Women, Peace and Security: Civil Society’s Critical Voice

The project “Alliance for WPS: Channelling Civil Society's Voices into the WPS agenda” (2022-2024) aims at ensuring that the experiences and know-how of the civil society are taken into account in the official implementation of the Swiss National Action Plan 1325 (NAP 1325). The main objectives are to strengthen a gender-sensitive peace policy in both domestic and international politics and to raise public awareness around the resolution 1325 and the Swiss NAP 1325.

Project Alliance for WPS: Channelling Civil Society's Voices into the WPS agenda (2022-2024) 

The 4th Swiss National Action Plan (NAP) to implement UN-Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 recognises the need and value of women’s meaningful participation in peace and general political processes for conflict prevention. It also acknowledges the need for certain socio-economic conditions to enable participation.  

Given the prolongation of the current Swiss NAP 1325 until the end of 2024, KOFF, PeaceWomen Across the Globe, and Frieda – the Feminist Peace Organization have initiated a project named “Alliance for Women, Peace, and Security (WPS): Channeling Civil Society’s Voices into the WPS Agenda” in summer 2022. This project aims at enhancing the relevance and visibility of the WPS agenda and the Swiss NAP 1325 among the Swiss administration, civil society, and the interested public in Switzerland.  

It builds on the findings from the previous project “Civil Society Contribution to the implementation of the Swiss National Action Plan 1325” (2018-2022) (see below for more information). Further, it made use of Switzerland’s and South Africa’s co-chair in the WPS Focal Point Network (hereafter: WPS FPN) in 2022 and Switzerland’s non-permanent seat in the United Nation Security Council (hereafter: UNSC) as a learning opportunity in the preparation of the 5th Swiss NAP 1325. The project also aims at encouraging dialogue within civil society and together with the Swiss administration with the aim of informing the 5th NAP 1325. 

Within the project framework, we carried out online-events in collaboration with South African civil society on thematic priorities relevant to the WPS FPN discussions. We also organized a participatory consultation process among Swiss civil society and academic experts to then channel civil society priorities into the drafting of the fifth Swiss NAP 1325, as well as an exchange with the Swiss administration. To this end, two hearings were organized in Berne (on 19th September and 16th November 2023) in which more than 12 different organizations participated. During the consultations, we discussed holistic approaches to the prevention of violence, participation in peace processes and new global challenges. After the first hearing which focused on identifying priorities and themes, we discussed measures and suggest implementation strategies in the second round of consultations. As a result of this process, the three organizations published the report “Civil society priorities for the 5th Swiss National Action Plan” (en/de/fr) that channels civil society’s expertise in May 2024. Further, they presented the report to relevant Swiss stakeholders as well as to Swiss civil society.  

Context  

The adoption of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) in 2000 marked the first time women and gender were officially linked to the peace and security agenda. This landmark resolution calls for women’s participation in conflict prevention and peace processes, women’s protection during conflict, including from sexual violence, and the prevention of violence against women through the promotion of women’s rights and gender equality.  

On November 22, 2018 the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) launched Switzerland's fourth National Action Plan to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (NAP 1325) on women, peace and security in Geneva. The NAP 1325 is an important domestic and foreign policy instrument for Switzerland as it lays the foundation for a gender-sensitive peace policy. 

During a public consultation held in early 2018, civil society’s critical voices were included in the process of designing the new NAP 1325, and fifteen non-governmental organizations from Swiss civil society have committed themselves to critically looking at its implementation, in order to strengthen the relevance of the NAP 1325 for peace policies and practice on the ground. The result was a four-year project partly supported by the Human Security Division (HSD) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA).

Project “Civil Society Contribution to the implementation of the Swiss NAP 1325” (2018-2022) 

Based on recommendations from Swiss civil society on the implementation of the previous Swiss NAPs on WPS, this project had identified two thematic areas for closer critical examination: 1. women, peace and security and violence prevention, and 2. socio-economic conditions for substantial participation of women in peace processes. The project focused on documenting and analysing civil society experiences in these areas in order to provide the basis for policy and practice recommendations on women, peace and security, along with a continuous policy dialogue with key actors from government, academia and civil society in Switzerland. A close cooperation with members of the Swiss parliament and media brought the project findings to the political stage and raised public awareness for supporting gender-sensitive peace policies. 

Women, Peace and Security and Violence Prevention (First phase) 

Switzerland’s fourth NAP to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325 calls for women’s inclusion in efforts to prevent violent extremism (PVE) as well as a recognition of the various roles women play in relationship to violent extremism. In cooperation with Swiss civil society, the project investigated the connection of the WPS agenda with the PVE agenda with a critical eye on the attempts to securitize gender equality and women’s empowerment. Through extensive desk-based research, a field study in Kenya, and dialogue with civil society actors in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Palestine, Philippines, Switzerland and the United  Kingdom, we published a report. This document highlights the risks involved in the combination of these two agendas and provides recommendations on how to conduct gender-sensitive violence prevention that neither solidifies already rigid gender roles nor further reduces the agency of women’s civil society organizations. 

The four parliamentary 1325 ambassadors submitted the following proposals: 
Sibel Arslan: Involvement of women in the prevention of violent extremism 
Rosmarie Quadranti: Study on the link between gun ownership and gender-based violence 
Yvonne Feri: Gender-sensitive risk analysis in arms exports 
Carlo Sommaruga: Peace Process. What is Switzerland doing to promote the participation of women? 

Socio-economic Conditions for Women’s Participation (Second phase) 

The fourth Swiss NAP to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325 equally recognizes the need and value of women’s meaningful participation in peace and general political processes for conflict prevention. It also acknowledges that participation requires certain socio-economic conditions in the first place. We took this as an opportunity to discuss the concept of security itself: to move away from a negative definition that equals security to the absence of physical harm and to advocate for a positive vision, where security is not an individual, but a relational one that fundamentally relies on the un(der)paid care-work women provide. In so doing we aimed to achieve three things. 

1.  To highlight that women are participating and contributing to peace and security in very important ways already today. This provides the baseline to advocate for increasing the visibility and official acknowledgment of women’s peace work, chiefly through redistribution via a gender-sensitive budgeting and investment in social infrastructure. 

1. To identify and promote policies and programs that contribute to alleviating women’s burdens, in order to allow them to participate in conflict prevention and peace processes with high visibility and recognition (e.g. official peace negotiations). 

1. To promote discussions about the definitions of security (and peace) and their implications at the domestic level in Switzerland, in order to identify opportunities and entry points for Women, Peace and Security in Switzerland. This was even more necessary in view of the gendered realities during the current Corona crisis or the unsolved demands from the Women’s strike in 2019, which are related to how we define security (and peace) in Switzerland.  

Our work on this thematic area resulted in a report (en, de, fr) published as a leaflet and an inspiring conference on 21 September 2021 (International Day of Peace). Opened by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee, the event brought together representatives of the DFA, Swiss and international civil society to discuss the crucial role of care in foreign and national peace policies and in peacebuilding practice. The "No Care, No Peace" leaflet was distributed by the project team to parliamentarians the day before the conference to raise awareness around these issues among Swiss politics. 

Thanks to our close cooperation with MPs our work has also received broad support from parliamentarians in the Socio-Democratic and Green Party. They participated in our launch of the “No Care, No Peace” report and have invited us to their parliamentary groups to discuss our recommendations. Claudia Friedl, Socio-democratic MP and part of the Foreign Policy Commission of the National Assembly also submitted the following postulate: International Cooperation and Peacebuilding – Establish a strategy that allows women to participate.

Overview of publications related to the topic of Women, Peace, and Security:

- 09/2019: Report "Women, Peace and Security and Violence Prevention"

- 11/2019: Policy brief "Women, Peace and Security and the Prevention of Violence"

- 10/2021: Report "No care, no peace!"

- 05/2022: Policy Brief "Centering Care in Women, Peace and Security"

- 04/2024: Report "Civil Society Priorities for the 5th Swiss National Action Plan" (de, fr)