On Tuesday April 9th, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, in cooperation with Global Action to Prevent War launched the publication, “Applying a Disarmament Lens to Gender, Human Rights, Development, Security, Education, and Communication: Six Essays”, with a panel discussion at the United Nations.

On April 17th, the UN Security Council held a daylong debate on Sexual Violence in Conflict under the Women, Peace and Security agenda.

Women's exclusion from security discussions, forums and disarmament efforts, in addition to excessively overfunded global military budgets directly, links directly to the lack of funding for women's human rights and gender equality.

The 57th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) took place at United Nations Headquarters in New York from Monday, March 4th to Friday March 15, 2013. The theme of CSW 57 was “the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls” – a theme highly relevant to the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda.

The 8th of March marked International Women's Day (IWD), a day which symbolizes the remarkable political, economic, and social accomplishments by women, past and present from all over the world.

Voices from WILPF - Nepal Section

CSW highlights from PeaceWomen team Perspective

PeaceWomen CSW intern team: Margaret Ruiz, Tuohy Ahern, Barbara Trojanowska, Ester Harrius

Quote:"Communicate, legislate, nobody can procrastinate, we start working today.”
- CSW event: Creative Energies to Respond to GBV

“Member states should not consent to a compromised treaty that risks undermining existing obligations" reminded Sofia Tuvestad (WILPF Sweden) and Maria Butler (PeaceWomen/WILPF) in a recent article Make it Binding: Include Gender-based Violence in the ATT.

On April 2, 2013 governments adopted the text of the first ever Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) at the United Nations in New York.

On Tuesday, 12 February 2013, the Security Council held an open debate on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict. After the debate, a presidential statement [S/PRST/2013/2] was drafted which expressed the Security Council's deep concerns on the immense suffering by civilians during armed conflict. Several resolutions reaffirmed by the presidential statement encompassed the role of Women, Peace and Security.