Women and Political Participation

One of the pillars of UNIFEM’s work is women’s political participation, a fundamental prerequisite for gender equality and genuine democracy. UNIFEM emphasizes four strategic entry points that can rapidly advance the status of women by catalysing wide-ranging, long-term impacts: using CEDAW to frame new laws, building partnerships to foster women’s participation, bringing equality into post-conflict reconstruction and pursuing gender justice.

Around the world, however, in times of peace and especially of war, women’s participation continues to be extremely limited. As a result, laws, policies and government institutions fall short, neither reflecting the needs of all citizens nor supporting progress on women’s rights.

UNIFEM responds with strategies that make a difference: UNIFEM works on four strategic entry points that can rapidly advance the status of women by catalyzing wide-ranging, long-term impacts.

• Using CEDAW to frame new laws: The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women offers comprehensive global standards on women’s rights. UNIFEM programmes equip women with the skills to translate the convention, now ratified by the majority of the world’s governments, into legal guarantees of gender equality.
• Building partnerships for participation: UNIFEM draws together women’s organizations, governments, the United Nations and the private sector to foster women’s roles in governance. Programmes help bring more women into all levels of government, train women leaders, and equip women with the skills to actively participate in elections as candidates and voters.
• Bringing equality into reconstruction: As conflicts draw to a close, the process of building a new government begins. UNIFEM works to advance gender equality by supporting new legislation, backing women’s leadership and equal representation, and widening the space for women’s participation at peace tables.
• Pursuing gender justice: Gender justice requires every dimension of justice to incorporate gender perspectives. It rests upon the full participation of women in shaping legal institutions that promote their rights, equality and inclusion. UNIFEM supports women’s efforts to change discriminatory laws, address violations of human rights and war crimes, and eliminate the injustices stemming from political, economic and social inequalities.

Click here to view the Women, War & Peace portal.

Click here to find out more about UNIFEM’s work internationally. 

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325

What is the UN Security Council?
The United Nations Security Council is the most powerful body in the UN, and has mechanisms which can be used to enforce its resolutions: sanctions, military force, peacekeeping and observer forces. Every Security Council Resolution is a commitment made by the United Nations and its Member States to take action on a specific issue. All member states are expected to comply, and to work towards full implementation of the Resolution.

Security Council Resolution 1325
Security Council Resolution 1325 (SCR 1325) was adopted unanimously in October 2000 and is the first Resolution targeting the impact of conflict on women, and the role of women in peace, reconciliation and reconstruction. The starting point for the Resolution is the fact that women can both influence and be affected by armed conflicts, that women are actors but may also be particularly vulnerable (Swedish Government National Action Plan SCR 1325, October 2006).
The knowledge and experience of women in conflict prevention and in the post conflict reconstruction of their societies is usually excluded, and women are under-represented in decision-making institutions. Gender-related violence is regularly used strategically by warring parties, and violence against women and girls is treated with impunity. SCR 1325 recognises the relevance of women’s experiences of conflict in peace processes and in conflict resolution; looking at women as active participants - rather than simply as victims.

Security Council Resolution 1325 calls for:
• Increased representation of women at all decision making levels in institutions promoting security
• Attention to the specific protection needs of women in conflict, including refugees
• Increased support for women peacebuilders
• Protection from sexual violence, and an end to impunity for war crimes against women
• Women’s perspectives considered during conflict and in peacekeeping operations
• Response by all parties to women’s post-conflict needs – throughout disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration

How can we understand Security Council Resolution 1325?
To really understand SCR 1325, we must look at it in relation to another UN document – CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, otherwise known as the Bill of Rights for Women. CEDAW was adopted by the United Nations in 1979, and is the human rights convention devoted exclusively to gender equality.

CEDAW aims for equality for women in civil, political and socio-economic life. As a human rights convention, the guidelines in CEDAW are mandatory for those United Nations Members States who have ratified the Convention. Each of these 192 signatory countries must report every four years to the CEDAW Committee on the progress and obstacles encountered in their efforts to achieve gender equality. Australia was one of the first countries to ratify CEDAW in 1983, and in 2008 will present our combined 6th and 7th report to the CEDAW Committee.

SCR 1325 and CEDAW have much in common. They both regard the full participation of women in all levels of decision making as crucial in the achievement of gender equality. Because they share a common agenda, the two can be used to complement each other – for example where SCR 1325 demands women’s increased participation, CEDAW sets out concrete measures that should be taken to achieve this. The commitments of SCR 1325 are reinforced by the obligations which are set out in CEDAW.

Is Security Council Resolution 1325 relevant to Australia?
SCR 1325 is relevant to Australia for several reasons. Australia has committed to playing a more active role in relation to its UN commitments, and in particular is keen to support countries in our Asia-Pacific neighbourhood. We can see in the conflicts in Timor-Leste, Solomon Islands and Bougainville that women have been disproportionately affected by the conflicts, that they are more vulnerable, and that they have been rendered voiceless in formal peace processes. Australia is playing a leadership role in peacekeeping in our region and we are also militarily involved in Afghanistan and Iraq. Australia is in a position to influence the engagement of women with peace processes and to support the establishment of standards for the protection of women’s rights in war in all these situations.

Several UN Member States have now incorporated SCR 1325 into their legal, political and military systems. The United Kingdom government, for example, created a National Plan of Action on SCR 1325 in 2006. This Action Plan sets out a number of ways in which the UK incorporates SCR 1325 into its political and military philosophy and practice. For example, the Action Plan recommends an audit of gender content in pre-deployment training of Defence Force personnel. This audit was carried out, and the UK Defence Force are now using its results to aim for best practice in gender training.

UNIFEM Australia and other organisations would like to see an Australian National Plan of Action on SCR 1325 on the Federal Government’s agenda. Australia has been closely involved in the promotion of SCR 1325 in the Pacific region through AusAID programmes. For example, peacekeepers and other support staff deployed to RAMSI (Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands) take part in pre-deployment training which examines SCR 1325 as an essential tool in increasing the participation of women in decision making. AusAID also support a number of NGOs promoting SCR 1325 in the region – NGO femLINKpacific is one group dedicated to opening discussion about 1325 and other gender equality issues in the Pacific region through the medium of radio.

While the Australian Government has acted on SCR 1325 in these several ways, there is no broad whole of government set of guidelines for gender awareness in peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction. Australia’s key role in post-conflict reconstruction and peacekeeping assisting Pacific nations - along with peace and troop commitments in various conflict zones across the globe and in Timor Leste - necessitates a National Plan of Action on SCR 1325. An Australian National Plan of Action would see the role of women in peace and security explicitly recognised by the Australian Government, and ensure that consideration of gender in peace and conflict issues becomes a central obligation and active consideration in the Australian community’s response to our military and defence commitment. 

 For more information on women, peace and security:

www.1325australia.org.au
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom’s (WILPF) Australian website looks at SCR 1325 in an Australian context

www.peacewomen.org
This WILPF website is an excellent source for information on women’s role in peace and security

www.womenwarpeace.org
UNIFEM’s portal on women, peace and security

http://www.un.org/events/res_1325e.pdf
The full text of SCR 1325