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Women must be part of political process in Syria: UN envoy

Xinhua, March 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

The UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, on Monday sent a message, before the International Women's Day, saying that women must be part of the political process in Syria, where a lot of women and girls suffered from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East country, a UN spokesman told reporters here.

De Mistura sent the message after meeting many Syrian women and seeing how they have been affected by Syria's five-year war, which broke out in March 2011, Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here.

The International Women's Day is observed worldwide on March 8 each year, which falls on Tuesday this year. With UN, this year's theme for the day is "Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality." The UN observation is going to reflect on how to accelerate the Sustainable Development Agenda and will equally focus on existing commitments on gender equality.

Mothers and grandmothers have continued with courage and determination to keep the households going on, in spite of all the violence, and they have refused to give up hope, said Haq, quoting de Mistura as saying.

"Mr. de Mistura said that Syria's women have, and must have, the right to be part of the political process and the negotiations that the UN is organising," Haq said.

The delegations coming both from the opposition and from the Syrian government need to include women and allow them to speak, said de Mistura, stressing that women of Syria deserve to have their voices heard.

UN-led talks seeking to broker a political solution between Syrian warring factions, namely the government led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and opposition forces, came to a standstill on Feb. 3 after parties failed to see eye to eye on a number of issues.

The UN-led talks are planned to resume on March 9.

More than 250,000 people in Syria have been killed since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis some five years ago.

According to UN data, 110,000 people in besieged areas in Syria have been provided with vital humanitarian aid since talks were put on hold last month.

The humanitarian agencies have monitored that there has been relative calm for almost two weeks under the Cessation of Hostilities agreement, which has offered hope to the 6.5 million people displaced inside Syria and more than 4.5 million people who fled the country. Endit