Acknowledging the Rights of Women in Conflict

Just last month the UN reported over 500 mass rapes in eastern Congo over a two month period. Women were the primary victims of violence perpetrated by armed combatants and even some Congolese soldiers. According to UN envoy Margot Wallstrom, rape has become the weapon of choice in eastern Congo.

This latest round of sexual violence hit the major media networks, but how many have gone unnoticed? Rape has become so common – practically reaching the status of an endemic in the DRC – that often it fails to trigger a response. In the long and protracted conflict in the DRC, women constitute a high portion of the victims' statistics. It's a horrifying illustration of the fact that women are most deeply affected by war.

In today's armed conflicts, women and girls face the worst perils: death, rape, sexual abuse, kidnapping, enslavement and displacement. Gender crimes and sexual violence play a prominent role in many conflicts as a method of torture, a form of humiliation, and a way to spread terror and fear. Women are often shamed and ostracized, and communities are destroyed. Almost inevitably, conflicts target people at the margins of society, especially women, and they are likely to bear the brunt of the fallout in the post-conflict period.

Ten years ago on Sunday, the UN Security Council issued Resolution 1325 to address the role of women in peace and security. It was a landmark resolution – the first time that the UN acknowledged that wars affect women and girls disproportionately, emphasizing the critical role of women in peacemaking and peacebuilding. The resolution mandated better protection of the needs of women and girls in conflict with special attention to gender perspectives in UN programming and peace support operations. It also called for increased participation and representation of women in peace processes.

Significant progress has been made over the past decade in recognizing this issue, and the result has been a decisive shift in how the UN and its member states approach issues relating to women in armed conflicts. The risk of violence to women is increasingly recognized as a serious security issue. Like a Rwandan Senator stated at a recent Security Council meeting, "sexual violence against women and girls is ... a key component of the security threat." Two recent follow-on resolutions (1820 and 1888) identified sexual violence as a tactic of warfare that requires a special response. Importantly, women and gender advisers have been appointed to various peacekeeping missions.

Resolution 1325's call to action was a historic step forward for millions of women, although the resolution's implementation relies heavily on country-level commitments. Some countries – but not nearly enough – have created National Action Plans detailing how women can be better incorporated into the various aspects of peacebuilding, and the UN has initiated numerous programs and initiatives to propel the resolution forward. Many peacekeeping missions are not receiving the proper training for how to respond to cases sexual violence. Finally, the systematic rapes in the DRC are a stark reminder of how governments and the UN sometimes have failed to fulfill the resolution's directive.

The Security Council used the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Resolution 1325 to revisit the issue, measure progress, and revive country-level commitments. Many countries made additional commitments to invest greater resources in women and announced greater participation of women in UN peace operations, such as an increase in women in the UN formed police units. The U.S., for example, announced new funds to support women's empowerment as well as the development its National Action Plan to implement Resolution 1325. Despite a decade of the resolution's implementation, there is still much to be accomplished. Next steps for the Council include creating benchmarks, stepping up the country-level reporting requirements to the Council, and instituting a high-level review of implementation of the resolution every five years.

Precisely because women face the worst outcomes after armed conflicts, they should play an integral role in peacebuilding. With the involvement of women in peace processes, perpetrators of sexual violence are less likely to escape with impunity , which ultimately help to prevent further conflict in the future. Currently, only five percent of women worldwide participate in peace processes. With sufficient country commitment, we will see that figure rise in the coming years.