Syrian women must join in political process: UN

United Nations, March 8 (IANS) Women must be part of the political process in Syria, said UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura in his message on the International Women's Day.

Staffan de Mistura said this after meeting many Syrian women and seeing how they have been affected by Syria's five-year war, which broke out in March 2011, Xinhua news agency quoted Farhan Haq, the UN deputy spokesman, as saying.

The International Women's Day is observed worldwide on March 8 every year.

With the 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 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 de Mistura.

"De Mistura said that Syrian women have, and must have, the right to be a 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 needs to include women and allow them to speak, said de Mistura, stressing that women of Syria deserve to have their voices heard.

The 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 February 3 after the 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 have been killed in Syria since the outbreak of the crisis 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 in Syria and more than 4.5 million people who fled the country.