Right now, women across the globe are being subjected to the horrific realities of conflict and violence, in their communities and in their homes.
Their human rights — including their economic, social and political rights — are being directly undermined by unchecked and rising militarism and a lack of accountability from the international community, which continues to ignore and neglect persistent gender inequalities. And while these inequalities threaten the lives and well-being of women themselves, they also put our planet and a future of sustainable peace at grave risk.
Yet despite these challenges, women continue to be systematically excluded from peace processes and decision-making. Conflict prevention efforts fail to incorporate gendered perspectives and approaches. And governments continue to spend unprecedented amounts of money on arms and military security to the detriment of people and the planet.
This must change. The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda gives us the tools to create that change — but only if it’s effectively implemented.
More than 20 years ago, in October 2000, feminist activists and civil society, including WILPF, paved the way for the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.
The scope of UNSCR 1325 has since expanded with the adoption of nine subsequent resolutions. These have collectively become known as the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda.
In theory, the WPS Agenda is an innovative toolbox that governments, civil society, feminist peace activists and other actors can use to create a future where women have full, equal and meaningful participation in peace processes — and where the disproportionate impacts of conflict on the lives of women are both recognised and addressed.
Yet we still live in a world where women are deeply and disproportionately impacted by rampant armed conflict and instability. Patriarchal systems, inequalities, militarisation, authoritarianism, repression and discriminatory structures continue to hinder women’s rights and participation.
It is time for real action.
The successful adoption of UNSCR 1325 (2000), which forms the foundation of the WPS Agenda, was rooted in decades of feminist peace activism and efforts by both the international community and civil society to work toward a normative framework for the integration of gendered perspectives in peace and security.
Early efforts to address the situation of women in armed conflict include the 1969 Commission on the Status of Women, which questioned whether women and children should be afforded special protection during conflict, and the 1974 General Assembly’s adoption of the Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict.
The UN World Conferences on Women (1975-1995) were also important milestones in building upon the idea that women are indispensable participants and active agents of peace, and their interests, voices and capabilities must be accounted for and harnessed.
The first conference in Mexico in 1975 initiated an ongoing dialogue on the status of women in a new space and gave impetus to the drafting and passing of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which is an international treaty often referred to as the women’s international bill of rights.
The fourth conference, held in Beijing in 1995, led to the creation of the Beijing Platform for Action. The Beijing Platform recognised that civilian casualties outnumber military casualties, with women and children comprising a significant number of the victims, and proposed strategic objectives including reducing military spending in order to redirect resources to peace. It also asserted that international humanitarian and human rights law need to be upheld and applied to offenses against women.
In 2000, the 23rd special session of the General Assembly entitled “Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century” reaffirmed the commitments made in the Beijing Platform. Soon after, the UN Security Council passed the landmark UNSCR 1325 (2000).
In total, the UN Security Council has adopted 10 resolutions on WPS: UNSCR 1325 (2000), 1820 (2008), 1888 (2008), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013), 2242 (2015), 2467 (2019) and 2493 (2019). Together, they form the international policy framework on WPS and guide work to promote and protect the rights of women in conflict and post-conflict situations.
As a global feminist peace organisation, WILPF’s main goal is to advance feminist peace for equality, justice and demilitarised security.
That includes monitoring, analysing and advocating for the implementation of the WPS Agenda as we seek to build a sustainable, harmonious and peaceful world where everyone thrives. Our key focus areas are:
We engage in conflict prevention efforts and advocate for peaceful resolutions to conflicts, with a focus on addressing gender-specific impacts and ensuring women’s voices are heard.
We work to promote gender equality and empower women in conflict-affected regions, ensuring their full, equal, meaningful, effective and safe participation in peace processes and decision-making.
We work to ensure that gender and human rights are incorporated across peace and security discussions and processes.
We advocate for the holistic implementation of the WPS Agenda, grounded in human rights, nonviolence and antimilitarist feminism.
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.
