| That's not all they need. |
Pierre Schori is leaving his post after two years as the UN secretary-general’s envoy to the West African country, where 11,000 French and UN peacekeepers protect a fragile cease-fire between a rebel-heldast, the world’s top cocoa grower, has been divided since a brief civil war in 2002-03. “It was quite shocking and at the same time the most rewarding professional experience I have ever had,” Schori, a former Swedish politician, professor and diplomat, told a news conference.
Schori said his end-of-assignment report recommended the United Nations create an “enforcer” to ensure implementation of a resolution requiring peacekeepers to see women not only as victims of conflict but also as actors for peace. “You need to train peacekeepers coming from cultures where women are not on an equal footing with men — not in order to criticize but in order to illuminate everybody so we are on the same level on UN core values,” he said.
| Oh no, we'd never want to criticize, no sirree ... |
“We have zero tolerance on this and this must be explained in advance and implemented,” he said.
| If there's zero tolerance how come it keep happening? And why isn't anything done about it? |
Schori said the gender-awareness “enforcer” should “go to troop contributing countries to set up a special cell in the defence department and, above all, see to it that you get an induction of troops before they go out on a mission.”
“The gap between doctrine, resolution and implementation in the field is enormous and it’s detrimental to the peace process,” he said. The “enforcer” should be a man, he added, because everyone else dealing with gender at the United Nations was female.
| Nice place for all the young academic feminists with their degrees in Gender Studies ... |
| Which is a cogent explanation why the U.N. gets so little respect, but Mr. Schori won't see that. |