The UN is committed to working alongside all Cypriots in order to seek a viable, enduring, and acceptable resolution to the Cyprus issue, the UNSG’s Special Representative in Cyprus, Colin Stewart, said on Monday evening addressing a reception he hosted at Ledra Palace, in Nicosia, on “the Road to Sustainability: Women’s Participation in the Cyprus.”
He added that “progress on this goal will neither be achieved nor sustained without the unwavering perseverance and leadership demonstrated by all, including the women in attendance” of the reception.
The event aimed to acknowledge and celebrate women’s contributions as members of the negotiating team, as political and legal advisors, members of the working groups and technical committees, and as trusted colleagues and partners in the Cyprus settlement negotiations and was organized on the occasion of the closing of a photo exhibition on the contribution of women in Cyprus talks which the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, opened on March 15.
The reception was attended, among others, by the Greek Cypriot negotiator, Menelaos Menelaou, and the Special Representative of the Turkish Cypriot leader, Ergun Olgun, foreign Ambassadors to Cyprus, members of the bicommunal Technical Committee on Gender Equality and members of the civil society.
In his remarks, Stewart noted that the important contribution of women to the Cyprus talks in the past has often gone unnoticed. “We tend to emphasize that women’s meaningful participation needs to be improved – and this remains true. But we must also recognize that the number and role of women in past Cyprus talks was nonetheless important, more than in any other UN-facilitated process. And this has set a precedent here in Cyprus which is the basis upon which the leaders have committed to continue to ensure women’s participation through their Action Plan,” he noted.
Furthermore, he said that two decades ago, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1325, recognizing for the first time the integral role of women’s leadership in achieving sustainable peace and security, adding that UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has made the Women, Peace, and Security agenda a “top priority” of the UN system, placing women and girls at the forefront of the peace and security nexus, emphasizing their central role in shaping and advancing peace globally.
“For the United Nations, women’s participation in peacemaking efforts is not merely a matter of inclusion, equality, and fairness; it is also smart peacemaking,” Stewart stressed.
It is therefore important for us, he added, to not only acknowledge these contributions and their potential to bring about real change, but also to highlight them, in Cyprus and beyond, to inspire future generations of women to seek an integral role in shaping their future.
To this end, he recalled, the two leaders reached agreement on an “Action Plan to ensure women’s complete, equal, and meaningful participation in the settlement process – or an eventual settlement process – in Cyprus” and the Security Council welcomed this important step.
According to Stewart, building on the accomplishments of the past, the Action Plan expanded and addressed inclusion more broadly, providing practical recommendations as to how to ensure women’s participation – at the negotiating table, in the working groups and in the technical committees; on how to engage all of civil society and, importantly, on how to ensure that a gender perspective is included in the settlement process/an eventual settlement process.
“The development of this plan was carried out by the members of the Technical Committee on Gender Equality – many of whom are with us tonight – facilitated by the Good Offices Mission and UNFICYP, thereby highlighting the commitment demonstrated by both sides in addressing this matter,” the UN diplomat noted, stressing that “what lies ahead is the crucial task of implementing the plan, a responsibility which falls on us all.
Moreover, he underlined that “the United Nations looks forward to supporting the two sides in this effort. The Technical Committee started last week, bringing together members of civil society to explore women’s participation in peacemaking. The event, ‘A seat at the table: women’s experiences in the Cyprus Talks, was the first of a series of planned conversations with civil society to progressively highlight women’s role in all facets of society – to inform, as much as to inspire and encourage,” he noted.
Speaking on behalf of the Greek Cypriot Co-President of the Technical Committee on Gender Equality, Soula Zavou, the member of the Committee, Soula Hadjikyriakou, said that last week the Technical Committee hosted its first of a series of future conversations with all members of civil society on different dimensions women’s participation in the peace and security nexus.
“Our intent was to hear their views – and – for us to start a two-way dialogue as a basis for a future settlement. This was one of the key recommendations of the Action Plan that this Committee developed, and the two leaders agreed to last year,” she added.
As she noted they have formulated a set of recommendations which aims at ensuring women’s participation – at the negotiating table, in the working groups and in the technical committees; which seeks to engage all of civil society and ensure that a gender perspective is included in the settlement process/an eventual settlement process.
“Moving forward, we will work closely with the two leaders to ensure that any future negotiation process, as they have agreed, has women and men working together – at the table in shaping a joint future, while at the same time holding their ear to the streets; the Tavernas and the Meyhanes, on both sides of the island,” Hadjikyriakou said.
She went on to say that the way forward can only be on the basis of bringing people with us and that this is what the leaders committed to.
“As a Committee, we are therefore planning a series of meetings with all of civil society, women and youth organizations to hear their views, to learn of their concerns and priorities,” Hadjikyriakou noted, adding that “women’s participation and broader inclusion in the Cyprus Talks have a way to go, yet, what has been accomplished is without a doubt unique in the global context and something that needs to be acknowledged and built upon.”
Speaking on behalf of the Turkish Cypriot side, Sulen Karabacak, referred to her own participation for many years now in the negotiations on the Cyprus problem. She noted, among others, that during the negotiating process in Crans Montana she was one of the three women in the main negotiating team, stressing that “in addition to our educational backgrounds and expertise on subject matters that were under discussion we have contributed with the skills that we have acquired stemming from the social roles and responsibilities that we have as women.”
She also expressed the belief that active and meaningful participation and leadership of women in delegations can only have positive contributions towards the efforts to find a mutually agreed and sustainable comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem, and welcomed the Action Plan developed by the Technical Committee on Gender Equality, that was endorsed by the two leaders last year, with a view to ensuring women’s participation in the negotiations.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.
Source: Cyprus News Agency