Thailand’s Seminar entitled “Increasing the Role of Women in Post-Conflict Reconstruction, from Relief to Development” on 7 July 2014, New York

******************             

On 7 July 2014 during 18.30-21.00 hours, H.E. Mr. Sihasak Phuangketkeow, Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, presided over the seminar entitled “Increasing the Role of Women in Post-Conflict Reconstruction, from Relief to Development”, which was held at Japan Society in New York.  Panelists included H.E. Mr. Francis Deng and H.E. Mr. Marten Grunditz, Ambassadors and Permanent Representatives of South Sudan and Sweden to the United Nations respectively, as well as representatives from UN Women, UNDP and UN Peacebuilding Support Office. 

 In the seminar, three Thai females also participated in order to share their experiences from working on the ground on the relevant matters.  These Thai females comprised: (1) a Thai police officer who used to join UN peacekeeping missions in Timor-Leste and provided assistance to victims of sexual violence as well as helped strengthen the community building process in parts of Timor-Leste, (2) a Thai military officer who has been in charge of mine risk education and worked closely with local communities affected by landmines, and (3) a landmine victim who has transformed herself to be an activist to help landmine victims, people with disabilities, and people in need.       

The objective of the seminar was to stimulate the discussion about how to promote the role of women as an agent of change, how to empower women and increase their contribution to peace and security, the obstacles towards that end and how to overcome them, and how to forge closer partnerships between UN Member States, concerned UN agencies as well as any other interested parties for tangible outcomes. 

This seminar was a sequel to the seminar that Thailand also hosted in March this year in New York on the topic of “Increasing Women’s Contribution to Peace and Security”.  The series of these seminars are part of Thailand’s efforts to push forward the women, peace and security agenda as well as campaign for Thailand’s candidature of non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council (UNSC) for the term 2017-2018.