United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 – Women and Peace and Security
Resolution 1325 (2000)
The Security Council,
Recalling its resolutions 1261 (1999) of 25 August 1999, 1265 (1999) of 17September 1999, 1296 (2000) of 19 April 2000 and 1314 (2000) of 11 August 2000,as well as relevant statements of its President, and recalling also the statement of its President to the press on the occasion of the United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace (International Women’s Day) of 8 March 2000(SC/6816),
Recalling also the commitments of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (A/52/231) as well as those contained in the outcome document of the twenty-third Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly entitled“Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-FirstCentury” (A/S-23/10/Rev.1), in particular those concerning women and armedconflict,
Bearing in mind the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the primary responsibility of the Security Council under the Charter forthe maintenance of international peace and security,
Expressing concern that civilians, particularly women and children, accountfor the vast majority of those adversely affected by armed conflict, including asrefugees and internally displaced persons, and increasingly are targeted by combatants and armed elements, and recognizing the consequent impact this has ondurable peace and reconciliation,
Reaffirming the important role of women in the prevention and resolution ofconflicts and in peace-building, and stressing the importance of their equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotionof peace and security, and the need to increase their role in decision-making withregard to conflict prevention and resolution,
Reaffirming also the need to implement fully international humanitarian andhuman rights law that protects the rights of women and girls during and afterconflicts,
Emphasizing the need for all parties to ensure that mine clearance and mineawareness programmes take into account the special needs of women and girls,
Recognizing the urgent need to mainstream a gender perspective into peacekeeping operations, and in this regard noting the Windhoek Declaration andthe Namibia Plan of Action on Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective inMultidimensional Peace Support Operations (S/2000/693),
Recognizing also the importance of the recommendation contained in the statement of its President to the press of 8 March 2000 for specialized training for all peacekeeping personnel on the protection, special needs and human rights of women and children in conflict situations,
Recognizing that an understanding of the impact of armed conflict on women and girls, effective institutional arrangements to guarantee their protection and fullparticipation in the peace process can significantly contribute to the maintenanceand promotion of international peace and security,
Noting the need to consolidate data on the impact of armed conflict on womenand girls,
- Urges Member States to ensure increased representation of women at alldecision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions andmechanisms for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict;
2. Encourages the Secretary-General to implement his strategic plan ofaction (A/49/587) calling for an increase in the participation of women at decision-making levels in conflict resolution and peace processes;
3. Urges the Secretary-General to appoint more women as specialrepresentatives and envoys to pursue good offices on his behalf, and in this regardcalls on Member States to provide candidates to the Secretary-General, for inclusionin a regularly updated centralized roster;
4. Further urges the Secretary-General to seek to expand the role andcontribution of women in United Nations field-based operations, and especiallyamong military observers, civilian police, human rights and humanitarian personnel;
5. Expresses its willingness to incorporate a gender perspective into peacekeeping operations, and urges the Secretary-General to ensure that, where appropriate, field operations include a gender component;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to provide to Member States trainingguidelines and materials on the protection, rights and the particular needs of women,as well as on the importance of involving women in all peace keeping and peace-building measures, invites Member States to incorporate these elements as well asHIV/AIDS awareness training into their national training programmes for militaryand civilian police personnel in preparation for deployment, and further requests theSecretary-General to ensure that civilian personnel of peacekeeping operationsreceive similar training;
7. Urges Member States to increase their voluntary financial, technical andlogistical support for gender-sensitive training efforts, including those undertakenby relevant funds and programmes, inter alia, the United Nations Fund for Women and United Nations Children’s Fund, and by the Office of the United Nations HighCommissioner for Refugees and other relevant bodies;
8. Calls on all actors involved, when negotiating and implementing peace agreements, to adopt a gender perspective, including, inter alia:
(a) The special needs of women and girls during repatriation andresettlement and for rehabilitation, reintegration and post-conflict reconstruction;
(b) Measures that support local women’s peace initiatives and indigenousprocesses for conflict resolution, and that involve women in all of theimplementation mechanisms of the peace agreements;
(c) Measures that ensure the protection of and respect for human rights ofwomen and girls, particularly as they relate to the constitution, the electoral system,the police and the judiciary;
9. Calls upon all parties to armed conflict to respect fully international lawapplicable to the rights and protection of women and girls, especially as civilians, inparticular the obligations applicable to them under the Geneva Conventions of 1949and the Additional Protocols thereto of 1977, the Refugee Convention of 1951 andthe Protocol thereto of 1967, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination against Women of 1979 and the Optional Protocol thereto of 1999and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 and the twoOptional Protocols thereto of 25 May 2000, and to bear in mind the relevantprovisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court;
10. Calls on all parties to armed conflict to take special measures to protectwomen and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms ofsexual abuse, and all other forms of violence in situations of armed conflict;
11. Emphasizes the responsibility of all States to put an end to impunity andto prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, and warcrimes including those relating to sexual and other violence against women andgirls, and in this regard stresses the need to exclude these crimes, where feasiblefrom amnesty provisions;
12. Calls upon all parties to armed conflict to respect the civilian andhumanitarian character of refugee camps and settlements, and to take into accountthe particular needs of women and girls, including in their design, and recalls itsresolutions 1208 (1998) of 19 November 1998 and 1296 (2000) of 19 April 2000;
13. Encourages all those involved in the planning for disarmament,demobilization and reintegration to consider the different needs of female and maleex-combatants and to take into account the needs of their dependants;
14. Reaffirms its readiness, whenever measures are adopted under Article 41of the Charter of the United Nations, to give consideration to their potential impacton the civilian population, bearing in mind the special needs of women and girls, inorder to consider appropriate humanitarian exemptions;
15. Expresses its willingness to ensure that Security Council missions takeinto account gender considerations and the rights of women, including throughconsultation with local and international women’s groups;
16. Invites the Secretary-General to carry out a study on the impact of armed conflict on women and girls, the role of women in peace-building and the genderdimensions of peace processes and conflict resolution, and further invites him to submit a report to the Security Council on the results of this study and to make thisavailable to all Member States of the United Nations;
17. Requests the Secretary-General, where appropriate, to include in hisreporting to the Security Council progress on gender mainstreaming throughoutpeacekeeping missions and all other aspects relating to women and girls;
18. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter.
Adopted by the Security Council at its 4213th meeting, on 31 October 2000.
