Last month, the UN Security Council held its annual Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security – the first to be presided over by a Head of State, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of Spain – and unanimously adopted Resolution 2242, the now eighth resolution making up the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda. Marking the 15th anniversary of the adoption of landmark Resolution 1325 (2000) and described by UN-Women as “an extraordinary new tool,” Resolution 2242 builds on previous resolutions in part by providing a clear roadmap for implementing 1325 and the broader WPS framework. It does so by, inter alia, emphasising the need for increasing financing of women’s organisations, even “inviting aid providers to track the gender focus of aid contributions” (Operative Paragraph 3). The resolution also urges key UN actors, notably the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), to “redouble their efforts to integrate women’s needs and a gender perspective” (OP 4). And, in addition to giving particular attention to women’s participation, including in peace talks (OP 1), 2242 also addresses access to justice for women in conflict (OP 14) and includes strong and substantive language on the need to respond to sexual exploitation and abuse committed by UN Peacekeepers as well as non-UN forces (OP 9 & 10).
UN Headquarters, New York. Photo: flickr
