The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the 10th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security.
The resolution had been tabled by the EPP, S&D, ALDE, ECR and Greens/ALE groups.
Noting that only a minority of Member States (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom) has drafted national action plans to implement UNSC Resolution 1325, Parliament stresses that the 10th anniversary of UNSC Resolution 1325 should mark the start of a reinvigorated agenda for the implementation of that resolution, on which no progress can be made without political leadership at the highest levels and increased resources. This issue must be duly addressed in when it comes to the elaboration of a comprehensive Human Rights Country Strategy and to the evaluation of the EU Guidelines on violence against women and the EU guidelines on children and armed conflict and combating all forms of discrimination against them. Parliament calls for:
- the allocation of specific and significant financial, human and organisational resources for the participation of women and gender mainstreaming in the field of foreign and security policy;
- more women to be deployed in police, military and justice and rule-of-law missions and in peace-keeping operations. Members stress that the EU should appoint more female police officers and soldiers to CSDP missions, in which connection the contingent of female police officers within the UN peace-keeping force in Liberia could be used as a model;
- Member States to promote participation by women in their bilateral and multilateral relations with states and organisations outside the EU.
Parliament considers the establishment of the European External Action Service (EEAS) a unique opportunity to reinforce the role of the EU with respect to the implementation of UNSC Resolutions 1820 and 1325, and it strongly encourages the HR/VC to strengthen the EU Task Force on women, peace and security, conduct systematic gender analyses of Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions and monitor and advise EU delegations in conflict-affected countries and regions. Accordingly, it urges the HR/VC, Member States and Heads of Delegation, as appropriate:
- to reinforce gender mainstreaming practice and make substantial and highly visible commitments with regard to staffing, financial resources and the organisational hierarchy;
- to form an organisational unit within the EEAS on women, peace and security within the relevant thematic department and to make sure that in each geographical department and EU delegation at least one full-time post is dedicated to women, peace and security and that these persons are part of, or closely linked to, the EU Task Force;
- to include references to UNSC Resolutions 1325 and 1820 in CSDP-related Council Decisions and mission mandates and to make sure that all CSDP missions have at least one Gender Advisor and an Action Plan on how to pursue the objectives of Resolutions 1325 and 1820;
- to make cooperation and consultation with local women's organisations a standard element of each mission;
- to include a detailed report on women, peace and security in the six-monthly evaluation of CSDP missions.
On financing, Parliament calls for the implementation of UNSC Resolutions 1325 and 1820 in the EU's country strategy papers and for the mobilisation of more financial support for the participation of women from conflict-affected countries in European processes. It wants the HR/VC and the Commissioners for Development, Enlargement and Humanitarian Aid to make women, peace and security aspects an integral part of the planning and programming of the external financial instruments such as EIDHR, ICI, IPA and especially DCI and IfS. Members call on the Commissioner for Development to consider it a priority to support work by women's organisations in conflict-affected areas, and also urges the HR/VC to use the long-term component of the Instrument for Stability (IfS) to allocate funding in support of women's participation in peace, security and reconciliation-related processes and to systematically earmark allocations for women, peace and security in all short-term measures financed under Article 3 of the Instrument for Stability.
They emphasise that the Commission should facilitate access for small NGOs to subsidies from the European Instrument on Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR); recalls that at present many small women's organisations are unable to overcome the bureaucratic obstacles to submission of applications.
On the need to increase women’s participation, Parliament takes the view that EU delegations should inform civil society organisations, such as local women's organisations, about their engagement in conflict regions and consult civil-society organisations in the process of policy planning. It requests a substantial increase in women's participation in every area of operations, including reconciliation work, peace negotiation, peace-building, peace enforcement, peace-keeping and conflict prevention; to an immediate increase in participation by women in all the initiatives aimed at finding solutions to conflicts, including as mediators and negotiators and in the implementation of conflict resolution measures. The resolution calls on the HR/VC to initiate an annual week in which women leaders are consulted and which could complement the UN Global Open Day for Women and Peace, followed by EU delegation reports and follow-ups.
Lastly, Parliament recalls the mass gang rape that took place from 30 July to 4 August in the eastern Congo mining district, that at least 8 300 rapes were reported last year in eastern Congo and that at least 1 244 women reported being raped in the first quarter of 2010, which is an average of 14 rapes per day. It urges both EU missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo – EUPOL RD Congo and EUSEC RD Congo – to make the fight against sexual violence and the participation of women the main priorities in the context of the effort to reform the Congolese security secto