-for-work opportunities available for Syrian refugee women at the UN Women-run centre in the Za’atari refugee camp. Photo: UN Women/ Benoît Almeras.
BERLIN (IDN) – While warning UN Secretary-General António Guterres of a growing lack of trust in the Security Council throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a group of Women Civil Society Organisations has proposed far-reaching measures “to advance women’s rights and set the UN back on track as an Organization that works for the common interests of our shared humanity.”
In an open letter, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and 25 MENA Women Civil Society Organisations state that popular feeling in the Middle East and North Africa “is one characterised by a lack of faith in the United Nations’ ability to implement its mandate in line with the principles of the Charter.”
This is because the Security Council has repeatedly been unwilling to responsibly discuss the situation in numerous countries of the region, including Syria and Palestine, let alone enforce its own resolutions.
Besides, trust in the UN has been lost because of the actions of some UN agencies, funds and programmes in the region and “because of the lack of action on the part of some UN envoys and mediators in the region to implement Security Council resolutions and other provisions of international law which call for the meaningful inclusion of women in their delegations and negotiating parties. Indeed, some envoys have publicly questioned the relevance of CEDAW in the region.”
