It was decided that Ms. Coomaraswamy would lead a comprehensive study with regard to developments in the fifteen-year period since resolution 1325 was adopted. Ms. Coomaraswamy and the members of her High-Level Advisory Group held consultations with a diverse group of stakeholders, in all regions of the world. In addition, UN Women commissioned research papers for the Global Study, which will be published separately in an accompanying volume. More than 60 Member States, international and regional organizations responded to requests for submissions to the Global Study and 47 civil society organizations, academics and research institutes provided inputs via a public website. A survey of civil society organizations generated responses from 317 organizations in 71 countries.
The world has changed since the Security Council adopted resolution 1325 in October 2000. The nature of conflict in certain regions is qualitatively different, the content of what we mean by ‘peace’ and ‘security’ is evolving, and the understanding of what we mean by ‘justice’ has also transformed. This ever-changing and ever evolving reality poses major dilemmas for the four pillars of Security Council resolution 1325 and its subsequent resolutions: these pillars of prevention, protection, participation, and peacebuilding and recovery. It is in this context of a changing world and shifting dynamics for peace and security, that the Global Study undertakes a fifteen-year review of the implementation of resolution 1325.
Although the world has changed, there have been a number of successes in implementation over the past fifteen years.
• The international community has adopted a comprehensive normative framework with regard to sexual violence in conflict. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court that came
into force in 2002 outlines a comprehensive list of crimes against women. Since the 1990s, international courts and tribunals have developed sophisticated jurisprudence with regard to these crimes. The Security Council has also acted decisively—a Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict has been appointed by the Secretary-General to report to the Council, and a monitoring and reporting mechanism has been established at the local level to report on sexual violence against women and girls in conflict situations on the agenda of the Security Council. Commissions of Inquiry and fact-finding missions set up by the Human Rights Council increasingly have a mandate to investigate sexual and gender- based violence, and a roster of experts exists within the international community to support the investigation of these international crimes.
• The international community and national governments have begun to understand the importance of national and communal healing as a part of holistic justice and accountability processes, including truth seeking, reconciliation, memorialization and reparations for women victims of violations.
• The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women adopted General Recommendation 30 on women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations, which provides detailed guidance to Member States on issues related to women, peace and security and the criteria for accountability, and makes clear that implementing resolution 1325 is the responsibility of every Member State.
• Between 1990 and 2000, when the Security Council adopted 1325, just 11 per cent of peace agreements signed included a reference to women. Since the adoption of resolution 1325, 27 per cent of peace agreements have referenced women. Of the six agreements resulting from peace talks or national dialogue processes supported by the UN in 2014, 67 per cent contained references relevant to women, peace and security.
• The number of senior women leaders within the UN has been on the rise, from special envoys of the Secretary-General, to the first female commander of a peacekeeping mission.
• Bilateral aid on gender equality to fragile States has quadrupled in the last decade—but from a practically non-existent level, at the start.
However, much of the progress toward the implementation of resolution 1325 continues to be measured in ‘firsts,’ rather than as standard practice. Obstacles and challenges still persist and prevent the full implementation of the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda.
• With regard to sexual violence, despite the comprehensive normative framework, there are very few actual prosecutions, particularly at the national level. Though some argue that the normative frameworks have deterred future crimes, others claim that there has been no significant difference for women on the ground. More research is needed to validate these claims and respond to the justice needs of victims.
• Though the participation of women in formal peace processes has been inching up, a study
of 31 major peace processes between 1992 and 2011 revealed that only nine per cent of negotiators were women—a negligible figure given the issues that are involved. Only three per cent of the military in UN missions are women, and the majority of these are employed as support staff. These two areas of peacemaking and peacekeeping are among the most persistently challenging for ensuring women’s equal and meaningful participation.
• Despite a great deal of effort by the international community to encourage Member States to have inclusive processes to formulate national action plans on women, peace and security, only 54 countries have formulated such action plans.
Many of these plans are focused on process, with neither mechanisms for accountability nor budgets available for real implementation.
• The rise of violent extremism in many parts of the world has led to a real threat to the lives of women as well as to a cycle of militarization where women are often in an ambivalent position, rejecting the strictures on their conduct by violent extremists but wanting to protect their families and their communities from polarization and threat. Some women also become fighters and join extremist groups, some against their will but many out of real conviction. Women peacebuilders are also caught between the rising tide of extremism in their communities, and the constraints placed upon their work by counter-terrorism policies that restrict their access to critical funds and resources.
• Though there is a great deal of rhetoric supporting women, peace and security, funding for programmes and processes remains abysmally low across all areas of the agenda. Bilateral aid has increased to fragile States with regard to gender issues, but it is only still six per cent of the total aid package, and only two per cent of aid earmarked for peace and security. The quality of project-style aid also needs restructuring and re- examination.
Confronting the status quo of peace and security, the Global Study sets out detailed recommendations under every chapter and under each theme. It also concludes with a set of general recommendations
for policy guidance and advocacy. Discussions and consultations with regard to the Global Study pointed to the following set of principles around which the world should unite:
• Prevention of conflict must be the priority,
not the use of force. Greater attention must be paid to the prevention of conflict, and the use of force must always be the last resort when all other options have failed. The Global Study emphasizes the importance of short-term prevention measures such as early warning systems and intensified efforts at preemptive dialogue at the local, national and international levels. It also examines measures to address the root causes and structural drivers of conflict, such as exclusion, discrimination, attacks on dignity and structural inequality. These, along with measures dealing with the proliferation of small arms, violent masculinities and climate change should also be implemented.
• Resolution 1325 is a human rights mandate.
It must not be forgotten that resolution 1325 was conceived of and lobbied for as a human rights resolution that would promote the rights of women in conflict situations. Any policy or programme on women, peace and security must be conducted with this in mind. Attempts to ‘securitize’ issues and to use women as instruments in military strategy must be consistently discouraged. The Global Study explores the role of human rights mechanisms in holding Member States accountable for human rights obligations relating to the women, peace and security agenda, including through international treaty bodies, Universal Periodic Reviews, and regional human rights courts and commissions.
• Women’s participation is key to sustainable peace. This study contains research that comprehensively demonstrates that the participation of women at all levels is key to the operational effectiveness, success and sustainability of peace processes and peacebuilding efforts. Mediators, facilitators and leadership in peace operations must be proactive in including women in all aspects of peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. The Global Study describes the substantial increase in frequency of gender-sensitive language in peace agreements, and the number of women, women’s groups and gender experts who serve as official negotiators, mediators, signatories, witnesses or
in advisory bodies. Nonetheless, in many conflict- affected contexts, women’s official participation may be temporary, their delegated roles may be more symbolic than substantive and their influential capacity may be directly resisted by cultural norms.
• Perpetrators must be held accountable and justice must be transformative. Perpetrators
of grave crimes against women should be held accountable for their actions so that women receive justice and future crimes are deterred.
At the same time, justice in conflict and post- conflict settings must be transformative in nature, addressing not only the singular violation experienced by women, but also the underlying inequalities which render women and girls vulnerable during times of conflict and which inform the consequences of the human rights violations they experience. The Global Study explores both the importance of fighting impunity for crimes against women through criminal justice proceedings, while also recognizing the central role played by reparations, truth and reconciliation processes and in ensuring that victims and their communities heal and recover together.
• Localization of approaches and inclusive and participatory processes are crucial to the success of national and international peace efforts. In the area of peacebuilding, there must be a detailed mapping and understanding of local conditions with the participation of women themselves before programmes are designed, formulated or implemented. The ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy, transferring ‘best practices,’ is not always what is needed in many situations of conflict. The Global Study describes the peacebuilding period as an opportunity to transform societies and work toward gender equality; to build economies and institutions that recognize and seek to address the specific challenges women face.
• Supporting women peacebuilders and respecting their autonomy is one important way to counter extremism. Across religions and regions, a common thread shared by extremist groups is that in each and every instance, their advance has been coupled with attacks on the rights of women and girls—rights to education, to public life and to decision making over their own bodies. It is clear that military responses alone are insufficient in routing out violent extremism. The Global Study explores how funding and support
to women peacebuilders in contexts of rising extremism can play a critical role in ensuring that extremist ideologies neither survive nor thrive.
• All key actors must play their role. Member States, regional organizations, the media, civil society and youth all have a vital role to play in working together to implement the women, peace and security agenda, and holding one another accountable to commitments. The Global Study explores the successes and challenges that
each set of actors has faced over the past 15 years, and sets expectations for carrying the WPS agenda into the future.
• A gender lens must be introduced into all aspects of the work of the Security Council. The Security Council must continue its work on the implementation of the women, peace and security agenda, and in order to do so, requires additional support and information. The Global Study explores avenues to better inform the work of the Security Council on implementation, from more robust sanctions, to more frequent briefings from civil society, to closer exchanges with the Human Rights Council, to the creation of an informal expert working group on women, peace and security.
• The persistent failure to adequately finance the women, peace and security agenda
must be addressed. The failure to allocate sufficient resources and funds has been perhaps the most serious and unrelenting obstacle to implementation of women, peace and security commitments over the past 15 years. This lack of financing may be somewhat overcome if Member States, regional organizations and the UN system all commit to earmarking a minimum of 15 per cent of all funding relating to peace and security for programmes whose principal objective is to address women’s specific needs and advance gender equality. The Global Study further recommends an increase in predictable, accessible and flexible funding for women’s civil society organizations working on peace and security at all levels, including through dedicated financing instruments such as the new Global Acceleration Instrument on Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action.
• A strong gender architecture at the United Nations is essential. The Study is clear: the United Nations must play the lead role in creating a peaceful and secure world for all of us— holding true to its original vision to turn ‘swords into plowshares.’ To do so, the UN must adopt structural changes to capitalize on its available resources for women, peace and security, and ensure that the entire system moves forward in a coherent and coordinated manner to bring gender equality and women’s empowerment into the core of its work in all areas. To this end, the study makes key recommendations, including the following:
o An Assistant Secretary-General, with dedicated resources, should be appointed at UN Women to deal with crises, conflict and emergencies, after a full re-appraisal of UN Women’s work in headquarters and the field on women, peace and security.
o Greater resources must also be allocated to UN Women in general, to support its work in conflict settings.
o There must be a senior gender advisor at the D1 level in the office of every Special Representative of the Secretary-General, with hybrid technical gender experts in thematic units.
o The gender divisions of DPKO and DPA at headquarters should be strengthened.
o UN Women, DPKO and DPA should jointly provide technical, political and policy expertise to the gender staffing of peacekeeping and special political missions.
o There should be discussion with all stakeholders with regard to the feasibility of setting up an International Tribunal for Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by UN peacekeepers and UN staff in the field. This issue remains the major controversy that brings the UN, and the entire international community, into disrepute in the eyes of public opinion.
The Global Study concludes, not with a recommendation, but with a call to action. The great changes we are undergoing must primarily be understood in the context of the needs and concerns of women in specific situations of conflict. The ‘local’ must clearly be the most important factor in our analysis. Nevertheless, women spoke with one voice from every continent to convey a key message to the Security Council: the United Nations must take the lead in stopping the process of militarization and militarism that began in 2001 in an ever-increasing cycle of conflict. The normalization of violence at the local, national and international levels must cease. Networks of women peacebuilders and peacemakers must be expanded and supported to come to the fore. Their solidarity is essential if we are to move the world toward the original vision of the United Nations, where nations turn their ‘swords into plowshares’ and act with conviction to prevent wars through dialogue and discussion.
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