This month's Women in Focus features the statement made by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom on UN Day 24 October 2007. It highlights that women's participation in international decision making is an essential factor in the protection of human rights and human security.

"We the women of the United Nations

Sixty-two years ago, a generation that had experienced the horror of war devised the structure, aims and principles of the United Nations, by which peoples and governments commit to work together to prevent and eliminate war and cooperate to build conditions for peace. That war is preventable - that succeeding generations can be saved from the scourge of war itself - is a concept that 192 countries have affirmed by joining the UN. Some wars have been prevented; too many have not.

Through this essential international forum, all nations can meet on an equal basis to establish and implement international law and treaties. At the UN governments can and have promoted social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom. Human rights standards have been defined and defended, and enormous strides forward have been made to affirm and protect the equal rights of women and men through the UN.

The United Nations has achieved a lot, yet is maligned and denigrated. At the same time it is expected to resolve all the ills of the world, but in the name of efficiency, with reduced human and economic resources. While UN information centres are closed down, while translation services are cut that inhibit effective communication among governments, and while departments are cut and rationalised, military spending by governments soars to beyond the absurd Cold War levels.

Get back to the Charter: the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) believes it is time to undertake a Universal Periodic Review of all UN Member States of how they live up to their commitments, not only in the human rights field, but under the United Nations Charter as a whole.

Women's participation in decision-making is essential for human security and human rights: As acknowledged by the Security Council resolution 1325, to be legitimate and democratic, decision-making must be shared; tables seated only by men, or a vast majority of men, are simply not acceptable in 2007.

Our world shows - you get what you pay for: If investment is made in war and weapons - war, death and mutilation are the result. If investment is made in real human security, development and equality- peace is the result. If the UN Charter were implemented, if economic cooperation took the place of military competition, peace would prevail.

The Security Council has failed: Sixty-two years after the fact the Security Council has failed to deliver on an essential task outlined in Article 26 of the UN Charter, which requires it to deliver a plan for the "least diversion of human and economic resources to armament." Instead, the permanent 5 members of the Security Council have participated in arms races and weapons profiteering; they have promoted insecurity. Sixty-two years late is very late indeed, but better late than never - the Security Council must deliver the Article 26 plan to stop wasting the world's wealth on weapons that kill and mutilate.

Governments should reduce military spending and report annually to the UN's international standardized reporting of military expenditures, established under UN General Assembly Resolution 46/25. These resources should be reallocating to tackling the real daily threats to human security such as climate change, the distribution of wealth, hunger, organised crime, and trafficking in drugs, people and arms.

Peace in the Middle East must be on the basis of UN resolutions: Efforts for peace between Israel and Palestine should take place within the United Nations and be based on the principles established through UN resolutions: Security Council Resolution 242 (1967) calls for the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied, Security Council resolution 252 (1968) highlights the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by military conquest, Security Council resolution 271 (1969) addresses Jerusalem, Security Council resolution 338 (1973), reaffirms resolution 465 (1980), addressing Israel's illegal demographic changes, resolution 476 (1980) and resolution 681 (1980) both similarly address fundamental issues related to Israel's illegal occupation. WILPF calls on Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon to convene a high-level negotiation and peace process within the UN, and calls on the international community to apply pressure and create an enabling environment for the negotiation of a zone free of nuclear and all weapons of mass destruction in the region.”

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The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom was founded in 1915, and from the outset called for an "organisation of the society of nations." In 1919 the organisation welcomed the establishment of the League of Nations and actively followed its work. In 1948, WILPF was in the first group of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to receive consultative status with the United Nations through the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), under Article 71 of the UN Charter, the entry point for NGOs. Since its establishment, WILPF has been present and supportive of the United Nations, our world's peace organisation, but has also often been critical when governments, who drive and comprise the UN, fail to uphold the spirit and letter of the UN Charter.

Upcoming events

Engendering Leadership Conference (Perth, Australia) July 2008

The Business School at the University of Western Australia, Perth, is hosting a conference 22 – 24 July 2008 entitled 'Engendering Leadership'. Criminal justice is a highly gendered arena. As criminal activity is overwhelmingly a male pre-occupation, organisational responses to it, including models of leadership, have been (though often implicitly) dominated by gender considerations. But while the role of women in the police and prison services has been the subject of considerable attention, the gendered nature of leadership itself has largely escaped scrutiny. How can generic leadership debates and research be applied to criminal justice and what insights can leadership experiences within this sphere contribute to our understanding of leadership in gendered organisations? Click here for further details of the conference.

Proposals/abstracts are invited from academics, researchers, policy-makers, practitioners, campaigners and trainers in the areas of criminal law, criminal justice and criminal justice education. Contact: Anne Worrall, Professor of Criminology, Keele University (UK) and Professor-at-Large, University of Western Australia: a.j.worrall@crim.keele.ac.uk.