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Women, Peace and Security Agenda

The Women Peace and Security Agenda is a global policy architecture supporting gender equality in countries involved in the management, resolution of and recovery from violent conflict. It was formally inaugurated by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in October 2000, however its development started more that 30 years before. It took some decades to develop a normative framework and operational policies and procedures tailored to the rights of women and girls in conflict-affected countries.

Key milestones:

1969

1974

UNGA

Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict

1975 - 1995

UN World Conferences on Women:

  1. World Conference on Women: 1975 Mexico gave impetus to the drafting and passing of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
  2. World Conference on Women: 1980 Copenhagen
  3. World Conference on Women: 1985 Nairobi addressed the issue of women and peace and convened the first working group on refugee women to advocate for the needs of women affected by conflict.
  4. World Conference on Women: 1995 in Beijing brought more attention to women and peace. The Beijing Platform for Action was adopted, which recognise “Women and armed conflict” as one of its critical areas of concern.

1994

The International Conference

on Population and Development in Cairo set minimum health standards for refugees and IDPs to include reproductive health services and treatment for victims of sexual violence acknowledging that women and girls are targets of sexual violence during war

2000

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 peacebuilding;

Security Council’s

presidential statement commemorating International Women’s Day (March 8th) recognized the connection between peace and women’s rights;

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