Governments must help women recover from conflicts, UN

New York, 20 Oct-(ANA)-Discrimination against women not only exposes them to the worst effects of disaster and war, including rape, but also deprives their countries of a prime engine for recovery, a new United Nations report has said.

 The release of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)State

of World Population 2010 report –   From Conflict and Crisis to Renewal: Generations of Change – coincides with the 10th anniversary of the Security Council’s landmark resolution 1325, which aimed to end sexual violence against women and girls in armed conflict and to encourage greater participation by them in peace-building

initiatives.

 “This year’s report is about the three Rs: resilience, renewal and redefining roles between boys and girls and men and women,” UNFPA

Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said at the official launch in London of the report.

 The report uses stories of individuals affected by conflict or catastrophe in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Haiti, Iraq, Jordan, Liberia, the occupied Palestinian territory, Timor-Leste and Uganda to bring home its message.

 It shows how communities and civil society are healing old wounds and moving forward, while stressing how much more still needs to be done to ensure that women have access to services and have a voice in peace deals or reconstruction plans.(ANA)

FA/ANA/21 October 2010---------