WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT AND THE UN PEACEBUILDING

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000071

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KWMN KPAO UNGA PHUM PREL BY
SUBJECT: WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT AND THE UN PEACEBUILDING
COMMISSION: MEETING OF AMB. TAHIR-KHELI AND A/SYG MCASKIE

REF: STATE 178055


1. (SBU) Summary. Senior Advisor to the Secretary for
Women's Empowerment Shirin Tahir-Kheli called upon UN
Assistant Secretary-General Carolyn McAskie, who heads the
recently created Peacebuilding Support Office of the UN
Peacebuilding Commission (PBC). McAskie commended the
Secretary's outreach and support for the advancement of women

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worldwide, which Ambassador Tahir-Kheli described. McAskie
emphasized her hope that the PBC would shine a spotlight on
the role of women in post-conflict situations. While
lamenting a lack of clarity about the PBC's mandate, McAskie
said this new institution needed time to coalesce. She
recommended Burundi as a post-conflict country where the
Women's Empowerment office (S/WE) might add special value by
focusing on education, violence against women and land
property rights. McAskie acknowledged that the UN system
itself had a long way to go to rectify gender imbalances
within the UN system itself, particularly at managerial
levels. End Summary.


2. (U) On January 24, Senior Advisor to the Secretary for
Women's Empowerment Dr. Shirin Tahir-Kheli called upon A/SYG
Carolyn McAskie (Canadian) at UN headquarters. McAskie heads
the new Peacebuilding Support Office, which serves as a
secretariat to the UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC). She

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took a lively interest in information Ambassador Tahir-Kheli
provided about Secretary Rice's working session with women
Ministers and Heads of State on September 23 on the margins
of the UN General Assembly (reftel). Ambassador Tahir-Kheli
described the five cluster groups that S/WE had identified as
areas for action, including: education; political
participation; peace and security; culture and religion; and
economic empowerment. She noted that each of these areas
embraced subgroups dedicated to critical issues that required
concrete followup on the ground.

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A FLEDGLING PBC SHOULD FOCUS ON SMALL COUNTRIES
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3. (SBU) With high praise for the Secretary's initiative,
McAskie described her own experience and interest in the
advancement of women, particularly in post-conflict
situations. (Bio Note: McAskie served most recently as the
senior UN envoy to Burundi and head of the UN peacekeeping
operation there. From 1994 to 2004, she was the UN's Deputy
Emergency Relief Coordinator.) McAskie recalled that the
resolutions that established the PBC in December 2005 had
placed special emphasis on the role of women in rebuilding
countries torn by conflict. Unfortunately, the PBC had so far
failed to meet its promise or to agree upon a clear concept
of what it might actually do. In McAskie's view, this
fledgling institution needed sharper definition and time to
coalesce. She reminded that the Security Council had a
history established over more than 60 years, whereas the PBC
had not yet completed its first year of operation. For a
start, the Peacebuilding Support Office that she heads needed
to help establish a work plan, she volunteered.


4. (SBU) In the meantime, McAskie commended the PBC's
attention to the first two country cases of Burundi and
Sierra Leone. Country specific meetings conducted last
October and December had played a useful role in helping the
two countries better define their own priorities, McAskie
contended. Regarding other candidate countries for PBC
consideration, she suggested that selection criteria were
probably better left undefined and she noted the designated
role of the Security Council in making such recommendations
when a peacekeeping operation was on the ground. At the same
time, she emphasized that a country must have emerged from
conflict and passed into a stabilization period with an
elected government in order to qualify for PBC attention.
Such a modicum of stability was necessary to attract
institutional donors, she said.


5. (SBU) In McAskie's personal opinion, the PBC needed to
focus on smaller countries that are not objects of massive
international attention, such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
Instead, neglected countries that risked a relapse into
strife owing to lack of support from the international
community were more compelling candidates for PBC attention.
Aid was important, McAskie said, noting that Burundi had only
five significant donors.

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BURUNDI OFFERS OPPORTUNITY FOR WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT
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6. (U) Speaking from her on-site experience, McAskie
described the uphill obstacles that women in Burundi sought
to overcome, starting with their forced exclusion from the
E


1999 Arusha Peace Process. While UNIFEM had helped insert
language into the Arusha accords that set standards for the
participation of women in Burundi's parliament, the quotas
proved hard to enforce in practice. Assessing the needs of
women in post-conflict countries was complicated, McAskie
said, requiring analysis of legal, family and social
structures. In Burundi, she had helped reform land rights
and inheritance laws.


7. (SBU) Ambassador Tahir-Kheli asked McAskie's opinion
about where the U.S. and other countries might most
effectively add value to women's security in a post-conflict
environment. McAskie did not hesitate to recommend a focus
on Burundi, particularly in the key areas of women's
education, violence against women, and property rights.
Because the Government of Burundi was committed to addressing
these issues and counted upon a Minister for Gender for
Affairs, she predicted that U.S. empowerment initiatives
could result in real progress. McAskie suggested that
Tahir-Kheli consider a trip to Burundi, using Foreign
Minister Antoinette Batumubwira as an entry point to
introduce initiatives.

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GENDER EQUITY LAGS IN THE UN SYSTEM
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8. (SBU) Finally, Tahir-Kheli pointed out the lamentable
under-representation of women in the UN system. McAskie was
candid in deploring the failure of former SYG Kofi Annan to
improve this situation. While the UN hired a good percentage
of women at junior job levels, McAskie admitted they were
woefully short in managerial and top level positions -
altogether under 15 percent. Out of a total of 67 SRSG's
(Special Representatives of the Secretary-General),only one
is a woman, she said.


9. (SBU) McAskie encouraged the U.S. to study
recommendations of the UN Report on System-wide Coherence
regarding gender mainstreaming. The proposed creation of an
Under Secretary-General position to consolidate leadership on
gender equality and women's empowerment was a core
recommendation that Annan had hoped to act upon. However,
time had run out on his tenure before Annan could take
action, McAskie said.


10. (U) Ambassador Tahir-Kheli has cleared this cable.
WOLFF