Regional Conference on: ‘’Gender Dimension of Regional Peace and Security”

Conference ReportRegional Conference on: ‘’Gender Dimension of Regional Peace and Security”

19 September, 2015Tbilisi, Georgia

On 19 September, 2015 in Tbilisi, Georgia a Regional conference ’’Gender Dimension of Regional Peace and Security” took place attended by 26 participants from Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

The objective of the conference was to support Regional peace discourse and peace-building through the regional conference where everyone could discuss various issues on the current security status quo in the Region; the security challenges and threats, how to desecuritise these threats; how build peace in the region; how involve as many as possible young women and girls; how to use the international instruments such as NAPs for the implementation of USNCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security; what could be the future of the Region; how this future can be shaped with more involvement of youth and the civil society as a whole.

The Peace Conference hosted experts and practitioners, students and women NGO representatives from Ukraine and the South Caucasus countries to discuss the regional security dimension and peace building through gender perspectives and share UNSCR 1325 NAP implementation experience to promote women’s and girls’ increased participation in peace and security issues.

The Structure of the conference - The Conference was organized on 19 September 2015 in Tbilisi at 11:00 - 18:00. The working Language was English and Russian. The conference was broken down in three sessions with moderator, key speeches from all four participant countries, Q&A and discussions after each session. 

The Conference sessions were focused on the major issues that concerned Regional security dimension and gender perspectives; key international instruments for advancing women’s  issues and role in peace and security, and gender perspectives of Regional peace building process. The Session I was on Regional Security Dimension and Women, Peace and Security in Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia; the Session II was on Instruments for Women’s Increased Participation in Establishing Regional Peace and Security – NAP for the implementation of UNSCR 1325 and its follow up resolutions; Local Women NGO’s role in implementation of NAPs on UNSCR 1325 and other peace strategies and policies; and the Session III was about advancing women’s and youth’s peace-building initiatives - Gender Perspectives of Regional Peace Building Process.

The conference agenda was built on the Aide Memoire and the participant inputs, who had developed their speeches according to the topics within the offered sessions and was developed this way (the agenda is attached).

The whole conference was fully packed with various and diverse topics and speeches which were followed by heated discussions. The conference ended with the hope that this kind of events would be more frequently organized as the regular meetings, discussions, conferences and advocacy facilitated to open exchange of views and approaches, it could help promote peace building ideas and advocate for security strategies and policy implementation. The Conference was finalized with key messages to advance women, peace and security issues and increase women’s role in Regional peace building process.