Participation

In recent years, the international community has drawn increasing attention to sexual violence in armed conflict. The Stop Rape Now Campaign saw more coordinated efforts to address sexual violence in armed conflict. But the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict exponentially raised the profile of the issues. However, none of the pillars of the WPS agenda has higher importance than the others. Addressing issues of SGBV is inextricably linked to women’s participation, enhanced participation leads to enhanced protection. 

The aim of this paper is to elucidate on the various roles women play in the peace and security initiatives. It shows how extreme violence that women suffer during armed conflict does not arise solely out of the conditions of war; it is directly related to the violence that exists in women's lives during peacetime. Throughout the world, women experience violence whether physical, psychological and sexual because they are women, and often because they suffer the imbalances of power relations.

Post-conflict peacebuilding processes present major opportunities for advancing women’s rights and gender equality. But a gender perspective needs to be more effectively operationalised in post-conflict institutions and peacebuilding processes. A key challenge for the United Nations (UN) and its member states in progressing the women, peace and security agenda in post-conflict settings is bridging the gap between the interdependent political and economic security pillars of peacebuilding.

Over the last two decades, gender mainstreaming has been adopted in a variety of forms, creating both opportunities and risks for advancing women's rights and gender equality. This policy brief reviews a selection of gender-mainstreaming practices implemented in the context of peace and security, and assesses their potential impact. It further calls for a more transformative model of gender mainstreaming that would utilize a gender perspective to challenge existing frameworks.

The discrimination faced by lesbians is greater than the discrimination faced by heterosexual women because lesbians are discriminated against both as women and as lesbians. What distinguishes the human rights violations of Lesbians is based firstly on misogyny and then on homophobia. The combination of misogyny and homophobia results in an intensification of discrimination, harassment and vilification that is greater than that against heterosexual women, gay men and transgendered people.

This expert analysis evaluates the current state of the United Nations’ Women, Peace and Security agenda, with particular focus on three themes drawn from the most recent UN Security Council resolution (UNSCR) (S/RES/2122): the articulation of a whole-of-UN mandate for improving performance in the implementation of UNSCR 1325; the importance of civil society inclusion at all stages of peace and security governance, including conflict resolution and peace negotiations; and the upcoming High-Level Review that will take place in 2015 on the 15th anniversary of the adoption of UNSCR 1325.

As the UK launched the first Global Summit to End Sexual Violence, Summit organizers pledged to “situate this issue within the broader women, peace, and security agenda,” which means engaging women not just as victims or beneficiaries but as vital partners whose leadership is integral to devised solutions. This is an important step. Only when women are fully integrated into decision making related to peace and security will we see a substantial shift against the widespread use of rape as a weapon of war.

The Asia Pacific Region has had some of the most intractable and longest running conflicts anywhere in the world. Eighty-two percent of conflicts in the region since 1948 have been internal conflicts[1], although many have had inter-state and even regional and international dimensions. Many of  the conflicts are also sub-national armed conflicts[2] which are not formally recognized and do not therefore benefit from any formal peace negotiations or efforts to end the violence and address their deep-rooted origins as part of peace initiatives.