§ 2.36 p.m.
§ Baroness Thomas of Walliswood asked Her Majesty's Government:
§ What progress has been made in the four years since the relevant resolutions were passed in the United Nations Security Council and the European Parliament to involve women in conflict management, peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction in the Balkans, the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa.
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean)My Lords, the United Kingdom strongly supports these resolutions. Her Majesty's Government play a leading role in promoting women's engagement in conflict resolution and peace-building activities. We also support monitoring the implementation of these resolutions. There has been progress, such as voter registration initiatives in Afghanistan and Iraq focusing on women. There are real successes. Forty per cent of voters in the recent election in Afghanistan were women. But the international community needs to continue to intensify efforts on these policies.
§ Baroness Thomas of WalliswoodMy Lords, I thank the Minister for her Answer. I do not doubt her own commitment to those issues in the very least, hut what efforts have been made to recruit women for places to be filled by the United Kingdom in United Nations and EU missions? Why have only about three out of 20 members of the Prime Minister's Commission for Africa, which is to report soon, been appointed? The commission is concerned precisely with peace-making and conflict resolution.
§ Baroness Symons of Vernham DeanMy Lords, on the latter point, people are still being recruited in advance of the G8. In fact, one of my Assistant Private Secretaries is starting that work this week. On recruitment generally, of course we would like to see more women drawn into these areas of work. The noble Baroness may be interested to know that in the Foreign Office, for example, we have recently expanded the number of posts engaged in conflict prevention. There has been an expansion of some 16 posts to try to align our strategic objectives with our resources in the Foreign Office. We are making progress on those issues; I hope that the noble Baroness will be pleased with the figures that I have given.