19th Anniversary of UNSCR 1325: Enough Words. Time for Action.

Last week, women peace leaders from around the world gathered in New York to mark the 19th Anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 and the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda. A common theme in discussions was radical impatience regarding obstacles to implementation and blazing assertions that action cannot wait. 

“We need to do something,” stated one civil society representative from Nigeria. “But is it doing something the way we have always done? No. It may require sitting on the floor, but we need to redesign the table – at the UN, national, and local levels – to touch the lives of women.” 

19 years after the adoption of the landmark UNSCR 1325, it is clear that the feminist peace movement has been successful in generating recognition that women and gender issues are relevant to peace and security. 

What remains to be done is to take effective action. According to the UN Secretary General WPS Report: in 2018, only 7.7% of peace agreements included gender provisions, down from 39% in 2015. Only 50% of the gender-specific recommendations to the UN by the three peace and security reviews in 2015 (on WPS, peace operations, and peacekeeping) have progressed.

The next twenty years must be about shifting systems away from crisis response – which breeds gendered inequality and violence – and toward upstream prevention. States must recognize that gender equality and women’s rights are political, and demand action that tackles misogyny and promotes a power shift toward feminist peace based on women’s human rights.  

Accountability requires member states to stop fueling violence. One government representative pointed out that the African Union has decided that “Silencing the Guns” would be a priority for 2020. “But we can see that the continent is not going to silence the guns,” they noted. “We need civil society to push for accountability and deal with this.” 

Accountability also requires that states and the UN stop making excuses for excluding women from the peace table. “What can member states do?” asked a civil society representative from Syria. “You can ask, ‘where is the rest of your delegation?’” A UN representative affirmed, “We should stop supporting peace talks that exclude women.”

As we prepare for the 20th Anniversary of UNSCR 1325 in 2020, states should hear activists’ calls for action. From Afghanistan, to Libya, to the Korean peninsula, to Colombia, states must stop transferring arms that risk perpetuating gender based violence; ensure women are at the decisionmaking table of peace talks; include women’s human rights and a gender perspective in constitutions; provide nondiscriminatory services for sexual and reproductive health; provide safe spaces for women human rights defenders to raise their voices; recognize and prevent discrimination and violence against LGBTQI people; and fund women’s rights and social protections. 

The time is now. As one government representative stated, “we are not short of resolutions, we are short of time.” The baseline cannot be words – it must be changing women’s lives.