Senior peacekeeping official urges more involvement of women in UN operations

Although the male-dominated world of peacekeeping is opening up to women, they still make up just a fraction of senior officials in the field, the United Nations' top peacekeeping manager said today.

All 18 UN humanitarian coordinators are men, and Secretary-General Kofi Annan has only two female political envoys worldwide, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, told a press briefing in New York.

"We certainly need to do better on that front," he said.

Women make up just 1 per cent of military personnel and 5 per cent of civilian police in UN missions, he said, pointing out that this is a reflection of the composition of forces contributed to the UN.

"The empowerment of women is a key part of any peace process," the Under-Secretary-General said. "The mission leadership are much more sensitized to the issues than they used to be but certainly more needs to be done."

Mr. Guéhenno also discussed the issue of reported sexual abuse perpetrated by peacekeepers themselves. "Obviously when we deploy in a country, in a society that has been broken by conflict, the least that one could expect is that one would do no harm."

Mr. Annan's zero-tolerance policy must be upheld, he declared. "As long as there is one case of sexual exploitation we all need to be very unhappy."

The UN is training staff and troop contributing countries to implement strict standards of behaviour. "We are working hard on a broad front so that all allegations are pursued and all misconduct and crimes are punished."

Video of press briefing [15mins]