Side event during the Women Peace and Security Week organized by Italy, Morocco, UN Women and the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network
“Women mediators on the frontlines: reflections and recommendations”
Friday 21 October 2022
Opening Remarks by Ambassador Maurizio Massari, Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations
I am really glad and honored to open today, together with my friend the Permanent Representative of Morocco, Ambassador Hilale, this important event in partnership with Un Women and the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network . An event that is not only meant to pay tribute to women mediators on the frontlines, but also to trigger a critical reflection on the challenges and opportunities ahead.
I warmly welcome the representatives of WIIS Italy, the representatives of UN Women from the field, as well as the Special Representative of the SG of NATO for WPS, and thank them for taking the initiative of gathering here today at the margins of the annual WPS week.
Italy has a long-standing tradition of promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment. We have strongly supported Resolution 1325 since its adoption. The Women and Peace and Security agenda is a priority issue for Italy and we devote significant efforts and resources to promoting women’s participation in peace and international mediation processes. Women have proven to be extremely successful in protecting civilians, accessing communities and creating relationships of trust with local populations, in particular with the most vulnerable categories.
Peacebuilding and Peacekeeping mean also mediation, a sector in which women have proved to be very effective. It has been demonstrated that a peace agreement is 20 % more likely to last at least two years and 35 % more likely to last 15 years when women are included in peace processes. This has been broadly recalled yesterday during the Security Council Annual Open debate on WPS, where both the briefers and the Member States have called for an increased and actual participation of women at the tables where the decisions are taken.
Hence, we are particularly proud of the success of the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network, launched in October 2017 to promote gender equality and foster women’s inclusion in peace processes, mediation efforts and peacebuilding in the Mediterranean region. The membership of the Network has widened in the last 5 years and new antennas have been established in the region. The Network offers training, capacity building and networking opportunities and has led to the establishment of the Global Alliance of Regional Women Mediators Networks in September 2019, uniting the voices from different regions of the world in a call to accelerate the implementation of UNSCR 1325 on the security ground.
We are here today to listen to the voices of the protagonist and be inspired by them in our efforts to pursuing the reinforcement of the global peacekeeping and peacebuilding architecture.
Thank you.
