WILPF/PeaceWomen themes covered:

General Women, Peace and Security:  4/16

Conflict Prevention:  3/16

Disarmament:  2/16

Displacement and Humanitarian Response:  2/16

Participation: 4/16

Peace Processes: 3/16

Peacekeeping: 2/16

Protection: 2/16

Reconstruction and Peacebuilding: 1/16

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: 3/16

Implementation: 2/16

Justice, Rule of Law, SSR: 11/16

Human Rights: 1/16

On average the UK covered 20 % of WPS concepts in the open debates in 2019. While the UK had the most number of references to the PeaceWomen theme ‘Justice,Rule of Law, SSR,’ amongst the P5, they also lacked a nuanced understanding of ways to tackle terrorism and organized crime in relation to the rule of law. Moreover, the UK also made some references to the implementation of WPS and participation of women. 

WILPF/PeaceWomen themes covered:

General Women, Peace and Security:  0/2

Conflict Prevention:  1/2

Disarmament:  0/2

Displacement and Humanitarian Response:  0/2

Participation: 0/2

Peace Processes: 0/2

Peacekeeping: 0/2

Protection: 0/2

Reconstruction and Peacebuilding: 0/2

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: 0/2

Implementation: 0/2

Justice, Rule of Law, SSR: 1/2

Human Rights: 1/2

WILPF/PeaceWomen themes covered:

General Women, Peace and Security: 0/1

Conflict Prevention: 0/1

Disarmament: 0/1

Displacement and Humanitarian Response: 0/1

Participation: 0/1

Peace Processes: 0/1

Peacekeeping: 0/1

Protection: 0/1

Reconstruction and Peacebuilding: 0/1

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: 0/1

Implementation: 0/1

Justice, Rule of Law, SSR: 0/1

Human Rights: 0/1

The focus of this debate was on disasters related to climate, and the UK failed to mention the gendered impact of climate change, the need for participation of women in climate-related decision making or reference the WPS agenda which highlights the linkages between climate change and conflict. 

WILPF/PeaceWomen themes covered:

General Women, Peace and Security: 0/1

Conflict Prevention: 0/1

Disarmament: 0/1

Displacement and Humanitarian Response: 0/1

Participation: 0/1

Peace Processes: 0/1

Peacekeeping: 1/1

Protection: 1/1

Reconstruction and Peacebuilding: 0/1

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: 0/1

Implementation: 0/1

Justice, Rule of Law, SSR: 1/1

Human Rights: 0/1

N/A.

The United Kingdom was the only Permanent Five country to make new commitments in 2019, which are as follows: 

Financial commitments: The United Kingdom commits to promote women’s meaningful participation in peace processes and have allocated GBP 300,000 of funding to this area of work. The countries of focus - although not exclusively - include Afghanistan, South Sudan and Yemen, where the UK will Uruguay press for women’s needs, concerns and priorities to be taken into consideration at all levels - from the community to the negotiating table and beyond.

 The UK will also commit to increase support for women working to resolve conflict, counter violent extremism and build peace at the local level, and commit GBP 800,000 to the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund over the next year. 

The UK also reaffirms its commitment to supporting the role of women in peacekeeping, pledging GBP 1 million to the Elsie Initiative for Uniformed Women in Peace Operations, to support and incentivize more meaningful participation of uniformed women in UN peace operations, and accelerate the much-needed progress towards achieving UN targets. 

Civil Society Engagement: Commit to reinforce the vital role of civil society by consulting with civil society groups on the UK’s nine National Action Plan focus countries. These consultations are essential to understanding the needs of stakeholders, including survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.

Security Sector: The UK will redouble efforts to advance the Women Peace and Security agenda through the UK military. This will include: providing relevant training to at least 100 UK and international military every year; identifying and training military Gender and Protection Advisers; analyzing the prevalence of sexual violence in areas in which the UK military operate, and stepping up training for women officers. 

Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: The UK is working with the Institute for International Criminal Investigations and Nadia’s Initiative to develop the Murad Code, an ethical code of conduct that aims to ensure that survivors of sexual violence give informed consent regarding evidence gathering and that they are referred to support services safely and confidentially. The UK is seeking to see the Code incorporated into all donor funding requirements and will invite Member States to sign up when the UK launches it at PSVI International Conference in London in November.

Arms Transfer Revenue, Total Contribution in 2018: $ 518,000,000  

UN Women Government Total Contribution in 2018:  $15,940,000 

Military Expenditure in 2018:  $ 50,000,000,000

In 2018, the UK was ranked 27 of 189 countries. 

Researcher’s Note: The figures used above are from the 2019 Human Development Report which has the rankings for 2018. The 2020 Human Development Report is not published as of October 2020. Consultations have been scheduled till December 2020 and “the work on the 2020 HDR will continue through the summer and fall”.

In 2018, the United Kingdom was ranked 15 among 149 participating countries.​

Researcher’s note: In 2019, WEF published the Gender Gap Report 2020 instead of a Gender Gap Report 2019. This was done to change the launch of their Gender Gap Report series to the first quarter of every year. The above-mentioned data reflects the rank tabulated using sources from 2019 as indicated in the report (see resource 1).  

Researcher’s Note: The UK has acceded to Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages and Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: 2000. 

Contingent: 501 men, 50 women, 551 total 

Experts on Mission: 3 men, 0 women, 3 total 

Staff: 21 men, 4 women, 25 total 

Total peacekeepers provided: 525 men, 54 women, 579 total 

A majority of the UK peacekeepers are present in the UN mission in South Sudan (303), followed by the mission in Cyprus (258). 

Researcher’s Note: While all the Permanent Five countries focus on peacekeeping as an important element of the WPS agenda and to tackle sexual violence in conflict settings,  WILPF believes that to fully prevent all forms of sexual violence it is rather essential to address the root causes of violence, including structural inequalities, discrimination and patriarchal norms. 

The UK has always positioned itself as a leader in fighting SEA. In 2019, the UK spent £ 3.8 million to tackle SEA in international peacekeeping. However, a recent report from the Independent Commission for Aid Impact states that the UK’s efforts to tackle SEA committed by peacekeepers is not doing enough to support victims and survivors. 

While the UN recorded 80 allegations of sexual abuse in 2019 mostly in Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo, there are many cases that go unreported. 

Government Funding and Engagement with Women's CSO.The NCVO’s recent UK Civil Society Almanac states that £ 15.7 billion for UK charities’ income came from the central government in 2017-2018. However, the public continues to be the largest source of income for the charity organizations, making up 47% of their total income of £ 53.5 billion in 2017-2018. The UK Government released a civil society strategy in 2018, while it was broadly welcomed by charities, most civil society organizations also believe that more can be done to implement the objectives laid out in the strategy. 

Spotlight: The Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS) is a membership organization of NGOs in the field of humanitarian response, human rights, development and peacebuilding that make up the UK’s Women, Peace and Security civil society network. Using a collaborative advocacy approach, campaigning and research, GAPS works to highlight “the realities of women living in conflict-affected countries to decision-makers and practitioners and to promote their participation at all levels.”In 2019, the UK Government funded GAPS and its partners to undertake consultations on Women, Peace and Security to mark the 20th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2020. 

The UK law enforcement and security sector has released diversity and inclusion strategies to implement gender-specific training in 2019, with clarity on the accountability and responsibility to implement the strategies. However, diversity continues to be an issue in the UK police force with only 6.9% police officers from minority ethnic groups. Moreover, with women being underrepresented at senior levels, there is also a clear imbalance of power between men and women in the UK police force.

UK's fourth NAP is adopted for the period 2018-2022, however, it does not provide specific timeframes for the outcomes it describes. The NAP is externally-focussed; in particular, it strengthens opportunities for local women civil society to initiate partnerships that address local needs in the UK’s efforts to build security and stability abroad. However, important issues such as the impact of gendered violence within the country, immigration, and status of women in Northern Ireland remains unaddressed in the NAP. 

NAP Budget. There is no estimated or allocated budget in the 2018-2022 NAP. In explaining this decision, the UK stated that it found "...little evidence that a ring fenced funding pool would significantly improve the UK’s delivery of WPS initiatives compared to other measures such as ensuring that WPS is strategically and meaningful mainstreamed throughout programming.” In accordance with this view, the UK Government departments fund work on WPS from their core budgets, such as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Global Britain Fund, and cross-government funds including the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund. 

Disarmament. The updated UK NAP for 2018-2022 has no references to small arms and light weapons (SALW). While the NAP refers many times to the entrenchment of harmful gender norms and its impact on women’s lives, disarmament and the impact of arms on women in conflict is not mentioned in this NAP. 

In 2018, the United Kingdom’s military expenditures were approximately $50 billion ($49,997,000,000). The United Kingdom was among the top military spenders of 2018. 

In 2019, women made up 26.4% of the United Kingdom's Upper House (the House of Lords). 

The proportion of women in the House of Commons and the House of Lords remained stagnant from 2018. 

In 2018, 31% of ministerial positions were held by women in the United Kingdom.

There were 37,428 women police officers in the 43 police forces on 31 March 2019, making up 30% of police officers in England and Wales (the highest proportion on record).   The number of women officers increased by 1,010 (3%) compared with a year earlier, and the proportion of women police officers also increased slightly (up 0.6 percentage points from 29.8% 0n 31 March 2018). 

32% of court judges and 46% of tribunal judges were women, representing a 3% increase in the court judges category from 2018. 

Notably, younger age groups had higher levels of women's representation. Almost half of the court judges under 40 were women (47%), and almost half (46%) of court judges aged 40-49 were women. Women accounted for half of the most senior roles in tribunals (Presidents, Chamber Presidents, Deputy and Vice Presidents). Nearly 43% of the tribunal judges under 40 were women and over half of the tribunal judges between 40-49 were women. 

The following figures provide additional insight into women’s participation, standing and experience within the labour force in the United Kingdom in 2019: 

• The estimated earned income per year (US$): $ 29,100 for women; $51,800 for men.   
• Legislators, senior officials and managers: 36.3 % for women; 63.7 % for men.
• Professional and technical workers: 49.8% for women; 50.3 % for men.

Girls’ enrolment in secondary education declined marginally from 2018 by 0.3% for girls and by 0.2% for boys. 

Girls’ enrolment in primary education declined marginally (0.8%) from 2018, and boys enrolment also declined by 0.6%. Boys and girls’ literacy rate remained the same and consistent with 2018. 

The United Kingdom has no single constitutional document, and is instead the sum of laws and principles that make up the "unwritten" constitution of the United Kingdom. The Constitution guarantees equal treatment based on gender, as well as provisions for potential positive action based on gender. The UK’s Equality Act 2010 is the primary legal instrument for equality which bans unfair treatment and helps to achieve equal opportunities in all aspects as it binds together previous legislation on equality and anti-discrimination. The regulations (2017/172) added in 2017 to the Equality Act 2010 provided a standard mechanism for companies to report and publish details on gender pay gap. 

The Gender Recognition Act 2004 lays out the process by which a person can legally change their gender, however, it is a bureaucratic and difficult process. While the UK government in 2018 ordered a 16 week consultation to review the act, it has not resulted in any progressive amendments so far rather the government backtracked to remove trans people’s rights to access gendered spaces, making it complicit in the global rise of transphobic violence. 

Notably, in 2018, the UK improved their legal framework on domestic abuse: Scotland passed the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act of 2018 which went into effect in April 2019, which makes all domestic abuse towards a partner, whether psychological or physical, a criminal offence. Offenders could face up to 14 years in prison.

In 2019, the UK government published a strategy refresh outlining new action for Ending Violence against Women and Girls from 2016 till 2020. Additionally, the government also published a road map and monitor to promote and track gender equality in the UK in 2019. A new bill (Gender-based Pricing Prohibition bill) to ban “differential pricing of products and services that are substantially similar other than being intended for, or marketed to, a particular gender” was introduced in the parliament in 2019.

According to the World Justice Project's (WJP's) 2020 report on citizens' access to justice in 2019, the United Kingdom was ranked 13 out of 128 states. As it relates to civil justice (a category which includes financial affordability, economic barriers to access and freedom from discrimination), the United Kingdom is ranked 17 out of 128. As it relates to criminal justice, the United Kingdom is ranked 12 of 128. As it relates to fundamental rights, the United Kingdom is ranked 13 of 128. In 2018, the UK’s overall ranking was 12 out of 126 states. 

In 2019, the Ministry of Justice launched a consultation to strengthen the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime (also known as the Victim’s Code), which is a statutory document that lays out the minimum level of service victims can expect from criminal justice agencies. The consultation was held in the light of victims and groups representing them felt that it lacked complexity and consistency. The Victim’s Code entitles all victims of crime to a range of support and information to help them cope and recover from the effects of the crime. 

In 2019, the UK government also held consultations on cost reform to make the judicial review more accessible, however, it ignored the financial obstacle faced by people whilst trying to exercise the right to challenge unlawful decision-making by public authorities. The legal costs rules in the UK state that for those who want to bring a judicial review must not only fund their own lawyers but also pay the state’s legal costs if they lose, making judicial review inaccessible to most people. 

According to the 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report, the UK government complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The government “increased funding for anti trafficking efforts; identified more potential victims; trained more first-responders to identify potential victims; increased trafficking investigations; and commissioned a parliamentary review and evaluation of the effectiveness of the Modern Slavery Act of 2015 (MSA) with input from NGOs. Although the government meets the minimum standards, protection services for child victims needed increased attention and resources”. 

In March 2016 the British Home Secretary published the UK National Strategy on Violence Against Women for the period of 2016-2020. This strategy includes 80 million GBP in funding to support rape crisis centres, shelters, and local prevention programmes. The main goals of the strategy are to increase reporting, reform the justice system's response to sexual and gender-based violence, support local commissioners, address trafficking in persons, and overall improve intervention and the prevention of abuse. This strategy was refreshed in 2019 and it contains 54 new commitments in addition to the 95 that were part of the 2016 strategy. Some of the new commitments include: increasing funding for rape support centres by 10%; gathering regular data on sexual harassment; develop guidance for supporting LGBT victims; review of criminal justice responses to rape and sexual offences. 

n 2019, the UK government established an Office for Veterans’ Affairs which was jointly run by the Cabinet Office Minister for Defence People and Veterans and the Minister for Cabinet Office and Paymaster General. The two ministers share responsibility for veterans’ affairs. While the Office for Veterans’ Affairs supports all UK veterans through employment, health and economic benefits, it does not have a designated office to support UK’s women veterans. 

A report published by Cranfield University and Institute for Employment Studies in 2019, found that women veterans have a lower employment rate (69%) compared to their male counterparts (81%). 

Most women veterans in the UK do not receive pension and as a result are pushed into homelessness. Until the 1990’s women were forced to leave the Services if they got pregnant and were not eligible for pension if they did not complete a full service of 22 years for soldiers and 16 years for officers. 

In 2018-19, Rape Crisis Centres provided 7,32,184 sessions of specialist support which included advocacy, emotional support and counselling (a 9% increase from 2017-18). The Rape Crisis Centers (for which Rape Crisis serves as an umbrella body) handled 186,243 online and telephone helpline contacts ( twice the number of text messages than in 2017-18).

In 2019, rape and sexual abuse support services were awarded increased government funding to help more victims- totalling  £24m over 3 years.

In June 2019, there were over 1,479 active law enforcement investigations, compared with 188  in November 2016. In 2019, the UK Government announced it would invest £10 million to establish a new Modern Slavery Policy and Evidence Centre to transform the understanding of modern slavery. 

The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is a framework to identify victims of human trafficking or modern slavery and ensure that they receive the required support. Through the NRM, authorities referred 10,627 potential trafficking victims for care nationwide in 2019, a 52 percent increase from 6,993 in 2018. 

The UK government provided $ 26.39 million to an NGO through 2020 to coordinate the provision of care for adult victims in England and Wales under the NRM. 

In 2019, the UK received 35,099 asylum applications (11% more than the previous year). The UK offered protection, in the form of humanitarian protection, asylum, alternative forms of resettlement, to 20,339 people (17% higher than the previous year). 

The Vulnerable Person Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) accounted for 4,030 (over three-quarters)  of those resettled in the UK in 2019. 

Iran was the top nationality claiming asylum in the UK in 2019 with 4,741 applications (up by 22% from the previous year), followed by Albania with 3,467 applications (up by 40% from the previous year). 

However, the UK Border Force has also stepped up attacks on asylum seekers and refugees by illegally detaining them under Home Office guidance and Dublin III regulation. In 2019, the number of migrants attempting to cross the English Channel increased significantly from previous years. For instance, on a single day in September 2019, a record 86 migrants crossed the Channel. However, the UK government has failed to adequately recognize the right to seek asylum of these migrants.