Afterword

This Handbook is the result of years of consistent work by a group dedicated to ensuring that the Security Council’s resolution 1325, adopted on the 31^st of October 2000, did not remain solely in the realm of rhetoric. The PeaceWomen Project of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom has been a constant record of the slow and uneven progress the Security Council has made on Women, Peace and Security.

As a founding member of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security (NGOWG), PeaceWomen’s work has been central to our core advocacy endeavours. With our mandate to push for the implementation of Women, Peace and Security obligations at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, having PeaceWomen’s ongoing record of the Security Council’s engagement on this issue has been invaluable.

In the NGOWG’s most recent project, the Monthly Action Points (MAP), we provide regular monthly policy guidance to the Security Council as to how it can better address key Women, Peace and Security aspects of its daily work. In these monthly papers, we select a number of country and thematic situations and provide timely guidance – based on our expertise and information from our partners in the field – on what the Council can do to implement 1325.

The PeaceWomen Project provides both historical information and a running tally of key ways the Council has engaged on Women, Peace and Security. When we provide analysis of a UN mission mandate renewal, we turn to PeaceWomen to see what has been discussed on Women, Peace and Security in the past. When we are doing an analysis of whether the Council has followed the guidance of the MAP, we turn to PeaceWomen for language and analysis of Open Debates.

This Handbook not only provides an interesting snapshot of where we are now in the integration of SCR 1325 in current mission mandates and resolutions, but also helps us to evaluate where we have made progress, and where this progress has been scant. I urge all those engaged in policy on Women, Peace and Security to use this Handbook for examples of good practice language when designing and supporting resolutions, and for a clear perspective on how far we have yet to go. It is sure to be one of our key tools in pushing for full implementation of Women, Peace and Security mandates in the Security Council.

Sarah Taylor

Executive Coordinator

NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security

www.womenpeacesecurity.org

About the PeaceWomen Project of WILPF

PeaceWomen is a project of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the oldest women's peace group in the world, which aims to unite women of different political beliefs and philosophies in their determination to dismantle the causes and legitimizations of war.

PeaceWomen promotes the role of women in preventing conflict, and the equal and full participation of women in all efforts to create and maintain international peace and security. PeaceWomen advances our mission by monitoring implementation, facilitating information sharing and enabling meaningful dialogue for positive impact on women’s lives in conflict and post-conflict environments.

PeaceWomen implements our mission by focusing on core areas of action:

Monitoring the UN Security Council’s implementation of Women, Peace and Security through Security Council Monitor;
Providing a comprehensive online source on Women, Peace and Security (resources, news and events) at www.peacewomen.org;
Monitoring the UN system’s and Member States implementation of SCR 1325;
Advocating for the rapid and full implementation of SCR 1325 and related resolutions (SCR 1820, 1888 and 1889); and
Promoting local ownership and awareness of the resolutions. PeaceWomen’s translation initiative hosts 100+ translations of SCR 1325.

The PeaceWomen Project Security Council Monitor includes three interlinked tools - Resolution Watch, Report Watch and Debate Watch. The goal of the Monitor is to extract and analyze the Women, Peace and Security content, or lack thereof, in all Security Council resolutions, debates, and Secretary General Reports to the Council. The Security Council Monitor has served as a basis for the analysis within this Handbook.

PeaceWomen’s website and monitoring tools are pivotal in maintaining the momentum for action on Women, Peace and Security. The PeaceWomen Project (particularly our website, monitoring tools, E-Newsletter, and advocacy efforts) has become a pioneer in advancing the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda and we hope to continue leading the way, beyond the 10^th anniversary of SCR 1325 in October 2010.

More about PeaceWomen: www.peacewomen.org.
More about WILPF: www.wilpfinternational.org.
More about Reaching Critical Will (WILPF project on disarmament): www.reachingcriticalwill.org.

The PeaceWomen Project, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
UN Office, 777 UN Plaza, 6th Floor,
New York, New York 10017, USA.
info@peacewomen.org; + 1 212 682 1265.