By Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC TIMES

Clare Hutchinson, NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security, said sustainable peace will not be achieved without women’s empowerment and participation. Hutchinson made the remarks in UN Security Council debate on women’s empowerment in New York on Thursday (25 October 2018).  She stated that NATO is strongly committed to advancing the Women, Peace and Security agenda. 

“As a military and political Alliance, we recognize the security needs of women and men are different. However, we have sometimes missed the opportunity to integrate their diverse perspectives of security. We are now making sure that all our work adequately reflects a whole of population approach,” Clare Hutchinson. 

The NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security stated that there is a strong correlation between gender equality and a country’s stability. Hutchinson said women’s empowerment leads to more peaceful and inclusive communities and is vital for conflict prevention. 

“The treatment of women in any society is a barometer where we can detect other forms of oppression, and a rise in violence can be measured through the decrease of human rights and shrinking spaces for women’s voices,” Hutchinson. 

NATO demonstrates its commitment to gender equality through the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) on Women, Peace and Security (WPS). These Resolutions (1325, 1820, 1888, 1889, 1960, 2106, 2122 and 2422) recognise the disproportionate impact that conflict has on women and girls, and call for full and equal participation of women at all levels of conflict prevention to post-conflict reconstruction, and protection of women and girls from sexual violence in conflict.