Argentina

Argentina adopted its first National Action Plan (NAP) in 2015 for the period 2015-2018. The NAP was developed by the Ministry of External Relations and Culture in coordination with a number of ministries, including Ministries of Security; Justice and Human Rights; Interior and Transportation; Work, Labor and Social Security; Education; Health; Economy and Public Finances; and Defense. The NAP indicates civil society involvement in the NAP development process, but does not specify further details on which civil society actors were consulted. The NAP approaches the implementation of the WPS agenda both domestically and internationally. It aims to increase women’s participation in politics and include a gender perspective in all matters related to peace and security in the national, regional and international level. While the NAP has a monitoring and evaluation framework, it does not include an allocated budget. 

Argentina does not have a recent history of armed conflict, but the country was under a military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983, also labeled the “Dirty War.” 

In Argentina, women have a long history of peace activism, particularly during the military rule, when Argentine mothers and grandmothers, known as the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, brought attention to the crimes of the military regime and demanded the safe return of all the people who were disappeared by the state security forces. 

In recent years, Argentine feminists have been calling for an end to femicide and sexual and gender-based violence in the country, including the country’s severe restrictions on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Most recently, feminist activists were pivotal in the legalization of abortion in Argentina in 2020. 

At the multilateral level, Argentina most recently served as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the period 2013-2014. 

CEDAW Ratification

1980

Global Gender Gap Index 2020

30 out of 153

Arms Trade Treaty Signed 2013

2014

Military expenditure (2019)

$3.143 billion USD

Explore Argentina's National Action Plan

  • Actors
  • Timeframe
  • Objectives
  • Actions/Activities
  • Indicators
  • M&E
  • Budget
  • Disarmament

NAP Development

In 2011, the former Ministry of External Relations and International Trade and Culture initiated a process of dialogue and rapprochement with CSO and women’s organizations to discuss their proposals for the NAP and to receive their feedback on the designing process of the NAP and the monitoring stage of its implementation.

In 2011, the Ministry of External Relations and International Trade and Culture convened all actors involved in the WPS agenda to participate in an inter-institutional exercise to build a joint vision on peace and security with a gender perspective as captured by the NAP. 

NAP Implementation

We currently do not have a list of civil society organizations that participated in the implementation process with the government. 

The following Ministries are listed as actors in the implementation of Argentina's NAP: Security; Justice and Human Rights; Interior and Transportation; Work, Labor and Social Security; Education; Health; Economy and Public Finances; Defense; and Exterior Relations and Culture. The National Council of Women is also included in the list.

NAP Monitoring and Evaluation

The NAP does not mention any civil society organization or civil society in general as an actor in the monitoring and evaluation process of the NAP's implementation. 

The following government institutions are responsible for monitoring and evaluating the NAP: the National Women Council and the Ministries of the Executive Power. 

The implementation period for the Argentinian National Action Plan is three years starting in 2015.

Argentina’s National Action Plan establishes four main goals:

  1. Increase women’s presence both in peace and humanitarian missions as well as in decision-making positions.
  2. Increase women’s political participation in peace and security matters, in peace negotiations, in conflict management and in the decision-making spaces for each of these spheres.
  3. Include a gender perspective in all the peacebuilding activities and humanitarian aid missions, including DDR activities.
  4. Protect women and girls’ human rights in conflict and post-conflict countries (including refugee camps and displacement), particularly from sexual and gender-based violence, as well as promoting a secure environment.

Each one of the four objectives, includes a list of various actions, as well as the government actors that will take the lead and be responsible for its implementation. The first fundamental goal, “Increase women’s presence both in peace and humanitarian missions as well as in their decision-making level”, includes seven actions assigned to the national sphere, i.e. the Argentinian State:

  1. Strengthen the Council on Gender Policies in the Defense Ministry and the specific actors that promote and defend women’s human rights in the Ministry of Security as part of its role in promoting equality between men and women.
  2. Identify the breakdown of deployed personnel in peace and humanitarian assistance missions according to sex and task developed, and include statistical data on the willingness of female candidates to deploy in peace missions.
  3. Increase female personnel’s participation in the Army, in the essential staff, and in Military Observers and Liaison Officers roles in peace missions.
  4. Continue to promote the dispersion of information regarding access to the current peace missions and women’s experiences in peace and humanitarian assistance missions in countries of conflict and post-conflict.
  5. The White Helmet Commission should promote volunteer participation in peace missions, and would consider the inclusion of their personnel in various profiles that could assess the reconstruction processes in conflict and post-conflict countries as well as in situations of emergency and natural disasters.
  6. Promote the egalitarian selection of humanitarian organization with female presence and/or gender perspectives for humanitarian assistance.

The Argentinian NAP includes a final page where the indicators for each objective is listed. For example, in order to fulfil the Objective number 2, “Increase women’s political participation in peace and security matters, in peace negotiations, in conflict management and in the decision-making spaces for each of these spheres”, this indicator is established:

  • The second year of the NAP implementation should have updated data on the number and percentage of women in the executive branch in the public administration.

The monitoring and evaluation indicators in this NAP aim to measure the advances in the implementation of the NAP in the three years period. These indicators have been created based on the indicators proposed by the Secretary General at the United Nations Security Council in response to UNSCR 1889 (2009).

Through the Department called Direccion de la Mujer, the Ministry of External Relations and Culture will convene the National Women Council and the Ministries of the Executive Power: Security; Justice and Human Rights; Interior and Transportation; Work, Labor and Social Security; Education; Health; Economy and Public Finances; and Defense. All of them will create and implement monitoring and evaluation mechanism with an institutional nature, which will guide their actions, enact the pertinent periodic revisions and announce advances in the implementation of the NAP.

Argentina’s National Action Plan does not include an allocated or estimated budget. No indicators or actions are included that formulate fundraising strategies, detail the level of funding required for each specific activity, or accountability mechanisms to ensure funding is raised and used in implementing the NAP. Nonetheless, the NAP states that each participating body is responsible for managing the human and financial resources needed to implement the NAP according to the actions established in it.

One of the main goals of the Argentinian NAP is to “include a gender perspective in all the peacebuilding activities and humanitarian aid missions, including DDR activities” and, one of the actions established to fulfill this goal is to offer capacity-building to the deployed personnel in peace missions on DDR from a gender perspective. This allows them to identify the specific needs of female ex combatants (women and girls), particularly, in social reintegration processes, women’s rights and protection from all kinds of violence, and in mechanisms to detect and address gender-based violence and human trafficking victims. Furthermore, in the peace and humanitarian assistance missions, the Punto Focal de Genero (Focal Gender Point) will participate in the execution of DDR operations when mandated by an appropriate body and will apply a gender perspective to these processes.

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