Women, Peace and Security
Expected Council Action
In October, the Security Council will hold its annual open debate on women, peace and security (WPS). The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece, Giorgos Gerapetritis, is expected to chair the open debate, which will be titled “Women, peace and security in the next quarter-century: fulfilling the promise through implementation”. UN Secretary-General António Guterres, UN Women Executive Director Sima Sami Bahous, and a woman civil society representative are the anticipated briefers.
Key Recent Developments
This year’s annual open debate comes at a time of heightened concern for the WPS agenda and more broadly for women’s rights, gender equality, and international law. Analysts, senior UN officials, and civil society organisations are warning of a growing, organised backlash against women’s autonomy and gender justice. These pressures are unfolding alongside rising levels of militarisation and violence, with devastating consequences for women and girls in conflict situations.
The Secretary-General’s annual report on WPS is expected to highlight a sharp rise in the number of women and girls living within 50 kilometres of armed conflict, from 676 million in 2024 to 756.1 million in 2025. It will likely describe the impact of conflict on women and girls in settings such as Sudan and Ukraine, and stress that the growing use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas has increased casualties among women and girls, including in Gaza and Myanmar. It is also expected to highlight the impact of restrictions on women and girls in Afghanistan, Mali, Yemen, and Somalia, and the high incidence of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). (The Secretary-General’s latest annual report on CRSV documented 9,788 UN-verified cases of CRSV in 2025—a sharp increase from 2024.)
The annual report will most likely stress that the global military expenditure has increased for the 11th consecutive year, reaching almost $2.9 trillion in 2025, while foreign aid continues to decline. The report may also note that, while women continue to lead local peacebuilding, they remain underrepresented in formal peace negotiations, with women comprising only 5 percent of negotiators across 57 peace processes in 2025, compared to 7 percent in 2024. It may also provide information on the impact of contingency measures taken to address the UN liquidity crisis, including a significant decrease in dedicated gender expertise.
The Gender Snapshot 2026 report, which was issued on 17 September by UN Women and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), paints a picture of political and financial retreat from gender equality. The report says that, over the past two years, one-third of national mechanisms for gender equality indicated having experienced a decline in institutional power, while about one-quarter reported having faced reductions in their operating budgets, and nearly one in ten indicated having lost control of their budgets entirely. Additionally, 42 percent of UN entities reported “actual or anticipated weakening of their gender equality efforts”. More broadly, the report notes that while women are overrepresented in poverty, they remain underrepresented in positions that determine poverty reduction policies.
At the Security Council, several recent resolutions renewing UN peace operation mandates have narrowed or at times removed references to WPS issues, including gender equality and gender as a cross-cutting consideration in implementing mission mandates. For example, resolution 2814, which in January renewed the mandate of the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), removed WPS provisions contained in the mission’s previous mandate, including language recognising the link between gender violence and arms flows and encouraging the mission to ensure that gender equality issues are addressed as a cross-cutting issue throughout its mandate, including by supporting women’s political participation. The exclusion of language on gender considerations as a cross-cutting issue in mission mandates was also evident in resolution 2820, which in April renewed the mandate of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Resolution 2815, which in January renewed the mandate of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), substituted a reference to “taking fully into account gender considerations as a crosscutting issue” throughout the mission’s mandate with “women, peace and security considerations”.
In June, China, the penholder on Afghanistan, sought to consolidate the priorities and tasks of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) set out in resolution 2626 of March 2022. This followed requests by the US in the preceding months for a broader review of the mission’s tasks and priorities, including whether aspects of the mandate could be streamlined. UNAMA’s mandate, as reframed by resolution 2822 of 15 June, retains some WPS language in relation to UNAMA’s core tasks, including regarding monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation, political engagement, and humanitarian coordination. However, requests from Denmark, Latvia, and other like-minded delegations to include a reference to gender mainstreaming as a cross-cutting issue throughout the implementation of the mission’s mandate—which appeared in resolution 2626—were not accommodated. Instead, drawing partially on language from resolution 2626, resolution 2822 mandates the mission to support equality for all women and girls, their empowerment, freedom of movement, participation in public life and decision-making, as well as equal access to, among other things, education and employment “in line with resolution 1325”, the Council’s first resolution on WPS, and “related resolutions”. References to monitoring abuses and reprisals against women journalists and humanitarian workers and women who “protect and promote human rights”, which appeared in resolution 2626, no longer appear in the text. In addition, while resolution 2822 retains a reference to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), it did not retain specific language on adopting a survivor-centred approach to preventing and responding to SGBV.
Dilutions of WPS language in 2026 follow a marked decline in 2025 in terms of omissions, deletions, and scaling back of WPS references. According to figures cited by the NGO Working Group on WPS, only 46 percent of Council decisions adopted in 2025 contained language related to WPS, the lowest since 2009. This compares to an average of 65 percent of Council decisions between 2015 and 2023, with recent years following below that average, according to figures cited in the Secretary-General’s annual reports on WPS. (In 2023, the average was 58 percent, and in 2024 it was over 60 percent.)
In recent months, women civil society representatives have briefed the Council on several situations on the Council’s agenda, including Afghanistan, Haiti, Sudan, and Syria. Among other things, they called for women’s full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation in peace, political, and decision-making processes; ceasefires; protection of civilians; unhindered humanitarian access; an end to SGBV, including CRSV; and increased funding.
Participation of women civil society briefers in Council meetings has, however, markedly decreased. According to an analysis by the NGO Working Group on WPS, in 2025 the Security Council received briefings by 31 women civil society representatives. This represents a 44 percent decrease compared to 2024, when 55 women civil society representatives briefed the Council, and is the lowest since 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend has seemingly continued into 2026. Figures for the first quarter of the year indicate that only five women civil society representatives were invited to brief the Council, a 50 percent decline compared to the same period in 2025. The NGO Working Group on WPS’ analysis says that continuation of this decreasing trend likely reflects the impact of travel restrictions to the US, concerns regarding the security of some civil society representatives, and difficult Security Council dynamics.
As an informal subsidiary body, the Informal Experts Group (IEG) on WPS has remained unaffected by the impasse in the allocation of subsidiary body chairs and vice-chairs. Since January, the IEG on WPS has met six times, focusing on Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Myanmar, and Libya.
Key Issues and Options
The overarching issue remains the full implementation of the WPS agenda and its impact on the ground. Against the backdrop of mounting challenges to women’s rights and gender equality, a key issue for the Security Council is ensuring that the future trajectory of the WPS agenda does not fall short of the framework it has created since the adoption of resolution 1325 in 2000.
In line with resolution 2242 of 2015, in which the Council decided to integrate WPS concerns “across all country-specific situations on the Security Council’s agenda”, an important issue for Council members supportive of the agenda is to continue to ensure the inclusion of robust WPS language in thematic and country-specific outcomes, as well as follow up on the implementation of these decisions.
Council members supportive of the WPS agenda have a number of options to further its implementation. They could draw on the recommendations put forward by UN Women as the IEG secretariat, as well as the recommendations presented by women civil society representatives who have briefed the Council. Council members could also ask UN briefers to provide substantive updates to the Council on specific WPS issues and country-situations.
Another option could be to commission a study of follow-up to recommendations developed in the context of the IEG on WPS, including their reflection in Council products, mission mandates, and UN reporting.
Council members could also continue to support the deployment of women’s protection advisers and gender advisers in peace operations, as well as in transition processes from peacekeeping operations to special political missions and country teams. Amid increasing budgetary pressures, Council members may consider underscoring the importance of allocating adequate resources to sustain these positions at the open debate.
The Council’s failure to address and facilitate a peaceful resolution to several conflict situations on its agenda has had devastating consequences for women in those contexts, with some Council members being directly involved in these conflicts or supporting the conflict parties.
Council members could lead by example and stop transferring arms when there is a risk that weapons will be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), crimes against humanity, genocide, and acts of SGBV. The Council could also impose and enforce arms embargoes in these situations. If Council dynamics do not allow collective action on these measures, a group of Council members supportive of international law and the WPS agenda could issue a joint statement announcing their decision to stop arms transfers, specifying that the decision was taken in response to serious violations of international law and acts of SGBV, and call for accountability for such violations. The statement could also call for redirecting military spending towards, among other things, gender equality, conflict prevention, and climate preparedness.
Council Dynamics
Colombia, Denmark, France, Greece, Latvia, Liberia, Panama, and the UK are the current members of the Shared Commitments on WPS initiative, which was started in 2021 by Ireland, Kenya, and Mexico. Some of these members regularly advocate for the inclusion of WPS and gender language in Council resolutions. Since January, the signatories to the Shared Commitments delivered joint statements at the Security Council press stakeout on Syria (February), Afghanistan (March and September), women’s participation in peace processes (June), the Central African Republic (June), CRSV (July), and South Sudan (August). Colombia and Denmark have held Council meetings that are consistent with the commitment to “[m]aking WPS-related issues an explicit focus of at least one mandated geographic meeting of the Council or specifically host a WPS signature event in each Presidency and requesting UN briefers to focus on this aspect”.
The US, which had signed on to the Shared Commitments in 2023, withdrew from the initiative in December 2025.
The US regularly seeks the deletion of references to gender in Council products or their substitution with narrower references. It has also challenged references to civil society, women’s participation, women protection advisers, and gender advisers.
This position has converged with Russia’s long held oppositional stance regarding the inclusion of WPS language in Council outcomes. During the negotiations on UNAMA, members including Russia and Pakistan also advocated for a “balanced approach” to the inclusion of language on human rights and WPS vis-à-vis other aspects of the mission’s mandate.
The UK is the penholder on WPS, and the US is the penholder on CRSV. Colombia and Denmark are the co-chairs of the Informal Expert Group on WPS. Panama is the coordinator of the Shared Commitments initiative.
| Security Council Resolutions | |
| 23 April 2019S/RES/2467 | This resolution recognised the need for a survivor-centred approach to preventing and responding to sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations. |
| 13 October 2015S/RES/2242 | This resolution expressed the Council’s intention to convene an IEG on WPS and to invite women civil society briefers to country-specific and thematic meetings of the Security Council. |
| 31 October 2000S/RES/1325 | This was the first Security Council resolution on WPS. |
| Secretary-General’s Report | |
| 5 September 2025S/2025/556 | This was the Secretary-General’s annual report on WPS. |
| Security Council Meeting Records | |
| 8 July 2026S/PV.10190 | This was the annual open debate on CRSV. |
| 17 June 2026S/PV.10175 | This was an open debate on WPS focused on women’s participation in peace processes. |
