On Tuesday 13 October 2015, under the Spanish presidency of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the Security Council held the annual Ministerial-level Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security (WPS). The Open Debate marked the 15th anniversary of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda and the adoption of UNSCR1325 (2000), a resolution that, for the first time, acknowledged the strong impact that conflicts have on women and the necessity of including women in peace processes, addressing their needs and views. Following the request made by the Spanish Prime Minister, after renewing their commitments, Member States focused their statements on how to improve the implementation of those commitments that, after 15 years, are still unfulfilled, addressing the most common obstacles and constraints encountered. The outcome of the open debate was the adoption of a new resolution UNSCR 2242 (2015), co-sponsored by a record-breaking 75 states, now the 8th resolution on Women, Peace and Security. Echoing previous resolutions, UNSCR 2242 (2015) urged the Secretary-General, the United Nations agencies and member states to integrate gender perspectives into their work, to increase representation of women in all decision-making levels, and to include women into all peace processes, from prevention to negotiation to conflict and post-conflict situations. As part of this, it recommended the establishment of an informal expert group in the Security Council. The new resolution, furthermore, broadened the peacekeeping framework to address health and extremism, and highlighted the necessity of gender-responsive training, analysis, and programmes within the UN system, specifically, but not limited to, within the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), the Department of Political Affairs (DPA) and the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO). The resolution also underscored the need for increased funding for gender-specific programmes, and increased transparency on funding’s destination, ensuring that funds are specifically dedicated to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Finally, the resolution recognized the role of civil society, inviting it to brief the council more regularly on country situations and on relevant thematic areas of work.
Through resolution 2242 (2015), adopted unanimously ahead of the open debate on the topic, the Council decided to integrate women, peace and security concerns across all country-specific situations on its agenda. During the debate, the Council urged the Secretary-General and United Nations bodies to better integrate gender perspectives into their work so as to address accountability deficits. In this regard, the representatives of Portugal and Namibia, among others, proposed the creation of gender targets that will serve to indicate the individual performance of officers in Headquarters and in the field. Addressing the area of peacekeeping, the Council urged the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Political Affairs to ensure that gender analysis and technical gender expertise were included throughout all stages of mission planning, mandate development, implementation, review and mission drawdown. In this regard, the representative of Cyprus suggested doubling the numbers of women in peacekeeping operations over the next five years. Moreover, the representative of Finland, among many other speakers, reiterated the need to address continued charges of sexual exploitation and abuse by United Nations peacekeepers, “to make the zero-tolerance policy [on sexual exploitation and abuse by mission personnel] into a zero-case reality.” Addressing the issues of terrorism and violent extremism, the States expressed their commitment to ensuring the participation and leadership of women’s organizations in devising strategies to counter terrorism and violent extremism. According to the representative of the United Arab Emirates, “to truly achieve peace and security, we must prevent conflict and prevent violent extremism by addressing the root causes and investing in prevention early on.” The Council also requested the Counter-Terrorism Committee and its Executive Directorate to integrate gender as a cross-cutting issue within their respective mandates. Finally, many Member States called upon donor countries to provide financial and technical assistance to women involved in peace processes.
There were a record-breaking 110 statements made across two different days, the most ever in the 70 years of the Security Council. The statements often referred to the important thematic issue in the context of the WPS agenda and, in this sense, “participation” was the issue referenced the most, with approximately 43% (47/110) of Member States underlining the necessity of including women in all peace processes, and in leadership and political roles. In this vein, the representative of Chile reiterated that “peace and security are not possible without the effective participation of women in the political, economic, social and cultural processes that cut across all societies.” Equally referred was the necessity of a more comprehensive implementation of the WPS Agenda, which was mentioned 42 times (38%). Less frequently, Member States referred to issues related to Sexual Gender-Based Violence (28%), Peace Processes (26%), Reconstruction and Peacebuilding (25%), Conflict Prevention (24%), Peacekeeping (21%), Protection (14%), Human Rights (13%), and Justice (12%). The least addressed thematic issues were “disarmament” and “displacement and humanitarian response”, which were respectively mentioned only 8 (0.07%) and 4 (0.03%) times. During their statements, some Member States, such as Angola, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Portugal, Thailand and the United Republic of Tanzania, also commit to adopt National Action Plans for the implementation of UNSCR 1325 (2000).
Matt Mahmoudi (he/him) is a lecturer, researcher, and organizer. He’s been leading the “Ban the Scan” campaign, Amnesty International’s research and advocacy efforts on banning facial recognition technologies and exposing their uses against racialized communities, from New York City to the occupied Palestinian territories.
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.
