FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon has discussed the role of women in the Syrian peace process during a United Nations initiative.
The programme, funded by the Scottish Government and delivered in partnership with the UN, is designed to empower Syrian women with peacemaking and conflict resolution skills.
Ten members of the Office of the Special Envoy's Syrian Women's Advisory Board have travelled to Edinburgh for four days of talks, including a two-day conference at the Scottish Parliament.
READ MORE: As Holyrood horse-trading begins, Nicola Sturgeon reaches out in bid to deliver key election pledges
The work relates to UN Resolution 1325, which reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts.
Ms Sturgeon received a private briefing on the Syrian peace process from Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy to Syria, before meeting the women involved in the Women's Advisory Board to hear about their views on the Syrian peace process.
She said: "Gender equality and a commitment to peace are our fundamentally shared values and it is crucial that women should be formally represented at the negotiating table.
"It's not acceptable for peace agreements to be made by men on behalf of women - women need to have a say in shaping them."
Mr de Mistura said: "I have formed a Women's Advisory Board to advise on gender perspectives on the talks and to channel relevant civil society expertise and proposals into the peace process.
"I look forward to working with the Advisory Board as the next round of talks gets under way and will continue to advocate for more seats for women in the official negotiating delegations."
READ MORE: 'At least 28 killed' in air strike on Syrian refugee camp
Mark Muller Stuart, founder of Beyond Borders Scotland who delivered the programme on behalf of the Scottish Government, and senior adviser to the UN special envoy, said: "One cannot under-estimate the important of the establishment of the Women's Advisory Board by the UN special envoy for the UN-facilitated intra-Syrian talks currently being held in Syria.
"Both UN Resolutions 1325 and 2254 emphasise the important role of women in the resolution of conflicts and the importance of their full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security."
Jessica Forsythe, deputy director of Beyond Borders Scotland, said: "Beyond Borders is pleased to support this important initiative, bringing the Syrian Women's Advisory Board to Scotland.
"Scotland has an impressive record of female leaders in politics as well as a unique non-violent constitutional journey."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel