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Panel Cites Modest Progress Ten Years after UN Resolution 1325
SIPA’s UN Studies Program hosted a panel discussion on the 10th anniversary of Resolution 1325, the first formal and legal document requiring parties in a conflict to respect women’s rights and support their participation in peace negotiations and in post-conflict reconstruction.
UN Security Council Resolution 1325 was adopted in October 2000. The discussion on October 25 addressed women as agents of change and their progress as peace builders.
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“It took 50 years for the international community to recognize that there is a link between war, peace, and gender,” said Judy Cheng-Hopkins, a SIPA alumna and Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support to the Peacebuilding Commission. “Yes, this is progress,” she said. “But the progress has been modest.”
The discussion included Betty Achan Ogwaro, a parliamentarian in the government of Southern Sudan and Chairperson of the Sudanese Women Forum on Darfur, Southern Sudan, who shared her experiences during decades of fighting.
“The war in Southern Sudan took on an element of hate,” she said. “That hate was taken out on women – included the mass rape of women.”
After passage of Resolution 1325, Ogwaro says peacekeepers descended on Southern Sudan. But there wasn’t enough money or capacity to protect women. “They didn’t have the means. The Resolution became meaningless to women on the ground in Southern Sudan.”
Also participating in the discussion were Atul Khare, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, who recently investigated mass rapes in Eastern Congo; Jürgen Heissel from the Austrian Mission, who offered the perspectives of the UN Security Council; and journalist and former New York Times foreign correspondent Barbara Crossette, who is preparing a field survey on Resolution 1325.
Khare said Resolution 1325 has changed how business is done by peacekeeping operations and cites progress in gender sensitive policies. But with the words “we too have failed,” he called out individual governments, saying countries have a responsibility to protect and should not rely on the United Nations.
Jürgen Heissel pointed out other gaps in its implementation, including accountability, monitoring, and reporting. He also singled out prevention and early warning as a spot where many say the Security Council is weak. “By the time an issue gets on our agenda, it’s too late,” he said.
The panel discussion was moderated by Professor Elisabeth Lindenmayer, Director of SIPA’s United Nations Studies Program.
Alex Burnett, 10/27/2010