In October 2000, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1325, a landmark step in both raising awareness and addressing the significant impact of armed conflict on women and girls and in acknowledging the vital role of women in conflict resolution and peace-building. After working for 55 years to end the scourge of war, the UN Security Council recognized women’s perspectives on war and peace by passing the first formal resolution on gender. This watershed international policy framework makes gender (and accordingly, the involvement of women) relevant to peace negotiations, the appointment of UN special representatives and envoys, the training programs of UN personnel, the protection of civilians during and after periods of conflict, the planning of refugee camps and peacekeeping operations, the reconstruction of war-torn societies, and, ultimately, the incorporation of gender equality into every single Council action. In short, the UN Security Council officially recognized the need to promote active and visible gender mainstreaming1 in all its policies and programs related to conflict and its resolution.

Resolution 1325 was not the first time the United Nations acknowledged gender issues. What makes this resolution unique is not only that it addresses women, war, and security, or that its scope is expansive and its implications radical. What makes 1325 unique is that “it is both the product of and the armature for a massive mobilization of women’s political energies” (Cohn 2004: 2). The successful passage of this resolution and, more importantly, its present and future policy implications are a result of more than half a century of diverse efforts by national women’s movements, transnational activists, and governmental and nongovernmental groups. The success (or at least progress) of these efforts is a product of the intense interactions among the numerous actors–from individuals to government agencies to international nongovernmental and governmental groups (INGOs and IGOs, respectively) to grassroots groups–that broadly constitute women’s activism in areas of peace and security.2 Resolution 1325 is not only a symbolic threshold for the movement, it also raises important questions about the nature of social movements and the complex processes of mobilization that are occurring in today’s society. As Sara Poehlman-Doumbouya and Felicity Hill (2001) argue, “This resolution provides an important tool in shifting the UN system from words to actions” (1). In this sense, the resolution has significance not only for social and political change nationally and internationally but for the future of transnational movement research as well.

Using the following Web sites, begin to research the transnational movement that is the driving force behind Resolution 1325 and gender mainstreaming strategies more broadly. In looking at the Web sites, choose a particular country or geographic location where Resolution 1325 and/or gender mainstreaming has been particularly relevant and investigate what these policies have meant for people living within that area. Then answer the following questions about gender mainstreaming strategies taking place in the location you chose.

UN Women Watch
www.un.org/womenwatch/

Peacewomen.org
http://www.peacewomen.org/
The PeaceWomen Project monitors and works toward rapid and full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security.

1 The UN Economic and Social Council defined the mainstreaming of a gender perspective as the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies, and programmes, in all areas and at all levels and as a strategy for making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic, and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetrated. See United Nations, 1996. Implementation of the Outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women. Report of the Secretary-General, A/51/322. New York: United Nations.

2 The notion of “women’s activism” has many different meanings in many different contexts. It is important to note here that the term, for the purposes of this paper, refers to women’s (and at times, men’s) activism as it relates to international peace and security. The groups’ overarching goals and motivations are clearly revealed in the text of Resolution 1325, with its focus on violence against women and equal rights.

References:

Cohn, Carol. 2004. “Feminist Peacemaking: In Resolution 1325 the UN requires the inclusion of women in all peace planning and negotiation,” The Women’s Review of Books. February: (www.wellesley.edu/WomensReview/archive/2004/02/highlt.html, accessed April 18, 2004).

Poehlman-Doumbouya, Sara, and Felicity Hill. 2001. “Women and Peace in the United Nations,” New Routes: A Journal of Peace Research and Action. 6(3): (http://www.life-peace.org/default2.asp?xid=359).

1.			Describe the location that you chose to investigate. What is going on there? Why are gender-mainstreaming policies important?
2.			What sorts of activities and initiatives are occurring that have led to the mainstreaming of gender issues and have adhered to the principles behind Resolution 1325?
3.			What are some of the obstacles that gender mainstreaming policies face within this region? Can you suggest ways of overcoming these obstacles?