On October 18th, the UN Security Council held its annual open debate on women,peace and security entitled Women, Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict-Affected Situations. The Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay briefed. Brigitte Balipou, the founder of the Association of Women Jurists of the CentralAfrican Republic, spoke on behalf of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security and the civil society. The debate was presided by Azerbaijan.
The meeting resulted in unanimous adoption of a resolution (S/RES/2122), which is the seventh text adopted by the Council on the Women, Peace and Security agenda. The debate featured 4 opening remarks and 63 statements, including the statements made on behalf of the European Union, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the African Union. Overall, the speakers focused on judicial reform and women’s participation in this process, as well as the need to increase women’s participation in decision-making and peacekeeping processes. The most frequently mentioned fragile states were Syria and the DRC.
The adoption of resolution 2122, which is primarily focused on increasing women’s participation in conflict prevention and all areas of peace processes brings us a step closer towards achieving full implementation of resolution 1325 on women, peace and security by the Security Council. The resolution is built on the 2013 Secretary General’s Report (S/2013/525) which highlighted the progress achieved across several areas, while it also depicted persisting challenges to the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. Resolution 2122 is a sign of the Council’s willingness to accord greater systematic attention to the implementation of this agenda to its own work, and we are pleased to see that the resolution text recognises the need to address the full scope of women’s human rights violation rather than sexual and gender based violence alone.
We welcome the language on women’s participation and its emphasis on the connection between women’s participation in decision-making processes, women’s security and durable peace, but would have liked to see more capacity building language as well.
Click here for a more detailed analysis of the resolution 2122.
The civil society speaker Ms Balipou, who briefed the Council on the plight affecting her country the Central African Republic, was one of only four speakers to state that peace agreements should not contain amnesties for crimes against women. She also spoke in favor of ensuring women’s political participation in electoral processes both as candidates and voters, the provision of reparations to victims that seek to transform gender inequalities, and gender sensitive justice infrastructure reform that will increase women’s access to justice. Like Ms Balipou, most states mentioned gender sensitive justice sector reform and women’s full and meaningful participation in the reform processes as an essential pre-requisite to sustainable peace and the restoration of rule of law. Additionally, almost all states called for increased participation of women at all levels of transitional justice processes and post conflict reconstruction, particularly in leadership and decision-making positions. The Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Ms. Pillay and numerous states including Egypt, Botswana, Estonia and the EU urged the Council to deal with the full scope of human rights’ violations, including those of socio-economic nature, which constitutes a mark of progress on this subject. Latvia, Pakistan, China, Uruguay and others specifically expressed demands for economic empowerment of women. The SG furthermore declared special measures such as quotas could help women engage in the design and delivery of transitional justice as well as to increase their participation in all of post-conflict mediation, peacekeeping and peace-building. This remark represents a certain readiness within the UN system to take more tangible action towards gender mainstreaming rather than just paying lip service.
Few states including France, Pakistan and Brazil made progressive remarks about the importance of viewing women as active agents and drivers of change rather than mere victims. Almost all of the states including Pakistan, Turkey, Namibia and Botswana made some form of reference to the continuing threat of SGBV, or what the Rwandan representative had called ‘sexual terrorism’, and the need to hold the perpetrators of these crimes accountable. Many states including Liechtenstein, South Africa, Netherlands, Argentina and the Democratic Republic of Korea commented on the important role played by the International Criminal Court, commending its efforts on this front thus far. Other states including Croatia and Slovenia stressed that the primary responsibility for investigating these crimes and persecuting those responsible falls on nation states, and there were several demands for the strengthening of national legislatures in order to do this effectively. The UNHR High Commissioner Navi Pillay warned that meaningful justice must include the provision of reparations as well as the prosecution of criminals, both of which are necessary to ensure lasting reconciliation. The vast majority of states called for better access to justice for women.
The Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon started off the debate by commenting on the ‘central importance of women’s participation in conflict prevention’. He also made an unprecedented move to stress the ubiquitous nature of GBV by emphasizing how ‘forms of gender-based violence in wartime are based on the private violence against women in many homes’. This stressed its root cause of global gender discrimination and inequality. In line with WILPF’s integrated approach, the UNHRHC Navi Pillay stated her support for the Secretary-General’s recommendation to foster closer links between the United Nation’s peace and security, human rights and development work. Latvia, Nigeria and Australia echoed the High Commissioner’s appreciation for these links.
The UN Women Executive Director Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka advised member states that ensuring lasting peace depends on inviting women to participate in peace mediation and peacekeeping. Most states including Qatar, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy joined her calls for increased participation of women in this sphere as well as for greater participation of women in all areas of society. The High Commissioner voiced her concern about the decrease of women in top mission leadership positions, and expressed her commitment to ensure a minimum of 15% of funding is spent on post conflict peace-building projects on gender equality.
France and Sweden, which spoke on behalf of the Nordic Countries, as well as Croatia, Chile, Lithuania and Namibia made a reference to the ATT or drew a link between the sale of SALW and GBV.
It was encouraging to see Sweden and Slovenia pay tribute to Secretary- General’s call for expanded access to sexual and reproductive health services, while Ms. Balipou spoke about providing survivors with ‘comprehensive multisectoral responses, with necessary funding’. Nigeria, Chile and the EU mentioned the need to improve gender analysis and collect sex-disaggregated data, which was an equally positive sign of progress. Most speakers also requested more regular WPS briefings to the Council, and there was a general consensus of support for the global study. Finally, the frequency of references made in favor of collaborating with women’s civil society groups constituted another progressive trend, as did the calls for capacity building made by many countries including Japan, Guatemala, Portugal, Latvia and the Czech Republic.
See the attachments for the resolution 2122 text, the 2013 Secretary General’s Report, Azerbaijan’s concept note, and the press release provided by the NGO Working Group on Women Peace and Security. Our analysis of the 2013 SG Report can be viewed here.
The UN press release can be accessed here.
Click here to access the Meeting Records.
Berit Aasen is a sociologist by training and has worked at the OsloMet Metropolitan University on Oslo. She has 40 years of experience in research and consultancy in development studies, including women, peace, and security, and in later years in asylum and refugee studies. Berit Aasen joined WILPF Norway five years ago. She is an alternate member of the National Board of WILPF Norway, and representing WILPF Norway in the UN Association of Norway, the Norwegian 1325 network and the Norwegian Women’s Lobby. Berit Aasen has been active in the WILPF European Liaison group and is committed to strengthening WILPF sections and membership both in Europe and relations across continents.
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Prior to being elected Vice-President, Melissa Torres was the WILPF US International Board Member from 2015 to 2018. Melissa joined WILPF in 2011 when she was selected as a Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women as part of the WILPF US’ Practicum in Advocacy Programme at the United Nations, which she later led. She holds a PhD in Social Work and is a professor and Global Health Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine and research lead at BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program. Of Mexican descent and a native of the US/Mexico border, Melissa is mostly concerned with the protection of displaced Latinxs in the Americas. Her work includes training, research, and service provision with the American Red Cross, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Centre, and refugee resettlement programs in the U.S. Some of her goals as Vice-President are to highlight intersectionality and increase diversity by fostering inclusive spaces for mentorship and leadership. She also contributes to WILPF’s emerging work on the topic of displacement and migration.
Jamila Afghani is the President of WILPF Afghanistan which she started in 2015. She is also an active member and founder of several organisations including the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organisation (NECDO). Elected in 2018 as South Asia Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board, WILPF benefits from Jamila’s work experience in education, migration, gender, including gender-based violence and democratic governance in post-conflict and transitional countries.
Sylvie Jacqueline NDONGMO is a human rights and peace leader with over 27 years experience including ten within WILPF. She has a multi-disciplinary background with a track record of multiple socio-economic development projects implemented to improve policies, practices and peace-oriented actions. Sylvie is the founder of WILPF Cameroon and was the Section’s president until 2022. She co-coordinated the African Working Group before her election as Africa Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018. A teacher by profession and an African Union Trainer in peace support operations, Sylvie has extensive experience advocating for the political and social rights of women in Africa and worldwide.
In response to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and its targeted attacks on civil society members, WILPF Afghanistan issued several statements calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with Afghan people and ensure that their rights be upheld, including access to aid. The Section also published 100 Untold Stories of War and Peace, a compilation of true stories that highlight the effects of war and militarisation on the region.
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WILPF uses feminist analysis to argue that militarisation is a counter-productive and ill-conceived response to establishing security in the world. The more society becomes militarised, the more violence and injustice are likely to grow locally and worldwide.
Sixteen states are believed to have supplied weapons to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020 with the US supplying 74 % of weapons, followed by Russia. Much of this equipment was left behind by the US military and is being used to inflate Taliban’s arsenal. WILPF is calling for better oversight on arms movement, for compensating affected Afghan people and for an end to all militarised systems.
Mobilising men and boys around feminist peace has been one way of deconstructing and redefining masculinities. WILPF shares a feminist analysis on the links between militarism, masculinities, peace and security. We explore opportunities for strengthening activists’ action to build equal partnerships among women and men for gender equality.
WILPF has been working on challenging the prevailing notion of masculinity based on men’s physical and social superiority to, and dominance of, women in Afghanistan. It recognizes that these notions are not representative of all Afghan men, contrary to the publicly prevailing notion.
In WILPF’s view, any process towards establishing peace that has not been partly designed by women remains deficient. Beyond bringing perspectives that encapsulate the views of half of the society and unlike the men only designed processes, women’s true and meaningful participation allows the situation to improve.
In Afghanistan, WILPF has been demanding that women occupy the front seats at the negotiating tables. The experience of the past 20 has shown that women’s presence produces more sustainable solutions when they are empowered and enabled to play a role.
