The delegation met first with UN officials
Lisa Buttenheim, Special Representative of
the Secretary-General in Cyprus, and Espen
Barth Eide, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General
on Cyprus, to get a deeper understanding
of the history and current status
of the peace process. This was followed by a
presentation by Harry Tzimitras, director of
the PRIO Cyprus Centre, and Olga Demetriou,
senior research consultant at the PRIO
Cyprus Centre working on gender issues.
The delegation also met with the Technical
Committee on Gender Equality, and later
various women’s groups and other civil society
organizations. These meetings were
an opportunity for both sides to exchange
knowledge and advice when it comes to ensuring
women’s participation and including gender issues in the Cyprus and other peace
processes. Members of the delegation Elisabeth
Slåttum and Hilde Salvesen, in particular,
shared their views on the success and
challenges of including women and a gender
perspective in the Colombia peace process.
They also shared knowledge about the Subcommittee
on Gender, established in 2014,
and a Women’s Summit in 2013, which has
been particularly successful in mobilizing
women’s organisations in Colombia.
The visit seemed to encourage the technical
committee members and women’s organizations
to continue working towards gender
inclusion in the Cyprus process, despite the
various challenges they face. Kristin Lund,
Force Commander of the UN Peacekeeping
Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), said the visit
was “interesting and meaningful for the
women of Cyprus” and that “such exchanges
were an important part of building support
and pressure for the implementation of UN
Security Council resolution 1325” on Women,
Peace and Security. Hear more about the
impact of the field visit in a radio interview
available online with network member Elisabeth
Slåttum.
The field visit was organised by UNFICYP in
collaboration with PRIO and the Norwegian
Peacebuilding Resource Centre (NOREF),
which are the network’s Norwegian operational
partners. The delegation included
network members Elisabeth Slåttum, Norwegian
special envoy to the peace process in
the Philippines; Mona Juul, Norwegian Ambassador
to the UK; Major General Kristin
Lund, Force Commander of UNFICYP; Hilde
Salvesen, senior adviser at the Norwegian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and member of
the Norwegian facilitation team to the peace
process in Colombia; Laura Mitchell, senior
adviser at NOREF; and Julie Marie Hansen,
research assistant at PRIO.
The Nordic Women Mediators network was
formed in 2015 by the Nordic governments
as a joint initiative to increase the number of
women involved in international peace mediation
efforts.