Women, Peace and Security Statistics: Where We Stand and How to Move Forward

Abstract

Women and men are affected by conflict differently. Women often have fewer economic and other resources to protect themselves, they are frequently victims of sexual violence as a war tactic and they tend to be left out from peace negotiations and planning of community recovery efforts after conflict, which limits opportunities to gain justice for human rights violations and shape reform of public institutions. It is therefore important to measure and analyze conflict and recovery related issues through a gender lens to ensure that the specific needs of women, men, boys and girls in conflict, post-conflict and recovery settings are effectively addressed. Since Security Council resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) was adopted in 2000, women, peace and security became a priority topic for the UN system organizations and its Member States involved in conflict and recovery settings. Since then, a strong normative framework has been set up to further operationalize implementation and monitoring of these commitments1. In 2010 a set of global indicators was designed to monitor progress towards the implementation of UNSCR 1325 (see S/2010/498 and complete list in Annex 1). UN Women coordinates the compilation of these statistics in consultation with the UN Standing Committee on Women, Peace and Security.2 Other organizations such as the European Union, the African Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, along with multiple national governments, have put frameworks in place to monitor the implementation of UNSCR 1325 and/or to compile women, peace and security related statistics more broadly. This paper provides an overview of some of the existing initiatives for the compilation of women, peace and security statistics, highlighting lessons learned and remaining challenges. A set of recommendations on how to improve the availability and quality of women, peace and security statistics is provided in the conclusion.