National Defence committee  One of the pieces in the Elsie initiative is to try to understand the barriers that women face, both in joining security institutions and in deployment, because it's very interesting that women deploy internationally at a lower rate than they are members in their national armed f

National Defence committee  That was a deliberate choice by my parents, actually. I would agree with Kate that we seem to be on the right track. I think it's really important that we take the lessons we're learning domestically in terms of how our security institutions reflect Canadians, how we act on Cana

National Defence committee  Thank you very much for pointing that out. I think that one of the strengths and attractive elements of the women, peace and security agenda is trying to bring this holistic approach. One of the key points that have been made is that work in this area is not just to make war safe

National Defence committee  I would hope that the position takes on not just peacekeeping but talking about peace and security more broadly as well, in terms of how Canada is involved in the world and how we're engaged in building peace, not just keeping peace. Certainly, we've seen that when people start t

National Defence committee  I think it's important to ask maybe different kinds of questions. Where we've found real interest is in exploring what security means and how you can have different understandings of security. Do definitions of security differ depending on who you are and where you fit into this?

National Defence committee  I will just add that I think the other element that's important in looking at UN reform is to bring the commitment to the women's rights and gender equality agenda together with the UN reform agenda. These should not be seen as two separate, parallel tracks. We have had emphasis

National Defence committee  Yes. If you want the Ukrainian, it's pronounced “Voroniuk”.

National Defence committee  Thank you very much for the question. We were very pleased and very excited to see the announcement of this position. A high-level champion to support the implementation of Canada's many commitments on women, peace and security has been a long-standing request of members of our

National Defence committee  I think this is a really important issue. We often go to meetings to talk about women, peace and security, and 95% of the people sitting around the room are women. I think there are a number of issues. One is leadership. It is really important that support and legitimacy for this

National Defence committee  It's something very important. Again, one way is supporting and recognizing local resistance, local organizations and groups that are mobilized around these issues. These are the activists who know their situation the best. These are the activists who stay in times of conflict. T

National Defence committee  My understanding is that this is very new, in terms of looking at protecting LGBTQI populations, and this is an area that we do need to give more attention to. It involves how you relate to local populations in general, but looking specifically at groups that have particular need

National Defence committee  Just following up on this, the question of jurisdiction has plagued peace support operations on this, given that the discipline or punishment of members is the responsibility of the troop-contributing country. That's why one of the suggestions coming from outside the UN is to est

National Defence committee  As our fellow witnesses said, there are now issues being raised in terms of asking for troops from various countries. I'm not sure whether specific sanctions would work, because I think it's also an issue related to power structure and relations with local communities. Also, wh

National Defence committee  Some of the interesting work being done on countering violent extremism or countering terrorism involves work at the grassroots level and the work that women's organizations are doing to engage communities and young men. They are often the ones doing the counter-narratives and do

National Defence committee  Local authorities and local leaders often don't believe that women have something to say on political matters.