UN conference to study why women in war-torn States suffer justice deficit

Women living in war-torn countries suffer from a "gender deficit" when it comes to justice, exposed to more sexual violence and lacking the same protections as men, a senior United Nations official said today on the eve of a conference in New York about justice for women in post-conflict nations.

Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), told reporters today at UN Headquarters in New York, that women who work in the justice field in 12 war-affected areas will take part in the three-day conference starting tomorrow.

Participants will come from Afghanistan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia, Namibia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Timor-Leste.

Ms. Heyzer said the conference is designed to spotlight those schemes or policies that have been successful at strengthening women's rights to greater justice, and to encourage those schemes to be adopted in other war-affected countries or regions.

"There is a justice deficit for women in countries that have been in conflict and coming out of conflict - in terms of the protection, in terms of the violations, in terms of the sexual violence that has been used on women," she said.

"But at the same time there is a tremendous opportunity when countries that are coming out of conflict to strengthen gender justice in the context of the rule of law."

The conference has been organized by UNIFEM and the International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC), which is based in Stockholm.