A Zimbabwean lawyer and writer, Nyaradzai Gumbonzwanda has been appointed into a United Nations advisory team on ways to better protect women in conflict situations. Gumbonzwanda who is also the general secretary of the Zimbabwean chapter of the World Young Women’s Christian Association (World YWCA), will with  13 other experts from other countries advise the UN High-Level Steering Committee on ways to ensure that women’s voices are heard in peace processes.

The advisory team was constituted in line with the UN’s Security Council resolution 1325 on the role of women in peace and security which marks its 10th anniversary this year.

Resolution 1325 was adopted by the Council in 2000.

It stresses the importance of giving women equal participation and full involvement in peace and security matters and the need to increase their role in decision-making.

The team will advise on the organisation of a ministerial-level meeting of the Security Council later this year on the issue and provide policy advice on ways to accelerate implementation of the resolution.

Gumbonzwanda has over 10 years’ experience with the UN, where she served as Regional Director for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (Unifem) in eastern Africa. She also served as human rights officer with Unicef as well as national child rights advisor in Liberia and Zimbabwe respectively.

For many years, she has worked in the women’s rights movement on issues of constitutionalism, inheritance, property and land rights.

She also served as interim coordinator for the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association during its formative stage and in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs as a law officer.

Her impressive CV also includes working on the integration of gender equality issues in the peace processes for the Sudan, Somalia and Northern Uganda.

She played a leading role in the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region that resulted in the adoption of the Protocol on Sexual and Gender Based Violence as well as property rights for returnees.

She has also worked for years on issues of gender and HIV and Aids and was a resource person for the International Women’s Summit on HIV and Aids hosted by the World YWCA in 2007.

BY OUR STAFF

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