CEDAW/C/GC/30 IV. Convention and conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations A. Women and conflict prevention 29. States parties to the Convention are required to focus on the prevention of conflict and all forms of violence. Such conflict prevention includes effective early warning systems to collect and analyse open-source information, preventive diplomacy and mediation, and prevention efforts that tackle the root causes of conflict. It also includes robust and effective regulation of the arms trade, in addition to appropriate control over the circulation of existing and often illicit conventional arms, including small arms, to prevent their use to commit or facilitate serious acts of gender-based violence. There is a correlation between the increased prevalence of gender-based violence and discrimination and the outbreak of conflict. For example, rapid increases in the prevalence of sexual violence can serve as an early warning of conflict. Accordingly, efforts to eliminate gender-based violations also contribute in the long term to preventing conflict, its escalation and the recurrence of violence in the post-conflict phase. 30. The importance of conflict prevention for women’s rights notwithstanding, conflict prevention efforts often exclude women’s experiences as not relevant for predicting conflict, and women’s participation in conflict prevention is low. The Committee has previously noted the low participation of women in institutions working on preventive diplomacy and on global issues such as military expenditure and nuclear disarmament. In addition to falling short of the Convention, such gender-blind conflict prevention measures cannot adequately predict and prevent conflict. It is only by including female stakeholders and using a gendered analysis of conflict that States parties can design appropriate responses. 31. The Convention requires that prevention policies be non-discriminatory and that efforts to prevent or mitigate conflict neither voluntarily or inadvertently harm women nor create or reinforce gender inequality. Interventions by centralized Governments or third-party States in local peace processes should respect rather than undermine women’s leadership and peacekeeping roles at the local level. 32. The Committee has previously noted that the proliferation of conventional arms, especially small arms, including diverted arms from the legal trade, can have a direct or indirect effect on women as victims of conflict-related gender-based violence, as victims of domestic violence and also as protesters or actors in resistance movements. 33. The Committee recommends that States parties: (a) efforts; Reinforce and support women’s formal and informal conflict prevention (b) Ensure women’s equal participation in national, regional and international organizations, as well as in informal, local or community-based processes charged with preventive diplomacy; (c) Establish early warning systems and adopt gender-specific security measures to prevent the escalation of gender-based violence and other violations of women’s rights; 8/24 13-54331