Ten Years after Resolution 1325

“Resolution 1325 (2000) holds out a promise to women across the globe that their rights will be protected and that barriers to their equal participation and full involvement in the maintenance and promotion of sustainable peace will be removed. We must uphold this promise.”

(Secretary-General’s 2004 report on women, peace and security)

The unanimous adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on 31 October 2000 was a watershed in the evolution of international women’s rights and peace and security issues. Resolution 1325 was the first Security Council Resolution specifically addressing the disproportionate and unique impact of war on women and children, as well as women’s contributions to conflict resolution and sustainable peace. The Resolution expressed concern that women and children accounted for the vast majority of those adversely affected by armed conflict. As such, it urges Member States to take specific actions to ensure women’s equal and full participation as active agents in peace and security. The resolution is historic not only in that it constituted the first time the Council systematically addressed the manner in which conflict affects women and girls differently from men and boys, but also because it acknowledges the crucial link between peace, protection of women and girls during and after conflicts, and women’s equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.

Recent developments (or should we call them: chronicle of inertia?):

A year ago:

UN Security Council Open Debate:
Mediation and Settlement of Disputes 
April 21, 2009

Resolutions 1325 (2000) and 1820 (2008) urge Member States and the Secretary-General to ensure increased representation of women at all levels of conflict resolution and peace processes. Yet an analysis by the United Nations Development Fund for Women shows that, in 13 major comprehensive peace processes since 2000, not one single woman has been appointed chief mediator.

We the women: Why conflict mediation is not just a job for men

An article by Antonia Potter, October 2005

On the anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, this paper offers a cogent set of reasons as to why the impediments often cited to women’s participation at the Track One level (family, culture, security, gender identity) are largely surmountable or even irrelevant, and suggests a range of practical options to counter the discrimination and inertia the article describes (role modelling, mentoring and master classes, quotas and a range of time limited affirmative action and positive discrimination practices).

See the whole document.

This is the conclusion, by the title Just do it!

It seems that the days when women need to band together to achieve change, empowerment and recognition are not over; and equally that men can continue to be able to ignore or discount those efforts, whether through ignorance, lethargy, persistent prejudice or jealousy of power and position. In response, this paper has presented options for real and present action, and hopes to stimulate further suggestions for what should be done to turn rhetoric into reality.

So let those disproportionately represented, decision-making men hear these words not as a threat but as an invitation, and an appeal to their better nature: peace matters today more than ever. Our lives are more connected than ever, and some might say more at risk than ever. So don’t we owe it to ourselves and future generations to do everything we can to get better at ending violent conflict and building sustainable peace? Should we not constantly be on the search for new techniques, new methodologies, and new approaches to refine the profession of conflict mediation?

A simple way to start that search would be to appoint women, who suffer so disproportionately from the scourges of war, and who have proved themselves so eager and able to participate in combating them, to join forces in equal status with men as senior conflict mediators. Just do it!