Increasing Momentum for UNSCR 1325 National Action Plans

May 10th 2009

On April 24, 2009, Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and current President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, and Ambassador Swanee Hunt, Chair of The Institute for Inclusive Security, convened a group of prominent government, United Nations, and civil society leaders in New York to discuss strategies for increasing the development and implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) National Action Plans (NAPs) and to encourage creative international cooperation on NAPs.

On April 24th 2009, at UN Headquarters in New York,
a high-level meeting was convened on Increasing
Momentum for UNSCR 1325 National Action Plans The meeting bolstered gains made at a June 2008 meeting, ???Making the Case for Security Council Resolution 1325,??? and the March 2009 International Colloquium on Women???s Leadership, Empowerment, International Peace and Security, in Monrovia, Liberia.

The meeting also feeds into several events in the next 18 months. The first is the European Commission meeting on ???Twinning of 1325 National Action Plans??? this October/November under the Swedish presidency. It will also provide valuable groundwork for the African Great Lakes Regional Meeting on UNSCR 1325 NAPs in February 2010 in Kigali that will explore the potential for using UNSCR 1325 NAP development as a tool in regional peace-building. These events are critical in the build up to the 10th anniversary of UNSCR 1325 in October 2010.

National Action Plans (NAPs) for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) recognize the empowerment of women as a critical strategy for achieving peace and development, and set out a given nation???s strategy for developing more inclusive and effective security policies. Currently, thirteen countries have developed National Actions Plans for implementing UNSCR 1325: Austria, Belgium, Cote D???Ivoire, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Liberia, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

NAPs are an increasingly important way to link disparate groups in civil society???including conflict-affected women???and government to build a common agenda that guides a nation???s efforts to create sustainable peace. Liberia, Ireland and Timor Leste are linking the formulation of their NAPs to maximize cross-learning among states; ensure that the priorities of conflict-affected women are reflected in the plan; and re-balance the relationship between donor and recipient countries into a more equitable one that recognizes the wealth of experience that exists in each place. In addition, Finland is in the process of identifying an African partner with which to twin.

Background: UNSCR1325 and 1820

UN Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820 are among the most effective yet under-utilized tools that leaders and citizens have to hold states and individuals accountable for ensuring women???s full participation in a) preventing and resolving conflict; b) promoting peace and security; and c) protecting women in times of conflict, post-conflict and peace.

UNSCR 1325 was passed unanimously on 31 October 2000. It is the first resolution ever passed by the UN Security Council that specifically addresses the impact of war on women, and it stresses the importance of women's equal participation and full involvement in all efforts to maintain and promote sustainable peace and security. The resolution underscores the responsibility to protect women and girls from human rights abuses, including gender-based violence, and emphasizes the vital importance of mainstreaming gender perspectives in all aspects of conflict prevention, resolution, and reconstruction.

During its June 2008 Security Council Presidency, the United States followed up on UNSCR1325 with an emphasis on sexual violence in situations of armed conflict. On June 19, UNSCR 1820 was adopted. Key provisions of this resolution recognize a direct relationship between the widespread and/or systematic use of sexual violence as an instrument of conflict and the maintenance of international peace and security; commit the Security Council to considering appropriate steps to end such atrocities and to punish their perpetrators; and???perhaps most importantly???commit nation states in which sexual violence is being widely or systematically employed against civilians to reporting in June each year to the Security Council.

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