Women, Peace and Security: 15 years of UNSCR 1325

On Tuesday, November 3, the International Catalan Institute for Peace (ICIP) held the international conference Women, Peace and Security: 15 years of UN Resolution 1325 at the Pati Manning in Barcelona. The aim of the conference was to reflect on progress and obstacles in the international agenda on Women, Peace and Security, fifteen years after Resolution 1325 was adopted by the UN Security Council.
The conference brought together women activists and peacebuilders from around the world, who presented the challenges and shortcomings of Resolution 1325 in the present context and in different countries, such as Colombia, Spain and Bosnia.
The inaugural lecture was given by the Canadian activist residing in Libya, Alaa Murabit, founder of the organization The Voice of Libyan Women and member of the advisory group for the global study on Resolution 1325. Murabit defended the importance of Resolution 1325, especially the need to put it into practice to ensure women’s participation in political life, and, specifically, in peace negotiations. “1325 opened the door to changes, but that is no longer enough because we do not have the structural capacity to put it into practice. We need a change in mentality, and we need to renew the institutions of power, support global disarmament and justice, and institutionalize the participation of women in the international agenda,” she stated.
In the various debates, speakers offered a bittersweet account of the impact that Resolution 1325 is having fifteen years after its adoption, and they highlighted the need to give women more spaces to enable peacebuilding. They also called for more political commitment by states to implement Resolution 1325: the allocation of more funds to Resolution 1325 action plans and the establishment of a timetable for their implementation.
The closing conference was given by ICIP director Tica Font, and the director of the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation (ACDD), Marta Macias, who asserted the need to better disseminate Resolution 1325 and to continue working, in institutions, to give women a voice. “We feel unsatisfied with the implementation of 1325,” said the director of ICIP.
The conference Women, Peace and Security: 15 years of UN Resolution 1325 coincides with the #DONAVEU1325 campaign, promoted by the ACDD to disseminate the international agenda on Women, Peace and Security. As part of this campaign, the platform www.donaveu1325.cat has also been created.
At the same time, ICIP will publish a new issue of the electronic magazine Peace in Progress in November, dedicated to the fifteenth anniversary of Resolution 1325. The magazine Peace in Progress is published quarterly in Catalan, Spanish and English.