The year 2020 marked the 20th anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women Peace and Security. The resolution recognizes the importance of women’s role in preventing and resolving conflict and urges all actors to adopt gender perspectives to peace and security. It also stresses the need to increase women’s meaningful participation in peace processes. During the past two decades, an increasing number of UN Member states have adopted their own government-led National Action Plans (NAP) to ensure their country’s implementation of the UNSCR 1325. These NAPs are crucial to ensuring implementation of the resolution as they encourage member states to assess priorities and responsibilities in line with the WPS agenda at the national level, and can act as a guarantee that countries will follow through with their commitments. As of April 2021, 92 countries have adopted NAPs, and the hope is that there are more to come.
On the occasion of the May 24th International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament, ISDP’s Korea Center, in cooperation with the Korean Women’s Development Institute, invited four distinguished speakers from East Asia and Europe to share their perspectives and lessons learned on the implementation of the Women Peace and Security agenda. Starting off with a presentation of their respective countries’ National Action Plans, a discussion led by three distinguished experts taking the role as discussants and contributing with different perspectives followed. The purpose of the webinar was to shine a light on the integration of women and their perspectives on peace and security in general. What can we expect from this process? Why is it important? How can NAP act as a facilitator? What are some of the achievements and challenges in implementing NAPs? What could be lessons learned for countries that have not yet adopted NAPs?
The importance of women’s meaningful participation in all stages of peace and security for sustainable peace to prevail cannot be taken for granted but must be both debated and assessed. It is crucial that we can establish key areas of involvement and best practices in how to achieve a sustainable process for peace and disarmament, and detail how the inclusion and integration of women will best contribute to this objective.
We were delighted to have a distinguished panel join us in this webinar. Ms. Karolina Vrethem is the Deputy Director at the Department for UN Policy, Conflict and Humanitarian Affairs at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Dr. Jiso Yoon is a Senior Researcher at the Korean Women’s Development Institute. Dr. Leandra Bias is a Gender Advisor & Senior Researcher at Swisspeace. Ms. Hisako Motoyama is a senior researcher at the Asia-Japan Research Institute, Ritsumeikan University, Japan. Ms. Nandintushig Tsogbayar is a Specialist at the International Treaties and Foreign Relations of the Secretariat of the National Committee on Gender Equality, Mongolia. Ms. Charlotte Isaksson is a Senior Gender Advisor at the European External Action Service (EEAS). Prof. Dr. Zeynep Alemdar is the Dean of Business and Administrative Sciences Faculty, Okan University and founder of Women in Foreign Policy Initiative, Turkey. The event was
moderated by Dr. Agneta Bladh, ISDP Board Member and Chairman of the Swedish Research Council.
