EU — UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women’s participation in peace and security

Euro­pean Union High-lev­el Con­fer­ence calls for renewed efforts to imple­ment UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 1325 on Women’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in peace and secu­ri­ty
In the pres­ence of H.R.H Princess Astrid of Bel­gium, Cather­ine Ash­ton, High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for For­eign Affairs and Secu­ri­ty Policy/Vice Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion, and Steven Vanackere, Deputy Prime Min­is­ter and Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs of Bel­gium, co-host­ed a high-lev­el con­fer­ence at the Palais d’Eg­mont in Brus­sels today to mark the tenth anniver­sary of UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 1325 on Women’s Par­tic­i­pa­tion in Peace and Secu­ri­ty and called for its full and speedy imple­men­ta­tion.

Cather­ine Ash­ton said: “UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 1325 under­lined the impor­tance of women’s equal par­tic­i­pa­tion and full involve­ment in all efforts for the main­te­nance and pro­mo­tion of peace and secu­ri­ty. How­ev­er, 10 years down the road, this com­mit­ment has not yet been ful­filled.” While prais­ing the efforts made so far and point­ing to the adop­tion in 2008 of UNSC Res­o­lu­tion 1820 on the fight against sex­u­al vio­lence, the High Representative/Vice Pres­i­dent called for more progress. Women con­tin­ue to be the tar­get of vio­lence in armed con­flicts around the world and remain large­ly absent from for­mal peace nego­ti­a­tions and peace-keep­ing efforts. HR/VP Ash­ton promised deter­mined action, par­tic­u­lar­ly with­in the Euro­pean Exter­nal Action Ser­vice, and described the Euro­pean Union’s com­pre­hen­sive approach to imple­ment­ing Res­o­lu­tions 1325 and 1820 on women, peace and secu­ri­ty, in which gen­der equal­i­ty and women’s rights are cen­tral to its cri­sis­man­age­ment mis­sions and devel­op­ment cooperation.

“Women suf­fer dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly from con­flict sit­u­a­tions, as is made clear by the rav­ages caused by sex­u­al vio­lence”, declared Steven Vanackere, for the Bel­gian Pres­i­den­cy. He called for bet­ter legal instru­ments and for mea­sures to pro­tect women. “Like oth­er coun­tries, among which eight EU Mem­ber States, Bel­gium has adopt­ed a nation­al Action Plan in order to imple­ment the UN Res­o­lu­tions under nation­al leg­is­la­tion. This shows the com­mit­ment of our coun­try, but also our spe­cif­ic respon­si­bil­i­ty in this regard”, said Min­is­ter Vanackere. 

The con­fer­ence, which was addressed by keynote speak­ers Rachel Mayan­ja, UN Spe­cial Advi­sor on Gen­der Issues and Advance­ment of Women and Mar­got Wallstr
m, Spe­cial Rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the UN Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al on sex­u­al vio­lence in armed con­flict, as well as oth­er lead­ing fig­ures includ­ing Alain Leroy, head of the UN Depart­ment of Peace­keep­ing Oper­a­tions and Shirin Eba­di, Nobel Peace Prize Lau­re­ate in 2003, called specif­i­cal­ly for greater account­abil­i­ty and mon­i­tor­ing of respect for women’s rights in armed con­flicts, notably by the UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil. It under­lined the need to boost the par­tic­i­pa­tion of women in inter­na­tion­al peace and secu­ri­ty oper­a­tions and demand­ed an end to impuni­ty for vio­lence against women in armed conflicts. 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union 

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