‘Women kept off peace talks’, UN slams govts

On the eve of International Women’s Day, leading women’s rights campaigners at the United Nations and the African Union and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate criticised male-dominated governments Tuesday for excluding women from peace negotiations. They complained that governments are ignoring a UN resolution adopted in 2000 demanding equal participation for women in talks to end conflicts. Sima Bahous, head of the UN agency promoting gender equality, lamented “the regression in women’s rights.” She told the Security Council that “we have neither significantly changed the composition of peace tables, nor the impunity enjoyed by those who commit atrocities against women and girls.” Bahous, executive director of UN Women, also called for “a radical change of direction” on the issue.