In the nineteen years since the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, the role of women and gender within all realms of international peace and security has steadily gained prominence. UNSCR 1325 and the subsequent resolutions which comprise the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda have called for the greater protection of women from sexual and gender-based violence in conflict settings; the promotion of women’s political participation; the prevention of violence against women through the promotion of women’s rights and gender equality; and the mainstreaming of gender throughout all areas related to peace and security. In addition to UNSCR 1325 (2000), there are eight other resolutions which make up the WPS agenda: 1820 (2009); 1888 (2009); 1889 (2010); 1960 (2011); 2106 (2013); 2122 (2013); 2242 (2015), and 2467 (2019).
It is misleading to identify the year 2000 as the origin of the WPS agenda. A long history of feminist activism preceded the adoption of UNSCR 1325. For instance, in May 1919 the newly formed Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) met in Zürich to pass a series of resolutions on women’s equality, disarmament, the abolishment of the right to declare war and to conscript individuals for military service. Throughout the 20th century, women activists continued to meet and organize for the recognition of women as key and indispensable agents of peace. The adoption of UNSCR 1325 was the direct outcome of transnational feminist networks and activists lobbying for the inclusion of women and gender perspectives into national and international peace and security agendas.
In order to implement the WPS agenda at the national level, UN Member States can create National Action Plans (NAPs) to communicate their commitment to the promotion of women’s participation and the integration of a gender perspective in peace and security. As of January 2019, 79 UN member states have adopted a NAP to implement UNSCR 1325. Switzerland, one of the very first countries to ever endorse a NAP on WPS, has recently launched its fourth NAP, active for five years (2018-2022). This fourth NAP builds on the first NAP (2007-2009), the second NAP (2010-2012) and the third NAP (2013-2016). Previously, the implementation of the third Swiss NAP 1325 (2013-2016) was monitored by the Interdepartmental Working Group (IDAG) 1325 within the Department of Human Security (AMS) of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). The IDAG 1325 generates reports which are then submitted to the Swiss Parliament. In addition, civil society has conducted its own monitoring via the Working Group (WG) 1325, which is made up of a wide range of Swiss civil society organizations. In 2016, WG 1325 published the independent alternative report Women, Peace and Security: Reloaded, which offered a critical and comprehensive reflection of Switzerland’s implementation of the WPS agenda, including recommendations for future action.
Responding to the reflections and recommendations proposed by WG 1325 in the alternative report, the project ‘Civil Society Contribution to the Implementation of the Swiss NAP 1325’ was developed. This project — jointly led by PeaceWomen Across the Globe (PWAG), KOFF/swisspeace, and cfd: The Feminist Peace Organization — takes up thematic topics identified in alternative report Women, Peace and Security: Reloaded in two distinct phases. The first phase (2018-2019) of the project critically evaluates the recent call to link the WPS agenda with the broader global security agenda to ‘counter terrorism’ and ‘prevent violent extremism.’ The second phase of the project (2020-2021) will consider how socio-economic conditions enable or constrain women’s participation in peace processes.
Switzerland’s fourth NAP 1325 has identified Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) as a key priority of Switzerland’s WPS agenda. The naming of PVE as a priority in the fourth NAP 1325 was, in part, a response to recommendations made by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in their observations of Switzerland’s third NAP 1325 (2013-2016). The Committee expressed concern that there were ‘insufficient efforts to include a gender perspective in strategies to prevent violent extremism and counter terrorism’ and recommended Switzerland ‘strengthen its efforts to include a gender perspective in strategies to prevent violent extremism and build the capacity of women and girls, including women civil society groups, to engage in efforts to counter terrorism.’ In 2015, UNSCR 2242 also called for the WPS and PVE and counterterrorism (CT) agendas to be linked.
Given the move to integrate the WPS and PVE agendas in Switzerland and around the world, Swiss civil society is particularly invested in better understanding the relationship of these two agendas in both policy and practice. The project ‘Civil Society Contribution to the Implementation of the Swiss NAP 1325,’ has promoted dialogue among civil society and state actors and conducted research to learn from the experiences of civil society in contexts facing challenges related to PVE and WPS. The first phase of the project will culminate in a conference in Bern on September 18 on the topic of WPS and violence prevention in order to discuss future implications of the WPS agenda in Switzerland and around the world.
The WPS agenda faces the challenges of an increasingly militarized and securitized world. The call to link the WPS and PVE agendas, for instance, is applauded by many as important progress in the development of security agendas that take gender as a central consideration. However, others argue that this linkage poses a number of concerns. One concern is that the linking of WPS and PVE agendas instrumentalizes the goals of WPS — namely women’s empowerment and gender equality — for a state security agenda without providing the sustained, material support actually needed to improve women’s lives. Another area of concern is that men as gendered subjects are being overlooked, and that gender analysis and gender mainstreaming are only focused on the role of women in the prevention of violence, contributing to gendered stereotypes of women’s inherent peacefulness or failing to acknowledge that women, too, can be agents of violence. There is also concern that the WPS endorsement of the PVE agenda would endorse security architecture which could potentially be harmful to women, women’s rights and civil society more broadly. WPS actors and civil society organizations around the world must keep a close eye on the developments in this field to ensure that the WPS agenda remains grounded in the principles of peacebuilding and human rights.
As Swiss civil society, the project ‘Civil Society Contribution to the Implementation of the Swiss NAP 1325’ is invested in increasing public and political awareness about WPS as well as closing the gap between policy and practice. The promotion of women’s agency and the development of lasting gender equality is essential for achieving sustainable peace. The WPS agenda and the fourth Swiss NAP 1325 are critical tools to achieve these aims.
