At Security Council Debate, Delegates Call for Women’s Inclusion in All Peace Processes, Protection of Human Rights Defenders
At Security Council Debate, Delegates Call for Women’s Inclusion in All Peace Processes, Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Many of the challenges the world faces today, from proliferating conflicts to worsening assaults on human rights, are connected to the trampling of women’s rights and to deeply ingrained misogyny around the world, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told the Security Council today, opening its annual day-long open debate on women, peace and security.
“Women and girls are often the primary targets of violence and abuse in conflict settings,” she said, stressing: “They must be in the vanguard of our response.” Presenting the latest report of the Secretary-General on women, peace and security (document S/2022/740), she observed that despite the well-documented benefits of strengthening women’s resilience and leadership, progress has been slow, creating a barrier to bringing about inclusive and sustainable peace, stressing: “We must do better.”
Pointing out that while between 1995 and 2019, the percentage of peace agreements with gender equality provisions increased from 14 to 22 per cent, within the same time frame, women constituted just 13 per cent of negotiators, 6 per cent of mediators and 6 per cent of signatories in major peace processes. Against this backdrop, she called for more women mediators and negotiators to be put forward; and for greater support to be extended to the underfunded frontline work of women peacebuilders. In addition, she called for the swift implementation of five actions identified by the Secretary-General, ahead of the decade on women’s rights.
She went on to highlight the work of the Organization across the world to promote women’s meaningful representation and participation in peacemaking efforts, including in Sudan, where the Mission’s strategy for a gender responsive process included a 40 per cent target of women in delegations to the peace talks, adding: “Today, let us recommit to putting women’s participation at the centre of everything we do — everywhere.”
Sima Sami Iskandar Bahous, Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), sounded a similarly rousing call to action, underscoring the need to do more to support women, including female human rights defenders around the world, from Iran to Tigray, Ukraine and more, who are under attack and continue to risk their lives.
Citing a number of setbacks in progress, including a decrease in women’s representation in United Nations-led peace processes in 2021 from the previous year, and a 72 per cent shortfall in funding aimed at preventing and responding to gender-based violence in humanitarian emergencies, she warned: “Denying women space, access or funding because of safety concerns emboldens perpetrators and, in their eyes, validates their tactics.”