Gender equality for peace and security - UN-Women briefing | United Nations

I now give the floor to miss Sima Sami

bajos good morning Madame President Her

Excellency Francis alali Deputy foreign

minister of seron excellencies thank you

for inviting me to this important

debate this last quarter Century has

seen the security Council acknowledge

the centrality of gender equality for

peace in decision after decision it does

so because evidence is clear and

uncontested gender equality supports

conflict prevention and postconflict

Recovery gender inequality makes

conflict more likely and peace less

durable gender equality is thus at the

heart of the un's peace and security

apparatus and of peacekeeping the

keeping efforts LED and guided by this

Council have a proud history of

contributing to the avoidance of renewed

militarization in postconflict societies

part of that history has also been a

contribution to gender

equality in the Dem Democratic Republic

of the Congo for example the UN Mission

has helped relocate many women human

rights Defenders to safer locations in

recent years facilitate women's

representation in local community

dialogues in the peace process reaching

30 and 40% in several localities and has

contributed to the conviction of dozens

of members of armed groups and security

forces for conflict related sexual

violence special political missions too

have played an important role in

achieving the modest but steady gains we

have seen across countries in crisis on

women's political participation and

representation even in the most

challenging

context in Somalia the UN Mission has

been one of the most consistent

supporters of the political aspirations

of Somali women as they fight for better

representation through quotas and

changes in the Electoral

code excellencies un women is concerned

about the potential effects of multiple

recent decisions to shrink or close both

both peacekeeping and special political

missions these decisions are made even

as the number and intensity of conflicts

and insecurity grow it is

counterintuitive that in the face of

unprecedented levels of conflict and

violence the number of deployed

peacekeeping Personnel worldwide has

dropped by almost half from

1,21

121,000 in 2016 to approximately 71,000

in

2024 this reality takes place against a

backdrop of growing misogyny and

violence against women and girls it is

apparent in the wars we see and the wars

we fear and the clear disregard in their

conduct for their lives welfare rights

and autonomy of women and

girls I would like to thank siron for

proposing this debate for providing the

space for this crucial discussion and

for affording us as un women the

opportunity to share our perspective

thank you madam excellencies in the

final months of 15 consecutive years of

UN peacekeeping in Haiti the security

Council heard from the executive

director of one of Haiti's largest

non-governmental Health Care Providers

and social justice organizations she

asked the security Council that in the

event of a mission transition or Draw

down the security Council ensured that

gains made on gender equality be

protected including through the

provision of necessary resources a

reasonable request very much in line

with the stated priorities of the

security Council that was April of

2019 10 months later the peacekeepers

had left another representative of

Haitian women's civil society came to

brief this August body she told the

council about armed gangs who who were

raping women and filming and posting the

rapes on social media she shared that

gang rape was becoming a political

weapon a premeditated and explicit

expression of defiance of law

enforcement she stated that entire areas

were controlled by armed gangs better

armed and equipped than the police she

spoke of kidnappings of terrified

students unable to go outsides of closed

courts of the capital since the

peacekeeping missions left that was for

4 and a half years ago and the reality

she described is very much a reality

today almost 5,000 cases of rape were

reported to case managers and service

providers in Haiti in

2023 with homicides kidnappings and

sexual violence Rising every year with

no sign of slowing

down around the same time at the annual

debate on women peace and Security in

2019

a young activist from Sudan who had

become an icon of that Year's Revolution

told the security Council that women had

already been sidelined in the political

process in the months following that

Revolution she shared her skepticism

that 40% quot for women in the

transitional legislative Council that

had been promised would ever materialize

she asked among other things that the

security Council Hal the scaling down of

the the peacekeeping mission until the

security situation was more stable and

the protection of civilians more

assured yet despite these warnings a

year later yamid was closed and so today

in Sudan with no peacekeeping or

political mission in place famine is

imminent and thousands of new mothers

could die in the next few months all as

women and girls are subjected to all

kinds of cruelties and violence of which

I believe you are all well

aware excellencies the security Council

resolutions have been clear resolution

2594 in 2021 called for comprehensive

gender analysis and gender expertise

informing any un transition from the

start for women's full equal and

meaningful participation in all sequence

stages of the mission and the transition

and for the gains made made on gender

equality and women peace and security to

be

sustained it did so in the recognition

that this saves lives empowers women and

protects them from harm these direct

instructions built on years of similar

language in other Security Council

decisions and un policy and guidance

despite this these directives are often

not put in practice this is why un women

is acutely concerned about the current

trend of closing of space and support

for un missions in ways that are too

precipitous to allow for the proper

involvement of women or the

prioritization of gender equality take

Mali for example where given the short

time afforded to close the mission meant

that no work on women peace and security

or gender advisors or officers were

transferred to State authorities or to

the United Nations country team this is

but one

example excellencies for more than six

years un women has been working closely

with the Department on peace operations

to strengthen the gender responsiveness

of un transitions from agreed minimum

requirements to joined analysis planning

capacity building engaging together with

national Partners to collocating staff

and sharing Assets in that period we

have identified many gaps I will

highlight three today first

women and issues of gender equality more

broadly are often under represented or

absent in negotiations with host

countries over Mission drawdowns or

departures in some cases women are

mentioned only as victims in need of

protection rather than as partners in

the transition including the many

women's rights organizations that could

inherit crucial functions undertaken by

the depart departing Mission If Only

They were given adequate

support women are also excluded from

decisions about security matters or

security

architecture second gender responsive

conflict analysis is often left out of

planning exercises at their start and

only undertaken later with resources

that need to be fundraised for

separately or by repurposing flexible

funding from un women third the money

spent on un missions is not reallocated

to peace building or sustainable

development once they leave whether

through the UN country team or other

National Partners as soon as the UN

experiences a sharp drop in budgets and

presence gender expertise and

programming is all too often

deprioritized

first in order to address these concerns

I offer three solutions first we

recommend that the security Council

ensures that un transitions Safeguard

gender equality gains and women's

meaningful particip ation in all

possible ways this includes doing so

routinely through decisions and

statements in interactions with host

governments and with any Regional or

subregional organization undertaking

peacekeeping support Second for the

council to continue to invite women from

Civil Society to routinely brief and

provide analysis of their context from a

gender perspective and for the informal

expert group to conduct field visit to

countries after the departure of a un

mission to Monitor and report on the

situation of women and girls so that

this analysis can be included in

decision making third we recommend that

the security Council turn its attention

more fully to financing the role of the

peace building fund is essential for

this as is stronger collaboration with

International financial institutions in

addition all draw Downs should include

plans to sufficiently allocate resources

to women peace and security work to

sustain gains

made excellencies ultimately in some

cases The Accelerated departures are

based on political timetables and do not

fully reflect on the ground realities we

believe that the security Council and

international Partners have the capacity

to engage host governments to prevent

such herit transitions in particular in

the interests of the protection of the

rights of women and girls

we cannot allow the tools carefully

crafted over decades by this esteemed

body to advance women peace and security

agenda we cannot allow them to be

discarded they are too valuable too

crucial to women and girls we fear a

future of increasing atrocities against

women their ever greater marginalization

from decision making and ultimately a

failure of the International Community

that Prospect should be and I am

confident is unacceptable for all of

us we have an opportunity this fall with

the summit of the future and next year

as we Mark 30 years since the beIN

declaration and pl platform for Action

to double down on efforts to advance

women's rights and to bolster

commitments made in Beijing in sdg5 and

in the many resolutions on women peace

and security of this Council

un women remains at your side as we work

collectively in the service of this

council's consistent decisions for women

peace and security and I thank

you I thank Miss bahus for her briefing