Nigeria Will Accelerate UN Resolutions On Women Peace, Says Maina

Nigeria has committed itself to accelerate the national and regional implementation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions, especially on women, peace and security, Women Affairs Minister Zainab Maina has said. Maina disclosed this when she addressed member states during the Third Committee of the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday.

"Nigeria is making progress in implementing resolution 1325 as follow-up of the regional workshop on the resolution that took place in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2013.

"In the same vein, Nigeria is stressing the importance of compliance with council's resolution 1820 on ending acts of sexual violence against women in conflict situations," the minister added. She said that to create public awareness, Nigeria established an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Women and Peace. The minister said that its membership were drawn all relevant agencies and civil society organisations working in the area of peace building and conflict resolution.

Maina said this was in addition to the launch of a National Action Plan and advocacy sensitisation aimed at ensuring women's involvement in peace building and conflict resolution. "A deliberate policy to recruit women into Defence and Police establishments has also been instituted by the government.

"Nigeria is also committed to fulfilling its obligations under the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights on the rights of women in Africa.

"Violence, poverty, lack of access to education and health care, and limited economic opportunities all combine to undermine the well-being of women and girls.

"We, are therefore, taking necessary measures to remove these inherent obstacles by addressing the systemic impediments to their effective realisation," Maina stressed. She said Nigeria had continued to demonstrate its commitment to the advancement of women through the promotion of women empowerment and gender mainstreaming as a core government policy. "Women's socio-economic empowerment, gender equality, mainstreaming and budgeting have continued to gain prominence in national programmes and are contributing to shaping decision-making at all levels of governance."

Maina said the Federal Government introduced the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) to engage unskilled youths and women.

"The government, in line with the present administration's Transformation Agenda, also launched the second edition of the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria Women Programme," She said. The programme, she noted, was targeted at boosting entrepreneurial activities and economic empowerment among young women between the ages of 20-45 years. Maina said a lot more still needs to be done in order to address the advancement of women globally.

"Domestic violence in all its forms as well as systematic violations of the rights of women in conflict situations have persisted as serious and insidious problems that need to be tackled at the national, regional and international levels." (NAN)

Originally published by AllAfrica.com.

Photo by IITA Image Library.