• Annotated Security Council Resolution 1325 Printer friendly version
The Security
Council, |
Annotation |
Recalling its resolutions 1261 (1999) of 25
August 1999, 1265 (1999) of 17 September 1999, 1296 (2000) of 19
April 2000 and 1314 (2000) of 11 August 2000, as well as relevant
statements of its President and recalling also the statement of its
President, to the press on the occasion of the United Nations Day
for Women’s Rights and International Peace of 8 March 2000
(SC/6816), |
Security Council Resolutions 1261 and 1314 are focused on the theme of Children and
Armed Conflict. Resolutions 1265 and 1296 are focused on the theme of the Protection of
Civilians in Armed Conflict. Each month the Presidency of the
Security Council rotates alphabetically, giving each of the fifteen
members an opportunity to facilitate discussions and guide the
deliberations of the Council. The country holding the Presidency has
the prerogative to propose thematic debates and open sessions of the
Council that invite other UN Member States to contribute to the
Security Council’s deliberations on a particular topic, with the
concurrence of other members. During its term on the Council,
Namibia initiated the Open Debate of the Security Council on Women,
Peace and Security, Canada initiated the debate on the Protection of
Civilians in Armed Conflict, the Netherlands initiated the debate on
Children and Armed Conflict, and Bangladesh held the Presidency when
the Council issued a statement to the press marking International
Women’s Day in 2000. more... |
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Recalling also
the commitments of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
(A/52/231) as well as those contained in the outcome document of the
twenty-third Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly
entitled “Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the
twenty-first century” (A/S-23/10/Rev.1), in particular those
concerning women and armed conflict, |
The Beijing Declaration and
Platform for Action were the consensus documents that governments
negotiated and agreed to at the Fourth UN World Conference on Women
in 1995 in Beijing, China. The Beijing Platform for Action has an
entire chapter on Women and Armed Conflict. more... The twenty-third Special Session of the
General Assembly is also known as “Beijing Plus Five” and brought
governments together in 2000, five years after the Beijing
conference to examine "further actions and initiatives to implement
the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.” After particularly
lengthy and arduous negotiations, the General Assembly adopted a
Political Declaration and outcome document, which included sections
on Women and Armed Conflict. more... |
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Bearing in mind
the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and
the primary responsibility of the Security Council under the Charter
for the maintenance of international peace and security, |
The United Nations Charter more...
was negotiated in 1945 with the overarching goal of “saving
succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” The Charter
assigned particular tasks to the 6 major organs of the institution –
with the Security Council’s roles and responsibilities to maintain
international peace and security, “In order to ensure prompt and
effective action by the United Nations, its Members confer on the
Security Council primary responsibility for the maintenance of
international peace and security, and agree that in carrying out its
duties under this responsibility the Security Council acts on their
behalf.” The Security Council’s roles and responsibilities are
detailed in Chapters V, VI, VII, VIII and XII. |
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Expressing
concern that civilians, particularly women and children, account for
the vast majority of those adversely affected by armed conflict,
including as refugees and internally displaced persons, and
increasingly are targeted by combatants and armed elements, and
recognizing the consequent impact this has on durable peace and
reconciliation, |
In this paragraph the Security
Council is acknowledging the disproportionate impact of armed
conflict on non-combatants, including women and children civilians,
and the fact that they comprise the vast majority of displaced
persons. Rather than accidentally being caught in the crossfire, the
Council is also acknowledging that civilians are increasingly being
specifically targeted by armed groups, thereby escalating the cycles
of violence, with long-term impact on the prospects and conditions
necessary for peace and reconciliation. |
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Reaffirming the
important role of women in the prevention and resolution of
conflicts and in peace-building, and stressing the importance of
their equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for
the maintenance and promotion of peace and security, and the need to
increase their role in decision- making with regard to conflict
prevention and resolution, |
This paragraph of the resolution
repeats what the Council affirmed in it’s statement to the press in
March of 2000, the need to increase the number of women in
decision-making positions relating to peace and security issues. The
Security Council first discussed its role in the prevention of armed
conflict in an open session on 29 November 1999, and issued a
Presidential Statement on the subject more... The second open session on Conflict
Prevention was held all day on 20 June 2000, hearing statements from
30 governments. Another Presidential Statement was issued on 20 June
2000. more... Among other things, the Statement
recognized the important role of women in the prevention and
resolution of conflicts and in peace-building, and stressed the
importance of their increased participation in all aspects of the
conflict prevention and resolution process. Since the adoption of
Resolution 1325, numerous publications and resolutions on women’s
contribution to early warning information collection and response
mechanisms have been passed, including one by the G8 Foreign
Ministers at their 2001 Rome meeting on strengthening the role of
women in conflict prevention. more... The June 2001 report of the
Secretary-General on conflict prevention (S/2001/574) devotes a
section on gender equality. more... |
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Reaffirming also
the need to implement fully international humanitarian and human
rights law that protects the rights of women and girls during and
after conflicts, |
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross,
international humanitarian law (IHL) is the body of rules, which in
wartime, protects people who are not or are no longer participating
in the hostilities. IHL’s central purpose is to limit and prevent
human suffering in times of armed conflict. The rules are to be
observed not only by governments and their armed forces, but also by
armed opposition groups and any other parties to a conflict. The
four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their two Additional Protocols
of 1977 are the principal instruments of humanitarian law.
International humanitarian law has always accorded women general
protection equal to that of men. At the same time the humanitarian
law treaties recognize the need to give women additional special
protection according to their specific needs. The four Geneva
Conventions of 1949 and their two Additional Protocols of 1977
protect women (and men) as members of the civilian population not
taking part in an armed conflict. Women (and men) as members of the
armed forces are also protected when captured by the enemy. more... more...
The UN Charter was the first international instrument to
acknowledge ‘human rights.’ Unlike many constitutional rights, the
Charter does not invoke natural law as a basis for the existence of
human rights. Rather, human rights are inherent in human dignity.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) along with the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the
International Covenant on Economic and Social and Cultural Rights
(1966) are often referred to by some western scholars as the
"International Bill of Rights." Beginning with the Vienna Conference
on Human Rights in 1993, women activists joined together to call for
the recognition of women’s rights as human rights. Women activists
and women’s organizations throughout the world have criticized the
traditional human rights frameworks for tending to exclude the
experiences of women. The traditional human rights framework and the
way the international community had been operating within it, was
horribly deficient in its capacity to address women’s lived
realities. more...
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW), the "women's bill of rights," has been
ratified by 174 countries In its General Recommendation on violence
against women, the CEDAW Committee recognizes that armed conflict
situations lead to increased prostitution, trafficking in women and
sexual assault of women. As well, in the General Recommendation on
women and health, the Committee recommends that States parties
ensure adequate protection and health services, including trauma
treatment and counselling for women trapped in situations of armed
conflict and women refugees. CEDAW’s Optional Protocol contains two
procedures: a communications procedure allowing individual women, or
groups of women, to submit claims of violations of rights to the
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and an
inquiry procedure enabling the Committee to initiate inquiries into
situations of grave or systematic violations of women's rights. In
either case, States must be party to the Protocol. |
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Emphasizing the
need for all parties to ensure that mine clearance and mine
awareness programmes take into account the special needs of women
and girls, |
Women in some 80 countries live
daily with the threat of uncleared landmines and unexploded
ordnance. In this paragraph the Security Council emphasizes the need
for mine clearance, awareness and rehabilitation initiatives to pay
attention to the fact that women and girls have particular needs and
insights regarding landmine action – including victim assistance.
Women and girls who have lost limbs from mine injuries have faced
social isolation and economic loss. In addition, women often
shoulder the unpaid burden of caring for those injured by landmines.
Although the numbers are not documented, indications are that women
are much less likely than children and men to have access both to
treatment and to rehabilitation and prostheses. More routine
consultation with women on landmine clearance may reveal different
areas for priority around water points, schools, farms and
transportation routes used by civilians. |
Recognizing the
urgent need to mainstream a gender perspective into peacekeeping
operations, and in this regard noting the Windhoek Declaration and
the Namibia Plan of Action on Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective in
Multidimensional Peace Support Operations (S/2000/693), |
In this paragraph, the Security
Council elevates the need to include a gender perspective in
peacekeeping operations to “urgent” and takes note of the analysis
and recommendations contained in the Windhoek Declaration and
Namibia Plan of Action. In May 2000, in Windhoek, Namibia,
participants of a review panel on ‘Mainstreaming a Gender
Perspective in Multidimensional Peace Support Operations,’ organized
by the Lessons Learned Unit of the UN Department of Peacekeeping
Operations and hosted by the Government of Namibia, completed a
comprehensive review of gender issues in peacekeeping, and made
useful, concrete recommendations. more... |
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Recognizing also
the importance of the recommendation contained in the statement of
its President to the press of 8 March 2000 for specialized training
for all peacekeeping personnel on the protection, special needs and
human rights of women and children in conflict situations, |
The Security Council statement to
the press on 8 March 2000 was a broad statement that recognized that
“peace is inextricably linked with equality between women and men.”
According to the statement, “if women are to play an equal part in
security and maintaining peace, they must be empowered politically
and economically, and represented adequately at all levels of
decision- making, both at the pre-conflict stage and during
hostilities, as well as at the point of peacekeeping,
peace-building, reconciliation and reconstruction.” more... In this paragraph of the resolution, the
Council draws on elements of that statement specifically focused on
its own mandate with regards to authorizing peacekeeping operations,
underscoring the importance of providing training for personnel sent
into the field so that women and children are protected and their
special needs identified and addressed. |
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Recognizing that
an understanding of the impact of armed conflict on women and girls,
effective institutional arrangements to guarantee their protection
and full participation in the peace process can significantly
contribute to the maintenance and promotion of international peace
and security, |
In this paragraph, the Security
Council recognizes the need for institutions and actors to have the
right information and understanding in order to protect and involve
women in peace processes. Understanding the impact of armed conflict
on women and their role in peace-building is crucial for effective
response and action to protect and involve women in peace
processes. |
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Noting the need
to consolidate data on the impact of armed conflict on women and
girls, |
In this short lead-in sentence
the Security Council is drawing attention to the paucity of data
available to inform their deliberations and action. No systematic
approach is in place to analyze and collect sex disaggregated data
on the impact of conflict on women. Such data is frequently lacking
in assessments, monitoring, reporting, evaluation and research on
the political, humanitarian and human rights aspects of conflicts.
In addition, women’s potential and actual role in relation to
peace-building is often insufficiently understood or overlooked.
Although there is a plethora of activity by women (autonomously and
in mixed fora that contributes to peace), there remains a dearth of
reliable, systematic and usable information on the range of
activities that women undertake at local, national and regional
levels towards building peace within their communities. |
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1. Urges Member
States to ensure increased representation of women at all
decision-making levels in national, regional and international
institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, and
resolution of conflict; |
In this paragraph, the Security
Council places much needed pressure on Governments to increase the
number of women involved in decision-making at all levels on
conflict prevention, management and resolution. In the 1995 Beijing
Platform for Action, the world’s governments agreed to a minimum
quota of 30% women in positions at decision-making levels, a target
that is far from being realized in peace and security
decision-making bodies. On the international level alone, only two
women have served as Ambassadors on the Security Council since 1992.
Between 1992-2002, 5.4% of the Ambassadors sent to represent
countries at UN Headquarters were women. At the General Assembly
First Committee on Security and Disarmament between 1992-2002, women
have headed 7% of country delegations. Women are consistently and
significantly under-represented in peace negotiations and are often
entirely absent. |
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2. Encourages
the Secretary-General to implement his strategic plan of action
(A/49/587) calling for an increase in the participation of women at
decision-making levels in conflict resolution and peace
processes; |
The main goal of the 1999
Secretary General’s strategic plan of action (A/49/587) is to
achieve gender equality within the United Nations by the beginning
of the twenty-first century, through a gradual, phased and focused
strategy based on attrition and on targeting vacancies for the
promotion and recruitment of women. An important feature of the
strategic plan of action is its integrated approach. The plan sets
out strategies as well as specific objectives and targets, and
identifies simultaneous and interrelated actions required to achieve
them. Corrective or new measures envisaged in the plan relate to
career development, management training and management culture
change, including implementation of a new performance appraisal
system, review and improvement of recruitment processes, including
the application of technological innovation to increase the access
of qualified women worldwide, support for women's training; the
introduction of more effective systems to deal with mobility and
spousal employment and measures and procedures to prevent sexual
harassment. The strategy includes planning and database development,
development of a specific roster of external candidates, a
Secretariat-wide network of departmental focal points, broad
advertising and communication, targeted recruitment missions, and
review of the processes of recruitment and promotion and involvement
of the departmental focal points in those processes. |
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3. Urges the
Secretary-General to appoint more women as special representatives
and envoys to pursue good offices on his behalf, and in this regard
calls on Member States to provide candidates to the
Secretary-General, for inclusion in a regularly updated centralized
roster; |
Since 1325 was adopted, the
Secretary-General has appointed 31 additional Special
Representatives of the Secretary-Generals (SRSGs) and Deputy SRSGs.
Of these, five have been women: Lena Sundh - DSRSG DRC (appointed 19
April 2002), Angela Kane – DSRSG Ethiopia/Eritrea (appointed 15
January 2003), Laura Canuto - Deputy Chief of Mission, Guatemala
(appointed 1 October 2001), Heidi Tagliavini - SRSG Georgia
(appointed 1 July 2002), Roza Otunbayeva - DSRSG Georgia (appointed
2 May 2002). In this paragraph, the Security Council is
acknowledging that it is the responsibility of Member States to put
forward women as candidates as appointments arise and to continue to
suggest names for the centralized roster for senior UN
appointments. |
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4. Further urges
the Secretary-General to seek to expand the role and contribution of
women in United Nations field-based operations, and especially among
military observers, civilian police, human rights and humanitarian
personnel; |
In addition to high-level posts
such as SRSGs, DSRSGs and Special Envoys, which are very much
dependent on the candidates put forward by UN Member States, this
paragraph urges the Secretary-General to use his discretion to place
more women staff in UN field missions in those areas where they are
traditionally under-represented. While there are requirements within
the United Nations for equitable geographic balance, the Security
Council urges the Secretary-General to ensure more gender balance,
particularly in the field where the United Nations has an
opportunity to provide a positive example of women’s leadership
potential to governments and communities rebuilding their war torn
societies. |
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5. Expresses its
willingness to incorporate a gender perspective into peacekeeping
operations and urges the Secretary-General to ensure that, where
appropriate, field operations include a gender component; |
The Secretary-General provided a
comprehensive elaboration of the various elements necessary to
incorporate gender perspectives into peacekeeping operations in 2000
The Secretary-General said that “attention needs to be given to
gender perspectives in all phases of the peace support operations,
beginning with needs assessment missions through post-conflict
peace-building. Gender perspectives should be considered in
analyses, policy and strategy development and planning of peace
support operations, as well as training programmes and instruments
developed to support effective implementation of those operations,
such as guidelines, handbooks and codes of conduct. All aspects and
all levels of peace support operations require attention to gender
perspectives, including political analysis, military operations,
civilian police activities, electoral assistance, human rights
support, humanitarian assistance, including for refugees and
displaced persons, development and reconstruction activities and
public information. Training of troops and civilian police on gender
issues is critical. In the context of complex missions where interim
governments will be established, gender balance in interim bodies
and development of capacity within those important bodies to work
with gender perspectives need to be considered. Experience has shown
that it is important to ensure attention to gender perspectives from
the very outset of peace-building and peacekeeping missions,
including through incorporation in the initial mandates. All reports
of the individual mission to the Security Council should include
explicit routine reporting on progress in integrating gender
perspectives as well as information on the number and levels of
women involved in all aspects of the mission.” (from the
Secretary-General’s report on resource requirements for
implementation of the report of the Panel on United Nations Peace
Operations, 27 October, 2000 A/55/507/Add.1). |
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6. Requests the
Secretary-General to provide to Member States training guidelines
and materials on the protection, rights and the particular needs of
women, as well as on the importance of involving women in all
peacekeeping and peace-building measures, invites Member States to
incorporate these elements as well as HIV/AIDS awareness training
into their national training programmes for military and civilian
police personnel in preparation for deployment and further requests
the Secretary-General to ensure that civilian personnel of
peacekeeping operations receive similar training; |
Training of peacekeeping troops
and personnel is the primary responsibility of individual
governments, however the United Nations and regional organizations
often provide supplementary training to ensure consistent approaches
and encourage collaboration. In this paragraph, the Security Council
indicates the need for the United Nations to share technical
expertise with Member States so they can better prepare troops and
personnel being sent to conflict zones. All staff working in
conflict situations need training, including gender training, so
they can carry out the wide range of tasks required of them.
Training also helps staff adjust and be responsive to the cultural
milieu in which they will function. Training peacekeeping personnel
on gender issues can promote gender mainstreaming within an
operation, irrespective of the number and level of women an
operation may employ. Ideally, training takes place prior to
deployment, but once a mission is assembled, in-service training
initiatives can be extremely useful. The UN has included gender
training in the induction courses for peacekeeping personnel in
UNAMSIL, MONUC, UNTAET and UNMEE, involving UN agencies,
humanitarian organizations, and local women’s groups in the host
country. |
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7. Urges Member
States to increase their voluntary financial, technical and
logistical support for gender-sensitive training efforts, including
those undertaken by relevant funds and programmes, inter alia, the
United Nations Fund for Women and United Nations Children’s Fund,
and by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other
relevant bodies; |
This paragraph urges governments
to increase the resources devoted to training efforts (the utility
of which are elaborated above) on the national level and also
requests that they support the efforts of UNIFEM, UNICEF and UNHCR
with financial, technical and logistical resources. |
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8. Calls on all
actors involved, when negotiating and implementing peace agreements,
to adopt a gender perspective, including, inter alia: (a) The
special needs of women and girls during repatriation and
resettlement and for rehabilitation, reintegration and post-conflict
reconstruction; (b) Measures that support local women’s peace
initiatives and indigenous processes for conflict resolution, and
that involve women in all of the implementation mechanisms of the
peace agreements; (c) Measures that ensure the protection of and
respect for human rights of women and girls, particularly as they
relate to the constitution, the electoral system, the police and the
judiciary; |
Having previously noted the need
for greater involvement of women (i.e gender balance) in peace and
security decision-making, the Security Council emphasizes the need
to involve local women and value indigenous processes. Importantly,
this paragraph suggests that the content of agreements needs to
reflect gender issues, regardless of who is doing the negotiating or
implementing. Peace processes and negotiations are not isolated
events. The negotiations begin during war and persist throughout the
various stages of changeover to peace. Peace agreements can include
the following: power-sharing arrangements, economic reconstruction,
demobilization and reintegration of soldiers, legislation on human
rights, access to land, education and health, the status of
displaced people and the empowerment of civil society. Therefore,
they provide a unique opportunity to transform institutions,
structures, and relationships within society, and can affirm gender
equality through constitutional, judicial, legislative and electoral
reform. By addressing reintegration, the Security Council is
recognizing that refugee and IDP returns as well as return of
demobilized soldiers to their homes requires particular care and
attention. Refugee women and demobilized female soldiers as well as
women and girls who are abducted by armed forces have specific
protection needs. Refugee return must be voluntary and facilitated
return must consider issues of security. |
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9. Calls upon
all parties to armed conflict to respect fully international law
applicable to the rights and protection of women and girls as
civilians, in particular the obligations applicable to them under
the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Additional Protocols thereto
of 1977, the Refugee Convention of 1951 and the Protocol thereto of
1967, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women of 1979 and the Optional Protocol
thereto of 1999 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
the Child of 1989 and the two Optional Protocols thereto of 25 May
2000, and to bear in mind the relevant provisions of the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court; |
This paragraph lists some
international laws that refer to the rights and protection of women
and girls and emphasizes that parties to armed conflict must respect
international law as it relates to the protection of women and girls
as civilians in armed conflict.
The Four Geneva Conventions adopted in 1949 and their additional
protocols adopted in 1977 form the main core of international
humanitarian law. Each of the four Conventions is concerned with a
different aspect of armed conflict: the first relates to the
treatment of the sick and wounded on land; the second relates to the
sick, wounded and shipwrecked at sea; the third relates to prisoners
of war; the fourth relates specifically to civilian non-combatants.
Two Additional Protocols were adopted in 1977. Protocol I expands
protection to victims of international armed conflict [i.e. the
civilian population, military and civilian medical workers and
includes provisions for granting combatant and POW status to members
of dissident forces], while Protocol II relates to the protection of
victims of internal conflicts. The majority of the language in the
Geneva Conventions and protocols consists of guidelines and rules
for militaries or armed forces to follow during armed conflict. Some
of these guidelines pertain specifically to the protection and
treatment of women and children. Violations of these mandates do not
entail the same obligations to prevent or punish as do grave
breaches. For example, article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention
provides that-: "women shall be especially protected against any
attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced
prostitution, or any form of indecent assault." The Convention
contains no corresponding obligation to investigate or punish
individuals in the event women are not protected (or that “groups
fail to protect women”). more...
The 1951 Refugee Convention, which was drafted as a result of a
recommendation by the newly established United Nations Commission on
Human Rights, was a landmark in setting standards for the treatment
of refugees. The Convention, in article 1, provides a general
definition of the term "refugee". The term applies to any person who
"as a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and owing to
well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular social group or political
opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable, or
owing to such fear, is unwilling, to avail himself of the protection
of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside
the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such
events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to
it". The Convention sets the minimum standards of treatment of
refugees, including the basic rights to which they are entitled. It
also establishes the juridical status of refugees and contains
provisions on their rights to gainful employment and welfare, on the
issue of identity papers and travel documents, on the applicability
of fiscal charges, and on their right to transfer their assets to
another country where they have been admitted for the purposes of
resettlement. The Convention prohibits the expulsion or forcible
return of persons having refugee status. Article 33 stipulates that
"no Contracting State shall expel or return (refouler) a refugee in
any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life
or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular social group or political
opinion". Article 34 concerns the naturalization and assimilation of
refugees. Other provisions deal with such rights as access to
courts, education, social security, housing and freedom of movement.
The 1951 Convention could benefit only persons who had become
refugees as a result of events occurring prior to 1 January 1951.
However, the years following 1951 showed that refugee movements were
not merely the temporary results of the Second World War and its
aftermath. Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s new refugee groups
emerged, in particular in Africa. These refugees were in need of
protection, which could not be granted to them under the limited
time frame of the 1951 Convention. The 1967 Protocol extended the
application of the Convention to the situation of "new refugees",
i.e. persons who, while meeting the Convention definition, had
become refugees as a result of events that took place after 1
January 1951. more...
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW), the "women's bill of rights," has been
ratified by 174 countries In its General Recommendation on violence
against women, the CEDAW Committee recognizes that armed conflict
situations lead to increased prostitution, trafficking in women and
sexual assault of women. As well, in the General Recommendation on
women and health, the Committee recommends that States parties
ensure adequate protection and health services, including trauma
treatment and counselling for women trapped in situations of armed
conflict and women refugees. CEDAW’s Optional Protocol contains two
procedures: a communications procedure allowing individual women, or
groups of women, to submit claims of violations of rights to the
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and an
inquiry procedure enabling the Committee to initiate inquiries into
situations of grave or systematic violations of women's rights. In
either case, States must be party to the Protocol.
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is historic
with respect to violence against women in armed conflict as well as
during peacetime in that it includes a series of core crimes of
sexual and gender violence, some of which are codified in an
international treaty for the first time ever. The core crimes
include: rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced
pregnancy, enforced sterilization, other forms of sexual violence.
These crimes are listed as crimes against humanity (Article 7) and
war crimes in international armed conflict (Article 8(2)(b) ) as
well as internal armed conflict (Article 8(2)(e)). Rape and enforced
prostitution had been listed in the Geneva Conventions as acts,
which women must be protected against but there was no specific
recognition of these acts as grave breaches nor a recognition in any
other sense of their gravity. The Rome Statute qualifies these
crimes as among the most serious through its codification of them as
a general matter and through language linking them to other grave
breaches and other serious violations of Common Article 3. In
addition to the core crimes of sexual and gender violence,
gender-based persecution is included as a crime against humanity,
which is another first. (Article 7(1)(h) Trafficking is included as
a crime, under the general definition of enslavement, with an
emphasis on trafficking of women and children. (Article 7(2)(c)).The
Elements Annex, a document intended to define the crimes within the
Court’s jurisdiction in more detail, provides definitions for the
crimes, i.e. the acts and mental elements that constitute the
criminal activity. (See charts of definitions). In many respects,
these definitions are progressive conceptualizations of crimes,
which traditionally have had discriminatory and harmful elements in
many jurisdictions.
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10. Calls on all
parties to armed conflict to take special measures to protect women
and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other
forms of sexual abuse, and all other forms of violence in situations
of armed conflict; |
Gender-specific threats to women
and girls compound the challenges of ensuring their protection.
During armed conflict, women and girls are continually threatened by
rape, domestic violence, sexual exploitation, trafficking, sexual
humiliation and mutilation. Adolescent girls are specifically
targeted for abduction and forced recruitment into armed forces and
armed groups and they are targets for sexual exploitation and abuse.
These practices put them at great risk of sexually transmitted
diseases including HIV/AIDS. Women and girls are at heightened risk
in all settings, whether at home, in flight or in camps for
displaced people. More needs to be done to address the protection of
women’s human rights. All humanitarian responses in conflict
situations must include systematic reporting on sexual violence,
emphasise the special reproductive health needs of women and girls,
and reflect strengthened policy guidance on responses to
gender-based violence and sexual exploitation. Approximately 80 per
cent of people displaced by conflict or human rights violations are
women and children. Displacement, internally or across borders, is
disruptive and dangerous. It deprives women of the security of their
community and exposes them to hunger, disease, violence and sexual
assault. Protection and assistance for refugee and internally
displaced women should include measures to prevent sexual
exploitation, physical abuse and other violations of their human
rights. Humanitarian assistance should support women to protect
themselves and their children. Bordering states may be directly or
indirectly parties to a conflict. They may also be hosting refugees.
They have a responsibility to ensure the humanitarian character of
refugee camps, with protection and security provided by national
police or military. |
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11. Emphasizes
the responsibility of all States to put an end to impunity and to
prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity,
war crimes including those relating to sexual violence against women
and girls, and in this regard, stresses the need to exclude these
crimes, where feasible from amnesty provisions; |
Amnesty clauses in peace
agreements allow some parties to go unpunished for atrocities
committed during the conflict and are usually inserted into
agreements as an incentive for parties to come to the negotiating
table and cease hostilities. In this paragraph, the Security Council
alludes to one of the difficulties of transitional justice, which
seeks national/regional/international reconciliation processes on
one hand, but has a duty to prosecute perpetrators of gross human
rights violations on the other hand. This paragraph of the
resolution affirms the responsibility of all governments to put an
end to impunity and to uphold the rule of law, specifying that
crimes against women should not be included in amnesty provisions of
peace treaties, where feasible. Peace agreements that include
amnesty provisions are difficult to reconcile with the goal of
ending the culture of impunity, which inspired the creation of the
United Nations Tribunals for Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia and
the International Criminal Court. In the context of the 1999 Lome
peace agreement that brought an end to the war in Sierra Leone, the
United Nations did not recognize the blanket amnesty negotiated
because it contradicted the internationally recognized imperative to
prosecute crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes
and other serious violations of international humanitarian
law. |
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12. Calls upon
all parties to armed conflict to respect the civilian and
humanitarian character of refugee camps and settlements, and to take
into account the particular needs of women and girls, including in
their design, and recalls its resolution 1208 (1998) of 19 November
1998; |
Camps for displaced people offer
refuge in desperate situations. But camps can become extremely
dangerous places for women, especially when armed groups store and
move arms through the camp, continue making or planning war within
that setting. Refugee camps should be placed at an appropriate
distance from the border (note: While there are no international
standards on the exact distance away from a border that a camp
should be located, UNHCR's Handbook for Emergencies notes that "to
ensure the security and protection of refugees, it is recommended
that they be settled at a reasonable distance from international
borders as well as other potentially sensitive areas such as
military installations" (Chapter 12, Para. 31). The OAU Convention
also states "For reasons of security, countries of asylum shall, as
far as possible, settle refugees at a reasonable distance from the
frontier of their country of origin," (Article II, Para. 6). Refugee
camps and settlements should be designed to address the protection
needs of refugee women, adolescents, and children. This includes
ensuring the physical security of women and children, through
sufficient lighting, appropriate placement of latrines, and
convenient location of basic services and facilities (including
food, water, and fuel) so that women and children are not at risk of
attack when they utilize these services. In this paragraph, the
Security Council agrees that women should actively participate in
the design of camps and settlements. Resolution 1208 is focused on
the situation of refugee camps in Africa more... and stresses “the particular security
needs of women, children and the elderly who are the most vulnerable
groups in refugee camps and settlements.” National police and
military personnel must ensure due security for camp
residents. |
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13. Encourages
all those involved in the planning for disarmament, demobilization
and reintegration to consider the different needs of female and male
ex-combatants and to take into account the needs of their
dependants; |
During the post-conflict period,
prevention of new violence depends on the willingness of armed
groups to lay down their arms, (disarmament) disband military
structures (demobilization), and return to civilian life
(reintegration). If armed groups or warlords do not put down their
weapons, peace will never be possible. Each of the DDR processes
involves and has implications for women, whether they participated
in combat, have family members who did, or are members of a
community trying to integrate former combatants. While some women
join armed groups of their own free will, large numbers are abducted
into combat and/or forced to become sexual and domestic slaves. It
is increasingly understood that women need and deserve inclusion in
what DDR programmes have to offer – such as vocational alternatives,
financial payments. In addition, planners are increasingly
recognizing that women have a great deal to offer to the planning
and execution of weapons collection, demobilization and
reintegration programmes, and that such initiatives work better when
women are involved. However, reports and analysis about DDR efforts
recently completed and currently underway suggest that a large gap
exists between broad policy commitment to the inclusion of gender
perspectives and specific actions on the ground. Agencies and
practitioners need more guidance and tools to assist them to
appreciate what “gender perspectives” are in a given situation, and
in designing and delivering programs to equitably benefit women and
men in the DDR phase of post-conflict peace-building. |
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14. Reaffirms
its readiness, whenever measures are adopted under Article 41 of the
Charter of the United Nations, to give consideration to their
potential impact on the civilian population, bearing in mind the
special needs of women and girls, in order to consider appropriate
humanitarian exemptions; |
Article 41 of the UN Charter
refers to a range of measures that can be taken that do not involve
the use of armed force, including sanctions. The Article dictates
that “the Security Council may decide what measures not involving
the use of armed force are to be employed to give effect to its
decisions, and it may call upon the Members of the United Nations to
apply such measures. These may include complete or partial
interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal,
telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the
severance of diplomatic relations.” This paragraph references the
ongoing debate about the humanitarian impact of sanctions and the
need to ensure minimal impact on the civilian population, also known
as “smart sanctions.” For more information on Security Council
sanctions, see the documents and initiatives of the Security Council
Working Group on General Issues on Sanctions
http://www.un.org/sc/committees/sanctions/ |
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15. Expresses
its willingness to ensure that Security Council missions take into
account gender considerations and the rights of women, including
through consultation with local and international women’s groups;
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Since 1999, the UN Security
Council has resumed and increased the number of missions by its
members to conflict areas, undertaking seven such missions during
2000-2001. Council members, and other observers, agree that these
missions are useful in obtaining a ground's eye view of the
situation and enabling the Council to better assess required action
and to see the work of the UN and NGOs in the field. Since the
passage of resolution 1325, Council missions have been under
increased pressure to include consultations with women’s
organisations on their agenda. To read about the efforts of the NGO
Working Group on Women, Peace and Security to secure such meetings
and engagement, see Peacewomen.org
Security Council members met with civil society organisations
during the May 2001 visit to the Great Lakes Region, including
women's organisations..
http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/missionreports/521e.pdf The June 2001
Mission to Kosovo highlighted that a key factor in reconciliation
efforts could be the role played by civil society, NGOs and women's
group, who could prove helpful in reaching across the ethnic divide.
more...
For a complete list of Security Council field missions undertaken
since 1946, see Globalpolicy.org
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16. Invites the
Secretary-General to carry out a study on the impact of armed
conflict on women and girls, the role of women in peace-building and
the gender dimensions of peace processes and conflict resolution,
and further invites him to submit a report to the Security Council
on the results of this study and to make this available to all
Member States of the United Nations; |
The Secretary-General submitted
the requested study http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/public/eWPS.pdf
and report http://www.peacewomen.org/un/UN1325/sgreport.pdf to the
Security Council in October 2002. The UN Inter-Agency Network on
Women and Gender Equality Task Force on Women, Peace and Security,
chaired by the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of
Women, coordinated the system-wide inputs to the Secretary-General's
study and report, and also consulted members of civil society,
women’s organisations and academics. |
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17. Requests the
Secretary-General, where appropriate, to include in his reporting to
the Security Council, progress on gender mainstreaming throughout
peacekeeping missions and all other aspects relating to women and
girls; |
The Security Council’s actions
and deliberations are informed by regular country specific and
thematic reporting from the Secretary-General. In this paragraph,
the Security Council makes a specific request to the
Secretary-General to include information about gender mainstreaming
efforts and “all other aspects relating to women and girls”. (For
detailed description of the relevance of gender mainstreaming in the
context of peacekeeping missions, please see annotation under
operational paragraph 5 of this resolution.)
A recent analysis of 264 reports of the Secretary-General to the
Security Council, dating from January 2000 to the present, was
conducted by the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and
Advancement of Women (OSAGI) to ascertain to what degree the reports
address gender perspectives as required in Security Council
resolution 1325 (2000). The analysis reveals that only 17.8 per cent
of the reports make multiple references to gender concerns, 15.2 per
cent make minimal reference and 67 per cent of the reports make no
or only one mention of women or gender issues. In addition, the vast
majority of reports citing gender concerns mention the impact of the
conflict on women and girls, primarily as victims of conflict – not
as potential dynamic actors in reconciliation, peace building or
post-conflict reconstruction.
While the mandates of the various missions mandated by the
Security Council may differ, each operation should conduct a gender
analysis, have a plan for mainstreaming gender and an approach to
incorporating information on women and men into the reports to the
Security Council. “How does the impact of the conflict differ for
men and women” and “do women and men have an equal share in the
benefits and opportunities supported by the mission” are just a few
questions that should be addressed in all reports. Throughout all
aspects of programme planning, implementation, monitoring and
evaluation the mission should ensure gender equality. Given the
diversity of mission mandates, there is no blueprint or formula for
reporting on gender perspectives in these reports. The aim would be
to integrate information on men and women throughout the various
sections of the report and, as appropriate, have a specific section
on gender or women’s issues.
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18. Decides to
remain actively seized of the matter." |
This is a standard ending of many
Security Council resolutions that is particularly significant when
used with regard to country situations. According to Article 12 of
the U.N. Charter, “While the Security Council is exercising in
respect of any dispute or situation the functions assigned to it in
the present Charter, the General Assembly shall not make any
recommendation with regard to that dispute or situation unless the
Security Council so requests.” By remaining "seized of the matter,”
the 15-member Security Council is officially telling the 191-member
General Assembly that it is engaged with the issue. When used in a
thematic resolution, such as those on HIV/AIDS, children, the
protection of civilians, and women, peace and security, the use of
this phrase does not preclude other parts of the UN system
addressing the issue, but indicates that the Security Council has
recognized or elaborated the relevance of the issue to its
particular mandate and responsibilities, and it remains on the
agenda of the Security
Council. | |