Beijing, 1325 and beyond: taking women, peace and security back to its roots

On the anniversary of UNSCR 1325 Hannah Wright examines how the women, peace and security agenda has narrowed in the 20 years since the Beijing Platform for Action, and why the international community should take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

Fourteen years since the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) on women, peace and security, peacebuilders and women’s rights activists are gearing up for two international milestones. To mark the 15^th anniversary of the resolution in 2015, the UN has announced a High Level Review of its implementation, including a global study looking at progress made so far. Next year also sees the 20^th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, a global agreement made by 189 UN Member States committing to take radical steps in pursuit of gender equality in all walks of life, from economic opportunities and political participation to preventing violence against women and girls and achieving women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. These two anniversaries provide an opportunity to reflect on progress that has been made and, more importantly, push for increased efforts in areas where the international community has fallen short.

The Beijing Platform’s section on women and armed conflict sets out an ambitious manifesto for women’s participation in promoting peace and security and the protection of women’s rights in situations of conflict. While the passage of UNSCR 1325 in 2000 is often cited as the first major success of the women, peace and security agenda, the commitments agreed five years earlier in Beijing were in many ways more radical and progressive. As well as calling for many of the same things as UNSCR 1325, the Beijing Platform prioritises conflict prevention and demilitarisation, calling for reductions in military expenditure and the trade in arms. In doing so, the Beijing Platform makes clear that the women, peace and security agenda is not simply about ‘making war safe for women’, as it is sometimes understood, but about preventing the outbreak of violent conflict and resolving it where it does occur. It also stresses the importance of fostering a culture of peace among men and women, alluding to links between gender norms and militarisation.

The seven resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council on women, peace and security are more narrow in scope. Indeed, activists have increasingly raised concerns that the growing focus on addressing the use of sexual violence as a tactic of warfare has come at the expense of other elements of the agenda, including women’s participation in decision-making. Even within the sexual violence in conflict issue, recent efforts have focused attention largely on the prosecution of perpetrators. Preventing and responding to sexual violence in conflict, including (but not limited to) the use of rape as a weapon of war, is essential, and prosecuting perpetrators is one part of the puzzle. But we must not lose sight of the big picture. Truly integrating a gender perspective into peacebuilding efforts also requires us to examine and challenge the gender norms which cause and perpetuate conflict, militarism, gender-based violence, and women’s exclusion.

The current situation in South Sudan powerfully illustrates this point. There have been reports of combatants on both sides of the recent conflict, using sexual violence against civilian populations in Unity State, with the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura, describing “heart-breaking stories of rape, gang rape, abduction, sexual slavery and forced marriage”. Recent Saferworld research in South Sudan found that rape and sexual violence are very high in some areas, with women in parts of the country living in constant fear of attack.

However, violence against women and girls in South Sudan goes far beyond the tactical use of rape by combatants in conflict. Women (and men) participating in Saferworld’s research reported that domestic violence was commonplace. While in some locations community members reported that it was little spoken of but tacitly accepted as normal, in others participants told Saferworld that wife-beating was actively promoted as a husband’s responsibility.

During the research, Saferworld was told that only when violence results in serious injury or death does it constitute a problem requiring state intervention. ‘Girl elopement’, which often involves the abduction of young women by men who could not afford to pay the bride price, was widespread and often resulted in revenge attacks which sometimes escalated into deadly violence. Inability to pay bride prices also leads some men to participate in violent cattle raids on neighbouring communities to obtain enough cattle to get married. Male participants in the research told Saferworld that young men who refused to take part in cattle raiding were thought of as cowards. One common thread underlying these forms of violence in many pastoral communities is an understanding of women as a type of property to be dominated and controlled, and a belief among some that men must commit acts of violence against women and other men in order to prove their manhood.

The situation in South Sudan shows how a gender analysis of the causes and consequences of conflict and violence is needed in order to design comprehensive responses. Combatants using sexual violence as a tactic cannot be allowed to commit such crimes with impunity, and they must be investigated and prosecuted in accordance with national and international law. Earlier this month President Salva Kiir signed a joint communiqué with Zainab Bangura committing to an action plan to tackle conflict-related sexual violence. However, other forms of sexual and gender-based violence must not be overlooked, including domestic violence and ‘girl elopement’. Furthermore, successfully preventing such violence from recurring requires more than prosecutions. The real task in hand is to address the underlying causes of violence, and this has to involve challenging social norms which disempower women and promote violent masculinities. These efforts should go hand in hand with demilitarisation through the reduction of military spending and arms proliferation, and the comprehensive inclusion of both women and men in dialogue and reconciliation to resolve the country’s conflicts peacefully and sustainably.

In a context like South Sudan, where ongoing conflict, persistent poverty and paralysis in government can make the country’s problems feel intractable, a vision such as that set out in the Beijing Platform may feel utopian. Certainly, making this vision a reality will take considerable investment of time, resources and political will. But it is much needed for achieving sustainable peace around the world. Earlier this year, UN Women’s Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka issued a reminder: “From reducing military expenditure to conflict prevention to fostering a culture of peace to ending occupation, we must remember that women, peace and security is not about simply adding women to the existing peace and security paradigm. It is about a vision of a more equitable, peaceful and prosperous world.” In 2015 the international community must remind itself of that ambitious vision and redouble its efforts to achieve it.

Hannah Wright is Gender, peace and security adviser for Saferworld.

Find out more about our work on gender in this short video.

“The Beijing Platform makes clear that the women, peace and security agenda is not simply about ‘making war safe for women’, as it is sometimes understood, but about preventing the outbreak of violent conflict and resolving it where it does occur.”

Hannah Wright