Madam, - Kofi Annan urges radical reform of the United Nations. I do hope that in all the kerfuffle around and about such reform, attention will be paid to a most relevant resolution passed at the UN three years ago but neither implemented nor seriously considered:
UN Resolution 1325 of 2000 stated that women must be centrally involved in all aspects of peace-making and peace-building discussions.
From what can be deduced from media reports of negotiations in Palestine/Israel, Iraq or Afghanistan, and even in the North of Ireland, it would appear that Resolution 1325 has become invisible.
Recently I was a delegate to the global conference of AMARC (World Association of Community Radios) in Nepal, attended by 175 countries, most of them from the developing world. We unanimously passed our own resolution, based upon UN 1325, that women in peace talks should make up over 80 per cent of the negotiating teams - and should be women who have been directly affected by the Conflict in question - because UN statistics show that 82 per cent of immediate and long-term sufferers from war are women, children and the elderly. The children and elderly, of course, have to be cared for by the women.
In other words, negotiations need to be conducted by the care-givers of the world, not by those who destroy care.
I appeal to Ireland's politicians to place the implementation of Resolution 1325 at the top of their agenda. - Yours, etc.,
MARGARETTA D'ARCY,
Chairperson, Women in
Media and Entertainment,
St Bridget's Place Lower,
Galway.