07 March 2001

New York, USA: Theresa Kambobe, a Zambian United Nations Volunteer (UNV) and gender specialist attached to the United Nations Transitional Administration of East Timor (UNTAET), is a panellist for an International Women's Day special event entitled "Women and Peace", which will be held at UN Headquarters on 8 March 2001 from 10:40a.m to 12:00 noon in Conference Room 3.

Ms. Kambobe is a founding member of UNTAET's Gender Affairs Bureau, a special office for women's issues which raises public awareness of gender issues not only to the local East Timorese but also to the UN staff and peacekeeping officers. Evidences of sexual violence have been unfolding increasingly in East Timor since its vote for independence from Indonesia. One of her main tasks is conducting gender sensitization workshops for UN staff, peacekeeping officers, civilian police and the newly established East Timorese national police force.

Efforts initiated by Ms. Kambobe and her bureau signal a commitment by the United Nations concerning crimes against women in peacekeeping operations. The urgent need to bring a gender perspective into peacekeeping operations was recently recognized in Security Council Resolution 1325: "Women, Peace, and Security".

"UNVs are the backbone of UNTAET. Their key task will be to make themselves redundant and build up local capacities" Mark Malloch Brown, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said during a recent visit to East Timor.

Ms. Kambobe is one of the 630 UN Volunteer specialists, representing some 90 nationalities, currently serving in East Timor. During the course of 2001, more than 800 UN Volunteer specialists would be serving in East Timor, the largest UNV deployment ever in a single mission. She has also worked as one of the 500 district electoral officers for the August 1999 referendum, conducting voter education and registering more than 3,000 East Timorese. This contributed to the total of 451,000 registered voters and the 98.6 per cent voter turnout that was far beyond expectation.

In her work, Ms. Kambobe draws on her experience as a government official in her home country, where she formulated national gender policy. Her experience extends from participating in the 4th World Conference on Women, Beijing as the member of the Zambian delegation to community-level initiatives such as promoting women's and children's rights and lobbying intensively for the increase of women participation in decision-making positions. Prior to serving as a UNV, she also served as an international observer in South Africa's first all-race elections in April 1994.

Women UN Volunteer specialists make up about 30 per cent of the total UNVs in peacekeeping operations, a percentage that is on the increase. In East Timor, most of the district gender focal points are women UNVs. Colleagues like Ms. Besa Sylejmani from Kosovo, for example, bring extensive experience working with civil registries and elections in her strife-torn homeland.