The grave situation in Sudan offers fundamental lessons for drawdowns and terminations of United Nations peacekeeping missions in other transition contexts where women’s lives are at stake – such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Somalia and Haiti – the Security Council heard today, as delegates underscored the need to integrate a gender perspective into all components of peace missions.
“Most importantly, the Council must ensure that there are no protection gaps between a hasty withdrawal and a new mission, or termination and handover to Government authorities,” said Kholood Khair, founding Director of Confluence Advisory, a think-and-do tank formerly based in Khartoum, Sudan. She stressed the need to identify benchmarks for protection, collect reliable data on conflict-related sexual violence, and inculcate norms into legal frameworks before any withdrawal.
The establishment of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) two decades ago “was instrumental in providing a degree of stability in Darfur when it was clear that the Government was unable, but mostly unwilling, to end the violence it wrought against the non-Arab populations there”, she said. However, the timing of UNAMID’s withdrawal in 2020 was “a massive miscalculation”, as it took place before any alternative national force could be set up in its stead, leaving a “gaping protection vacuum”.
Similarly, minimum conditions were not set up to mitigate the harm to women and girls before the termination of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission (UNITAMS), she said. Now, women and girls are paying the price of this protection vacuum in the war across Sudan, which “is being waged on [their] bodies”.
Sima Sami Bahous, Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), underscored that gender equality – which is at the heart of the UN’s peace and security apparatus and peacekeeping – “supports conflict prevention and post-conflict recovery”.
However, amid intensifying conflicts and unprecedented levels of violence, there have been multiple recent decisions to shrink or close both peacekeeping and special political missions, she cautioned, noting that the number of deployed peacekeeping personnel worldwide has dropped by almost half from 121,000 in 2016 to approximately 71,000 in 2024. The drawdown of the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, where gang rape has become “a political weapon”, is a testimony to the growing violence against women and girls.
Accordingly, she recommended that the Council turn its attention to financing, noting the essential role of the Peacebuilding Fund, and continue to invite women from civil society to routinely brief and provide analysis of their contexts from a gendered perspective.
Also highlighting the pivotal role of the Peacebuilding Fund, Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, Assistant Secretary-General for Africa in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, said that, in Liberia, the Fund supported increased women’s participation in conflict prevention and resolution before and since the departure of United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) in 2018.
In times of political tension and persisting security threats, she cautioned against rushing through a transition process, as it can jeopardize hard-won peace gains. For instance, the drawdown of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) has negatively impacted peacebuilding programmes focusing on women and girls. Similarly, the recent departures of peace operations from key hotspots in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have led to security vacuums, leaving women and girls exposed to attacks by armed actors.
In the ensuing discussion, delegates underlined the need to ensure that drawdowns of peace operations do not result in a setback for women’s rights and gender equality, noting that women and girls are the first victims of the outbreak of violence.
Francess Piagie Alghali, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Sierra Leone, Council President for the month, spoke in her national capacity to spotlight the gradual drawdown of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) in the immediate aftermath of the civil conflict, predicated on her country’s ability to assume security responsibilities in areas vacated by the mission. This demonstrates that UN Mission withdrawals or drawdowns must be orderly and responsible and not result in a regression of the gains made in protecting women’s rights, she asserted.
Along similar lines, her counterpart from Mozambique highlighted his country’s experience as host of the United Nations Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ), noting that the former peace operation marked a significant transition with a focus on promoting women’s meaningful participation. The post-ONUMOZ period presented new opportunities for Mozambican women to engage in peacebuilding and development initiatives, he said, adding that “its legacy continues to shape the country’s trajectory”.
Citing development as “the foundation of peace”, China’s delegate called on the Council to “focus on promoting women’s empowerment based on development” and stressed that developing infrastructure, promoting education and eradicating poverty will consolidate the foundation for gender equality.
“Civil society actors should be our first partners when seeking to execute essential women, peace, and security activities as missions draw down,” said the United States’ representative. For instance, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, MONUSCO and the national authorities must better integrate the recommendations of civil society into transitional planning for the subsequent phases of the drawdown in North Kivu and Ituri.
For her part, France’s delegate spotlighted the essential role of military gender advisers in ensuring the proper implementation of the women, peace and security agenda by peacekeepers on the ground, noting that Paris has invested over 650,000 euros since 2021 to this end.
Malta’s speaker noted that despite agreement on the need for women’s protection advisers, these specialists are deployed in only 8 of the more than 20 countries covered in the Special Representative of the Secretary-General’s annual report on sexual violence in conflict.
Urging the Council to live up to the assertion that “women and girls are not just beneficiaries of peace, but essential architects of it”, the representative of Switzerland stated that “a successful transition is one with and for women”.
WOMEN AND PEACE AND SECURITY: SUSTAINING WPS COMMITMENTS IN THE CONTEXT OF ACCELERATED DRAWDOWN OF PEACE OPERATIONS
Briefings
SIMA SAMI BAHOUS, Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), underscored that “gender equality supports conflict prevention and post-conflict recovery”, whereas “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 peacekeeping. For example, the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) has helped relocate many women human rights defenders in that country to safer locations in recent years, facilitated women’s representation in local community dialogues in the peace process, and has contributed to the conviction of dozens of members of armed groups and security forces for conflict-related sexual violence. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) has supported the political aspirations of Somali women as they fight for better representation through quotas and changes in the electoral code.
However, she voiced concern over the potential effects of multiple recent decisions to shrink or close both peacekeeping and special political missions. These decisions are made even as the number and intensity of conflicts and insecurity grow. “It is counter-intuitive”, she said, that in the face of unprecedented levels of conflict and violence, the number of deployed peacekeeping personnel worldwide has dropped by almost half from 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 the lives, welfare, rights and autonomy of women and girls,” she stressed. After the drawdown of the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, the Council was briefed about armed gangs who were raping women and filming and posting the rapes on social media. “Gang rape was becoming a political weapon, a premeditated and explicit expression of defiance of law enforcement,” she stated, adding that 5,000 cases of rape were reported in Haiti in 2023.
In 2019, she recalled, a young activist from Sudan told the Council that women had already been sidelined in the political process in the months following that revolution, asking the body to halt the scaling down of the peacekeeping mission until the security situation was more stable and the protection of civilians more assured. Yet, despite these warnings, a year later, the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) 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. She underlined that directives such as Council resolution 2594 (2021) are often not put into practice, and, as a result, women are acutely concerned about the current trend of closing off space and support for UN missions.
She observed that women and issues of gender equality are often under-represented or absent in negotiations with host Governments over mission drawdowns or departures, with women being mentioned “only as victims” rather than “partners in the transition”. Also, the money spent on UN missions is not reallocated to peacebuilding or sustainable development once they leave, whether through the UN country team or other national partners. Outlining recommendations, she urged the Council to ensure that UN transitions safeguard gender equality gains and women’s meaningful participation through decisions and statements in interactions with host Governments and with any regional or subregional organizations undertaking peacekeeping support. Further, the Council should continue to invite women from civil society to routinely brief and provide analysis of their contexts from a gendered perspective. The Informal Expert Group should conduct field visits to countries after the departure of a UN mission to monitor and report on the situation of women and girls. Additionally, she recommended that the Council turn its attention more fully to financing, noting the essential role of the Peacebuilding Fund.
MARTHA AMA AKYAA POBEE, Assistant Secretary-General for Africa in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, said these operations have become instrumental in promoting women’s leadership and agency as well as in protecting women and girls from human rights abuses. “Mission transitions present challenges as well as opportunities for stakeholders to consolidate gains in these critical areas,” she stressed. Since 2014 the Organization has managed at least 10 transitions in politically and operationally complex settings, she said, highlighting the accelerated pace at which peace operations have drawn down from Mali and Sudan in the last few years. A phased disengagement from the Democratic Republic of the Congo is also under way. “In all these settings, the implementation of the women, peace and security agenda has proved to be challenging,” she acknowledged.
Cautioning against rushing through a transition process, especially against a background of political tension and persisting security threats, she said this can jeopardize hard-won peace gains. ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ stakeholders could be unprepared to shoulder additional responsibilities. Sharing some relevant examples, she highlighted the situation in Mali where prior to the accelerated withdrawal of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), women accounted for 38 per cent of the membership of the Peace Agreement Monitoring Committee. The drawdown has, however, negatively impacted peacebuilding programmes focusing on women and girls. Further, the recent departures of peace operations from key hotspots in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have led to security vacuums leaving women and girls exposed to attacks by armed actors. “This is particularly concerning because the establishment of the monitoring, analysis and reporting arrangements on conflict-related sexual violence is a specific request made by the Security Council,” she underscored.
Calling for “a forward-looking approach rooted in joint planning” that involves national authorities, local civil society, the UN as well as international partners, she stressed the role of the Peacebuilding Fund in providing flexible and targeted funding to address gaps. For instance, in Liberia, the Fund supported increased women’s participation in conflict prevention and resolution before and since the departure of United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) in 2018. UN peace operations, country teams, national Governments, regional organizations, civil society partners and women networks need to ensure that gender analysis is part of the transition process, she said. Equally, it is important to guarantee that necessary gender expertise capacity and resources exist to sustain the gains already made. Further, periodic Security Council visiting missions must engage with national authorities and partners on the women, peace and security agenda, particularly in transition context.
KHOLOOD KHAIR, Founding Director of Confluence Advisory, a think-and-do tank formerly based in Khartoum, Sudan, recalled the establishment of UNAMID in the wake of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity nearly two decades ago. “The Mission was instrumental in providing a degree of stability in Darfur when it was clear that the Government was unable, but mostly unwilling, to end the violence it wrought against the non-Arab populations there,” she observed. UNAMID acted as “a protective wedge” between civilians and the Government forces and allied militias that were targeting them. The timing of UNAMID’s withdrawal in 2020 was “a massive miscalculation,” as it took place before any alternative national force could be set up in its stead, she said, pointing to the subsequent “gaping protection vacuum”. Violence in Darfur has since spiked markedly.
The Juba Peace Agreement – seen to reward one set of political actors over another – fanned ethnic tensions in West Darfur even further, she said, noting that in January 2021, one month after UNAMID’s complete drawdown, women displaced by the violence faced either rape or death from violence and hunger. When the military-led transitional Government finally struck a deal with peace accord signatories to create the Joint Forces, Darfur’s traumatized population was dismayed to find that those forces were made up, in part, of the same groups that had been terrorizing them, namely the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, who had led the atrocities in Darfur decades earlier. In particular, members of the latter were implicated in attacks in El Geneina in December 2019 and again in January 2021, shortly after UNAMID closed some of its bases there.
Similarly, she observed, the limited mandate given to the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), and its hasty termination at the de facto Sudanese authorities’ request in December 2023, is another instance where the Council did not consider Sudanese women’s perspectives and needs. In the wake of UNITAMS’ departure, despite rampant reports of sexual violence, the UN has not created adequate monitoring and reporting arrangements. With an all-out war raging across Sudan, and reports of unfolding genocide, the situation for Sudanese people is desperate. Yet, there is currently no entity that has a protection of civilian mandate in Sudan beyond the de facto authorities, which have again proven themselves unable and unwilling to do so.
“This war is being waged on the bodies of women and girls,” she said, pointing to widespread and systematic conflict-related sexual violence across the country, including in Khartoum and Gezira. Both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces have subjected women and girls from ages 9 to 60 to sexual violence – a war crime – with neither party taking meaningful steps to prevent its forces from committing rape, attacking health-care workers, nor investigating such crimes. The deliberate use of conflict-related sexual violence – chiefly by the Rapid Support Forces – aims to terrorize the population into submission. For nearly 25 years, the Council has pledged its commitment to upholding women’s rights in all conflicts and crises through the women, peace and security agenda. Yet, there is no body in the country to adequately monitor human rights, effectively protect civilians, and sufficiently support women. Minimum conditions were not established to mitigate the harm to women and girls before the termination of first UNAMID, then UNITAMS. “And so, women and marginalized groups are paying the price of this protection vacuum,” she warned.
She then offered several recommendations, among them: establishing a single-focus diplomatic track – separate from ceasefire talks – to address violence against civilians, including women and girls. Adding conflict-related sexual violence as a stand-alone designation criterion for targeted individual sanctions would address the flow of arms that is exposing women and girls to horrific forms of gender-based violence. Accordingly, the Darfur sanctions regime – adopted decades ago – should be updated. The full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of women must be ensured, not as an addendum to the main peace talks, but central to them.
The grave situation in Sudan offers important lessons for drawdowns, transitions and terminations in other transition contexts where women’s lives are at stake, such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq and Somalia, she observed. “Most importantly, the Council must ensure that there are no protection gaps between a hasty withdrawal and a new mission, or termination and handover to Government authorities,” she said, stressing the need to identify benchmarks for protection, collect reliable data on conflict-related sexual violence, and inculcate norms into legal frameworks before any withdrawal. The best way to accomplish this is through a mission to protect civilians, she said, urging the Council to do so once more “before it is too late”.
Statements
FRANCESS PIAGIE ALGHALI, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Sierra Leone, Council President for the month, spoke in her national capacity to voice concern over the seeming lack of trust in the engagements between UN missions and host countries and its impact on the rights of women and girls. Women and girls are often disproportionately affected by renewed violence, limited access to justice and exclusion from peacebuilding processes. “Such setbacks undermine the hard-won gains made through years of conflict efforts,” she observed, spotlighting the current catastrophic conflict in Sudan, where UNITAMS was closed. Calling for orderly and responsible withdrawals or drawdowns of peace support or peacekeeping operations, she recalled that Sierra Leone experienced a decade of civil conflict from 1991-2000. In the immediate aftermath of the civil conflict, the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) had a gradual drawdown, predicated on the country’s ability to assume security responsibilities in areas being vacated by the mission.
UN mission withdrawals or drawdowns must be orderly and responsible, and not result in a regression of the significant gains made in gender equality and the protection of women’s rights, she asserted. Also, it is critical to ensure that women are at the forefront of peacebuilding efforts. “Their inclusion in peace processes is not merely a matter of equity; it is a necessity for sustainable peace,” she stated, noting that peace agreements are more durable when women are involved in their negotiation and implementation. Further, the protection of women and girls from violence must remain a priority. With the drawdown of peacekeeping missions – which often serve as critical mechanisms for protecting vulnerable populations – she underlined the need to ensure that national and local authorities are equipped and committed to these protections.
The representative of the United Kingdom said it is key to integrate a gender perspective into all components of peacekeeping missions, including preventing and responding to conflict-related sexual violence. Gender-responsive conflict analysis and technical gender expertise are critical to mission effectiveness, including in transition planning. The Council has secured strong gender commitments in recent mandate renewals, including on gender-based violence in Haiti and women’s participation in Colombia, he noted. “Women peacekeepers engage with populations and in places less accessible to men, bringing unique insights,” he said. This improves awareness of security risks and builds trust with local communities. Noting that transitions and drawdowns expose local communities to heightened risks, he called for the development of mission-wide survivor-centered approaches for addressing conflict-related sexual violence to deal with that.
The representative of the Republic of Korea underscored the timeliness of holding today’s meeting given “abrupt terminations or ongoing drawdowns” of UN peace operations in Mali, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which have disproportionately impacted women and girls due to the resulting security vacuums. The mandates of UN missions, especially those undergoing transitions, should more appropriately integrate gender perspectives into all aspects of their operations. Such mandates can include protecting women and girls from sexual and gender-based violence, promoting women’s participation in all peace and political processes, and supporting the implementation of gender-responsive security sector reform and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration. For its part, the Republic of Korea has been working with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) since 2019 to support women and girls in preventing and responding to gender-based violence and closely cooperating with UN-Women to advance the women, peace and security agenda around the world. Today’s agenda nicely aligns with an annual International Conference on Action with Women and Peace hosted by Seoul in December 2024.
The representative of Guyana underlined that – while it is understood peacekeeping and special Missions are temporary in nature – systems need to be established and local capacity built to ensure continuity and sustainability. Ideally, transitions would be gradual and structured, occurring when the peace operation would have achieved its objectives. However, several missions have recently gone through accelerated drawdown and transition modes, with more on the horizon. The Council must take action to ensure that “gains are not reversed and the risk of relapse into conflict or escalation is minimized”, she observed, urging the body to continue to monitor country situations after mission drawdowns. It should also request that the Secretary-General provide periodic reports with the support of relevant UN bodies. Underscoring the need to address the question of funding, she urged the General Assembly to consider resource gaps created by the departure of peace operations when allocating funding to UN agencies.
The representative of Algeria noted that despite overwhelming evidence that women’s involvement in peacebuilding and mediation leads to lasting peace, they remain largely excluded from peace processes. Stressing the importance of sharing good practices on this matter, she called for the promotion of gender equality policies and comprehensive national programmes to empower and protect women, particularly during conflict. ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ ownership is key, she said, adding that the international community must demonstrate unwavering commitment to Council resolution 1325 (2000), which enhances women’s involvement in security sectors and ensures their participation in maintaining peace. Highlighting her country’s actions in this regard, she drew attention to the national action plan which serves as a road map for implementing that text. Further, it is not possible to discuss the role of women in peace and security without highlighting the women of Gaza, who are deprived of their most fundamental rights “of just being human”, she said.
The representative of Switzerland said that gender considerations are essential to ensure that drawdowns of peace operations do not result in a setback for women’s rights and gender equality and “must not mean the loss of hard-won progress”. In a 2021 resolution, the Council underlined the importance of gender analysis, gender expertise and gender mainstreaming, as well as the full participation of women throughout transition processes. However, some of the tools developed in this context remain unused. To achieve gender-responsive drawdowns, benchmarks must guide all components of a UN mission, from the moment it is deployed. However, States have the primary responsibility to protect their populations. “As peacekeeping evolves, we cannot afford to leave women behind,” he said, urging the Council to live up to the assertion that “women and girls are not just beneficiaries of peace, but essential architects of it”. “A successful transition is one with and for women,” he concluded.
The representative of France, stressing that women and girls are the first victims of the outbreak of violence, said particular attention must be exercised during periods of withdrawal from peacekeeping operations and special political missions. To create conditions for responsible and sustainable withdrawal, States must fully implement the Council resolutions and ensure the smooth running of all UN operations, particularly the delivery of humanitarian aid. Also, peacekeeping operations, special policy missions and UN country teams must be provided with appropriate means to implement the women, peace and security agenda, including during transition periods. She spotlighted the essential role of military gender advisers in ensuring the proper implementation of this agenda by peacekeepers on the ground, noting that Paris has invested over 650,000 euros since 2021 to implement training programmes for these advisers. Furthermore, UN country teams must ensure – in conjunction with national authorities – continuous monitoring of human rights violations and all forms of violence against women and girls, including sexual violence.
The representative of China said the Council must exchange information on useful practices and take stock of lessons learned on how to better advance the women, peace and security agenda. Stressing that “development is the foundation of peace”, he said that enhancing the development capabilities of the countries concerned should be the core objective of peace operations in transition. Therefore, the Council “should focus on promoting women’s empowerment based on development”, he said, adding that developing infrastructure, promoting education and eradicating poverty will consolidate the foundation for gender equality. Reaffirming support for UN-Women, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other actors who have a critical role in empowering women by tackling poverty and the digital divide, he said that developed countries should effectively fulfil their official development assistance (ODA) commitments. Calling for political settlement of hotspot issues, he said that with more than 10,000 women killed in Gaza and over a million Palestinian women and girls facing famine, a ceasefire is essential.
The representative of Malta said that the rapid pace of transitions of UN peace operations presents unique challenges that require the Council’s immediate attention and action. Gender equality must remain at the core of the UN strategy for footprint and capacity to support sustainable peacebuilding. She expressed regret that UN peace operations and special political missions are withdrawing without meeting the minimum conditions for ensuring women’s security, humanitarian access and the rule of law. “The precipitous exit of police and human rights operations severely constrains the UN’s capacity for civilian protection, including early warning,” she said, advocating for increased women’s representation and gender expertise at all levels in peacekeeping. Despite agreement on the need for women’s protection advisers, these specialists are deployed in only 8 of the more than 20 countries covered in the Special Representative of the Secretary-General’s annual report on sexual violence in conflict, she added.
The representative of the United States emphasized that the international community must support communities during the volatile moments of mission transitions, incorporating gender-responsive policies and “putting the needs of women and girls at the top of the priority list”. Furthermore, civil society engagement must be prioritized and local women- and survivor-led groups must be regularly consulted and their views meaningfully incorporated into transition planning by the UN and host Governments. “Civil society actors should be our first partners when seeking to execute essential women, peace, and security activities as missions draw down,” she said. For instance, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo – one of the most dangerous places in the world for women and girls – MONUSCO and the national authorities must better integrate the recommendations of civil society into transitional planning for the subsequent phases of the drawdown in North Kivu and Ituri. She also underscored that during transitions, mission leaders should assess the impact of climate change on the security situation using a gender lens and transfer this knowledge to the host Government.
The representative of Ecuador said when missions withdraw hastily or in a poorly planned or disorganized manner, without strengthening national institutions, civilians are under higher risk, especially more vulnerable populations, such as women. There must be deadlines to enable timely transitions and implement efficient protocols for handing over capacities to national authorities. The international community must also support “processes of pluralistic dialogue” and follow up on unresolved issues. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) stands as a model for this kind of timely coordination, he said, adding that guaranteeing financing for peacebuilding processes is key. The timely mobilization of resources can ensure the inclusion and participation of women, young people and minorities and promote gender-responsive leadership. The international community must support joint efforts between States and peace operations, particularly in restoring civic space and establishing transparent accountability mechanisms.
The representative of the Russian Federation said that Western countries’ unilateral coercive measures have hurt the status and well-being of women and their families, undermining their prospects for jobs, education, social protection and other gains. He therefore called on the UN Secretariat to actively track the adverse impacts of these measures and put forward proposals to overcome the negative consequences. The contexts for deploying peacekeeping operations differ greatly. Thus, “there’s no point to overestimate the importance of the gender factor in peacekeeping contingents”, he said, stressing that the security and protection of civilians, including women, is mainly the responsibility of national Governments. He went on to cite examples of peacekeeping operations remaining in host countries for years without substantially changing the situation or even becoming part of the crisis itself. The necessary assistance could be extended through UN funds and programmes. Regional organizations, such as the African Union, have also acquired significant experience in assisting States on these topics, he said, urging the international community to support these efforts and for UN peacekeeping operation drawdowns to boost both traditional national and regional efforts.
The representative of Slovenia stressed that a successful transition from conflict to peacebuilding and sustaining peace can only be achieved with a genuine commitment to the women, peace and security agenda. To that end, it is crucial to guarantee women’s full, equal, meaningful and safe participation in peace negotiations, peacekeeping and peacebuilding processes. “No peace can be sustainable if achieved by and for only half the population,” he said. Gender and women protection advisers must work closely with departing missions and UN country teams, which must be adequately resourced to sustain gender equality efforts. Highlighting the pivotal role of local women-led organizations in building community resilience and peacebuilding – including in the context of increasing climate-related crises and conflicts – he stressed the need to support their work through secure funding.
The representative of Japan said the Council must develop “advanced and holistic transition planning” when drawdowns and the peace operation exits are accelerated. Sufficient time should be ensured to transfer tasks to the host Government, the UN country team and civil society organizations. Further, it is vital that such activities be guided by gender-responsive conflict analysis. Calling on the international community to work with the UN country team and other stakeholders to secure women’s leadership, he said they should prioritize ensuring safe participation of women in politics and peacebuilding. Recalling that Council resolution 2594 (2021) requests the Secretary-General to ensure that women’s needs are fully integrated in mission mandates and transitions, he said it is also important to prevent a sharp drop in funding. The Council should also encourage missions to cooperate with other actors, including UN agencies that will remain in the country after the withdrawal of the mission, he said, noting that the Peacebuilding Commission has a good history of holding meetings on countries in mission transition.
The representative of Mozambique highlighted his country’s experience as a former host of the United Nations Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ), stating that the former peace operation marked a significant transition with a focus on building national capacity, promoting women’s meaningful participation and addressing the ongoing challenges. The post-ONUMOZ period presented new opportunities for Mozambican women to engage in peacebuilding and development initiatives. Its legacy continues to shape the country’s trajectory. This was possible due to, among others, strong political will to address gender-based violence and promote women’s participation in decision-making; the continued crucial role of local women’s organizations in promoting the women, peace and security agenda; and sustained international support for those initiatives. He then expressed his country’s support for strong and actionable language in Council resolutions and decisions on mission drawdowns and withdrawals. Transitions must be gender inclusive. “This approach is essential for paving the way for a more just and sustainable future for women and girls in post-conflict societies,” he concluded.
The representative of Algeria took the floor a second time to respond to an obvious reference to an Algerian Olympic athlete. He said that the courageous boxer was born a female and lived through her childhood and adolescent years as a woman. She practiced sports as a full-fledged woman. “There isn’t a shred of doubt on that matter, except for those who have a vague political agenda,” he said.
