1325 and small arms

Adopted in October 2000, UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security states that gender perspectives should be incorporated in all areas of peace support operations, including disarmament. Although small arms are not specifically mentioned in the Resolution, 1325 has been used in relation to small arms issues, including disarmament in post-conflict contexts. Members of the Women’s Network of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) have taken leadership roles in peacebuilding work, violence prevention and education about gun violence, and are using 1325 in their disarmament efforts around the world.

Small arms have a devastating effect on society. 1325 connects the inter-related issues of small arms violence with women’s peace and security. Many disarmament initiatives have focused on men with guns, since they are most visible. Often such initiatives have not acknowledged women’s different experiences of war, as survivors, perpetrators, civilians or combatants.

Disarmament initiatives do protect women from gender-based violence as the misuse and presence of small arms is connected with violence against women. While the vast majority of those who use and are killed or injured by small arms and light weapons are men, women are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence and intimate partner violence at the barrel of a gun. Guns also affect women and girls when they are not directly in the firing line. They are disproportionately affected by the damage to health, education and other social services caused by armed violence. Women often become the main breadwinners and primary carers when male relatives are killed, injured or disabled by gun violence. Displacement due to violent conflict leaves them particularly vulnerable to starvation and disease as they struggle to fend for their families.

Disarmament programmes such as those in Casamance in Senegal, a region which has experienced more than twenty years of armed conflict, have been supported through 1325. Women in the Movement Against Small Arms in West Africa (MALAO), took the first to take concrete action in small arms disarmament initiatives. Using 1325 paragraphs 1, 7, 8 and 13, women led programmes of awareness raising, participated in regional and national conferences and sensitized communities to ‘prepare the ground’ for the subsequent disarmament process. This enabled women to contribute to the development of incentives and strategies to convince people to hand over their weapons and receive gender-sensitive training on weapons safety and collection.

The existence of 1325 has enabled women to participate in disarmament initiatives in Liberia. Women organised and clearly called for disarmament before elections took place to prevent small arms being used in political violence and intimidation. Such active engagement also led to awareness raising about the problems of guns, their availability and misuse as well as impacting on weapons disposal programmes.

In Uganda and The Solomon Islands, members of IANSA Women’s Network have used 1325 to advocate the importance of gun control to reduce armed violence and challenge gender-based violence. Ugandan women worked with the Demobilisation and Resettlement Team (DRT) to establish peacebuilding programmes to promote dialogue and participation in the decommissioning of weapons. The National Council of Women in The Solomon Islands successfully opposed a proposal to rearm a Special Unit within the Police Force following a disarmament process.

Through further implementation and the development of national Action Plans, 1325 can continue to be used to enable women’s participation in disarmament processes and the development of small arms policy and practice.

Sarah Masters, International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA)