International Women's Day 2020: Women, War and Water in Yemen

Mar 6, 2020 | Leonie Nimmo
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On International Women’s Day 2018 the UN Envoy to Yemen received an open letter calling on him to take a firm stand on women’s demands and to prioritise women in peace processes. Signed by more than 100 women, and endorsed in solidarity by global civil society organisations, the letter highlighted the crucial role of women as frontline distributors of aid, human rights defenders, campaigners for community reconciliation and negotiators of local truces and security. In a damning indictment of the international community’s response to the conflict, these efforts were said to have been “ignored and not adequately supported,” whilst women’s contributions to UN-backed peace talks were “not taken seriously enough”.