About 80 percent of the world’s refugees are women and children. Sexual violence and rape are prevalent in regions of war as well as in refugee camps, shows a statement issued by Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU-Commissioner for external relations and European neighborhood policy, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. The role of women in promoting peace and security formed the key part of an international conference themed "Women: Stabilising an Insecure World", held at the end of last week in Brussels. Hosted by European Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the event was attended by more than 50 international women leaders, including United States Secretary of State Condolezza Rice, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other political leaders, as well as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, and representatives of the United Nations and the World Bank. According to the event’s organizers, security cannot be effectively discussed or achieved without the involvement of women. Women’s participation is crucial not only in the more traditional “hard” security spheres like war efforts, peace-building, post-conflict reconstruction and counter-terrorism, but also countering “softer” human security threats such as global epidemics, psychological health during and post-war, and the emerging concerns of climate change and environmental degradation. Statistics show that despite the general consensus to protect and empower women, they remain marginalized in decision-making, peace-building and peacekeeping operations. Under-representation of women in politics still persists worldwide, including in Europe. Only six percent of ministers worldwide and 10 percent of parliamentarians are women. The organizers of the conference assert that women do make a difference, because they adopt a more inclusive approach toward security and address key social and economic issues that would otherwise be ignored. An important instrument to stabilize the world is the UN Resolution 1325 on Women’s Role in Peace building and security. Since the adoption of the resolution in 2000 awareness of the importance of including women in peace and reconstruction process has grown. Yet implementation of its mandate remains sporadic and ad hoc. According to experts in Chisinau, although the Republic of Moldova has made progress in adopting gender equality legislation and has ratified a number of international agreements aimed to strengthen the role of women in the society, there is still much to be done until gender equality is upheld not only on paper but also in reality. Women in Moldova are as good in official positions as men are, yet their participation in politics, business and public administration remains insignificant. Women account for about 40 percent of Moldova’s unemployed. At the same time, their share in the administrative and political offices is as low as 10 percent.