PSRP analysis cited in UN Secretary-General’s report on women, peace and security

The UN Security Council held its annual Open Debate on Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security on 21 October 2021. Held annually since the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000, the debate aims to further the women, peace and security agenda, with this year’s meeting aimed at supporting local women peacebuilders. Read a summary of the Secretary-General’s statement at the debate.

The debate was informed by the annual report of the Secretary-General on women and peace and security. This year’s report, published in September 2021, draws on PSRP research to illustrate trends in women’s participation and inclusion in peace processes. The report includes a chart drawn from the PA-X Peace Agreements Database, v5, showing the percentage of peace agreements with gender provisions from 2010–2020. This analysis is underpinned by a blog post by Laura Wise, Peace Agreements with a Gender Perspective are Still an Exception, Not the Rule, which was originally published on the LSE Women Peace and Security blog.

PSRP research is included on pages 8-9, point 26:

Ensuring that peace agreements address the rights, concerns and perspectives of all women regardless of their ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, age or religion is important to opening the door to women’s participation and rights in the implementation phase. However, the inclusion of references to women, girls or gender continues to fluctuate widely, and a low number of ceasefire agreements contain them. After a downward trend, the percentage of peace agreements more broadly with gender provisions has started to rise, but at 28.6 per cent in 2020 it remains well below the 37.1 per cent recorded in 2015 (see figure I). Research shows that the agreements most likely to mention women, girls or gender often arise at the comprehensive agreement stage, and ceasefire agreements remain a key gap. None of the ceasefire agreements reached between 2018 and 2020 included gender provisions or the prohibition of sexual violence.

The report also cites a 2019 PSRP publication by Robert Forster and Christine Bell, Gender mainstreaming in ceasefires: comparative data and examples as a source of comparative and deeper analysis on gender mainstreaming in ceasefires. Read the citation on page 2, footnote 2.

Read the full report: Report of the Secretary-General on women and peace and security.

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