Women’s equality in the UK – A health check

7.21
7.22
7.23
Political representation overseas
The UK Government’s commitment to promote women as international representatives is
welcome, but should be extended to ministerial appointments. It is concerning that out of the
17 ministers currently responsible for leading international work to promote women’s rights and
gender equality, only one is a woman; this undermines the UK’s credibility in promoting women’s
participation through its foreign policy and development work.
There has never been a nomination for a member of the CEDAW Committee from the UK and
considering the wealth of experience and expertise on women’s rights held by women here this
seems to be a missed opportunity and unfortunately another example of the lack of attention
given to CEDAW by the UK Government. This issue has been raised and the response 44 was that
there were other international forums that took priority in terms of UK representation. There
is also no State funding to support the representation of women’s NGOs during international
convention processes such as CEDAW.
It is also of concern that the UK has not taken stronger action to support women to take up
senior positions within international peace and security structures. Security Council Resolution
1325 45 calls on member states to provide candidates to the UN Secretary General so there are
more women as special representatives and envoys. It also urges member states to ensure
increased representation of women in peace and security mechanisms and institutions. Of the
15 members of the UN Security Council only three members currently have a woman as their
Permanent Representatives. The UK has never appointed a woman as the UK’s Permanent
Representative to the UN in New York. 46
Recommendations:
• Ensure women are put forward for all levels of posts within international peace
and security structures and set targets for the number of such posts filled by
women. The Government should work to identify ‘quick wins’, posts which could
be filled by well-qualified women in the immediate future, this would set a
positive example and be a precedent for future recruitment 47
• The Government should promote the use of its considerable influence with other
states to encourage women candidates to be put forward as well as to encourage
requests for women Special Representatives to the UN Secretary General, letting
mission host countries know that there is an option to ask for this specifically (as
was done by President Johnson-Sirleaf in Liberia 48 )
44. Chalmers, L. (2009) ‘British Government not backing UK Women for CEDAW Vacancies and the new UN Super-Agency For Women’, The
Downing Street Project, 8th December 2009 http://thedowningstreetproject.ning.com/profiles/blogs/british-government-not-backing
45. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/wps/
46. See Foreign and Commonwealth Office, UK Mission to the United Nations – former permanent representatives http://ukun.fco.gov.uk/en/
about-us/whos-who/former-permanent-representatives Accessed 22/03/13
47. Associate Parliamentary Group on Women, Peace and Security and the Gender Action for Peace and Security Network (2011) The
Participation Challenge: Narrative Report of the First Civil Society Focus Group on the UK National Action Plan on Women, Peace and
Security. http://www.gaps-uk.org/docs/FG1%20The%20Participation%20Challenge%20Narrative%20Report%20Final.pdf
48. Associate Parliamentary Group on Women, Peace and Security and the Gender Action for Peace and Security Network (2011) The
Participation Challenge: Narrative Report of the First Civil Society Focus Group on the UK National Action Plan on Women, Peace and
Security. http://www.gaps-uk.org/docs/FG1%20The%20Participation%20Challenge%20Narrative%20Report%20Final.pdf
Women’s equality in the UK: CEDAW shadow report 2013 67