The issue of women in armed conflict was raised for the first time in 1969 by the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) during its Twenty-Second Session (UN Economic and Social Council, 27 January -12 February 1969).

• After the CSW, the UN General Assembly in 1974 approached the issue with the Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict.
• From 1975 to 1995 four UN World Conferences on Women were held, and the issue of women in armed conflict was raised again, especially during the 4th World Conference on Women in 1995 in Beijing. The Beijing Platform for Action was adopted, addressing 12 critical areas of concern. Women and armed conflict was one of them.
• In 2000, the 23° special session of UNGA "Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century"called for the full participation of women at all levels of decision-making in peace processes, peacekeeping and peace building.
• The Security Council’s presidential statement commemorating International Women’s Day (March 8th, 2000)recognized the connection between peace and women’s rights.
• 2000: The Secretary-General created a team to review the UN’s peace and security activities, resulting in the Report on the UN Peace Operations identifying the need for equal gender representation in peacekeeping missions. The report led to the adoption of The Windhoek Declaration, calling for gender mainstreaming in peacekeeping operations.
• 2000: UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1325, the first UNSC resolution on WP.
• From 2008 till 2016: seven more UNSCRs on WPS were issues: 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013), 2242 (2015), 2272 (2016).

Article 4 (l) Constitutive Act of the African Union states that one of its governing principles is to promote gender equality.

Article 4 - Principles

“The Union shall function in accordance with the following principles: (a) sovereign equality and interdependence among Member States of the Union; (b) respect of borders existing on achievement of independence; (c) participation of the African peoples in the activities of the Union; (d) establishment of a common defence policy for the African Continent; (e) Peaceful resolution of conflicts among Member States of the Union through such appropriate means as may be decided upon by the Assembly; (f) prohibition of the use of force or threat to use force among Member States of the Union; (g) non-interference by any Member State in the internal affairs of another; (h) the right of the Union to intervene in a Member State pursuant to a decision of the Assembly in respect of grave circumstances, namely: war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity; (i) peaceful co-existence of Member States and their right to live in peace and security; (j) the right of Member States to request intervention from the Union in order to restore peace and security; (k) promotion of self-reliance within the framework of the Union; (l) promotion of gender equality; (m) respect for democratic principles, human rights, the rule of law and good governance; (n) promotion of social justice to ensure balanced economic development; (o) respect for the sanctity of human life, condemnation and rejection of impunity and political assassination, acts of terrorism and subversive activities; (p) condemnation and rejection of unconstitutional changes of governments.”

• The Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa (also known as Maputo Protocol) is correct! The Maputo Protocol is a binding legal instrument for the States Parties, on women’s rights and it is the first binding treaty to have provisions on the prohibition of harmful cultural and traditional practices such as child marriage and all forms of female genital mutilation (FGM): scarification, medicalization and para-medicalization of female genital mutilation and all other practices.
• The Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa is not correct. The Solemn Declaration is an important African soft law instrument for promoting gender equality and women's empowerment, with which the Member States committed themselves to report annually on progress made in terms of gender mainstreaming. It addresses various issues, among which: HIV/AIDS, representation of women in peace process, prohibition of the recruitment of child soldiers and abuse of girl children as wives and sex slaves, gender based violence gender party, women’s rights to own land, property, and inheritance, literacy of women. Member States committed to sign and ratify the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

• The UNSCR 1888 was adopted in 2009, and it is the third resolution on WPS. It takes a stronger approach to address sexual violence in conflict, mandating peacekeeping missions to protect women and children from sexual violence during armed conflict and create the Office of Special Representative of the Secretary General on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV).

• The UNSCR 1889 was adopted in the same year, 2009, rreiterates the need to promote women’s equal and full participation at all stages of peace processes, particularly in conflict resolution, post-conflict planning and peace building and requests the Secretary General to develop a set of indicators to be developed to track implementation of the UNSCR 1325 at the global level.

• The UNSCR 1325 is the funding document of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda as it acknowledged for the first time the differentiated impact of wars on women and girls and their central role in the prevention, resolution of conflicts, and peace consolidation.

• Option A "Commit to the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment in all UN policies and programmes" is not correct. It is not about gender equality in UN policies and programmes, and not about women’s empowerment only.
• Option B "Ensure women’s participation and inclusion at all levels in matters relating to peace and security, and to increase the protection of women in situations of conflict" is correct.
• Option c "Affirm that rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity" is not correct. UNSCR 1325 did not recognize rape and other forms of sexual violence as a war crime and crime against humanity, but UNSCR 1820 (2008) .

• Option A "Emphasized that rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity" is correct! UNSCR 1820 emphasizes the legal status of sexual violence as a war crime, a crime against humanity, and a component of genocide. This resolution deems sexual violence a strategy of war and a threat to international peace and security.
• Option B "Commits to the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment in all UN policies and programmes" is not correct. It is not about gender equality in UN policies and programmes, and not about women’s empowerment only.
• Option C "It stressed for the first time the importance of women’s participation in all matters relating to peace and security" is not correct. UNSCR 1325 addressed for the first time the importance of women’s participation in all matters relating to peace and security.

• Option A "Refers to the identification of women’s roles, needs, opportunities, positions, status, and ability to participate in and influence different processes" is not correct. This is not gender mainstreaming but the defininton of gender analysis, which should identify the roles, needs, opportunities, positions, status, and ability to participate in and influence different processes of both women and men (while the above sentence only mention women). A gender analysis is the first step and tool for gender mainstreaming.
• Option B "Refers to the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action and at all levels to make the concerns and experiences of women and men an integral dimension of design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes" is correct! ECOSOC provided an official definition of Gender Mainstreaming in its Agreed Conclusions 1997/2: "Mainstreaming a gender perspective is the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women's as well as men's concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality”.
• Option C "It is a strategy that aim at increasing the number of women in projects and programmes" is not correct. Gender Mainstreaming it is not about increasing numbers, and not about women only.

• Option A "Increase the number of women and girls in projects and programmes" is >not correct. Gender Mainstreaming is not about increasing the number of women but about assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action.
• Option B "Increase the number of women and girls in peace negotiations" is not correct. Gender Mainstreaming is not about increasing the number of women but about assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, that could be peace negotiations, policy making, advocacy, etc. and in any sector, from conflict resolution to infrastructure from health to environment.
• Option C "Achieve gender equality" is correct. ECOSOC provided an official definition of Gender Mainstreaming in its Agreed Conclusions 1997/2: "(…) The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality”.

• Option A " Identify and indicate women’s needs as victims and men’s needs as fighters and perpetrators of sexual violence" is not correct. Gender conflict analysis is not only about women’s needs as victims of conflict, or about men as fighters and perpetrators of sexual violence.
• Option B "Identify how to ensure the respect of women’s rights" is not correct. Gender conflict analysis is not only about identifying how to ensure the respect of women’s rights.
• Option C "Identify similarities and differences in the experiences of diverse groups of women, men in conflict-affected areas" is correct. Gender conflict analysis it is about deepening the understanding of a conflict and the broader context in which it is situated and within this context identify similarities and differences in the experiences of diverse groups of women, men in conflict-affected areas. After the analysis of these similarities and differences, actions can be identifies to ensure the respect of the rights of women, men, boys and girls and/or specific vulnerable groups (women living in rural areas, men living in urban areas, orphan boys at risk of becoming child soldiers, girls at risk of early pregnancies etc).

• Option A "Collect only data on women" is not correct. Gender sensitive indicators are not only about women.
• Option B "Are qualitative indicators, based on experiences, attitudes, opinions and feelings" is not correct. Gender sensitive indicators can quantitative indicators (based on statistics broken down by sex) or qualitative indicators (based on women’s and men’s experiences, attitudes, opinions and feelings).
• Option C "Measure and compare the situation of women and men over time" is correct. Gender sensitive indicators require the collection of data, disaggregated by sex, as well as by age and socio-economic and ethnic groups. These indicators measure and compare the situation of women and men over time and refer to quantitative indicators (based on statistics broken down by sex) or to qualitative indicators (based on women’s and men’s experiences, attitudes, opinions and feelings). They are collected and measured using participatory approaches: women and men actively take part in the planning of performance measurement frameworks, implementation, and in the discussion of the findings.