UN Women Sourcebook on Women, Peace and Security: Overview of Contents

In December 2011 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to three women peacebuilders: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman, in recognition of their non-violent struggle for women's rights to full participation in peacebuilding and democratization processes. The Nobel Committee's citation referred for the first time to UN Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), reiterating the connection between international peace and security, women's leadership and the prevention of war crimes against women.

UN Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) recognizes that conflict affects women and girls differently from men and boys,
and that women must be part of conflict resolution and long term peacebuilding. For this to happen, a great deal needs to change in conflict prevention and resolution, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding. And indeed, much has changed since the passage of resolution 1325. The protection of women and girls from sexual and gender-based violence is recognized to be a priority challenge for humanitarian and peacekeeping practice. Women's peace coalitions have grown in strength and are in some contexts able to put women's concerns on the agenda of peace talks. Transitional justice mechanisms are increasingly responding to war crimes against women with more overt attention to the ways conflict affects women and with specific arrangements to protect women witnesses. Post-conflict needs assessments, planning processes and financing frameworks have in some cases acknowledged the need to put women's participation and concerns at the center of recovery.