WILPF Calls for Women’s Meaningful Participation at the 18th Anniversary of UNSCR 1325

By Mikayla Varunok, United Nations Monitor

The WILPF Delegation for the 18th Anniversary of UNSCR 1325 pictured alongside the WILPF team. (Photo: WILPF)

To commemorate the UNSCR1325+18 week, WILPF used the space to advocate for the active engagement and meaningful participation of women in peace and security. Together with partners from Cameroon, Colombia and Lebanon, we engaged in a variety of events and engagements  throughout the week. Activists shared how they are tackling pernicious obstacles to women’s participation as well as recommendations for building a stronger feminist peace movement.

Together, we demanded women's meaningful participation that transforms peace processes to encourage bottom-up, inclusive and gender-aware action oriented around local women’s voices. Our engagement contributed to a significant shift in the discourse across the week: rather than the typical tokenistic references to “women as victims”, discussions highlighted systems of patriarchy and economic institutions for war, emphasising the critical importance of not only adding women to positions of leadership, but also tackling systemic gender inequality by changing political, economic, and social systems from violence to equality and justice.

Read more about WILPF's engagement at the 18th Anniversary of UNSCR 1325 below and here>>